Had my usual morning breakfast at the hotel before heading to class. We started class after our usual morning news brief. This is where the instructor hangs out in the front of class and we discuss the daily news. They say we can discuss anything except politics and religion…LOL. They would prefer security related news, but everything is fair game. Today it was mostly about the attacks on the US Embassies in the middle east. These places also have ComSec material, we were wondering at what point they might have actually started their destruction process (destroying all the ComSec classified & top secret materials while the embassy is under attack)
Class went by pretty quickly, as usual we listened to a block of instruction and then did some hands on with a practical exercise on our system. We generated electronic encryption keys on each of our systems by the end of the day.
The day also included a number of breaks where discussions would arise and the one I hear most often is the difference between tactical vs. strategic units in the army (tactical units deploy and strategic units do not). I'm told that if I were in a tactical unit, then there would be no doubt that I would be actually doing my job (Information Technology Specialist). On top of that I hear from everyone that the environment in a tactical unit is much different than that of a strategic unit. The idea I keep hearing is that since a strategic unit doesn't deploy, they hang around worrying about stupid stuff all the time. A tactical unit on the other hand has more money to spend and just gets things done…they don't do the stupid crap all the time. How much of this is true, I don't know…since I've never experienced the tactical side. It seems to be the common theme I hear from everyone though. I think my whole experience, thoughts and feelings I have about the army would be different if I had been in a tactical unit.
Once class was out we headed back to the hotel where I started watching the Apple special presentation on the new iPhone 5. I have to keep up with the tech news even while I'm away! I then had dinner in the dining area with the other two soldiers here. The cool thing about staying in such a small hotel out with the locals, is the ability to interact with them. One of the owners of the hotel came out and chatted with us for about an hour.
I then video chatted with my wife for a while before heading to bed for the night. Looking forward to the weekend coming soon, my wife will be coming up and we'll be doing some site seeing.
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