Its been an excellent Thanksgiving weekend. Saturday we picked up a new load of newbies, so I've been avoiding the barracks. I hooked up with Mike finally Saturday and got my CD collection from him. He's doing well, although his life has reduced to World of Warcraft. We ordered pizza, looked at used cars, and picked up his friend's new computer. Today, I just watched some of my old movies with Schaeffer.
I've got such a bad case of senior-itis right now its not even funny. I've got 4 days in the schoolhouse and that's it! After that its all field work at Signal Integrated Branch, SIB. I don't want to lift a finger until I leave.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hey everyone, happy turkey day! It's been a good week, we're still in FBCB2 but now we're the senior class! We only have until Thursday next week, and we're out of the schoolhouse. It's going to be relatively easy, it's just a huge hodgepodge of all the radio systems.
The weekend has been decent. Yesterday I relaxed most of the day. The DFAC had Thanksgiving lunch for us, and let me tell you, it was excellent. Everyone's gone for Christmas, so this was their chance to go all out. They had turkey, ham, roast beef, all the dressings, shrimp cocktails, the works. They had Captains and Colonels serving the desserts! There's a lot of people gone home, but most of the people from our class that were still around all had dinner together. This morning, there was a combatives competition. It's a little like wrestling, but it involves Brazilian jiu-jitzu and a combination of other martial arts. I videotaped all of our team's matches. We didn't do terribly good, which was suprising considering the coach, DS Strickland. Oh well, they put up a god fight with what they had. I might do a little shopping later today, it being Black Friday and all. Sales galore! Here goes nothing.
The weekend has been decent. Yesterday I relaxed most of the day. The DFAC had Thanksgiving lunch for us, and let me tell you, it was excellent. Everyone's gone for Christmas, so this was their chance to go all out. They had turkey, ham, roast beef, all the dressings, shrimp cocktails, the works. They had Captains and Colonels serving the desserts! There's a lot of people gone home, but most of the people from our class that were still around all had dinner together. This morning, there was a combatives competition. It's a little like wrestling, but it involves Brazilian jiu-jitzu and a combination of other martial arts. I videotaped all of our team's matches. We didn't do terribly good, which was suprising considering the coach, DS Strickland. Oh well, they put up a god fight with what they had. I might do a little shopping later today, it being Black Friday and all. Sales galore! Here goes nothing.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
CU! and planning for the future
Oh yeah, almost forgot, I got my letter of acceptance from CU this week, so I've been busy trying to get ready and register. I've been putting off decisions about what to do when I get home, but I've decided to start setting things in stone. I'm going to register for CU and find a job somewhere. If I can afford it, I'm going to try and get an apartment and move out of my grandmother's house. Living there is a great arrangement, but I feel like it's time to get out more on my own. I just hope I can find a job to support that.
I contacted my unit back home, and they say there are no plans to deploy just yet. Lets hope that holds off until at least June! I'll have a better idea when I get home and talk to my unit in person.
I contacted my unit back home, and they say there are no plans to deploy just yet. Lets hope that holds off until at least June! I'll have a better idea when I get home and talk to my unit in person.
Last Schoolhouse Class
Another quiet week. Tuesday we tested out of MSE, and Wednesday and Thursday was EPLRS class. We learned about the Army's position tracking radios that report the position of units and vehicles back to the commander. You can also get navagation information and send text messages to anybody on the battlefield. Very cool. EPLRS was so short that there wasn't even a written test. In the lesson plan EPLRS is just the first section of the last class, but most people consider them separate because they're in 2 different classrooms.
So Friday we started FBCB2, the very last class in the schoolhouse. This system is a mini computer that sits in vehicles and command tents that shows a map of the battlefield and everyone on it, with different levels of information. The system itself is very new, it was developed in the mid 90's and used in the assault on Baghdad. It incorporates all of the radio systems that we've learned about for the past 6 weeks, so it's sort of a capstone project. Our schedule is so broken up by the surrounding holidays that it will cover 3 weeks, but it's only 8 days in the classroom. Then we're out and into the field in SIB.
Once again, a boring weekend, just the way I like them. Yesterday I attempted to make a short video about life here, but I had CQ duty 5-7 PM, so that sort of broke up the day inconveniently. Today I went to mass for the first time in a while, and now I'm just sitting sipping a Starbucks mocha that's not really from Starbucks. The local coffee shop just brews Starbucks coffee. I'm not sure what all is going to happen today, besides the usual recall formation at 6:30. I'll find out when I get that far.
Four weeks left! Guess I'd better think about Christmas, even if it doesn't feel like a Colorado Christmas.
So Friday we started FBCB2, the very last class in the schoolhouse. This system is a mini computer that sits in vehicles and command tents that shows a map of the battlefield and everyone on it, with different levels of information. The system itself is very new, it was developed in the mid 90's and used in the assault on Baghdad. It incorporates all of the radio systems that we've learned about for the past 6 weeks, so it's sort of a capstone project. Our schedule is so broken up by the surrounding holidays that it will cover 3 weeks, but it's only 8 days in the classroom. Then we're out and into the field in SIB.
Once again, a boring weekend, just the way I like them. Yesterday I attempted to make a short video about life here, but I had CQ duty 5-7 PM, so that sort of broke up the day inconveniently. Today I went to mass for the first time in a while, and now I'm just sitting sipping a Starbucks mocha that's not really from Starbucks. The local coffee shop just brews Starbucks coffee. I'm not sure what all is going to happen today, besides the usual recall formation at 6:30. I'll find out when I get that far.
Four weeks left! Guess I'd better think about Christmas, even if it doesn't feel like a Colorado Christmas.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Veteran's 4-day
It's been a quiet week for the most part. Monday they worked out the kinks in the no-marching scheme. Basically, we just form up on one side of the street, march over with road guards, and fall out on the other side to go our merry way. Most people agreed that this was even less efficient than the old system, but as we get used to marching ourselves, it's getting better. One really new feature is that a student guides the formation, not a drill sergeant. That gives us a chance to call cadence if we want to. Very cool.
We tested out of TACSAT Monday, and now we're on to Mobile Subscriber Equipment, MSE. It's a huge telephone system that can even be integrated into civilian lines, so if we have access to one of these systems in the field, we can call home on downtime! Not that we're supposed to... Setting up the radios is really easy, so it's not going to be a hard test tomorrow.
The 4-day weekend has been relatively quiet. There were quite a few people who went home since airline tickets are cheaper than Thanksgiving. I stayed at the barracks as usual. Friday was spent mostly trying to fix my CD player that I dropped; I managed to get it working again, but I'm going to have to be careful when I change CDs. My internet's been on-and-off all weekend. Sunday we even had to call the tech support line and inform them that they had a Hot-Spot on Ft. Gordon. Oh well, I guess I can't expect service like back home. Here's to another quiet 4-day work week.
We tested out of TACSAT Monday, and now we're on to Mobile Subscriber Equipment, MSE. It's a huge telephone system that can even be integrated into civilian lines, so if we have access to one of these systems in the field, we can call home on downtime! Not that we're supposed to... Setting up the radios is really easy, so it's not going to be a hard test tomorrow.
The 4-day weekend has been relatively quiet. There were quite a few people who went home since airline tickets are cheaper than Thanksgiving. I stayed at the barracks as usual. Friday was spent mostly trying to fix my CD player that I dropped; I managed to get it working again, but I'm going to have to be careful when I change CDs. My internet's been on-and-off all weekend. Sunday we even had to call the tech support line and inform them that they had a Hot-Spot on Ft. Gordon. Oh well, I guess I can't expect service like back home. Here's to another quiet 4-day work week.
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Boredsville
The week's been pretty good since the policy changes. Wednesday morning they tried not marching us, which was a complete disaster. They had formation before school as usual, then all 600 students just casually strolled across the road without road guards and no rush. By lunchtime, they had re-instituted marching, at least for the rest of the week. Tactical Satellite class, or TACSAT, was pretty interesting. Our instructor was Mr. Tippins, a prior-service E-7 with a mysterious past and a callous attitude. Most people's major complaint is that he treats students like they can barely understand English. I admit he isn't the most down-to-earth instructor, but I didn't feel belittled. I think I must have been a bit of a brown noser, because he actually liked me. I was my usual high-speed smart self, I knew how to do his daily inventory so he didn't have to do it himself, and I did my best to help everyone else. He even bought a soda for me one day with the excuse that he needed one himself. We test out Monday, but he's not going to be there, so basically the class is over.
This weekend is the first one for all of our new 5+ newbies to go out and go wild, so we're expecting to have problems. Personally, I'm just staying back and doing as little as possible. I might go out and buy Star Wars Episode 3 on DVD and watch some movies. Nothing better to do. Going off post just means spending money, and I don't have that much to squander.
This weekend is the first one for all of our new 5+ newbies to go out and go wild, so we're expecting to have problems. Personally, I'm just staying back and doing as little as possible. I might go out and buy Star Wars Episode 3 on DVD and watch some movies. Nothing better to do. Going off post just means spending money, and I don't have that much to squander.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Phase 5+ all around
Normally I wouldn't post during the week, but this is big. The rumors have been going around for months. I pretty much ignored them, but today I realized what they were all about.
Today after school, DS Williams told us that it would be our last time marching home from school, and we'd be taking ourselves to and from school from now on. When we got back to the Dawg Pound, Captain Gaines-Haiger was there to explain all of the new changes. Not only are we not marching, but the phase system is out the window also! As of this moment, everyone has full privileges unless they've got legal actions or failed a PT test. Everyone! The newbies that got here 2 weeks ago? Get to stay out this weekend in their civies. Pistol belts and badges? Not to be worn again.
I'm a little pissed off at the moment. I'm not so mad that the newbies have privileges, more power to 'em. I'm just not happy that I had to wait 11 weeks just to enjoy it all for one weekend on our own. I'm also a little shocked at the premise of not wearing badges. It was my of telling people apart; seeing a pistol belt was a clear indicator that someone was either new or a screw-up. And they could see that I was here for a long time. Not only that, but for the entire time I've been here, it's been something of a sin to not be wearing phase identification. I'll get over it, someone always gets screwed when things change. This time it just happens to be me.
Today after school, DS Williams told us that it would be our last time marching home from school, and we'd be taking ourselves to and from school from now on. When we got back to the Dawg Pound, Captain Gaines-Haiger was there to explain all of the new changes. Not only are we not marching, but the phase system is out the window also! As of this moment, everyone has full privileges unless they've got legal actions or failed a PT test. Everyone! The newbies that got here 2 weeks ago? Get to stay out this weekend in their civies. Pistol belts and badges? Not to be worn again.
I'm a little pissed off at the moment. I'm not so mad that the newbies have privileges, more power to 'em. I'm just not happy that I had to wait 11 weeks just to enjoy it all for one weekend on our own. I'm also a little shocked at the premise of not wearing badges. It was my of telling people apart; seeing a pistol belt was a clear indicator that someone was either new or a screw-up. And they could see that I was here for a long time. Not only that, but for the entire time I've been here, it's been something of a sin to not be wearing phase identification. I'll get over it, someone always gets screwed when things change. This time it just happens to be me.
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