Days of Excellence - (Germany) Day 39

A photo I snapped as we drove by the Heidelberg train station...a bicycle parking lot! 

There were a lot more I couldn't even fit in the picture!

This morning we did not have any PT. Today was "Days of Excellence", I wasn't sure exactly what to expect since this is my first one. It includes our company and part of 43 Signal as well, we have to be in our dress uniforms and there are some awards given out…this is all I was told. My boss picked me up and we headed off to Mannheim which is where the event was taking place. The weather was so cold just getting to the car I was actually shaking, and it was taking a while for my boss's car to get warm…at least he has heated seats and they were working.

We arrived at Mannheim at about 0800 and it was 5 degrees out! Let me tell you that the Class A uniform does not do much to keep you warm in 5 degree weather. We had to walk about a block before going into what was pretty much a warehouse, where the Days of Excellence is taking place. Unfortunately the warehouse was only a degree or two warmer than outside. The entire time we were there I could not get warm. We ended up getting in formation preparing for the uniform inspection to come from the 1st Sergeant/Command Sergeant Major (the same person is performing both roles as for now). We practiced staying in formation, performing open ranks and close ranks, and stood in formation for quite a while. Then all of a sudden we were all told to grab a seat, it was already 0915 which was 15 minutes behind schedule…I guess they decided not to do a uniform inspection after all. We pretty much just stood in formation wasting time.

After everyone was seated we had some briefs on sexual assault and safety on the road. After a quick break we moved on to the award ceremony were the email migration team received some army commendation awards. There were a few other "atta boys" and then the battalion commander started talking about a survey that was conducted right before I came. There were a number of issues that he went over…people's complaints and such, but because the complaints didn't have specific names he said there is not much he can do. It was an anonymous survey, but folks still didn't name names of who they were complaining about because there was fear of reprisal. If there is an NCO that has some bad things said about him or her, it may be pretty easy to figure out who said them depending on the size of the squad or platoon.

After the commander was finished, S2 came up and talked about piracy and how the German government is now cracking down on illegal downloads. There have been people in the 43rd that have been caught and are now paying fines. Shortly after I got here I found out it wasn't like Korea where piracy is rampant. I use a program called "Hide My Ass" which makes a VPN connection to various servers around the world. I can also choose an American server if I want to be able to stream from websites such as Netflix or Hulu which only allow users in America to use them. It's a nice service and I don't have to worry about any hassle because when it is on, everything is encrypted.

We finally left at around 1230 and were told that we had to be back at the office at 1300 to work. What sucks is that everyone else had the rest of the day off, but our office has to work. It had everyone a little upset. Right when we got back I headed over to Subway and brought back a sandwich. I then changed out of my Class A's to my ACUs, but found out I forgot to bring different socks and a different undershirt. The socks were no problem because they are hidden by the boots, but the shirt is a different story. I wore my polar fleece over my top and zipped it all the way up so there was no chance of seeing anything below my chin…it just looked like I was pretty cold. That was not far from the truth as I spent the rest of the day next to a co-worker and his little space heater trying to stay warm.

I left shortly before 1700 and my boss gave me a ride home. I spent the night hanging out with my wife. We watched a Netflix disk of "24" season 6…love that show. It's always nice to hang out with my wife and stay up late without worrying about getting up early in the morning.

No IT for You - (Germany) Day 36

The light dusting of snow we received this morning

This morning I got ready for PT and when I looked out the window I was surprised to see a dusting of snow everywhere. This didn't stop our PT formation, but we did have PT inside (in the racquet ball court) and they also cancelled the scheduled PT test that some in our company were scheduled to take. Our PT this morning was PRT (Physical Readiness Training) which is the newer method of conducting PT and the same method I did in basic and AIT. A lot of units are still working it into their PT schedule and there is a lot of resistance because a lot of soldiers do not think it does much for them, and a lot of others just think it's pretty gay. I was just glad we were inside because it was freakin' cold outside.

Once finished with PT, I was dropped off at my place and had to make a somewhat quick turn-around to get ready and leave. We had to be at the office before 0900 and then head to some training session in our battalion conference room. We arrived in plenty of time and then made our way to the conference room only to see it filled with another meeting. After waiting a bit we were told to come back at 0930, so we all head back to the office and hang out for a bit before heading back. We wait…and wait…and wait, then at almost 1000 we're told that it has been cancelled and to go back to the office. A great waste of time.

In the office we have three machines that are inoperable because they are being migrated to Windows 7. One is a sergeant's machine who is on leave and two others are in our main office, which leaves only one computer for 6 or 7 people. It's great that the army is finally rolling out Windows 7, but however the way they are going about it is pretty bad because the computers were down all last night and all day today.

My big job today was to find a big unused binder and take a huge stack of papers (the entire manual for PRT), then use the 3-hole punch on them before placing them all in the binder. The entire time I was doing this I kept thinking to myself what the heck am I doing? Here I am taking a few sheets of paper at a time, punching holes in them, then placing them in a binder. This has become the extent of my job. I'm a highly qualified I.T. technician with management experience who wanted to serve his country thinking my talents could be put to good use…hold on for a second I have to punch some more holes…I have a number of technical certifications, I have years of experience working with computers…hold on I have some more holes to punch…OK you see where I'm going. I can't believe I'm doing this job, this is such a joke and waste of my time…definitely not anything I had envisioned when I joined the army. In fact I think my previous job in Korea was better. Yes most of it was setting up meetings and serving coffee and water, but at least I was the IMO and I fixed a computer problem here and there. I had the "demigod" card with all the admin rights to all of our computers. People came to me with computer questions all the time. Here…I punch holes in paper and stick them in a binder. Oh yes I also have a lot of paperwork to look forward to doing once I learn the "real" job here…that is all it is…paperwork. I really can't believe I'm in this situation right now. I have no motivation or desire to stay in the army past my contract date, I have no desire to move up past the rank of Specialist. I don't want more crap duties and responsibilities placed on me while still not doing the job I signed up for…..Wow, enough of that…enough complaining…I just had to get that out.

Lunch today was a quick one at the food court and then I joined the guys in a room adjacent to our office that houses a ping pong table. The guys here play a lot of ping pong during their lunch break. I joined in and quickly realized that I was outgunned. Mind you before this moment I thought I was a decent player. I had just come from Korea and I beat two Asians while I was there! In my mind I was even more than decent…I was the great white hope! I stepped up to the table and across from me was a ginger from next door (43rd Signal HHD). We started playing and as I was running all over the place hitting balls everywhere, the ginger calmly stood in the middle of the table returning everything I sent at him. The guy was like Forest Gump! He used all kinds of spin and speed and at the end of the game I counted myself lucky to have even scored 2 points!

The afternoon went by pretty quick, I watched SPC Whirlwind give another security brief to some customers. I will be doing this soon. The first sergeant came in and went over some counseling statements that the NCOs where giving. I am supposed to have an initial counseling soon, but I think my boss has just been too busy. AT 1600 we all started getting into our dress uniforms. We are a mixture of the Class A's (the old green uniform) and the ASU (Army Service Uniform - the newer dress blues). For some reason mine felt a little tight…I'm not sure why :) I still had to finish getting mine ready, then when it was time for me I was docked on my shoes being a little dirty and finger prints on some of the buttons I had just put on. It feels nice to have a couple more ribbons on it though. Last time I wore it I only had the three given to everyone in AIT (Army Service Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism, & National Defense Service Medal). I added the Korea Defense Service Medal and the Overseas Service Ribbon. Not much, but it looks a little better.

Class A Pickup - (Germany) Day 35

PT this morning was a pretty good workout. We formed up at our normal PT location at Campbell Barracks. After warming up we ran the PT test circle which is basically a half mile loop around the parking lot and a field. We ran it four times stopping after each lap to alternate 20 push-ups and then 20 sit-ups. Half the people didn't even participate though because they were either on profile or they were going to take the actual PT test tomorrow morning.

My boss picked me up for work as usual, but a little earlier because we had to stop by the barracks for an inspection on the only soldier that is currently living in the barracks. He married a German national and she basically lives in his room with him. Unlike my barracks room in Korea where I had to share the actual room with another person, these barracks are private rooms that have a bathroom that is shared between two people. Everyone in our office knows the guy has his wife living there, but nobody up higher does. I think she helps him keep it pretty clean…my boss didn't have to do much inspecting, plus he's a pretty easy going guy. I am still glad I don't have to deal with stupid room inspections anymore.

Work was a little more eventful today, I was actually able to log into a computer although I only stayed on for a minute…it was just a test to see if it worked. I followed SPC Whirlwind around pretty much the whole day just helping him out while learning various parts of all the paperwork that I will have to do. I'm slowly "getting" little pieces of the job, but it's going to take a while to get down all the paperwork down. There are so many rules and procedures that need to be followed exactly because of the high security level that we deal with.

For lunch my boss took me to the alterations shop where I picked up my uniform. They sewed on my unit patch. I then headed up to the military clothing store and had to purchase everything that I needed for my dress uniform. I believe the maid in our temporary housing threw my bag of name tags and ribbons away. Luckily they had everything I needed and I was able to pick up my name tag that I ordered on Friday. We ate lunch at the food court and then headed back to the office.

I spent the rest of the day following around SPC Whirlwind again and then we headed out after cleaning up. We have a dress uniform inspection tomorrow, so my boss invited me and my wife over for dinner. Before dinner we worked on getting our uniforms squared away…placing all the ribbons and medals on them as well as the insignia and such. Trying to get everything perfect is a trying matter and neither of us finished before dinner was ready. We ate dinner and then decided to finish it up tomorrow before the inspection which is at 1600. We will not be wearing the Class A uniform to work, but we will have to put it on at 1600. This is in preparation for the "Days of Excellence" which is this Friday. This Friday the whole battalion wears their Class A's all day and there will be a more formal inspection done.

FYI: A great site that can be used for building your rack of ribbons and medals is:

EZ Rack Builder

Out-processing (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 144

Our Class A inspection in the day room. From left to right:
Shamadillo, the young Hawaiian, me, & PVT Amish

This morning I had PT…the first PT in a long time it seems. We went for a run and usually Charlie company runs are a lot easier than the RBK runs I've been used to. This time however I was pretty gassed. The run was pretty tough, there was a whole mess of people who fell out within the first quarter mile. I had to play dodge 'em for a while until they all fell out. At the middle point of the run we ran up and down a hill three times. That was the killer part of the run!

Once we got ready in the morning all the MOS-Q and inacts formed up together. All of us in my class and our sister class had an out-processing brief. Everyone else has to do TAK detail. This is basically landscaping or other "slave labor" to get what the battalion needs done. Because nobody wants to do this there are a lot of people that try to sham out of it. As we were getting ready to leave the formation the TAK sergeant looked each of us in the eye and asked if we were sure we were supposed to go to the out-processing trying to catch any liars. 

The out-processing brief consisted of us getting our actual orders and a packet with a checklist that we needed to get done before we could leave. We have to go to a number of places on base and get signed out. We have today and tomorrow (don't want to get it all done at once…then we would have to do TAK detail tomorrow…lol) Today we went to the medical clinic, vehicle registration, a few other administrative offices, transportation, the library, the dental clinic, and the education center. All of these places have to say we don't have anything outstanding and we're clear to leave. Everything went fine except for a little hiccup at the transportation office. They were going to get me a ticket out of here on Wednesday. I told them I was graduating on Wednesday and besides my wife is flying in for my graduation and she'll be here until Monday. The lady looked at me like I was crazy. She said "how can you graduate on Wednesday if you are out-processing?" I told her I have no idea…that's just what I was told. They are going to modify my ticket and I should get it on Wednesday when I out-process.

We also found out who is going to get HRAP (this is hometown recruiting where the soldier gets to spend an extra two weeks at home helping their recruiters and it doesn't count as leave) during the out-processing brief. It has been cancelled since October 1st because the army is now overstaffed, but I guess the submissions for our class were put in early enough to make it. There was one for each of our classes, but I'm not sure at all how they chose them. I always heard it was the best in the class that received it, but they chose Shamadillo the biggest shammer in our class! The guy who left Capstone because he had anger issues and felt like he would hurt himself or someone else. He was actually on suicide watch for a bit…this is the guy that they gave HRAP to. What a freakin' joke! I will be graduating at the top of my class. I've never had a negative counseling statement and I've never failed a PT test. I figured I would have been a good candidate, but what do I know…I'm just a private.

We had our Class A inspection tonight at 18:00. Everyone who is graduating this Wednesday had to get all dressed up in their Class A uniforms and have the sergeants inspect them. Like in basic training I ended up tying a lot of kids ties for them. I had lots of practice I guess, back in the day our basketball coach made everyone on the team wear ties on game days. The sergeants found stuff wrong on everyone's uniform. Lots of little things like stuff slightly off center or crooked. We all helped each other make the adjustments on the uniforms until we were all good to go. 

My wife flew in today and after a delayed flight she finally arrived tonight. She came by and visited for a while. It was so awesome to see her even though it wasn't for too long. I was able to sit in her rented car and hang out until it was time get in before bed check…I am so happy!!!

Another "action" shot in our day room during the Class A inspection

Gear Turn in Day (Basic Training) Day 69

This entry was a little delayed...the letter took a while to reach it’s destination, but it did finally arrive

This morning I almost had to get up at 4:40am… oh what a bummer. I've grown to love the days we get to sleep in until 6:00am. They wanted the 4 tallest people in our platoon and had me down as one of them. I made sure or PG knew that I was like the 6th or 7th tallest and named everyone that was taller. So I was able to sleep in after all...LOL.

After breakfast the company had to all go to the classroom and we were given our orders for AIT and copies of all our paperwork that has been done. We verified the info on it and when we got back to our bay we had to turn it in to our DS so it got filed away with all my other paperwork. 

We then listened to the radio and cleaned our rifles until lunch, a little while after lunch our company went and turned in all the gear we were issued when we arrived here so long ago. It was a long hot process. The weather was hot and humid… the norm at Ft. Benning in the summer. We had a big duffel bag full of crap and the rucksack full or crap. We had to wait in line outside the big warehouse (in the hot sun) and slowly, but surely make our way through the return process. The horror stories the DS kept telling us about everything being thoroughly checked and sent back were a little over blown. The people there have so much to process, they could only give everything a quick "once over". Our platoon had nothing sent back.

We then came back to the bay and cleaned our rifles some more. We also pinned on our rank and stuff to our class B uniforms. Then we got dressed from the top up in our Class A uniforms. So we had on the shirt & jacket with tie along with PT shorts and tennis shoes it looked pretty funny. I ended up having to help out a lot of guys with their ties. I guess being the older guy they all came to me. LOL.  We did this because we had to get our pictures taken (from the waste up). Unfortunately, they didn't give us much time before the pictures, so I didn't have a chance to shave. I had the complete 6:00 shadow. We'll see how the pics turn out.

Later on in the night, PVT Lurch started screaming at our PG. Lots of words were exchanged and PVT Lurch's face was all red… our APG had to take him outside to cool him off. Turns out it was about fireguard shifts and sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I'm gonna get some now… we had to stay up late cleaning tonight. 

Random DS Quote: "Oh My God… Did you put butt juice in there?" ( Our cool DS talking to a guy after inspecting his rifle).

Fancy Pants Uniforms (Basic Training) Day 50

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. His writing at times can be a bit difficult to determine his words... bare with me, I do my best, especially with army terms.

After breakfast today we (or I should say some of us) had to get more shots. Not even sure what it was, but I got it. I thought I was immune to all known diseases, but I guess they found more they had to vaccinate me for. 

We then went back to reception, (we did half walk, half run at times) to get fitted for our class A uniforms. It’s amazing how good everyone looked. When it comes time to wear them for real, everyone is going to look sharp!

By the time we got back it was time for lunch. MREs in the CTA. No candy in mine…bummer. The senior DS then said we were going to get haircuts. He said while were there we could stop at the PX and also get milkshakes! Woohoo!

When we got to the PX it looked like an entire company was in line for milkshakes, so the DS said no milkshakes today privates…bummer. We got our hair cuts and I got some detergent, soup & an organizer for my letters and such. When we got back to the CTA we cleaned our weapons and we were allowed to purchase Gatorade from the vending machine. 

The DS finally posted our PT scores from the last PT test. Our platoon fell to 3^rd place and he wasn’t very happy. Personally, I did as good or better in each event. 52 push-ups (+2), 42 sit-ups (same), and 15:09 for the 2 mile (10 sec better). My score is 219 and I moved back into 8^th best in the platoon. 

We were given a lot of free time after dinner. Time to put away all the new uniforms and such from reception, clean everything, start laundry, and read mail. We had some really late nights, so there has been no time to do much of anything when we got back.

Random DS Quote: “Step on his dick so he cannot contaminate the gene pool” (Our senior DS talking to another platoon’s DS about a private of his that wasn’t listening).