5.25.10

Hellooo!

Twenty-twenty-bo-benty-banana-fana-fo-fenty-fee-fi-fo-fenty-TWENTY!!! Finally...I can get that out of my head...oops now it will be stuck in your head. EN-joy. Yes! I am very excited that week 20 has come and gone.

4:45 am on Saturday morning I waved good-bye to Ryan as he went on his ride along, as I shut the door a wave of emotion came over me. I was so very excited and grateful that Ryan had made it to this point. This milestone is a symbol of 20 weeks of hard work, self-sacrifice, adaptation, grit and perseverance. I remembered feeling envious of Ryan's seniors as they received their assignments and went on their ride along and finally it was his turn.

Ryan was paired with a very nice Officer, whom actually was just 6 months out of the Academy. Ryan rode with the Officer throughout his entire 12 hour shift and had a great experience. The Officer allowed Ryan to do all of the radio transmitting, write all of the tickets and tow forms and gave him a lot of advice for his break-in as an Officer. Ryan returned home very tired and excited for his future. The pictures I took were from that morning, a rare glimpse of Ryan in his full cadet uniform...doesn't he look spry for such an early hour?

Last week Ryan certified in advanced PMA, which is weapon retention. The cadets also had to show their regular PMA skills, those who made mistakes on their regular PMA had their certification revoked and must retest! Ryan was not one of them.

For the past 2 days the cadets were being tested on all of the scenarios that they learned last week. Ryan, feeling a huge elephant-sized weight lift from his back, passed every single one! What an accomplishment as Ryan's company was the first to test with the least amount of practice time. Ryan stayed and practiced Thursday night, Friday am and returned Sunday afternoon for one final practice - what a busy weekend! There are but a few things left to test on in the coming weeks as the curriculum seems to be winding down. As you can see from one of the the pictures I took, the busy weekend caught up with our cadet on our drive back to Sacramento.

Later this week the cadets will be participating in simunitions, which are scenarios with paint bullets. Apparently, these paint bullets are shot from real guns and will leave their mark on you beyond the obvious paint splatter. Ryan said that they are not tested on simunitions and that they may even have some fun, what is actually being simulated is still unknown at this point.

More to come next week!

Love,

Amy