Thursday, August 16, 2012

The SKL - (Germany) Day 234

This morning's PT was supposed to be a ruck march around PHV in summer PTs, but it was raining. We stood in formation for about 10 minutes listening to the days announcements from our platoon sergeant. We then had our accountability taken and after that the decision was made to abandon the ruck march and work out in the gym…which is where I would have been heading anyway because of my profile. Our platoon sergeant gathered us around him outside in the rain…that we've been in for over 10 minutes now and says "OK guys, I'm going to get you out of this rain". He then proceeded to talk about an upcoming sensing session with our commander. He went on about how we can always come to him with problems or issues and then asks if anyone has anything they want to say right now. Of course because we've been standing in the rain for almost 20 minutes nobody says anything. Lastly he says he needs to address NCOs and soldiers that have been coming late to formation…"Let me put this as politely as I can….Un-Fuck Yourselves". With that we were turned loose to go workout at the gym.

Work started out normal enough, I checked email and was able to log into DTS to upload all my required supporting documents for this upcoming Intel-34 class that I have to attend. We had sergeant's time training at about 0930, which SPC Whirlwind did. He went over SKLs (Simple Key Loaders). This is a device somewhat like a very large Palm Pilot that we load encryption keys into for our customers, who in turn load the keys onto their devices so their communications can be encrypted to keep our secrets away from the bad guys. This is a class I actually didn't mind and was actually not just a waste of time. First of all SPC Whirlwind is very knowledgeable about the subject and second it's actually something we come in contact with in our job. He had a couple of SKLs for us to play with and do some actual hands on training. No complaints for this sergeant's time training for once!

After the training our platoon sergeant gathered everyone around and spoke about upcoming changes to our platoon and company. Everyone knows that Heidelberg is going to be closing next year sometime, but we haven't heard much other than that. We did find out that there are talks going on about where each of us will be going. Our company will be absorbed into 102nd which is up in Wiesbaden (about an hour north of us). New soldiers that come in from now on will actually live in Wiesbaden and take a bus down to Heidelberg to work everyday…now that would suck! Chances are that most of us will go to Wiesbaden, but our company headquarters in Landstuhl is not going anywhere, so some could be headed up there as well. Time will tell, but it's nice that we will start hearing more information now.

I took lunch in my car…my usual escape with music and my book. Back at work I had to do my required annual Information Assurance training. This training is required in order to keep my access to the network. It's basically common security sense (i.e. don't leave your computer logged in, don't download crap from the internet, etc). The rest of the day was pretty much surfing the web, then inventorying a safe. I was able to do some reading for my college class I'm taking. The class is basically a required class to start taking online classes at Columbia Southern University, nothing too difficult…but I'm excited to get started once again. I have 10 classes left before I will get my degree!

I spent the evening with my wife hanging out, doing a little schoolwork and then watching a couple shows (True Blood and The Newsroom).

Overheard Quote: "They must be dick flavored" (An NCO exclaimed after someone mentioned how my boss was making the chips he was eating look so good)

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