A.I.T.: Advanced Individual Training.

When you’ve been on any sort of active duty training, I find you get into a mindset; a certain level of quick, cut-and-dried alacrity. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re industrious and hard-working… I’m thinking more of an “economy of effort” that allows a person to get things done with some ease. Once you get in that mindset, it helps move from duty to duty, and day to day. It makes hard days go by a little bit more quickly.

A skill like that is a sort of survival tool; not in the way of building a shelter or lighting a fire, but keeping mentally rooted in times of great stress.

So the Battalion got sent to Iraq, came back, released their “fill” troops and kind of went into a “relax” mode… then they started training up again, and as we remember the Iraq War lasted long enough for many units to get the chance to cycle through deployments again and again. With their recent Annual Training complete, the 213th Battalion is ready for another go-round, and “lucky” Donner has arrived back from her training just in time to join them!