I had Mom down last weekend - her visit to the current Lovely Location means she has, with the exception of Iraq, dropped by and visited everywhere I've been stationed. Kinda cool, that.
This past weekend, I did the quick flight home for Dad's 60th birthday. I'd make more "old geezer" jokes, but my definition of "old" has changed in the past ten years... funny how that happens.
First, the promised rattlesnake pic:
The really boring adventure that is ANCOC raws to a close. Not that it hasn't been great, but i can't wait to get back to my real job.
I hurt this morning. I grabbed one of the boys yesterday afternoon, loaded about 40 pounds of crap in a ruck, and went for an eight-mile trudge. It was hot, but neither the distance nor the weight was the problem. The problem, folks, is that apparently rucking in the Pine Barrens means rucking in SAND. Your Author is feeling a wee bit old and creaky this morning.
in really NEAT things from that outing...i saw a rattlesnake. It was crossing the road as we left. I shall post the camera phone pic a bit later. I'd only recently discovered that there ARE rattlesnakes in this fine state, and was kinda thrilled to see one.
Six years ago, I passed through this same training organization to be reclassified as a civil affairs type. The Army was pouring us into Iraq, so our group of trainees was large. They divided us into eight or ten separate "classrooms." At the end of the class, the students with the highest averages, it was decided, would compete to be the "Distinguished Honor Graduate." They decided to have a "board."
Boards, in general, consist of subject matter experts quizzing you on whatever the relevent topic might be. Usually it's a healthy portion of random Army trivia for promotion and Soldier of the Quarter boards.
So there was SGT Abby, with all of four months in the Army.
Maybe, I suggested to my instructor, someone ELSE should do this board thing, since i really didn't know very much about the Army.
Nonsense, he replied. This was a CA board, to evaluate our performance at CA school. It would be CA FOCUSED.
Liar. it was entirely Army-trivia-focused. If the Marne Corps had not provided me with excellent "military bearing," it would have been awful. As it was, the board members merely looked perplexed by the presence of someone who couldn't SPELL "Army."
Let's now return to the pesent, and the conclusion of THIS course.
You four, explained the instructor, have the highest averages in the class. So, tomorrow at 1030, you'll go before a board...
Oddy, one does not seem to be allowed to opt out of these "opportunities." We know that, because we asked.
ANCOC involves two written tests. We just finished the second one. Now, one more week of doing...something and I can go back to my Soldiers. I keep telling myself that after this, it's a long time before I have to do any more NCOES.
So the leadership sez to me, a couple months back, Abby - we've got an ANCOC (advanced non-commissioned officer's course) seat available, and you're first in line for it.
And I sez to the leadership, I'm not eligible for promotion again for another year and half, I don't really need to go right now, and I have a lot to do, and-
And sez the leadership, shut up and get thee to ANCOC.
So, because I am an obediant sort, if a little bit contrary, I find myself enrolled in the course. Sigh. They're right - one's professional education must be a priority. And, although I'm just barely into it, the course actually seems pretty interesting. Plenty of theory, not so much memorize-and-regurgitate. Clever and engaging instructor, bright and interested students.
We shall see. Fascinating tidbits from today include the fact that the biosphere contains muskrats, and pestilence sucks.
Our previous first sergeant liked the gym, and set up us on a pretty good schedule. Whenever we're not doing something useful, we all head over at 0800 and do gymish things for about an hour.
I hate PT, and all things gym-related, but I really couldn't start out the Abby Regime by announcing that henceforth we'd start work at 0700 in order to be at the bar by 1430. Wouldn't be seemly. So I stuck with the previous schedule.
I didn't mind the gym when it was cold. And when the weather's nice, I just stick my head in, count my wayward sheep, and head outside for a long, slow job (and occasionally a nap under a tree).
But in case y'all didn't notice, it's hotter than the seventh hub of Hell here right now. Yesterday I ran a little over three miles and seriously thought about flopping over and dying. So today I had 40 quality minutes on the treadmill.
Treadmills are, for the record, really designed for people with better balance and coordination than your author. Injuries narrowly avoided by timely use of the handrails? Two.
But since I'm spending the Fourth in the People's Republic of New Jersey, where I'm fairly certain anything more dangerous than a sparkler is illegal, I don't think there's a whole lot of fireworks-oriented tomfoolery in the offing.
The downside of spending so much time in such a male-dominated environment (I am one of three chicks in the battalion, and the only one in my company) is that one ends up engaging in a lot of dude activities. Long story short, it seems there's some sort of Ultimate Fighting thing on TV tonight, and much effort and many phone calls have gone into the best place to watch said Ultimate Fighting.
At least there will be beer.
But you know what? It's been kinda nice to disappear on an undeclared hiatus because life has been good and I've been busy rather than because things are dark.
I'm still training troops at the place that sounds like Court Licks. Actually, I'm not doing much training - circumstances demanded our real first sergeant go take over another company, and so I'm flailing around trying to fill his shoes. Challenging, but in a good way.
Writing here is something I'm going to try to get back in the habit of doing. For a while I just didn't have anything to say, or nothing worth putting into words. Recently, though, the writing impulse has come back.
So we'll see. I'm going to try to share some thoughts - and maybe a little griping. I find I miss the interaction with the Bad Dog Faithful.
Y'all have a great 4th of July. We've actually got a holiday with no units in our pipeline, so I think I may go try to find something dangerous and irresponsible to do with fireworks.
for the wicked. My guys and I taught through the weekend, and finished with two groups of Soldier yesterday.
Now I'm actually headed to the office, and am looking forward to remind the Boss what he said about my team working through Easter, and a compensatory four-day weekend...
Could be worse. Could be the snow we had in February.
Should be an alright week. We'll be out in the woods, but instead of running our own lanes, we're just helping out another group. Upside - plenty of time to sit around and read. Downside - I don't think we get artillery simulators.
Time flies when you're...having fun?
It's been a blur of teaching classes, running ranges and pushing units through scenario-based lanes.
Which is less exciting than the I've-been-out-of-the-county-on-a-Top-Secret mission option as to the extended unannounced hiatus, but also more accurate.
After significant experience, I probably wouldn't have recommended New Jersey as a vacation destination in the summer.
At this point, I feel further qualified to disrecommend it in the winter, too. Although a nice coating of snow manages to make it look clean (which is nice), Aspen it ain't.
The snow we've had has made some things challenging (run a shoot-while-moving pistol range in knee-deep snow?), tonight's wind is downright insulting.
for my Navy sisters! Looks like the Big Blue Team will be opening submarine billets to women. Now, I do have to admit that serving on a submarine is one of those things I don't think you could convince me to do with a cattle prod and a suitcase full of unmarked twenties...but to each their own.
It takes a special kind of strange individual to find the Silent Service appealing, but I'm pleased to hear that women who are qualified and inclined to do those jobs will have the opportunity.
After some head-scratching and discussion in North Carolina, it was decided I didn't really have to leave after all. So I drove back up I95, and I've returned to my previous duties (or whatever they're evolving into).
I should get to spend a couple of brisk days this weekend out working on ranges, which will be a nice change from some of the classroom stuff I've been doing.
I'm packing my trash and loading up the Wrangler again.
The Army finally got around to producing some promotion orders for me - as of 1 January, I became Sergeant First Class Abby. The downside of that is the vacancy-based promotion system. I got promoted into a specific slot in a specific unit, and they don't seem too keen on letting me stay in the job I'm in. So...I'm off to outprocess in North Carolina, and then go meet the new outfit.
Sigh. Just when you think you've got a job and a place to offload your stuff.
As a side note - I've had the Wrangler since summer of 06. It didn't get driven for a year (other than little runs just to fire it up) while I was deployed. Thus far, I have 59,000+ miles on it. Regular oil changes and tire rotations, and it's running like a clock. A gas hog and not the most comfortable ride for all the miles I travel, but surprisingly reliable. In case you're considering one.
The snow, ladies and gentlemen, is knee-deep on Your Author. I have some pictures from our beer-and-smokes run this morning, and if I can ever find my camera cord, I'll share them.
In fun news, I did get to use the shovel I keep on the Jeep to help dig a guy out this morning.
The whole brouhaha about Don't Ask, Don't Tell's possibly pending demise...
LabRat hit it out of the park on this one, just for the record.
But as far as I'm concerned...
I've been doing this whole "in uniform" thing for a while. I've had a couple of mildly-awkward encounters with gals who...played for the other team (no more challenging to square away than mildly-awkward encounters with military dudes, by the way). I had an incredibly amusing run-in with a gay Navy Corpsman while I was in the Marine Corps, who, after overhearing me ask a video store employee if they had Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, asked if I was "a member of the tribe." (No, just a big fan of heartwarming drag-queen movies)
But the thing that sticks in my mind is...someone I knew at one point. A person significantly senior to me. Hell, senior to a whole lot of us. Nearing the end of a long and very distinguished career. Now, the prevailing wisdom was that said senior servicemember was probably queer as a three-dollar bill. I don't know that - but it was the community assumption. The thing that struck me as unfair was that this individual, who had a "roommate" of significant permanance, it seemed, went to all the social events alone.
I get that a lot of military folks are a little creeped-out by the idea of the gay pride stereotype leering at them from the next bunk over, but I don't think that's probably the sort of thing that's going to happen a whole lot. Hell, women are outnumbered eight zillion to one, and there aren't that many cases of excessively creepy man-on-woman leering.
The thing that I find offensive about DADT is the lying and ommission that it forces. When we're in an operational position where we've realized that a servicemember's personal support structure is vital to coping with the stresses that are piled on during endless deployments, it doesn't seem right to me to make some servicemembers pretend they don't have personal lives.
Ever gotten a Dear John (or Jane) letter? Imagine if you'd gotten it in a combat zone eight months into a 14-month deployment. Now imagine you couldn't tell anybody.
Ever been to a promotion ceremony where someone's husband put her Chief Petty Officer rank on her collar? A retirement where the retiree's wife got flowers? A unit barbecue where PFC Umptyfratz shows up with the latest tacky chick he's found? The normal events of military life in which we involve our servicemembers' loved ones in order to create the sense of community that is so very important when times get hard?
A welcome-home ceremony at the airport where the wives run out and hug their husbands, the husbands run out to hug their wives, the parents run out to hug their kids? And maybe...somewhere in the back of the group, a man walks up and delivers the warmest, happiest, most-socially-acceptable-handshake ever, to another man?
If gay people really are the threat to our national defense that some make them out to be, then our policy should be to never let them serve. But since we do, and since they're in our ranks, it is the decent and human and correct thing to do to not make them lie about it.
I checked into the Air Force lodge. Of course, it's nicer in almost every way than the Army verson. Although a little smaller, the rooms are just a little more...civilized. Example - the Army has the no-steal type of hotel hangars. And the ones with trouser clips are lowest bidder - so much so that the clips don't actually hold trousers. You put them on, and they fall down.
The Air Force provides normal hangars, and the trouser clips work. A little thing, but much appreciated.
Also, I haven't found any dead bugs in this room yet.
However...apparently the Air Force somehow knew I was suffering from not having my dog around. Feeling like the spaces I've been occupying are kinda cold, and a little lonely. So they did the best they could, and provided me with the World's Most Interactive Refrigerator.
It's a basic dorm-size fridge, pretty standard in hotels/motels. But it burbles and hums and gurgles. Sometimes it's quiet, but mostly it's like having a perky little pan of water bubbling away on the stove.
It might be pathetic, but I kinda like it. I think I may even name it.