Evan updates are oft requested. Here’s the latest, by way of his reply to his Uncle Sean, a former Army officer. Evan copied this to me. Reading it, you’re reading someone else’s mail. That is what we do when we read the Bible. It is certainly what we Gentiles are doing when we read the Old Testament. More about that later.

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Sent: Tue 5/12/2009 9:36 PM

Re: FW: Army Ten-Miler April Update

Sean,

The butter bar training is going alright. I spend a lot of time in the field, and a lot more time working on OPORDs. The pace is very demanding. When in garrison I typically am having an OPORD several nights per week and quizzes thrown in as well, sometimes on the same nights. The field is more my element, and I prefer being a set of boots on the ground as opposed to a pogue in the classroom. I’ll be here at Knox until 9 July in Mounted Officer Basic Course. After that, the schedule is not exactly certain. I will definitely go to Airborne School (again) for 3 weeks. The other two courses that are up in the air are the Army Reconnaissance Course (ARC) and Ranger School. I may or may not attend those simply because my brigade combat team deploys to Afghanistan in either August or September to move out and draw fire. If deployment were not so imminent, I would definitely be going to ARC and Ranger. I still may, which would probably reduce my time in theater from 12 months to more like 8, and mean I’d probably deploy around December as opposed to September.

Hope all is well in West Chester. I’m glad Sean Jr. chose to go to Wheaton. He will be in good hands academically, spiritually, and professionally. Lieutenant Colonel Anderson is a true servant leader and a model of Christian officership at its best.

As for the Army 10 miler, I’d love to run it at some point. I have a buddy who is an Engineer and a West Point ‘08 grad. He and I were talking about training for a marathon once we get to Bragg (we are in the same brigade). I’m always up for a challenge though, and hopefully I can run the 10 miler at some point in the near future. See if you can convince my old man to do it!

Evan Ellsworth
2LT, AR, USA

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‘butter bar’. A 2LT rank insignia is a single gold bar, hence the nickname ‘butter bar’.

OPORD. Operation Orders.