Sunday, July 10, 2005

A much-needed update!

Well, what are Sunday mornings for if not to catch up on what you haven’t done in awhile? In my case, it’s to make any entries in this blog. This is definitely a by-product of my ADHD side… blogging was cool for like a week or two then I got into something else. Well, an update for those of you in the need to know category:

When last we left our hero, he was on the cusp of greatness: after having entered the Army’s Broadcast Journalist of the Year category of the Keith L. Ware Journalism Competition, he awaited the results anxiously. Well, yee-frickin-haw, he won. Or I won. Whatever. That third-person speaking stuff was getting annoying. Anyway, I won for the Army level but missed out on the DoD competition to a Navy petty officer. No sour grapes, of course, but at least I shot all my own video and edited all my own pieces!

Anyway, like 5 days after the Secretary of the Army nailed on Army Commendation Medal on my chest, I took off for Drill Sergeant School at Fort Benning, Georgia, henceforth known as DSS at FB. The first few days were not the shock to the system that I originally had assumed they’d be, with getting screamed at and pushing up FB being the logical assumption. Instead, there was a lot of talking – corrections were made on us that were framed around how we’d react to the same infraction when committed by one of our Initial Entry Training (IET) Soldiers that we’ll eventually be responsible for training. For example, if we were in formation and we swatted a bug or wiped some sweat from our brow, it wasn’t “why are you moving, Sergeant? Do push-ups,” it was more like “you’re not going to allow your Soldiers to make secondary movements at the position of attention, and neither will I!” In the end, you still may end up pushing J but it doesn’t feel as punitive.

The first few weeks have pretty well flown by on retrospect. It was a pretty greasy slide to the 4th of July weekend, where we got a four day pass. I returned to Northern VA to house and home, wife and babies. What a great weekend. I went out to Burke Lake Park and took Ellie in a rowboat out to the middle of the lake. Like any three year old, she was enamored with the idea of going out on a boat, but the magic didn’t last too long!

My boy is finally up and walking around. At 20 months old today (or like most men would say “almost 2…”), he damn well oughtta be walking around, but he’d been taking he’s sweet-ass time at it. Now, he’s toddling around like he’s an expert. Good stuff indeed. Something really cool about going for a walk with my son!

The first day back from the weekend was horrible. Absolute misery – like the marching cadence – “Misery, misery – look at what the Army’s done to me…” – I think the first thing I noticed after returning to my room in billeting was the smell. The institutional smell that I’ll always associate with my days at boarding school – Pine Sol and old paint, mixed with a slight hint of floor wax. As you probably can tell, it was not the most welcome olfactory sensation. I couldn’t sleep that night at all, and it’s up in the air whether or not it was because of the lack of a warm welcoming body next to me or the lingering dread I felt at the thought of another 4 weeks without my family.

This past week has been an asskicker without peer. The duty drill sergeant – the Drill Sergeant Leader (our instructors here at DSS) responsible for the training that week – is one of those drills who gives the impression they are unsure how to train – so to make up for their lack of knowledge or ability, they scream, yell, and generally act stupid. Now, this may seem an unfair slight against someone I barely know, but humans rely heavily on first impressions – and that’s mine of him.

Anyway, from day one this week, his attitude and demeanor towards the class have just stunk. I haven’t been compared to a private this may times since – hell, since I WAS a private! It doesn’t help that the class has sort of reverted back to day one since the return from the weekend. It’s like we’ve never gotten in a formation before when they call for us to fall in. We drift over into the area instead of moving out smartly, we sort of take our time getting aligned when it should be a pretty smooth and swift process. Well, this irritated the drill, and in his defense I understand why. So, I have to say we’ve executed quite a number of pushups in the past 7 days.

This coming week looks to be a ballbuster as well, though not because of the personality of the duty drill. This is based more on the training schedule than anything. Tomorrow is our class’s final Army Physical Fitness Test. We are required to score a minimum of 70 percent in each category – push-ups, sit-ups, and the 2-mile run. I’m a little apprehensive about the run – I’ve got an upper respiratory infection right now that I’m in the process of shaking off – I hope it doesn’t eff my run up at all. After the PT test, we’ll be heading out to Eagle Tower, a confidence builder of sorts that requires one to climb across rope brides, roll down cargo nets, and rappel down a tall wall. I think with the hurricane rolling in, that training event may go by the wayside, but we’ll see. The remainder of the week has us out one night until 2300 bore-sighting PAQ-4’s and CCO’s. Don’t ask me for explanations for the acronyms – I’ve been out of grunt land too long to know. We also have to show up to work Thursday at like 0150 for night land navigation, transitioning right into day land nav. Yuk. We should get off by 1500 if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed.

I’ll try to update later!

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