Town Hall & Medal of Honor - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 33

A picture I found on the web of SFC Leroy Petry receiving his medal of honor

 

We did not have a morning formation this morning, instead we were told to arrive at transportation at 0700 for rides to the Evergreen Theatre for the mandatory battalion Town Hall meeting. We all started to arrive and then found out that rides would not be leaving until 0800. I headed back to my car and listened to the radio for a while. Unfortunately I don't know where the Evergreen Theatre is on post yet, so I couldn't just drive there myself. The vans started leaving at 0800 and I was able to catch a ride on the first one. We then waited outside the theatre until everyone was there, then had our morning formation before heading in.

The town hall had the battalion commander speak and then a few other folks. The main attraction was the last speaker, Medal of Honor recipient SFC Leroy Petry. You can view the army's website about him here. His story was pretty impressive. He was a ranger and after many deployments to the middle east, he found himself in a firefight with the enemy. He ended up losing his right hand after picking up a grenade that landed next to his soldiers. He tried to throw it back, but it detonated right as it left his hand. He spoke about his life before and after the event. You can tell that he's just a normal guy just trying to do the best he can. I expected a boring town hall meeting, but being able to see and hear this guy talk was pretty inspiring.

I caught the transportation back to the WTB and then hung out in my car for a bit before having lunch in the SFAC. I then had a "comprehensive transition planning" meeting. I was told the meeting was in room 366 in the same building HHC is located. I arrive on the third floor and have two options. Take a left and go to Bravo company headquarters or take a right and go to Charlie company headquarters. I figure since I'm going to Bravo next week this meeting must be in the Bravo company headquarters. I head into the office and start looking around for room 366. I finally ask a couple NCOs if room 366 is over here or in Charlie company. They ask why I'm looking for it. I reply that I'm here for the comprehensive transition planning meeting. The NCOs tell me that the meeting will be around the corner and to wait there. I wait…and wait. One of the squad leaders from HHC comes up and starts waiting with me. Finally my NCM comes in and says our meeting is actually over in Charlie company…in room 366! If those NCOs would have just told me where room 366 was, I would have went over there in the first place. I don't know if they were just being dicks, or if they just didn't know.

Anyway, the comprehensive transition planning meeting is something that has to take place before I get moved to Bravo company. This is a meeting that is done every 90 days and goes over my goals for the next 3 months. They are in the same fields that I had to do earlier when I first arrived. Easy fields such as "physical", "career" and "family" are pretty easily taken care of. I want to finish my degree and be in less pain. I want to spend more time with my family. Of course everything has to be measurable, so I have to come up with exact numbers. The harder ones are "spiritual" and "social" which had to be done as well. It's hard to come up with a measurable goal. I came up with something along the lines of go out to events a certain number of times a month.

After the meeting I still had time to get the rest of my in-processing done and purchase a new pair of sunglasses. I don't know how, but when I went to put on my current pair they were all broken. So after a quick stop at the PX and $20 later I had a new pair. I would have bought cheaper ones, but that was the cheapest they had. I never want to spend any significant amount on sunglasses because I either lose them, or they break. I hung out in my car until the end of day formation, then headed home.