"I sign in and meet my team. These guys have been training together for six months, and there aren't a lot of new guys in the room. It's scary enough meeting these guys for the first time, wondering if I'm going to fit in, how I can be a successful part of the team. "Get your stuff together," Team Sergeant Scott Ford tells me. "We're leaving." These guys, I discover, are great leaders and mentors. Staff sergeant and medica Ronald Shurer takes me under his wing very quickly. Everyone shows me the ropes."