Hopefully I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, or run... Knowing that I'm going to be at Quantico this fall, I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon, and will sign up for the Army 10-miler when registration begins for that next week. They're both things that have been on my "Gee, it'd be great to do that someday" list and I figured this was as good an opportunity as any to accomplish them both. So I've now got about 5 months to get myself into marathon shape, yikes!
I'm running the marathon in honor of SSG Linde, SGT Stenroos and PFC Muller. It's fitting that it starts in Arlington, and will be just under 2 weeks shy of the 2 year anniversary of their deaths. I realize it's a purely symbolic gesture, but I know I will draw inspiration from them, and it gives me the chance to tell others about them if I'm asked why I'm running. It is simply my small part to keep their memory alive.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Hoorah for the Captain's Course
It's funny, I remember thinking when I was debating on attending West Point that one of the things about the military that was going to make things easy for me was that there was a relatively standard path for the future. I was supposed to know what and where I was doing for the next 9 years (4 at West Point and 5 in the Army). Of course, that hasn't exactly proven accurate.
I only did 3.5 years at West Point, and the other half year at the Naval Academy. That experience taught me to appreciate differences, cherish some of the "Army-isms" I had taken for granted, and realize that Squids are people too. This was only slightly off the beaten path, but I know I'm different for that semester - I met new people and had new experiences, but I also missed out on memories with my classmates. It was hard at first hearing stories about fun times I had missed, but I learned a bit about not second-guessing and realizing that every decision has good and not-as-good consequences, and I would be much happier focusing on the good rather than always wondering "what if."
Graduation and commissioning brought with it a one-year hiatus as a quasi-civilian at Cambridge. While my friends all headed off to their Basic Courses with people they knew and clear expectations in place, I traded in my uniform for my slightly-outdated civilian wardrobe and jumped across the pond for a short program of study. I felt out of my depth at times because of how specialized everyone was, but gained new confidence in the breadth of material that I had a familiar grasp on. Most American students in my college quickly adapted to the role as moderator of discussions across disciplines, because we knew enough about a lot of things and could serve as bridges for the people who knew a lot about a smaller focus. We all learned to accept that our educations were different, but neither really seemed to have the upper hand, and with everyone contributing, we all gained new insights into our fields and ourselves.
When I headed back to the Army, and my OBC, I didn't really know anyone in my course. I could see and appreciate the bonds that the '05 West Pointers in my class had, and realized how much our common shared experience made it easier to understand each other. We weren't classmates, but we had all been through Beast, Buckner and the Thayer method. But with being a different year group, I witnessed some of what the other officers in our class resented about the West Point "club." No one intentionally excluded others, but it's always easier to cling to those you know and share common ground with. It simply took time and some conscious effort to establish new common ground that was a lot more "common" to everyone.
Each of these unique experiences, and the new perspectives I gained from them, contributed to a decision I made two weeks ago to pursue attending the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School in lieu of the MP Captain's Career Course. Of course 9 months in the DC area is also a lot more exciting to look forward to than 5 months in Missouri to me. If the other "off the beaten path" experiences I've had in the past 5 years have taught me anything, it is to know that I'm going to be learning a lot, not just about what the Marines have to teach me, but about how I react to the new and unfamiliar. So I'm not dwelling on what I'll miss out by not attending the MP school (meeting other MPs, Army specific training, and staying in the comfort zone of what I already know), but looking forward to once again being a bit on the outside of things looking in. And at least with going to the Naval Academy as a cadet, I've already lived being the odd (wo)man out with uniforms and such. Time to embrace the Hoorah.
I only did 3.5 years at West Point, and the other half year at the Naval Academy. That experience taught me to appreciate differences, cherish some of the "Army-isms" I had taken for granted, and realize that Squids are people too. This was only slightly off the beaten path, but I know I'm different for that semester - I met new people and had new experiences, but I also missed out on memories with my classmates. It was hard at first hearing stories about fun times I had missed, but I learned a bit about not second-guessing and realizing that every decision has good and not-as-good consequences, and I would be much happier focusing on the good rather than always wondering "what if."
Graduation and commissioning brought with it a one-year hiatus as a quasi-civilian at Cambridge. While my friends all headed off to their Basic Courses with people they knew and clear expectations in place, I traded in my uniform for my slightly-outdated civilian wardrobe and jumped across the pond for a short program of study. I felt out of my depth at times because of how specialized everyone was, but gained new confidence in the breadth of material that I had a familiar grasp on. Most American students in my college quickly adapted to the role as moderator of discussions across disciplines, because we knew enough about a lot of things and could serve as bridges for the people who knew a lot about a smaller focus. We all learned to accept that our educations were different, but neither really seemed to have the upper hand, and with everyone contributing, we all gained new insights into our fields and ourselves.
When I headed back to the Army, and my OBC, I didn't really know anyone in my course. I could see and appreciate the bonds that the '05 West Pointers in my class had, and realized how much our common shared experience made it easier to understand each other. We weren't classmates, but we had all been through Beast, Buckner and the Thayer method. But with being a different year group, I witnessed some of what the other officers in our class resented about the West Point "club." No one intentionally excluded others, but it's always easier to cling to those you know and share common ground with. It simply took time and some conscious effort to establish new common ground that was a lot more "common" to everyone.
Each of these unique experiences, and the new perspectives I gained from them, contributed to a decision I made two weeks ago to pursue attending the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School in lieu of the MP Captain's Career Course. Of course 9 months in the DC area is also a lot more exciting to look forward to than 5 months in Missouri to me. If the other "off the beaten path" experiences I've had in the past 5 years have taught me anything, it is to know that I'm going to be learning a lot, not just about what the Marines have to teach me, but about how I react to the new and unfamiliar. So I'm not dwelling on what I'll miss out by not attending the MP school (meeting other MPs, Army specific training, and staying in the comfort zone of what I already know), but looking forward to once again being a bit on the outside of things looking in. And at least with going to the Naval Academy as a cadet, I've already lived being the odd (wo)man out with uniforms and such. Time to embrace the Hoorah.
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