Friday night was the Halloween Party with our MPOBC class, another MP class and some of the Engineer OBC students. For my class, it was the night after our final APFT of the course, so we were ready to celebrate, especially since we are leaving Tuesday morning for our 8-day field exercise. I didn't feel like spending anything on a costume, so I broke out the Tesco devil costume I wore to the Jesus Halloween Party last year, and combined that with a red sweater and black skirt... voila, instant costume at zero extra cost!
We had a little pre-party in one of the girl's room, and Jordan (another Ft. Drum-bound person) and I had the unique opportunity to help a few of our fellow lieutenants put on their make-up... of course, they were some of the guys, but hey, I guess Halloween is an excuse for just about anything these days. I just hope that Marcus remembers to get some nail polish remover this weekend before he shows up to PT on Monday morning with black fingernails. Somehow I doubt our SGLs would approve of that at all.
The party was fun, although seeing some of the costumes that people came in, it made me wonder what our future soldiers would think of seeing their future platoon leaders dressed up. They probably would lose some of their confidence in us :-)
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Halloween Group Shot
Here we are, all dressed up, doing a little bit of pre-partying to get ready for the party
Standing: Jocelyn, Russ, Larissa, Jess, Me, Jamie, Jordan, Patsy
Kneeling: Matt 6
Me and Jordan
Me and Jordan. Both of us are headed to Ft. Drum. We've been commiserating as it's gotten colder here about how much colder it is going to be once we get to Ft. Drum. For example, our conversation at the APFT on Friday was something along the line of:
"so it's about 35 degrees outside this morning"
"sweet, that means only 65 degrees colder to the coldest temperatures at Drum"
"bummer"
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Brrrrrrr.....
It is cold here now. Somehow the weather skipped from nearly summer (in the mid to upper 80s last week) to the first part of winter. It's funny, I know you should be careful what you wish for, but this time last week I was really wishing for the weather to change at least slightly because it was an absolute sauna in the room after they turned off the A/C. It changed alright, and as I stood in the shower this morning trying to thaw out from PT, I found myself reminiscing about the temperature from a week ago. Guess it just goes to prove that you don't always think you want what you want.
And of course, as I ran outside my room at 0540 absolutely freezing, I had the comforting thought to fall back on that at 35 degrees, I still have another 60 or so degrees to fall before I experience the low temperatures that Ft. Drum is going to be throwing at me. All I can say is bring it on... and oh by the way, I'm augmenting my winter wardrobe something crazy here pretty soon, or I'm going to be a human popsicle all winter.
And of course, as I ran outside my room at 0540 absolutely freezing, I had the comforting thought to fall back on that at 35 degrees, I still have another 60 or so degrees to fall before I experience the low temperatures that Ft. Drum is going to be throwing at me. All I can say is bring it on... and oh by the way, I'm augmenting my winter wardrobe something crazy here pretty soon, or I'm going to be a human popsicle all winter.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
To The Beat of a Different Drum
I'm cheesy. I realize this. Who else would put the chorus to a cadence as the title of a journal entry?
So I'm going to Ft. Drum now and not Germany. It's almost 99.9% official. However, things can never be easy of course, and this path is proving just as difficult as the rest of my move from Cambridge has been. Boy am I glad I got a degree out of the year over there, because I have to keep reminding myself that the reward was worth all the ensuing hassles. Ft. Jackson got word that I was no longer going to Germany, and rather than waiting for the information to come down to them about where I was going instead, they simply rescinded my orders. So I am an orderless lieutenant. Not a good thing to be, especially with the heartaches I'm having dealing with trying to get DFAS to pay me some of the several thousand dollars they owe me for my TDY here at Ft. Wood. The 1SG for the company the OBC students are assigned to was dumbfounded looking at what I received today, because he's been in the Army a long, long time, and couldn't remember seeing anything handled the way my stuff has been handled. I'm beginning to once again remember the difficulty in being a "unique case" in an organization that is trained to handle routine occurences. Oh well. This is just another fun little rollercoaster to ride on my way to finishing OBC and heading out to my unit. Assuming I have a unit. Assuming that Jackson doesn't end up messing things up more. I wonder, how in the world did this Army function before the days of computer systems and databases and instant access to all sorts of wonderful information via the internet.
By the time I am done with everything here, I think I'll be practically be qualified to be a clerk. I guess that at least I'll have plenty of my own experience at dealing with problems and should be able to help my soldiers deal with issues. I'll certainly sympathize with them if they have any of these problems. It's turning out to be a royal pain in the behind.
And all of these issues asside, I'm finally starting to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm going to Drum. Upstate NY was probably one of the last places in the Army that I thought I'd ever end up at. Positives though, include that at least I will be in a location where I should be able to attend my siblings West Point graduations since the drive between Drum and WP is only about 6 hours. I will also get plenty of wear out of my winter clothing, and should be able to have some fun shopping for new cold weather gear. After all the twists and turns, this looks to be the next straight section on my life's course, so I'm going to sit back, and keep looking on the positive side and enjoy myself. :-)
So I'm going to Ft. Drum now and not Germany. It's almost 99.9% official. However, things can never be easy of course, and this path is proving just as difficult as the rest of my move from Cambridge has been. Boy am I glad I got a degree out of the year over there, because I have to keep reminding myself that the reward was worth all the ensuing hassles. Ft. Jackson got word that I was no longer going to Germany, and rather than waiting for the information to come down to them about where I was going instead, they simply rescinded my orders. So I am an orderless lieutenant. Not a good thing to be, especially with the heartaches I'm having dealing with trying to get DFAS to pay me some of the several thousand dollars they owe me for my TDY here at Ft. Wood. The 1SG for the company the OBC students are assigned to was dumbfounded looking at what I received today, because he's been in the Army a long, long time, and couldn't remember seeing anything handled the way my stuff has been handled. I'm beginning to once again remember the difficulty in being a "unique case" in an organization that is trained to handle routine occurences. Oh well. This is just another fun little rollercoaster to ride on my way to finishing OBC and heading out to my unit. Assuming I have a unit. Assuming that Jackson doesn't end up messing things up more. I wonder, how in the world did this Army function before the days of computer systems and databases and instant access to all sorts of wonderful information via the internet.
By the time I am done with everything here, I think I'll be practically be qualified to be a clerk. I guess that at least I'll have plenty of my own experience at dealing with problems and should be able to help my soldiers deal with issues. I'll certainly sympathize with them if they have any of these problems. It's turning out to be a royal pain in the behind.
And all of these issues asside, I'm finally starting to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm going to Drum. Upstate NY was probably one of the last places in the Army that I thought I'd ever end up at. Positives though, include that at least I will be in a location where I should be able to attend my siblings West Point graduations since the drive between Drum and WP is only about 6 hours. I will also get plenty of wear out of my winter clothing, and should be able to have some fun shopping for new cold weather gear. After all the twists and turns, this looks to be the next straight section on my life's course, so I'm going to sit back, and keep looking on the positive side and enjoy myself. :-)
Monday, October 17, 2005
23 and Getting Paid to Play in the Dirt
It's funny, sometimes I feel like an adult, and sometimes I sure don't. Today fell under the "days I still feel like a child" category, but in a way that made me want to laugh.
Last week we spent four days learning about urban operations, and the various and sundry things that we as MPs will have to do in cities. We practiced climbing through windows (being hoisted up into a window made me have a bit of a flashback to falling off the Ranger wall firstie year), crowd control, room clearing, and all sorts of stuff. Today was the final bit on this, and we had to do another TEWT (tactical exercise without troops), which basically involved getting a FRAGO and having to write an OPORD for our imaginary platoon and then listen to different people brief their plans for the same scenario all day long. Two of us were selected to build the sandtable for the people who would be briefing, and we spent almost two hours playing in the dirt getting it to look like a mockup of the "town" where we'd conduct our operation.
I just had to start laughing at one point, because there we were, two officers in the US Army, supposedly mature and responsible enough to be trusted with the lives of the sons and daughters of America, and we were on our hands and knees tracing shapes in the dirt. Our hands and knees were completely filthy, dirt was smeared on our faces from where we'd pushed hair out of the way, there were pink and blue streaks on our uniforms from where we'd used chalk to mark barricades, and we had little green army men and toy tanks and trucks all around. A pair of five-year-olds could have easily been substituted in our places, and I could just picture an irate mother calling out to us "kids" to stop playing in the dirt and come in and clean ourselves up. And yet, Uncle Sam and the government are paying us to do this! Inconceivable in a way. :-)
Oh, and in other news, it looks like I may be headed to Ft. Drum now instead of Germany. More to follow as I find out more.
Last week we spent four days learning about urban operations, and the various and sundry things that we as MPs will have to do in cities. We practiced climbing through windows (being hoisted up into a window made me have a bit of a flashback to falling off the Ranger wall firstie year), crowd control, room clearing, and all sorts of stuff. Today was the final bit on this, and we had to do another TEWT (tactical exercise without troops), which basically involved getting a FRAGO and having to write an OPORD for our imaginary platoon and then listen to different people brief their plans for the same scenario all day long. Two of us were selected to build the sandtable for the people who would be briefing, and we spent almost two hours playing in the dirt getting it to look like a mockup of the "town" where we'd conduct our operation.
I just had to start laughing at one point, because there we were, two officers in the US Army, supposedly mature and responsible enough to be trusted with the lives of the sons and daughters of America, and we were on our hands and knees tracing shapes in the dirt. Our hands and knees were completely filthy, dirt was smeared on our faces from where we'd pushed hair out of the way, there were pink and blue streaks on our uniforms from where we'd used chalk to mark barricades, and we had little green army men and toy tanks and trucks all around. A pair of five-year-olds could have easily been substituted in our places, and I could just picture an irate mother calling out to us "kids" to stop playing in the dirt and come in and clean ourselves up. And yet, Uncle Sam and the government are paying us to do this! Inconceivable in a way. :-)
Oh, and in other news, it looks like I may be headed to Ft. Drum now instead of Germany. More to follow as I find out more.
Monday, October 10, 2005
My Visit With The Grandparents
Columbus Day weekend I went wild and crazy... not really. I spent the weekend visiting my grandparents in Texas, and also JoAnn, my grandpa's sister (not sure what that makes her relation-wise to me, great aunt or something like that?). To be sure, I didn't really do a whole heck of a lot, but that was precisely what I needed to recharge after a couple of stressful weeks. I watched a whole lot of football... disappointing loss for Army, a blow out for Texas, a miraculous finish for Texas Tech, and a gritty ending to the Penn State-OSU game. I was a complete slug, staying in my pajamas for most of the day, and I think I must have eaten about 10 popcorn balls :-) (Grandpa was on a bit of a popcorn ball kick)
I've posted a pic of me with them below, as I was getting ready to leave to head back. And it's funny that I was wearing a green polo, because they have a picture of me wearing a green polo shirt that was taken with my brother and sister when I was getting ready to head back to West Point after a long weekend my yuk year. Don't ask me why I still remember that day, but as most people who know me know by now, I tend to remember the weird little details (and forget everything I need to know for tests, but oh well), and it got me thinking about that other green polo shirt day and some of the regrets I have - yes, it's a bit of a step from green polo's to regrets, but bear with me.
The reason I remember wearing that green polo is because when I showed up back at school that day, wearing my green polo shirt and khaki pants, one of my friends showed up wearing a shirt almost the same color green and khaki pants. See what I mean about remembering the stupid things? Well, that memory got me to thinking about that particular friend, and remembering how much I used to talk to them, and now I haven't heard from them in over a year, and that saddened me, because friends are important and they shouldn't be allowed just to disappear out of your life. And one thing led to another, and I started thinking of all the people who I've been friends with over the years that I have let slip out of my life, and I think in many cases that my life would be better if I had been better about keeping in touch and letting the people important to me know that they are important to me.
It made me think of the song, "If Tomorrow Never Comes" by Garth Brooks, and so I put that in my CD player on the plane, and really thought about whether I've done a good job letting people know how I feel in case something were to happen and I couldn't tell them. I hope it doesn't sound too melodramatic, and I'm sure not planning on anything happening to me so that tomorrow wouldn't come, but it sure put me in a thoughtful mood.
I've posted a pic of me with them below, as I was getting ready to leave to head back. And it's funny that I was wearing a green polo, because they have a picture of me wearing a green polo shirt that was taken with my brother and sister when I was getting ready to head back to West Point after a long weekend my yuk year. Don't ask me why I still remember that day, but as most people who know me know by now, I tend to remember the weird little details (and forget everything I need to know for tests, but oh well), and it got me thinking about that other green polo shirt day and some of the regrets I have - yes, it's a bit of a step from green polo's to regrets, but bear with me.
The reason I remember wearing that green polo is because when I showed up back at school that day, wearing my green polo shirt and khaki pants, one of my friends showed up wearing a shirt almost the same color green and khaki pants. See what I mean about remembering the stupid things? Well, that memory got me to thinking about that particular friend, and remembering how much I used to talk to them, and now I haven't heard from them in over a year, and that saddened me, because friends are important and they shouldn't be allowed just to disappear out of your life. And one thing led to another, and I started thinking of all the people who I've been friends with over the years that I have let slip out of my life, and I think in many cases that my life would be better if I had been better about keeping in touch and letting the people important to me know that they are important to me.
It made me think of the song, "If Tomorrow Never Comes" by Garth Brooks, and so I put that in my CD player on the plane, and really thought about whether I've done a good job letting people know how I feel in case something were to happen and I couldn't tell them. I hope it doesn't sound too melodramatic, and I'm sure not planning on anything happening to me so that tomorrow wouldn't come, but it sure put me in a thoughtful mood.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Qualified!
Wooo hooo. I am now officially qualified on the 9mm. Yippee-yay. After all, it took me four attempts to get there, but considering I'd only ever shot like 20 rounds on a pistol and that was 4 years ago at Buckner, I'm fairly pleased with the result of 42 out of 50.
The 9mm range is so completely different from the M16 range, especially considering there is nothing to zero, you get closer to the targets rather than having targets at different distances, you have to fire with both your left and right hands, etc. I think I'm a bigger fan of the pistol than the rifle, so it's a good thing I'm an MP and get to wear crossed pistols on my collar instead of stupid sticks, errr, crossed rifles. No offense to any infantrymen but hey, give me my HMMWV's any day and you can stick with your dismounted light walking. :-)
The 9mm range is so completely different from the M16 range, especially considering there is nothing to zero, you get closer to the targets rather than having targets at different distances, you have to fire with both your left and right hands, etc. I think I'm a bigger fan of the pistol than the rifle, so it's a good thing I'm an MP and get to wear crossed pistols on my collar instead of stupid sticks, errr, crossed rifles. No offense to any infantrymen but hey, give me my HMMWV's any day and you can stick with your dismounted light walking. :-)
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
MP Ball and My PL Ponderings
Saturday evening was the MP Anniversary Ball, and after spending lots of time Thursday and the majority of Friday doing set-up for said ball, I have to confess I was beginning to dread what I had initially looked forward to. It definitely seemed like the right thing to do when they offered the sign-up to us, after all, officers are supposed to lead by example and going to the ball was supporting the Regiment. Not to mention the fact that it would be as a class, and an opportunity to get another use out of the ridiculous amount of money I spent on my Blues considering that they hardly ever get worn at all.
Somehow, though, the hours spent wrapping "gossamer" (read green and gold colored dryer sheets) around plaster columns, and setting up tents that were hardly used, and all the other trivial jobs they had us wasting our time with on the set-up really kind of turned me bitter on the whole enterprise, and Saturday evening found me dreading going.
In the end, I'm still somewhat mixed about it. The first thing I thought after getting all dressed up in my Blues was that the last time I wore them I was attending a private tea in Buckingham Palace with the Duke of York, and this time I was wearing them to a function in the gym at the post fitness center. Talk about a change.
As for the actual ball itself, the food was decent, but they ran out of it before everyone made it through the buffet lines. The centerpieces were the absolutely brilliant combination of dried wheat stalks and votive candles--our caught on fire when we were charging our glasses for the toasts, the table next to our managed to light theirs also, and I saw various tables around the gym had slightly singed stalks by the end of the evening. Luckily none of them went up to the point where it was necessary to call the fire department, but hopefully someone will realize for next year that this wasn't the brightest of ideas. General McCaffrey gave the speech, and it made me have weird flashbacks to trying to pay attention in class firstie year when I was so exhausted from continually having only 3-4 hours of sleep a night. So, all in all, I'd give the ball about a C+, maybe a B- for effort, but the actual execution was lacking.
What was singularly depressing was having to wake up on Sunday morning and go back over to the gym and clean up and tear down the set-up. It made it seem like we didn't really have a weekend because we had the actual ball on Saturday and then the clean up on Sunday. Of course, everyone was super excited to be there (haha, can you hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice?), and yet, despite this, we managed to get most of the work done in an hour and a half. Then we got to hurry up and wait. It is the Army after all, so I'm not too terribly surprised, but it was frustrating all the same. We had everything set and ready to be taken away, but the NCOs in charge of the cleanup had only requested two vehicles to transport everything and we spent the next 2.5 hours waiting for the trucks to come back after dropping off stuff at the motor pool or at the club. It was an exercise in inefficiency, and a valuable learning lesson in what to prevent from happening when we're ever stuck in charge of something similar.
For me, the icing on top of the cake was finding out at the clean-up that I have the position of student PL this week, and we have a double range with the M9, MK19 and M249. More OPORD fun for me, yippee. But hey, I guess to look on the bright side, the SGL said that she was looking for someone who could handle the work, so that means she at least thinks of me as being semi-competent. Now I just have to hope that I don't manage to destroy that, and get myself classified as a hopeless cause. It's funny, because even though the student leadership positions aren't really any big deal other than being a pain in the behind, it makes me realize that I still have a lot of worries about being good enough to take over a platoon sometime here around the New Year.
I know that if things went as planned, I would most likely already be in the thick of things with the majority of my classmates, but that's now how it happened and now I'm worried because there might be added expectations of me having some experience since I'll arrive at my unit as a 1LT instead of a 2LT. Little will they realize that I have no practical experience beyond writing a really long paper and OBC. But hey, I'm not going to worry about it too much, because I don't want it to appear that I'm just looking for something to stress about. I'm excited about finally getting to do the whole PL thing (for real and not a peer leadership type thing), and it's starting to hit home with me that I have only a few more months to finish my preparation for what will surely be one of the biggest tests of my life. In short, I'm going to enjoy my last two months at Ft. Leonard Wood and try not to sweat the small stuff, but real life seems to finally be knocking on my door, and I'm certainly ready to be done with school, so I just hope I'm ready to get out there and accomplish what I need to.
Somehow, though, the hours spent wrapping "gossamer" (read green and gold colored dryer sheets) around plaster columns, and setting up tents that were hardly used, and all the other trivial jobs they had us wasting our time with on the set-up really kind of turned me bitter on the whole enterprise, and Saturday evening found me dreading going.
In the end, I'm still somewhat mixed about it. The first thing I thought after getting all dressed up in my Blues was that the last time I wore them I was attending a private tea in Buckingham Palace with the Duke of York, and this time I was wearing them to a function in the gym at the post fitness center. Talk about a change.
As for the actual ball itself, the food was decent, but they ran out of it before everyone made it through the buffet lines. The centerpieces were the absolutely brilliant combination of dried wheat stalks and votive candles--our caught on fire when we were charging our glasses for the toasts, the table next to our managed to light theirs also, and I saw various tables around the gym had slightly singed stalks by the end of the evening. Luckily none of them went up to the point where it was necessary to call the fire department, but hopefully someone will realize for next year that this wasn't the brightest of ideas. General McCaffrey gave the speech, and it made me have weird flashbacks to trying to pay attention in class firstie year when I was so exhausted from continually having only 3-4 hours of sleep a night. So, all in all, I'd give the ball about a C+, maybe a B- for effort, but the actual execution was lacking.
What was singularly depressing was having to wake up on Sunday morning and go back over to the gym and clean up and tear down the set-up. It made it seem like we didn't really have a weekend because we had the actual ball on Saturday and then the clean up on Sunday. Of course, everyone was super excited to be there (haha, can you hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice?), and yet, despite this, we managed to get most of the work done in an hour and a half. Then we got to hurry up and wait. It is the Army after all, so I'm not too terribly surprised, but it was frustrating all the same. We had everything set and ready to be taken away, but the NCOs in charge of the cleanup had only requested two vehicles to transport everything and we spent the next 2.5 hours waiting for the trucks to come back after dropping off stuff at the motor pool or at the club. It was an exercise in inefficiency, and a valuable learning lesson in what to prevent from happening when we're ever stuck in charge of something similar.
For me, the icing on top of the cake was finding out at the clean-up that I have the position of student PL this week, and we have a double range with the M9, MK19 and M249. More OPORD fun for me, yippee. But hey, I guess to look on the bright side, the SGL said that she was looking for someone who could handle the work, so that means she at least thinks of me as being semi-competent. Now I just have to hope that I don't manage to destroy that, and get myself classified as a hopeless cause. It's funny, because even though the student leadership positions aren't really any big deal other than being a pain in the behind, it makes me realize that I still have a lot of worries about being good enough to take over a platoon sometime here around the New Year.
I know that if things went as planned, I would most likely already be in the thick of things with the majority of my classmates, but that's now how it happened and now I'm worried because there might be added expectations of me having some experience since I'll arrive at my unit as a 1LT instead of a 2LT. Little will they realize that I have no practical experience beyond writing a really long paper and OBC. But hey, I'm not going to worry about it too much, because I don't want it to appear that I'm just looking for something to stress about. I'm excited about finally getting to do the whole PL thing (for real and not a peer leadership type thing), and it's starting to hit home with me that I have only a few more months to finish my preparation for what will surely be one of the biggest tests of my life. In short, I'm going to enjoy my last two months at Ft. Leonard Wood and try not to sweat the small stuff, but real life seems to finally be knocking on my door, and I'm certainly ready to be done with school, so I just hope I'm ready to get out there and accomplish what I need to.
MP Ball Photo
At the MP Ball - Russ, Matt Wood, Matt Six, Jocelyn, Nicole, Jordan, Me, Meghan, Larissa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)