HALO Certified!

Last Thursday, Edward completed the HALO course, making him HALO certified! He received his HALO wings which will be worn on all of his uniforms from now on. We're very proud of him, especially since you'd be hard pressed to find any medical personnel in the Army with HALO wings. It's just not very common. Thankfully, my daredevil soldier finished the course unharmed, as usually one breaks legs and/or more during the course (someone broke a leg in this class). Edward's group became the first group to complete four jumps in one night. That wasn't by choice. Last week, we had very unusual weather with a lot of rain. With the rain, visibility was too low for the guys to jump at night, so the one clear night, Tuesday, the course completed four night jumps, the minimum required to graduate (they do a ton of day jumps prior to the night jumps). About half of the class was unable to finish their last jump on Tuesday night due to the plane having to refuel (takes a long time), so at 3:00 AM early Wednesday morning, they sent the guys home. Wednesday night brought more rain, so they had to go an extra night, Thursday, to finish and graduate.

As if the HALO wings aren't enough, Edward will be attending the EFMB (Expert Field Medical Badge) Course at Ft. Lewis, Washington for a chunk of January. He'll camp out in the cold, wet Washington weather for a couple of weeks while trying to show he can be a good trauma field doctor. On top of that, Edward is already talking about attending the Jumpmaster course and HALO Jumpmaster course in the next year or so...and, I'm sure it will happen. Out here, these guys make it happen, and Edward's determination fits right in with the guys here.