The Never-Ending Cycle Break... is ending soon...
It’s been awhile since my last update. Let me state up front that all my predictions came true, and in a nutshell, I haven’t had a trainee since St. Patrick’s Day. For those of you counting along with me, that’s about 4 months of my 24 months as a drill sergeant where I was not doing much of anything. If you count the cycle break we had from Thanksgiving to the second week of January, you’re looking at nearly six months of idle time out of ten months total as a drill sergeant.
Well, not EXACTLY idle time. Our beloved first sergeant has found plenty of busy work for us to do – I originally wrote “bs” as a typo, but whatever works – including a completely new paint scheme for our company area downstairs from the platoon bay and grass that requires complete cutting twice a week.
I can’t complain too loud, though. I was able to take 5 days of temporary duty to fly to Las Vegas to accept the Oldfield Fellowship from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. I came home “up” about 3 grand and a great deal more confident in my blackjack playing abilities. I went on leave a few weeks later back up to the old homestead in New York and saw the folks, and just recently returned from another leave to drive my 84 year-old grandfather from Florida to Indiana. Hell of a road trip, let me tell you.
So, on to business... some changes around the platoon came during the break. I lost 2 of my drill sergeants to other platoons, one of whom was my right hand guy. He’s the dude that told me at the beginning of my first cycle that if I handled the administrative nonsense of the platoon, he’d give me the high PT, high BRM, and honor platoon. He outdid himself… since the platoon had all three of those honors back-to-back as well as the Soldier of the Cycle and Drill Sergeant of the Cycle respectively. The other drill was sent to a platoon with no infantry DS’s, but he’s also super-squared away. So while I’m sorry to see them go, I appreciate the chance to be able to stand on my own two feet and run things the way I want to run them, without having to fight off two Type-A drills at the same time.
I’m gaining a drill from one of the upstairs platoons, a crusty old supply guy whose acerbic wit and sarcastic tone already have me torn between thanking God I’ve got a wiseass to work with and cursing the first sergeant for sending him my way. We’re going to work out fine, though.
We pick up on June 29th. I was initially broken up about that, simply because we’d be into the 18 hour day phase right when Superman Returns is released to theaters! I already spread the word that I’d take a CQ shift or staff duty the first day so I could catch it on opening day… Thank God they bumped the release date up so I can see it on the night of the 27th!
Anyway, I’ll make more of a habit of the cycle updates. I believe this cycle will really be my first “real” cycle, as I now know where everything is, how to conduct all of the training, and what my left and right limits are, so to speak. I also think this will be a fat group, too. We’re on the cusp of the so-called “summer surge,” where all of the high school grads are filling up Army training centers. I haven’t been through one of those yet, so I’m looking forward to it. We have a maximum capacity of 240 Soldiers in the company, 60 in my platoon. Hopefully I won’t get 60 – I don’t have enough gear for all those guys!
Well, not EXACTLY idle time. Our beloved first sergeant has found plenty of busy work for us to do – I originally wrote “bs” as a typo, but whatever works – including a completely new paint scheme for our company area downstairs from the platoon bay and grass that requires complete cutting twice a week.
I can’t complain too loud, though. I was able to take 5 days of temporary duty to fly to Las Vegas to accept the Oldfield Fellowship from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. I came home “up” about 3 grand and a great deal more confident in my blackjack playing abilities. I went on leave a few weeks later back up to the old homestead in New York and saw the folks, and just recently returned from another leave to drive my 84 year-old grandfather from Florida to Indiana. Hell of a road trip, let me tell you.
So, on to business... some changes around the platoon came during the break. I lost 2 of my drill sergeants to other platoons, one of whom was my right hand guy. He’s the dude that told me at the beginning of my first cycle that if I handled the administrative nonsense of the platoon, he’d give me the high PT, high BRM, and honor platoon. He outdid himself… since the platoon had all three of those honors back-to-back as well as the Soldier of the Cycle and Drill Sergeant of the Cycle respectively. The other drill was sent to a platoon with no infantry DS’s, but he’s also super-squared away. So while I’m sorry to see them go, I appreciate the chance to be able to stand on my own two feet and run things the way I want to run them, without having to fight off two Type-A drills at the same time.
I’m gaining a drill from one of the upstairs platoons, a crusty old supply guy whose acerbic wit and sarcastic tone already have me torn between thanking God I’ve got a wiseass to work with and cursing the first sergeant for sending him my way. We’re going to work out fine, though.
We pick up on June 29th. I was initially broken up about that, simply because we’d be into the 18 hour day phase right when Superman Returns is released to theaters! I already spread the word that I’d take a CQ shift or staff duty the first day so I could catch it on opening day… Thank God they bumped the release date up so I can see it on the night of the 27th!
Anyway, I’ll make more of a habit of the cycle updates. I believe this cycle will really be my first “real” cycle, as I now know where everything is, how to conduct all of the training, and what my left and right limits are, so to speak. I also think this will be a fat group, too. We’re on the cusp of the so-called “summer surge,” where all of the high school grads are filling up Army training centers. I haven’t been through one of those yet, so I’m looking forward to it. We have a maximum capacity of 240 Soldiers in the company, 60 in my platoon. Hopefully I won’t get 60 – I don’t have enough gear for all those guys!
posted by broadcastmike at 6:58 AM
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