Town Hall - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 54

This morning we had our formation at Evergreen Theatre on Ft. Lewis at 0845. We had the monthly town hall meeting that the battalion is required to attend. The town hall event included some awards, upcoming events, the vet center, and habitat for humanity. I sat through it drinking my coffee and waiting patiently. It would be interesting volunteering with the habitat for humanity program, but I wouldn't want to do it as part of the army.

After the town hall, I headed to the SFAC to check my email and found out AKO was down. So I headed to the PX and played some games on my iPhone until it was time to eat. I headed into the PX food court and had a little Chinese food. I then headed to the library where I settled in and did my schoolwork until evening formation.

At our evening formation we were told there was battalion PT tomorrow. There were a number of events that each company would be competing in. After I arrived at my house, I checked my personal email and found out that my household goods will be delivered on Tuesday, that is the earliest available date for delivery. I will keep that day clear on my calendar.

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.

Chaplain's Assistant and a Part Time Garbage Man - (Germany) Day 398

This morning I headed into my office and hung out as usual…reading from my iPad waiting until the chaplain came in. It was about 0930 when I was able to chat with him. We went over the schedule for the week and then I headed over to the ComSec office. I needed to ask my boss a few questions.

1. What is the plan for me to get to Landstuhl tomorrow…I need someone to drive me. Another guy has an appointment as well and SGT Mex is going to drive us in a TMP.

2. What is the February staff duty schedule…he gave me a copy and surprisingly I only have it one day that month…and it's not on a weekend. Wow!!

3. During AIC detail yesterday the supervisor told me that I was his for the rest of the time here. Turns out yes, they just forgot to tell me. So every Monday I'm a garbage man and the rest of the week I'm a chaplain's assistant. Just what I signed up to do in the army! I'm super glad I can put my 13 years of technical experience, my certifications, and the hard work in AIT to graduate at the top of the class…all so I don't actually work on computers.

4. Last question was asking if there was a town hall meeting today. The chaplain mentioned it and asked if I'd be going. Why yes there is a town hall meeting at 1300, make sure to be there 15 minutes early.

I headed over to the barber shop after that and got my head shaved. I usually have my wife shave my head, but she's not feeling well and it needed to be done. I headed back and informed the chaplain I'll be busy every Monday from now on and will not be in the office. At least I know ahead of time now and I can plan accordingly. I headed home for lunch and then headed over to the theatre on PHV to attend this town hall meeting. It seems in addition to me not caring about anything anymore, I can't seem to focus either. The meeting started off with the CSM and the brigade commander saying how great the 43rd is and then presented an award to the unit. Lots of posing for pictures, then they were on to the town hall business. I couldn't stay focused at all, I just stared up at the slides…but couldn't concentrate on the actual meeting. The brigade commander was talking about the closure of this base and the deactivation of our unit, but there were no hard facts or numbers. Instead it was all about feelings and stuff.

By the time he was finished and asked if there were any questions the room was silence…only crickets. Finally the CSM asked a question, then a civilian in the audience. When the town hall was finally over I really felt like I had wasted over an hour of my life…but it's the same as sitting in an office just reading my books, or cleaning up garbage…I don't really care. As I thought we were about to be released, the CSM told everyone they could go except the enlisted folks. We all had to gather around him, which is unfortunate at this moment because for the last 15 minutes or so I felt my bladder getting fuller and fuller…the need to pee was imminent and just as I thought I would be able to relieve myself , we get pulled into a semi-circle around the CSM. I guess there was a DUI this last weekend, so we had to all hear about the dangers of alcohol and driving. He said he was only going to be 10 minutes, but 30 minutes later we were finally released…I made a mad dash to the restroom. It's kind of funny, everyone who didn't get into trouble has to stay and hear all that from the CSM…the person that did have the DUI was not even there.

I had planned to stay home after the meeting and get some more of the required training done, but I then found out that the TMP we are going to use tomorrow needed to be dispatched and gassed up. So I took care of that and by the time I was done it was about 1540. I wasn't feeling the greatest (I'm starting to get a sore throat) and because the CSM took a half hour of my time, I figured it was only right to get that back. So I just headed to pick up my wife and call it a day.

Another Town Hall - (Germany) Day 255

The going away dinner for SPC Whirlwind and his family

at the Schwetzingen Brewery

This morning was just one of the many many times that just reaffirmed my decision to get out of the army after my current contract is over with (I think I must say this every other post). We were told we had to be at the PT formation at 0550 because we were doing a battalion run. The season has definitely changed here in Germany, and even though the day may still end up being warm, the mornings are getting a lot colder. We were told to wear our long sleeve PT shirt with our shorts, but it was still pretty cold. We formed up and stood in formation for at least a half hour…just standing there, waiting…standing and freezing. Finally everyone got formed up and ready to go. The leaders came to the front and started the getting everyone stretched after having those of us on profiles head to the back. The sergeant major then came back and asked each person why they weren't running. He made all those on "run at your own pace and distance" go back and join the group saying they had to do exactly that…run at your own pace and distance. The rest of us walked to the gym and worked out.

When we came back the leaders stated how they thought the run was great and even some of those on profile did a good job keeping up. On this point I have to disagree. If a person feels they can indeed do the run, then by all means let them do it. I think there were some that were pressured into doing the run even though it meant running through the pain. Doing that is just stupid. If your body is in pain, it's trying to tell you something…and just ignoring it is going to make it worse. We then had to hear a safety brief from the battalion commander for the weekend. It contained the usual…don't drink irresponsibly, don't beat your wife, don't do stupid things. He then asked the battalion command sergeant major if he had anything. Of course he does, he's an NCO…so he adds his input, which is almost exactly the same thing (drink responsibly, don't beat your spouse, don't do stupid stuff). We then get released to our company commander who in turn gives us his safety brief which is all the same stuff. He asks our company first sergeant if he has anything to add…of course he does! He then proceeds to say the exact same thing. We're standing out in the cold listening to the same thing over and over and I'm thinking I'm going to go nuts just watching the time go by and my available time to get ready shrink by the minute. It's this kind of stupidity that I absolutely hate about the army.

Everyone had until 0930 to be at "Days of Excellence" which was being held on PHV at the theatre. I of course have to get ready a lot faster than that, because I take my wife to work by 0830 each morning. I then had a knee exam scheduled today before we found out about the Days of Excellence, so I was allowed to keep my appointment. I headed to the appointment, which was great…that meant I was going to miss "Days of Excellence"! The knee exam was a huge disappointment though. My doctor just moved my knee in a couple directions and said oh there's no ligament damage. My X-Rays show a little degenerative evidence on my knee cap, so she said I'm just getting old and I have to deal with it. I know something's not right with my knee, it's throbbing every day now and I can't even keep it in one position for a long period of time without being in pain. Then at random times I have shooting pain…but it's all just because I'm getting old and I have to deal with it. There has to be more that can be done, I was a little frustrated leaving there. I did get some pain medication refilled, but that stuff doesn't seem to do much of anything.

I headed home and changed into my uniform (I had to be in PTs for the knee exam). I grabbed a snack and waited a little bit before heading to then end of "Days of Excellence". For those of us that live on PHV, we went to a Town Hall meeting on the closure of the base. It was open to anyone and they went over pretty much everything we already knew, PHV will be closing by August 30th of 2013. Sometime between now and then everyone will be moved to their gaining units. Most of it will be done after June because they don't want to interrupt those with children in school. The other message put out was that everything they do this year will be the biggest and best ever…they want to go out with a bang. Unfortunately the meeting went until 1300 and I was starving! When we left we were released for the day. As we all headed out the sergeant major was there and told everyone to go back in and get a flu shot. I ended up pretending to go back in, but then headed home instead. The problem with flu shots are that I don't really believe that they protect you from the future flu season. Also we will be required to get one at a later date and have it recorded in our records, so those who went back in to get their shot are likely to be required to get another one in the near future.

I headed home and ate lunch. I then headed into the office in civilian clothes where I met my boss. I had to print off a couple items to take to class this Sunday. I then headed home and took a nap. I passed out and didn't wake up until I went to pick up my wife at 1600 from work. Later on we met up with my boss and a few other people from the office. We headed out to a brewery (and restaurant) in Schwetzingen, a city only a few minutes away. It was basically an unofficial good-bye to SPC Whirlwind and his family. We all had some good food, good beer and good conversation.

Another Day…Another Town Hall - (Germany) Day 254

Watch Out!! MPs on patrol....

mounted on Segways with Training Wheels...LOL

This morning we went back to our usual PT here at PHV. The normal folks went for a run, while us profiles headed into the gym to do cardio. I did the stationary bicycle and had a decent (no impact) workout.

The morning started off at 0900 as usual. I tried to move my dentist appointment scheduled for 12:30 this afternoon because SPC Whirlwind was having his going away party. The dental folks said they could move my appointment no problem, but since I was calling within 24 hours of the original appointment, they would mark it as a missed appointment and inform my command. I guess there has been a big issue with people missing their dental appointments. So big in fact we see stupid commercials about it on AFN. I thought calling would solve this problem, but I didn't call soon enough…so I had to keep my dental appointment and miss SPC Whirlwind's going away lunch.

I hung out on the "other" side of the office this morning (the maintenance side). Since we only have two computers on our side and they were taken, I decided to interact with they guys on the other side instead of sitting in a chair, looking at a wall. I basically sat on the other side and read the latest copy of the Army Times. All the NCOs were at a "town hall" meeting with brigade. When they came back, all the junior enlisted had to go over and attend. It was basically just a dog and pony show with them telling us how great they are, how great we are, how great the army is.

After that I left for lunch. I just headed home for a little bit before going over to the dental office. I didn't want to eat anything before they cleaned my teeth. The cleaning went fine except I really hate the scraping of the teeth, it's like nails on a chalk board. I then went back home, made myself lunch and ate it before heading back into the office.

Once in the office I uploaded some more documents to my DTS account for this next class I'll be heading to on Sunday. I did hear the SGT Mex will be coming as well, that is a good thing. I checked out Facebook and noticed my sponsor (when I arrived here in Germany) posted that he is going to be out in 97 days. He then went on to say: "only in the military can we take a person with the ability to cure cancer and make him a lawyer. The army sets you up for failure, tries to dictate your career path based on the last 4 of your social security number and please pray that nothing happens to you where you can no longer run a 14:40 2-mile. I realize that I'm too outspoken and have too much common sense for the military. And if I go to my next job and ever hear someone say 'you should be ready to do (insert task here) any day at any time', I'm quitting and walking out."

Needless to say, I'm not the only one that doesn't quite understand why the army does the things it does, and how it can drive you nuts. It's basically the reason I have no desire to stay in past the end of my contract or the desire to get promoted and be an NCO.

We didn't do much the rest of the day, took the new safe combinations over to secure in another office's safe and then cleaned up the office. We were able to get out about 1630. I gave the new guy a ride home after picking up my wife and some gas as well. I filled my motorcycle gas tank up and warmed it up a little. I even drove it around the parking lot a bit to get it's juices flowing. It's the only riding I'll be able to do for a long time I'm afraid.

SPC Whirlwind and his family came over for dinner and we were able to have our own little goodbye dinner with them. They are a great family and will be missed once they leave.

Dragon Warriors & The Drawbacks of Being Tall - (Germany) Day 179

A view of the units in the staging area about 15 minutes

before forming up to march on the field.

This morning we did not have PT once again, instead we had a mandatory 100% weigh in for the company. We had to form up at 0600 in our summer PTs, then wait in line to get on the scale. They base the standards on how tall you are, how old you are and how heavy you are. I came in at 203…my max is 205. For those that didn't make it, they had to get measured by tape to calculate their body fat. If they end up being overweight, then they go on the special population program (also known as the "fat boy" program). People on this get weighed more often and have to attend an extra PT session after work. Usually we're given a bit more time to prepare and I don't eat ice cream for a while when I know we have one coming up!

After, we all stayed around the office. I changed into my ACUs and picked up some breakfast at the bakery in the food court. We actually had a couple hours before we had to go to the armory to pick up our rifles for the ceremony, so I just surfed the internet. It turned out good though, because I found out our platoon sergeant is on leave. I had to resend all the command sponsorship paperwork to our NCOIC.

We picked up our rifles and then waited some more for the bus to come and pick us up for the hour and a half ride to Wiesbaden. I was a little better prepared this time, I brought my headphones and was able to listen to music on the trip. Once we arrived we were released for lunch.

We finally formed up at a little after 1300. Being one of the taller guys I have to be in the front of the formation. This is not a good thing because everyone's eyes are on you, so you have to do everything perfect. The change of command ceremony took place for our brigade commander. The ceremony was uneventful…lots of standing around with a sparse crowd of family members and friends in attendance. Lots of speeches that were a bit too long, then it finally ended.

It wasn't exactly over for us though, we had to board the bus and head over to a gymnasium. Forgetting how tall I am, or how short the ceiling was in the bus…I slammed my head into it. It was hard enough to start bleeding…luckily I had a paper towel that I just held on my head for a while. I hate it when that happens! Once in the gym we waited for a while, then the new brigade commander came in and we had a town hall session. He had a bit of a speech, then asked if anyone in the crowd had any questions for him…..crickets…..of course late on a Friday nobody is going to have any questions, everyone just wants to leave and go home to start their weekend. He then went on and closed out on his speech.

We then boarded the bus and headed back home. Once we arrived at about 1800, we had to head to the armory to unload all the rifles. We were then finally released for the weekend. After a long week I'm really looking forward to a bit of relaxing. My boss gave me a ride home and I hung out with my wife for dinner and a movie in our living room.

SMA Part Deux - (Germany) Day 73

My lunch bag. A Starbucks bag with digital cammo duct tape 

on any parts that have ripped.

PT this morning was not actually PT at all. We had our formation outside the barracks, our company has offices and the armory in the lower level of the barracks in Mark Twain Village. This morning our company was conducting 100% required weigh in. We were told that anyone that is overweight and "busts" tape (if you are overweight, your body gets measured and a formula is used to figure out your body fat percentage…you "bust tape" if you are over the limit) will get flagged immediately. Once a person is flagged they cannot do anything such as go on leave, on pass, get promoted, etc.

Even though it was a 100% for the entire company, the higher ranking individuals such as the XO and the senior NCOs went into the office and did it with the door shut. This seemed a little strange to me and also a little suspect, but I'm just a private so what do I know. I see fat NCOs all the time and wonder how the heck they even pass their PT test let alone their weight test. I wonder if they do this "closed door" weigh in as well. I'm not saying our leaders are like that, it just seemed a little strange.

After standing in alphabetical order we finally started moving after about a half an hour of just standing there. When it came my turn I came in 6 pounds under my limit for my age and height. Once finished we were allowed to leave and report back for our normal Thursday Sergeant's Time Training at 0900 back in the barracks office. I drove home and proceeded to get ready for the work day.

Our training today consisted of a bunch of people crowded into a room trying to see a PowerPoint presentation on a small computer screen. I have to say that if the company knows we have to have training every Thursday, and most of these trainings are conducted via PowerPoint that they would invest in a projector! When my boss had to do training, he brought in his flat screen TV and hooked up his personal laptop to it in order to do the training which worked well…but he shouldn't have to provide all the training equipment himself…the company should.

The actual training was over troop movement and planning operations. A bunch of typical infantry type stuff that really doesn't pertain to my job. I swear whenever the army needs to do training they always fall back on infantry type stuff instead of thinking a little outside the box and doing some training that would actually help us learn more about our jobs.

Once the training was finished it was almost lunch time, so I headed back to the office and ate my lunch. I then had to ride with my boss and a few others from 1st Platoon to "K-Town". K-Town is actually what folks around here call the Kaiserslautern army garrison. The trip was a little over an hour and we went to the theatre on post to see the Sergeant Major of the Army. He was doing a Town Hall meeting and our company needed to send a certain number of people. Since I'm the lowest ranking it's easy for them to choose me to go. I had already been to this same type of town hall meetings with the SMA while I was in Korea. This one was basically the same, going over the troop reduction, sexual harassment, and answering people's questions. One new thing added was the new ACUs that are being considered. He passed around various prototypes of new tops and bottoms that were being considered. I think they all are better than what we have now…they are getting rid of the Velcro on the sleeves and pants which never seem to work that well with the current uniform.

The meeting didn't end until 1700 and because of traffic leaving post (normal post traffic getting off work plus the surplus of traffic from the meeting, we didn't get off post for an hour). We then had to stop at Patton Barracks on the way back to fill up the TMP with gas. I didn't actually get back to my house until 2000! I then ate dinner and worked on schoolwork.

Tomorrow is Friday…looking forward to getting through that so I can enjoy a nice relaxing weekend.

Town Hall - (Korea) Day 331

The Town Hall event at Collier Field House with The Secretary of Defense.
Korean media & of course AFN were there to cover the event.

Had to wake up at 0440 this morning to quickly get dressed and shave. Our NCOIC was going to arrive at 0500 to do a pre-check on our rooms, but I received a text that she had to make sure her kid got to school. We had the room inspection at 0530 as promised. A number of NCOs came through the barracks inspecting all of our rooms. I heard that one of the NCOs got really mad at PV2 Charlie because he had a spoon in his freezer?? They came to my room and didn't like the bathroom. Said I needed to scrub the floor, then it was over. I tried to lay down and rest a bit, but I was already up so I just laid there for an hour until I had to start getting ready for work.

Work call was at 0830, I was told to see our master sergeant in admin. When I got down there she said to make sure everyone in our office knows she's only the IMO on paper because of her rank. She doesn't want to do any IMO work, she wants me and PV2 Charlie to be the "go to" people. I was fine with that and it makes sense, but she was actually a little pissed off. No worries, I knew where she was coming from and let her know I'd pass on the word. Sometimes when someone has a problem they automatically go to the highest ranking person even if that isn't the correct solution. She can't really help them with anything except ask me to fix the problem or put in a help desk ticket.

We then start our morning with our normal Wednesday meeting in the secret conference room. This time I have PV2 Charlie do everything from scratch. He needs some instruction here and there, but he's coming along. He should be good to go for the next meeting. After it finished we cleaned up and when we arrived back at our office we helped clean up from another meeting that was in the top secret conference room.

Once finished it was lunch time, but before we left we heard that we have to be back early to head to a "town hall" and that was all the information we got. So I quickly ate at the food court and then headed towards the movie theatre which is where the pre-town hall brief was going to be. We were instructed that the secretary of defense will be conducting a town hall and told that we could not bring in bags, knives, any weapons, or even multi-function tools. Luckily our NCOIC told us to bring some reading material, because we sat in that theatre for a little over an hour total waiting for everyone to get accounted for and for the buses to arrive, so I grabbed my iPad before heading there.

We then all boarded buses and headed to Collier Field House which is not too far away, but they wanted us all to arrive at the same time. We then waited outside the gym for a little over a half hour while secret service checked the gym and had their dogs sniff all around. Security was pretty tight. We went through metal detectors and had to show ID to get in. Most of our office had to attend. I think there were a lot of people "voluntold" to go because they wanted to make sure all the seats were full and there was no embarrassment to the post by having any empty seats. This worked because all the seats were indeed full.

We sat and waited for about another 2.5 hours with a couple of briefs here and there getting us ready. I read a lot of my book during this time and also showed Special K a number of photos on my iPad to pass the time. Finally Leon Panetta, The Secretary of Defense, came in and gave a bit of a speech. He thanked everyone for serving and promoted public service, giving back to the country. Made me feel proud to serve even though I've made plenty of sacrifices to do so.

He then answered a few questions and then had everyone line up for a picture and gave everyone in attendance a coin, which was pretty cool. We're told we'll receive the photo at some point…we'll see.

By now it's getting late and we all head back to the office and then leave. I get back to my room around 1830. It's late and I have a dehydration headache, so I decide not to workout. Instead I drink water, eat dinner, drink some more water and watch CSI: Miami & NY while drinking more water. I then do some schoolwork before heading to bed. It's been a strange day, but I'm glad I was able to attend the Town Meeting with The Secretary of Defense. Not too many people can say they've done that or received his coin which beats my previous highest coin which was a 4-star coin…not too bad.