A few days after we arrived our equipment arrived from the ship. We spent a good deal of time sorting out our TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment) that each team was to have. You get a paper listing the items and quantity you are supposed to have. You next go through the many hundreds of boxes to find your items and the correct quantity and bring it back to your pile. Each team has two 3/4-ton trucks with trailers. You then pack all of your gear on your vehicles and trailers. You get a 16 by 32 squad tent complete with poles, pegs, ropes, stoves, and stovepipes, for example. You have so many transmitters, receivers, test equipment, crystals, tools, antenna kits, rifles, a 50-caliber machine gun, and so on.

Hundreds of items you are responsible for. You lose it you pay for it. It takes days to find all the items you need to have. But it was kind of like a Christmas morning event. It was exciting and yet it was the realization of the big job we had ahead of us. I was picked as one of the truck drivers. I had to practice driving the truck and get familiar with it. You can see some of the hundreds of boxes we packed back in Georgia.    Hi-Res Pic (105K)