Big Plans - (Korea) Day 204

A ROK soldier in our sister office trying to figure out the copier. This particular
soldier (doing his mandatory service) speaks English very well and plays basketball
with us at times...pretty nice guy.

This morning we had a 0500 formation in front of the barracks. I was called last night and told about it. One moment I was planning on going to work at 0800, then the next I heard this news. Grrr. We formed up and our first sergeant told us we were going to have a "G.I. Party". For those of you who don't know, a G.I. Party isn't a party at all. It's when a bunch of soldiers have to clean or do some other sort of work...party has no business being in the name. We were instructed to go to our areas in the barracks and start cleaning. I guess our first sergeant saw the common bathrooms in the other barracks and was pretty disgusted, so this is the result. The only common area on my floor of my barracks is the laundry room and it's the only area I even use. I spent a little over an hour cleaning some washers. I had flashbacks of TRADOC (basic training and AIT). We finally were told we could go back to our rooms about 0615 to get ready for work. I took a shower and then got my uniform on before starting to video chat with my wife. Next thing I know there is a knock on my door…we have another formation. WTF?? I go out there and I'm the only one in ACUs, everyone else is still in summer PTs . Our first sergeant told everyone they did a good job and that there wouldn't be another formation tonight or tomorrow as long as they keep everything clean. There will now be a person in charge of each floor of our barracks and they will also be responsible for assigning rotating cleaning duties to all the rooms to help keep everything clean.

Not the way I wanted to start my day. It's really one of the many drawbacks living in barracks. You are at the mercy of someone else at all times. I can't wait to get to my next duty station and actually live off post with my family! I headed to work call which was at 0800. We setup for a meeting in the secret conference room called "U-Staff" which is kind of interesting because it involves all the member states of the UN that is here in Korea. I flipped slides for a while until Special K came down to relieve me. I guess CPT Hooah! was having some technical issues and wanted me to come up to the office. Turns out we had a bad fiber optic cable. After calling the help desk they came and verified it by using one of their cables. The tech then takes his cable and leaves. I was like…hold on there little buddy, we need that good cable. He then told me our office had to purchase our own fiber cables. Holy cow! Luckily a major in our office had a spare in his desk that we were able to use.

I then worked on SkillPorts until lunch. For lunch I headed to my room and ate while video chatting with my wife. After lunch I headed back to the office and started more inventory of the computers. This time I went to the command group and inventoried all of their items. At first the sergeant said they were too busy, but then told me to hold on and then helped me out.

After that I headed back to my computer and did some more SkillPort. I then took a small break and watched a little TV. Before I knew it I was asleep, I guess the TV was pretty boring. I was woken up by my phone vibrating in my pocket, it was Special K telling me to open the door to our conference room. I had fallen asleep with my legs up on the table, so they were elevated the entire time I was sitting there. When I got up to open the door I almost fell over because my legs were asleep! I grabbed the table and slowly made my way to the door. When I opened the door our NCOIC was waiting there for me. As we walked in our KATUSA was fast asleep in the conference room…lol. Our NCOIC was like…"what are you doing?". We all gathered around and had the "sit down" that she promised earlier.

The sit down was a very informal talk with all of us. Our NCOIC basically told us about herself and wanted to get to know us a little better. She then told us about what she envisioned with our office. She has a bunch of ideas and plans, we'll see how it all plays out. So far all my experiences with plans and ideas here have started off with a bang and then slowly whimper out of existence. She wants us to do a lot more PT, we will be leaving work early to go work out. I really wouldn't mind that. She also wants us to do sergeant time training once a week. When we do this training, we each will be responsible to do the training for everyone else on a rotational basis. She also said our sergeant has not been volunteering us for duty anytime the company requests it. So lucky us…we'll get the chance to pull weeds and such in the future. She also wants us to go to the soldier of the month boards and such to get us some experience doing so. I guess we'll see how it all goes. Our office has always been a little different because of our odd and ever changing schedule. We are always flexible because of the various meetings that we have to cater to. It will be interesting to see if and how our NCOIC will be able to accomplish all of these goals. All in all I think she seems like a nice person and wants her soldiers to succeed.

We left after cleaning the office at 1700 and I headed to my room to eat dinner. I then did my normal nightly routine of schoolwork and TV shows. Normal work call tomorrow, so I should get a good night of sleep.