Fort Irwin on 9/11

On the last day of our Calico trip we took a tour of the Fort Irwin National Training Center.

Its tradition for any unit who comes to train at Fort Irwin to leave a painted rock as memorial to their trip. Here is a picture of me and my unit’s rock from when I trained with 1-8 Infantry in 2001.

The crew in front of the “Rock Pile”

We wanted the boys to leave their mark, so we painted our own rock, had each boy sign it, and left it at the site. As we were getting set to take this picture one of the boys said, “Man, our rock is the worst one here!” And it was.

Fort Irwin Museum--The museum curator came in on his day off to give us a tour of his museum. It was fantastic (I think the dad’s enjoyed it the most). When we arrived the boys started climbing all over the tanks in this picture. When the curator came out, we were expecting him to yell at us to get off the tanks. Instead, he threw us the keys and asked us if we wanted to climb inside. The boys loved it.

After the museum tour, the tribe got to eat with the soldiers at the dining facility. It was a great way to spend and remember 9/11.