Getting Pinned - (Germany) Day 109

My wife "pinning" on my new specialist rank 

during the small promotion ceremony.

This morning's PT was a run off post in civilian clothes. We ran about 4 miles into downtown Heidelberg across the new bridge and then back to post. Even though I have never cared for running in my life, I do prefer running off post with some different scenery than just running around in a circle on post.

We then came to work in civilian sports attire at 0900. Today was a sports activity day for our company and about 1100 we headed to Patton Barracks where we had a barbecue, then ended up playing basketball. I have to say that after running, a ruck march, and another run today that my legs were shot. I played in a couple of games with our Heidelberg unit vs Mannheim and then against Landstuhl. Surprisingly…or maybe not so, we lost both games..even though they were close. My legs were pretty much numb after that, so I opted out of the football afterwards.

The whole event was nice and laid back which was perfect. Everyone enjoyed themselves and had a good time. I then had to change into my uniform at 1500. They picked today to do my actual pin-on ceremony. So my wife was able to leave work early and head over. Everyone got in formation and SPC Matrix read my orders. My wife then took off my PFC rank and put on my SPC rank. Then she took off my hat with the PFC rank and placed my other hat with the SPC rank on my head. I then had to give a short speech that I wasn't prepared for, so I spattered off something about thanking everyone for being there (like they had a choice), and especially thanking my co-workers and my boss for their support.

After that there were a number of people that came up and punched me in the chest. I wasn't prepared for the first one, but after that I was ready for it. After taking all the punches everyone was free to go for the weekend.

My wife and I headed out to Mannheim to celebrate. She wanted to stop by a store and do a little window shopping then we headed to a restaurant. We used TripAdvisor to search for and find a place to eat. We decided to eat at a German restaurant and chose one called Andechser Mannheim. It had pretty good reviews at average prices…remember I'm still a junior enlisted. I love technology! We were able to find a place, read reviews, then plug the address in our GPS and head out. The food was good and I had a couple of German beers to celebrate my promotion, then let my wife drive back home just to play it safe…after we both had some ice cream for dessert.

A good day and a perfect evening with my wife. I am now officially Specialist McGuire.

Dramatic Loss - (Germany) Day 43

We formed up for PT in the freezing weather and then headed into the gym after accountability. We stretched as a group and then were turned loose to work out on our own. That was a nice change of pace. I get such a better work out when we do that, unless of course it's a run.

When we arrived for work this morning a maintenance guy rang our door buzzer and after I let him in he informed everyone that because of the extremely cold weather we've been having that the sprinkler system pipes have frozen. "So if there is a fire, please run out of the building". Good to know…as if I would hang out under the sprinklers if a fire did happen to start.

Today we had an SAV (Site Assisted Visit) which is basically a security audit. A civilian who is in charge came and spent the day in "The Vault". He may be here more this week as well. There was little going on other than that. We had SPC Matrix out sick and my boss is on vacation. I spent most of the day next to another co-worker sharing his small space heater. Others in the office tried to use cardboard and duct tape to close up the vents that are constantly pumping in cold air to our offices. By the afternoon a light snowfall started to come down outside. It's so cold it's not even funny!

The only thing I did today work related was inventory a safe with a co-worker before locking it up for the day. I did find out some disturbing news as well about the promotion point system. They made a change to the Military Education portion of the point system. I had used SkillPorts to max mine out at 260 points, and haven't looked at my promotion points since leaving Korea. Now the army has changed the max that can be received by SkillPorts to 78 points. So I lost 182 points just like that! The army has broken the Military Education section into 3 categories.

Category 1: A person must go to WLC (Warrior Leader Course) to get 80 points with extra points available if they graduate as a member of the Commandant's List, which will give them 92 total points. The soldier who gets Distinguished Honor Graduate can get 104 points.

Category 2: Resident Military Training. The definition I've seen is: This includes all resident military training courses listed in ATTRS; DA Form 87 limited to Soldier Training Courses in AR 350-1; and all tab-producing courses. Maximum points in this category is 78. (I haven't checked into this too much yet).

Category 3: Computer Based Training. This is the category mentioned above where the SkillPorts come in and the maximum is now 78.

I'm not too worried about it, just a little disappointed. I put in a lot of hours while in Korea working to finish all those SkillPorts just to have them change the rules. That is the name of the game in the army though. Especially these days and in the future where the army will be shrinking in size and in budget. It's going to be harder to get promoted and I wouldn't be surprised if they change the promotion point system again.

Bridge of No Return - (Korea) Day 276

Our NCOIC giving a little speech after getting pinned, 
the bridge of No Return in the background.

Work call this morning was at 0800, but I was up early and decided to head in early at about 0740. There was a meeting at 0900, so I started setting up for it to give everyone a head start. Once the meeting started I had time to do one SkillPort and some schoolwork. I then got a call from Special K who needed my assistance. We had to gather up a number of frames that we use for awards and take them back to the arts and crafts center. The new general decided he wanted a different shaped coin, so now none of the frames fit this coin. (The general's coin is put in the frame along with the certificate for a number of awards that are given out).

I took the remaining SUV from the exercise and Special K took the office car. Unfortunately when he was loading his car, he dropped about 5 frames…we had to toss them because of the damage. Once we dropped off all the frames we ate lunch at the small food court on the south side of post. After that we returned the exercise SUV and checked our office car out for another week. Not sure why we can't check it out for a month or more at a time, sometimes it can be a hassle getting it there once a week…and a waste of time.

When we arrived back at the office we changed into our class b uniform. The class b uniform is the dress uniform, but the top is the short sleeve and it only has the name, rank and the branch badge. For some reason my pants seem a little tighter…hmmmm.

We headed to a bus that had about 15 or so people in it for the ceremony. The drive is long, so I put in my headphones and took a nap. At one point something woke me up and I practically jumped out of my seat. I hate it when that happens! We headed to the DMZ to a place called "The Bridge of No Return". I've seen it before on the tours that I've had, but we were not allowed to get out because we did not have enough protection in case there was an incident. For the ceremony there were around 5 or so soldiers there, but only armed with pistols. The bridge itself crosses the line between north and south Korea. It was used at one point to exchange prisoners . Both sides were given the choice to cross or remain if they chose, but once they made the decision and crossed…they were not allowed to return.

We had the ceremony for our NCOIC who was being promoted to Sergeant First Class (E-7). She asked me earlier in the week if I could read the "Attention To Orders". I'm not a public speaker, in fact earlier in life I had terrible fears of doing so. The army has forced me many times out of my comfort zone. There are times when you're ordered to do something you have no desire or even afraid to do, but you have to just do it. Surprisingly I wasn't too nervous about reading this for the ceremony…I wasn't excited either. Reading the "Attention To Orders" is basically me reading the orders that were given to our NCOIC for her promotion. When I started reading them everyone has to stand at attention, then when I'm done she got pinned with her new rank. It all went smooth…I had to make sure to read in a loud and clear voice since we were outside. I just hope I don't get nominated for more public speaking.

We then boarded the bus and headed back to the office. We arrived back shortly before 1800, so our KATUSA and SPC Mick were let go so they could get to the DFAC before it closed. I stayed back and cleaned up the office before taking off. Since we got back late, I did not work out once again. That gets a little frustrating. I plan to get back on track tomorrow and the rest of the weekend for sure. Instead I took a shower, ate, and then did schoolwork…then a TV show before bed.

A Day of Promotions - (Korea) Day 63

A photo outside our battalion headquarters (where I took Korean drivers ed)
Superman may visit here a lot

This morning work call was at 0700. We actually didn't need to come in so early because we completed most of the setup last night, but it worked out OK because I was able to get some stuff done on the computer since I hadn't been in the office too much for the last week. I was able to finish a couple SkillPorts while waiting for the next meeting.

I got an email stating that I will have CQ this weekend…crap! It's a four day weekend, but not for me…I'll be spending one of them guarding a hall again. I'm having flashbacks to AIT. I have to go to a brief tomorrow at 1500 to find out more about it. I also have to give the Korean drivers ed instructor a call tomorrow to find out when my test is. He told me earlier that it will either be Thursday or next Tuesday. I also got an email back from HRC (Human Resources Command). I had tried calling them, but also sent an email just for the heck of it. These are the folks that will put you in your next assignment. I wasn't too happy. The entire reply stated that I will be placed depending on the needs of the army. The requests I sent are for openings that are available when I'm done here, to me that sounds like the needs of the army!! So they're saying everything I've heard so far about me going to Korea unaccompanied and having preference for my next post is all BS. I think they are just lazy and don't want to do any extra paperwork. I have found that a lot in the army, there are a number of people that are just plain lazy. They don't do anything unless they absolutely have to. I had thought this whole time that it has to be too good to be true to pick your next assignment. I'm a little depressed right now about that. My sergeant says I should still call, I may get someone who actually gives a damn. He also said because I'm just a PFC they may not think twice about blowing me off.

A little before lunch we setup for a promotion ceremony that involved one of our captains in our office. He was being promoted to major. I'm not sure if this is tradition in the entire army or just here, but he bought all the food and drinks for the reception afterwards. It was a pretty good spread too, I had a nice lunch. After the reception we had to clean up everything. By the time we finished it was time for another promotion ceremony. This one had our general giving the speech and promotion. It was for some chief warrant officer going from 3 to 4. It turned out to be after 1700 by the time they were done. We were able to eat dinner there though before we cleaned up after them.

Today seemed like a very long day. I came in early and never left the place until about 1800. The good news is that when I got back to my barracks the internet was back on and running. Woohoo! I feel connected again :)