Sorting the Army gear

Today's project was to go through all my Army gear. There are three types:

1. Installation-specific. This is the stuff you get from the Central Issuing Facility (CIF) when you arrive someplace. For example, a rucksack. When you move arrive at a post, you're supposed to pick this stuff up, and you turn it in before you can out-process. Fortunately for me, I don't have any of this. For as long as I've been in Hawaii, I've worked at "echelons above brigade," so I haven't needed it.
   
   
2. Stuff you carry from place to place, but have to turn in eventually. This includes sleeping bags, the folding shovel, grenade pouches, rain suits, cold weather gear, etc.
   
   
3. Stuff you get to keep. Not that the Army is generous, but there are a bunch of things it just doesn't want back -- used uniforms, boots, and Camel-baks. You can throw them away if you want, but some things are still somewhat useful.

I was able to fill about three duffel bags full of that "category 2" junk, and I'll be glad to get rid of it when the time comes. Most of it's in that old, gray-ish "Universal Camouflage Pattern" that only blended into gravel pits.

But the process is still bittersweet. I'm getting out because I have multiple sclerosis, which prevents me from running, and I came across my last pair of running shoes. I also dug up the soccer shoes I bought and used back in 2012, another reminder of what I can no longer do.

So I'm glad to see it go, but I'll likely miss it when it's gone. Silly, yes, but isn't that how it always is?