So a baby now?

VIRTUAL ARMY REALITY BY ELAINE LITTLE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 19

“Listen up! You are in a convoy on a supply mission. The vehicle in front of you explodes. Casualties are scattered across the area. Your mission: to secure the perimeter, utilize your combat lifesaver skills to diagnose and treat, and prepare the casualties for transport.”

The PA system blared as a group of soldiers formed a semicircle around Master Sergeant Brunson, who was conducting this segment of the pre-mobilization training for Iraq.

Private First Class Carrie Mendez had been feeling shitty all morning. All right, she was sick, enough to go to sick call sick. But her visit was delayed due to this really, really important lanes training, they called it. The lanes being the different areas of training they needed to absorb. Tasks like first aid, reacting to an explosion, and moving under direct fire. She had been moving, avoiding, and engaging simulated danger all morning and she wouldn’t be able to keep it up muc…