Eight weeks of class finally came to an end Friday, when I took my Calc 2 test. I don't have the results yet, but it felt pretty good. I'm expecting a C in the class, but there is that slight chance that my final exam grade and a healthy curve kicked me up to a B. Wait and see!
This weekend, I started chewing away at my required AT days by helping with the 96th Infantry Division Reunion's Family Day event. They've had all sorts of events this week for the reunion, like on Thursday, when everyone in the unit was invited to attend the Rockies baseball game, in uniform. Saturday's Family Day was an opportunity for the vets and current members to bring their families for food, fun (a rock wall and a dunk tank), and a look at today's military. I was volunteered to show off the M249 SAW, the Army's light machine gun. I've fired one, a little 50-round drum in BCT, but I wasn't immediately prepared to be a "subject matter expert" on the thing. I had to have one of the SPC's show me how to dismantle the thing. Even so, I was alright when the action started. We had WW2 vets coming thru, and I soon learned to compare my rifle to the Browning Automatic Rifles that they used. Per suggestion, I started thanking them for their service, and asking them where they had served. It turns out, in World War 2, the 96th Infantry Division had been entirely draftees, and that most of them had served during Okinawa, and were some of the last guys in the theater before the dropping of the atomic bombs. It was really a pleasure to get to talk to those guys, the forerunners of my occupation and heroes of their day.
At about 3, they also had a flag retirement ceremony, a very solemn ceremony performed when an American flag is no longer fit to be a national symbol. The flag is respectfully and carefully cut apart, removing its symbolism, and one by one, the each stripe, and finally the field of blue and stars are burned. It was a beautiful ceremony, and I really appreciated paying witness to it.
After our guests had left, we still had to pack everything up. There were several camo shades and frame tents set up, so we tore them all down. After that, they all had to be packed away in the host unit's CONEX (a shipping container). SGT Faughn and I ended up in the back, trying to lift these 150 lbs. packs of tent skins over boxes, me standing on the little corrals full of tent frames. That was hard work; I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. But in the end, we got everything into place, and that was it for Saturday.
Sunday morning was just a bad morning, all around. I got ready and started driving to the store for some take-out breakfast, and managed to bust one of my back tires. This is ironic, considering I just busted one of my front tires and had to replace both front. So, I change the tire for my car's donut tire. That's dandy, except now I can't go over 50 MPH, which means I shouldn't drive on the highway. Therefore, I drive all the way down to 6th and Kipling, probably a 20-mile drive, taking Sheridan, one of the side-streets. Great. So I arrive, only about 45 minutes late. Nobody was too concerned about my tardiness, so I just jump in and help where I can. I end up washing yesterday's cookout dishes for a while, plus a few other odd jobs. After that, I'm informed that we're heading back to Fitzsimons to return the camo netting. Wonderful. Once again, it would be a very simple, short drive on the highway. But instead, I'm forced to take Colfax thru downtown. Not only that, but part of Colfax is closed for construction, without an obvious detour marked. Long story short, I got back to Fitzsimons just in time for them to be done packing the camo netting into our own CONEX. And with that, everyone is released for the day. I know there wasn't much else I could do, but I felt like crap for being so useless. So I had lunch with Vaughn, and drove home. The very long way, again.
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