Hail, Farewell, Happy B-Day - (Korea) Day 301

Our colonel on the left presenting a plaque to our departing air force major.

Work call this morning was at 0730. We setup for a meeting and had the new guys do pretty much the entire setup while supervising. It's a pretty easy thing, they just have to do it a few times to get used to it. I then went to my office and checked my current promotion point status since it's the start of the week:

Military Education - 260 Maximum Points

Correspondence Course (Hours 1287) (Points 257)

OMG I'm only 3 points away from maxing it out! I thought after this last push I would have hit the limit. In fact I probably have hit the limit because it takes a couple days for the hours to update from SkillPort. Anyway I'm going to stop doing the normal SkillPorts and just focus on actually working through the Windows 7 SkillPorts. They will easily give me enough hours to max out the military education portion of my promotion points.

I then did some IMO work for the office. I pushed through some paperwork for the new KATUSA to get network access. Our NCOIC got a new CAC card since she was promoted, but that brings with it new certificates. This means she will not be able to open old emails that were digitally signed. I had to do a little research to find out how to download her old certificates as well, which I was able to do and make her happy…always a good thing to keep the boss happy.

Then all of a sudden SPC Mick is complaining that his computer will not start. I tell PV2 Charlie to go hold the power button down and make sure it's turned completely off. When I get over there I find that PV2 Charlie had completely broke the power button on the docking station somehow. Oh dear! Luckily we had another station in my office and we switched them out, then I was able to get his computer up and running.

By this time it was nearing lunch and we had to go to the food court and pick up an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. We then headed to the R&R Bar and Grill for lunch. Lunch was actually a "Hail & Farewell" for all the new folks and the air force major who is leaving. We then also celebrated everyone's birthdays for the month of September and ate the ice cream cake. I couldn't let any go to waste, so I had 3 servings…good stuff! After we were done eating Special K starts to tell me about the time he worked security at a hotel. He said there were a lot of old people there and they paid rent on a monthly basis. He said they would be up at all hours of the night because they didn't seem to sleep much, so he would always chat with them from time to time. One night he walks down the hall and smells something pretty bad. He ends up finding out who's room it is and none of the old folks had seen this guy for a while. So Special K goes in the room and finds the guy flat out dead on the floor. He said the smell was pretty bad and started describing all the fluids and stuff that was coming out of his mouth. I was like whoa Special K…we just got done eating! Pretty gross stuff!

Back at the office we cleaned up from the earlier meeting and then I worked on our Major's PC for a while, but it can be difficult to do much because we can't download anything from the internet. He can't burn CDs and even though I think I could fix it, if I could download the latest drivers from the vendors website, I have to put in a help desk ticket and wait for them to do the job.

I then helped Special K study for the promotion board until it was time to go. Our NCOIC is going to try and get PV2 Charlie separate rations. I told her good luck, I remember all the crap that I had to go through to get that and how it took 6 months! I did give her copies of everything that I turned in with my packet, so she would know everything that was needed. Maybe he'll have better luck.

I left around 1630 and headed to my room to change, then headed to The Point and worked out. Once finished I headed back to my room and watched some of my recently obtained TV shows….Flashpoint & NCIS. Excited that the new seasons have started finally!!

As far as my status for leaving Korea goes...I don’t have any news yet. Since it’s still the weekend back in the states nothing has been done yet. My wife will be calling tomorrow and hopefully someone will answer and then we can get some answers. My freakout level has reached 7 on a scale of 10 being the highest.

Hail & Farewell - (Korea) Day 214

The potluck/BBQ for the hail and farewell get together for our SCJS offices

Work call this morning was 0830. We had no meetings scheduled, so I just headed straight to my office in our conference control room and did some SkillPorts. The ROKs came up and started setting up for a ceremony that was to be held in our conference room, so I gave them a hand getting everything ready. Not too long after that I got a call from our sergeant asking me to come down and help get ready for the upcoming BBQ.

I grabbed the keys to our office car and ended up driving our IMO and our supply sergeant around gathering supplies and dropping them off at the picnic area on post. On the last trip I headed off to our IMO's room to pick up condiments. She is a TSgt in the air force (an E6), so I was curious what her living quarters were like on post. I didn't get to look around much as I was walking back and forth from her refrigerator to the car, but they are definitely nicer than the barracks I live in. The small buildings house two people and it looked like they shared the kitchen and bathroom while having separate rooms that are similar to studio apartments.

I dropped her off at the picnic area and then headed back to the office to pick up some cleaning supplies and out of coincidence our KATUSA as well. We both made a pit-stop at our barracks to change into civilian clothes before heading to the picnic area. We arrived pretty much on time a little after noon.

The picnic was a hail and farewell for all of our SCJS offices. We ate a lot of good food and then had a little ceremony. I acted as proctor handing some awards to our air force major as he was giving some speeches. From our office they said farewell to our air force master sergeant who will be leaving in a week or so, as well as my sergeant who will be leaving in August. Our supply KATUSA will be leaving as well as our sergeant major. There were a number of KATUSAs also from our protocol office who were leaving as well. You can tell these guys are so excited to be finishing up their mandatory service and get on with starting their adult lives.

I think everyone had a fun time, but the weather here is just so crazy lately. It has been raining cats and dogs this last week. Today there was no rain, but it was so hot and muggy it sucked. I had to take a shower after I got back from the picnic.

I then took a nice long nap before doing my schoolwork and then just relaxing in my room the rest of the night. I know it's Friday, but after the whole picnic and all I just didn't feel like going out. I just enjoyed my TV shows for the rest of the night.

A little badminton game going on during the Hail & Farewell

Our supply KATUSA using chopsticks to eat ice cream...LOL!

Hail & Farewell - (Korea) Day 156

The SACOs in our office barbecuing the hamburgers and hot dogs

Work call this morning was at 0700. We had an early meeting to setup for in our conference room. SPC Mick stayed behind to flip their slides while the rest of us headed down to the secret conference room to setup for the normal Wednesday meeting. Once we were done, I stayed behind there to flip slides as usual.

Once the meeting was over we cleaned up, then I headed up and worked on SkillPort. Our sergeant came up and said that he would buy everyone lunch if we brought him back something. We went to the KATUSA cafe and I had some spicy pork which was awesome. SPC Mick had a dish that turned out to be a little too spicy for him, his entire head was beading with sweat by the time he was finished...lol.

We headed back to the office with lunch in hand for our sergeant. I then watched some NBA playoff action and saw The Oklahoma City Thunder (I can't say that without throwing up a little in my mouth) beat Memphis. After the game I headed back to the computer to work on SkillPorts yet again.

My sergeant called me after a while and asked me to run some errands with him. We had to pick up some awards and other stuff, then he got a call he was not too pleased about. He said he had to go pick up his "bag of rocks"…which turned out to be his wife…lol. We gave her and her son a ride to the navy club and dropped them off. We then headed back to the supply sergeant's office where she asked me to setup email for SGT Enchilada who will be working there part time. I did it in a couple seconds, but we ended up hanging out there for a while as my sergeant and the supply sergeant chatted.

My sergeant then had me use the office car to pick up SPC Mick, our KATUSA, and the supply sergeant as well as her KATUSA for the hail and farewell picnic. I drove them to the barracks so we could all change into civilian clothes, then we headed to the park for the picnic. We had the traditional hamburgers and hotdogs as well as a bit of Korean food thrown in the mix.

There were a number of speeches and such, it was basically to welcome the new folks that had arrived in our office and our sister offices. It was also a time to say farewell to those that will be leaving soon. This included one of our SACOs and our colonel both of whom I think are great officers.

Once back in my room I did a little schoolwork, then watched a TV show before going to bed. I found out I have to get to work extremely early tomorrow morning for the range.

(I just thought of something....I wonder if I was supposed to give the supply sergeant a ride back from the picnic...I didn’t even think about it. D’oh! I guess I’ll hear about it later if I was supposed to)

Our colonel on the left welcoming CPT Hooah! to our office

The deputy on the left giving our SACO a parting gift while our colonel looks on