Chris' Updates

My god it's good to be back. Yesterday was a frantic rush. The remaining Reserve and National Guard students that were PCS'ing all gathered in Darling hall to outprocess. We waited in a large lecture hall for an hour and a half, only to find out we were in the wrong room. We found the right room, filled out the last bit of paperwork, got a very informative and useful briefing from the liason's office, then got our flight times. My flight was later than I wanted, but at least I'd be back in Denver the same day. I shipped my guitar, which cost me my firstborn son almost. I tired to get my laptop cord back from DS Castillo, but he was busy and the cab was waiting, so I'll have to buy a new one. The flight was excruciatingly long. The faster you want to get somewhere, the slower time passes. Finally, in Denver, I walked up the escalator and looked longingly for Ashley. Turned out, she found me first and walked up behind me. Not the triumphant entrance I wanted, but we s...

Yesterday was pretty quiet. I cleared the library and the PX, so I'm done getting paperwork for Monday morning. Other than that, I shipped my foot locker home and got my uniform ready. Exciting, I know. In the afternoon we had a graduation practice. Today was more eventful. We all got dressed up in our military finest and went to an early lunch. There was a lot of goodbyes and exchanging of addresses. It had finally hit us that this was the last time we'd be all together in one place. Eighteen weeks had come down to this; one little ceremony. We marched over to Alexander Hall beneath Signal Towers. To pass a few minutes, the drill sergeants had a few people do impressions. The ceremony itself was fairly short and sweet. It contained a few theatrical sections with the history of the Signal Corps, the Signal Soldier's Creed and the Drill Sergeant's Creed. Right on cue, we all recited the Soldier's Creed. And just like that, we were fully qualified soldiers. We were ma...

It's been a hectic few days this week. The Safety Show on Sunday was thoroughly jarring, switching from the Signal Corps Band playing a traditional Christmas hymn to tales of stupid people getting killed on Exodus to a live rendition of Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song." But there was a high point involving a female Navy petty officer in a scanty Mrs. Clause outfit singing "Santa, Baby" to Sergeant Major. That was nice. Monday I shammed out of school for the first time since I've been here. I got a doctor's appointment in the afternoon and just didn't bother to go in the morning. Instead, I got some hi-speed boot waxes and a heat gun and got a very sexy-looking pair of boots. Boring, huh? Oh, and the doctor's appointment? The mole on the back of my head isn't cancerous, just annoying. Tuesday was rather normal, but after SIB we were herded to the Ops office to pick up our out-processing packets. There are a few places we have to stop by befo...

It's been a very mixed week. The most significant change has been the move from classroom to SIB, Systems Integrated Branch. So far this week, I've pulled up a 40-foot field antenna, been a commo chief and seeing that all systems are up and running, been alternate NCS and kept everybody on the radio net on track and playing nicely, and got to work a radio from inside a rusted-up M60 tank. It's been hella busy, but I'm enjoying the challenges. As for life, I had to move back to the Dawg Pound on Tuesday. I spent 4 glorious days in the overflow barracks, just to have it ripped away from me. The most frustrating part was moving all of my junk back. I guess I accumulated a lot of stuff over 4 months. Today's been more relaxing. Blanski, Allen, Short and I went off-post to enjoy our last weekend all together - Allen and Short get to drive home to Mississippi next Friday. We went out to the mall for a bit, then to the movie theater. We all watched "Just Friends"...

Things calmed down a little bit. Friday, we had SIB orientation and learned how to hoist a 40-foot antenna system. Not too shabby. But Friday night I was busy moving all my stuff over here to the 5+ barracks! Holy crap I'm so excited! The showers are hot and consistently clean. All of the doors are weighted to close automatically, and the supervisors actually perfer that they stay closed. No drill sergeants harrassing us constantly. Five guys to an entire room sized for eight. Its so nice! Yesterday was a bit frustrating at first, because they actually wanted us to do stuff. Saturday morning and here we are, awake and standing outside at 0430, freezing. The entire company had to participate in urban warfare training at a site on the other side of the firing range, about 20 minutes away. There were so many people that we had to be divided into 3 waves, and yet they wouldn't let us go do whatever if we were on a later wave. It ended up being pretty fun actually, and I'm glad ...

This week isn't exactly as I had planned it. The schoolhouse was the same as usual, but back here at the barracks the drill sergeants are going haywire. Monday night they didn't release us and had us clean the barracks all night, or in other words we had a GI Party. Tuesday night wasn't too bad, but we still had training so we were still busy. Last night they were just as pissed off as Monday, so we GI Partied again. They're talking about locking us down almost as bad as Basic. Timed showers. Extra guard duties. Locked down formations. Tonight was vastly eased up because we had a good inspection today. They're talking about more changes still. But this sounds like good news; we might be moving into the old Phase 5+ barracks like we were supposed to a month ago! No drill sergeants in the halls, working heaters, hot showers, and no drill sergeants in the halls. Tell you all about it soon!

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.

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 terri...

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.

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 capst...

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 h...

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...

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 ...

Yes! We finally got it! After our third excruciating week of SINCGARS, we had a half-day Friday. Instead our usual lunch, we had a little batallion party on Barton Field. It was kind of dumb, because they had about 600 privates trying to get thru 2 lines for food in as little time as possible. Lucky me, I was near the front. By the time I was done (and I was taking my time), they'd gotten about half the others thru the line. But after lunch, they did have a Drill & Ceremony marching demonstration that was pretty cool. Anyway, after we got back from that, they finally handed out our badges. It's a wonderful feeling having that little laminated piece of orange paper. We're allowed to stay out all of Saturday night and Sunday morning now, as well as move around without a battle buddy attached to our hips. I didn't go off post this weekend, seeing as I'm broke, but it's a feeling of status. As a Phase 4, you are the newbie; as a Phase 5, you tell the newbies how...

There's really not much happening right now. We're thru with our second week of SINCGARS, and we're actually playing with the radios now. It's fun figuring out how to do everything, since I've never worked with this equipment. Thursday morning I went to the dental clinic for my mandatory exam, and everything checked out, so I'm good to leave as far as they're concerned. That's one of the major reasons people get "held over," or kept from moving on after school. They go for their dental at the last minute and find out they have major work to have done. Mine is out of the way, and I'm one step closer to home. Today I got "volunteered" for attending the Army Idol show, a military spin off of American Idol. I wasn't really excited at first, but then I thought about all of the great talent I might see. Turns out, we only saw the award-giving and the victory solo. What a rip off. We're all itching for Phase V+. It's the last...

Yes, I actually got it. And it looks good! It's definitely a different sensation, and the pain wasn't all that bad until KC, my artist, started shading. But it looks good so far, even if it's a little too red to tell. The atmosphere was a little tense, since KC was a bit distracted. One of his best friends left a distressed note to his wife and is currently missing, so obviously KC was not his usual self, but he worked thru it and offered me a discount on future work if I decide to get another. Other than that, not much exciting happening. SINCGARS is going well, and I'm starting to see why our job is so versatile. We're the field experts of these radios, but you can hook anything up to them! That's why we need to know about the radios for voice, and the computers and GPS for data modes. It's interesting, but I'm not going to bore you with the long-winded explanation.

Yeah, we got our room strait this morning, so I got my badge back pretty quickly. Still, a day of rockin' the pistol belt wasn't exactly fun. Halfway thru the week.

Oops. As many times as I told myself today would be a good day, it really didn't turn out that way. School was fine, we started a new class on SINCGARS radios, which we'll be in for 3 weeks. But the setback came when we got back to the barracks. The DS's had their panties in a knot over the unpressed state of our BDU's. When we got back to our relatively clean room, DS Rivera started busting us down on everything from our dusty shoe displays to the way our laundry bags are tied to our bunks. He took the phase badges from the 4 of us that had them, and is threatening to keep them over the weekend if the room isn't perfect by tomorrow. Oh, the horrors. Please let me wake up to December 16th. Please?

I've gotta say, it was a good weekend. We had a decent week in class, we learned about the military's field computers, some of the first Army-specific training we've had so far. Once again, I came out on top of the test scores. But this weekend was, in a word, off the chain. I spent plenty o' time at the IET Rec Center doing nothing particular on the internet. I spent a day off-base, a little time at the mall, and a lot of time at the tattoo parlor while my battles got their ink done. If I can figure out how to send images from my phone to e-mail, I'll have to post them. I'm thinking next weekend I'll get a tattoo as well, a picture of Ashley's rosary. It's a good tattoo because it's obviously religious, but it also ties into Ashley without getting her name. I'd love to get her name, but my common sense says it's a bad idea. I got really homesick over the weekend, and it all started with the weather. It rained cats and dogs on Friday. It ...

Yes, its true. I passed my EOC Thrusday, and Friday afternoon they gave me that laminated yellow piece of paper that means so much! Fewer formations. Later curfews. Civilian clothes. Access to the mall and Wal-Mart, and to tattoo parlors and hotel rooms. And possibly best of all, no more wearing that stupid pistol belt with my canteen and poncho. AIT is starting to feel a lot more like freedom. The week was pretty good overall. We were in Routers class, and of course I have a certification with routers, so I basically knew the insides and outsides of the class. A couple of exciting points were Wednesday when the drill sergeants put out a new policy letter that bans TV's, laptops, non-handheld game consoles, and possibly portable DVD players. In short, some of the most prized possessions that we IET students have. However, the DS's didn't push the issue, so I'm not going to turn in my laptop until they come looking for it. Another point of interest was the PT test, whic...