"Sua Sponte" in Ranger Speak-More from Lou

Apparently, "Sua Sponte" is Latin for "of their own accord". This much I gleaned from an article about the Rangers. The author elaborated with, "You volunteered to lead the way-start learning at Ranger School." The phrase in a law book means something very different. But, since I'm focusing on Rangers, not lawyers, I'll leave it at that. 
I got back from my trip to Texas at 11 last night. It was hard to say goodbye to Betsy and the girls, but I needed to go home. Miss them already!

What a great feeling to touch down in Atlanta and be on solid ground again! It didn't help that we sat on the tarmac in Dallas for an hour while the mechanics repaired an issue with the plane's hydraulics. Gulp. Maybe I just have a vivid imagination, but it was hard to keep myself focused on Louis L'amour's Jubal Sackett and the Kickapoo Indian's idiosyncrasies while thinking about malfunctioning plane parts. No problems though. It was a trifle noisy-as seen from my window!

Biggest hurdle of the night was arriving at Groome Transportation in Columbus and chartering a van to take me to Fort Benning. The driver and I unloaded my luggage, I dragged it to the curb and sat down to wait for the next driver. 5 minutes later this same driver came up huffing and puffing to inform me that he HAD to take me to Benning because the Columbus driver "Didn't know de way. Dat id-ee-it, what is he doin' bein a driver if he don't even know de' town?" (this is how it happened-for real!) So, we piled my luggage back in the van, as he fussed and cranked over the other "stupid" driver. At this point I made the fatal mistake of using logic to say,"Its really not that hard, and I'm in the van. I know my way home, I could show him." Dum dee dum dum. So, he went back in the building to have it out with the other driver and the short of it was that I ended up having to unload and reload the luggage one LAST time, into the van of the "stupid" driver. lol. It was all rather amusing at 1030 at night. Then, once on the road this fellow commenced to tell me about the "brain work" involved in driving and how his wife thought he "dust sit in the de van and drive, but no sir, der was too much involved. You gotta treat de passengers as you own childern, like preciousness. Der ain't nuttin like jus sittin in de van." Although he was a trifle hard of hearing and prone to forgetfullness, we did manage to make it home and in one piece! Hooray!
So, since I had my mail held while I was away, I was anticipating letters!!! And Lou did not disapoint, I had 3 of them waiting with the junk mail, offers for free pizza and Chinese buffet, eyebrow waxing and gutter cleaning. So good to hear from him! It was like having him here with me for about 10 minutes, reading and re-reading.
Friday/Saturday (written right after the 8 hour pass)
Hey Baby! So tired! We played Ranger games all night and didn't sleep at all. We did get 3 hours on the Bus though. We are here at Dahlonega and we in-processed medical, did a smokefest layout on the rocks in the sun. From what guys are saying Mountain Phase is a smoker physically but they only had 3 recycles per company vs. Darby with like 30-40. So we'll see how it goes :). We have all sort of knots, rope and rappelling training going on for the next week. Not sure yet, but 3 meals a day and 4 hours of sleep may be on the way! 
Later.....
Oh, I am a new man! Its crazy we got 4 hours of sleep on a bed! Then we just ate like the biggest breakfast ever! I'm on top of the world! I vote Mountains so far! Could be bad, not sure why they are being nice. Anyway, today we are doing our 30 and 60 foot rappel off one of these mountains. We got all our stuff last night and did familiarization, all this mountaineering stuff is pretty cool, the course is looking up! They treat us like people and we actually are learning stuff. We should do a lot of knots tonight and tomorrow. I miss you!.............
Well, things are going well. We did knots and rappels. So easy and then people get stupid and things get silly. Whatever! We'll all be strong Rangers! Food and sleep has greatly improved morale! Oh yes, and they assigned us battle buddies. (the guy you hang with for the course and depend on) I got S____. So I'm happy and he's happy now because I can do knots. Yay me. Tee hee! (S___ is the ER nurse that helped him out so much during Crawl Phase, a good guy) You should see how retarded these guys are. Now we are just sitting under the 60 ft cliff  waiting to rappell- JUST DID IT-CRAZY. 

We did it with ruck and weapon and helmet. Crazy cause it was all wet and slimy cliff rocks straight down, guys are flipping upside down and RIs are going crazy! Tee hee Tee hee!
Next letter: postmarked June 9th.
Hey Baby, passed knots and rappelling test!  Did all within time and flawlessly executed. We just did rope bridges across a stream here. 

It is so beautiful here all of us are talking about how we'll come back some time to enjoy it. Probably won't happen but it is pretty here! We just finished hoist and a-frame pulley systems off of the 60 ft cliff. 

All sorts of stuff we can use in Afghanistan to scale cliffs and get equipment up and down. We are supposed to go climb a mountain and do a sunset church service at the top. We are learning all sort of stuff and the RIs are pretty cool. They are 1000 times better than the xo*#f at Camp Darby. Its pretty cool! They want to teach us, not just be xo*#f. Sorry-teehee. Don't worry about me becoming a heathen, all the guys read their Bibles from the church services we had. Its so funny when they are here people turn to God for help. I remember CPT Mcleod said God was the only reason he made it through. I forgot to tell you but I made friends with an armor captain who was Baptist. We used to pray before every mission. I miss him as he recycled. We got into TULIP and missions and all sorts of theology. He had 2 kids and was a great guy. Hope he makes it through! Hope I make it through! I need to pass one patrol this phase and one in Florida then its-RANGER.
I'm seeing more of Bill and Bugg. CC is in a land unknown but I'm in 1st platoon, 2nd squad, A company and Bill/Bugg are in 2nd platoon. I'll try and write you more during the next few weeks as we;ll be here but then we do (2) 1 week FTXs (field training exercise- think camping without food or shelter) out in the field. I may be able to write but probably not. Letters and mail around here are hilarious. (referring to their unconventional and extremely slow mail system) By time you get this I may well be in Florida. All I have to do to get a "go" to Florida is one patrol. Too easy! I know its crazy but when I get out of here I'm gonna go to the beach. So, _____ (unable to decipher this) some beaches. I need flip flops, shorts and sun. I'm paste white, damp, wet and full of sores and bites that need salt, air and light. Yep, the beach sounds good. (This cracked me up as Lou grew up 30 minutes from the Jersey beaches and up til now despised beaches,sand and sun! Glad he has a craving though, because I love beaches!) The only hitch would be you getting off work, maybe we'll do a weekend. (I think he's forgotten about our family vacation to Florida in August! :)) 
And with that, the letter ends. At Ranger School, you don't worry about "Dear" and "Goodbye" sometimes-its "just the facts, ma'am". But, I enjoy hearing about any and all of what's going on with my Lou 4 hours north of here, in Dahlonega, Georgia. The area is beautiful, as he says. Its a historic area, known for the Georgia gold rush in 1827, I believe. It has many wineries and tourist attractions, as well as camping/cabins. Maybe we will actually get a chance to visit when Lou is eating 3 meals a day, resting 8 hours each night and has regained his normal stature post-Ranger Days. I'll post the 3rd letter sometime this week!