Week 1

This past week I started Phase 1 of training. I think it will prove to be very interesting. The training is a mix of Privates, NCOs and Officers. It's funny because nine months ago, I was a private getting yelled at for everything, so I'm pretty sympathetic for these guys. Days are long and weekends are treasured. I apologize in advance if I get out of touch with anyone for a while. I promise it is not intentional; I'm at school from about 5am-6pm, and then I come home, prep for the next day and crash.

I will be coming home for the holidays, so for those of you in Omaha and the surrounding areas, set aside some time to meet up. I won't have a car, as I'll be flying in for the holidays, sooo yeah...Anyway, I'm excited for the holidays, can't wait to see you all. I'm also excited to be starting this new training; it looks to be pretty intense so wish me luck!!

See you soon!

A Weekend in the Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made

This past weekend was a four-day weekend for us thanks to Veteran's Day. I decided to celebrate graduation and enjoy the four-day by taking the train into New York City. I stayed just outside the city, so I took the bus or the train in every day. It was like being back at FDC and being sent to work in Europe. I loved it!

Friday I went to the Veteran's Day parade. I was planning on going to the parade and then heading to Central Park, but the parade lasted over three hours and by this time, the wind had picked up and it'd gotten cloudy and I'm a wimp and was tired, so I went home.



Saturday, I woke up and headed for Central Park. It was a beautiful fall day. The pictures don't do the park justice. I think I spent over two hours walking in the park, even ate a hot dog from a street vendor. I also clocked 10 miles on my Nike+ Sportswatch GPS. That evening I took the train out to visit my fire-fighting friend, Paul, at his firehouse. Great night! I got to try on his jacket, slide down the pole, AND go out on two calls with them in the fire truck!



Sunday, I took a walk along the Hudson River boardwalk? I guess? I'm not sure exactly where I was, but again it was very beautiful and fun. I must have walked 12-14 miles that day. I didn't charge my watch overnight, so it died around mile 7 and I wasn't even close to home. I like to believe that the watch dying worked out in my favor, because then it just looked like I was house arrest and wearing a tracker on my wrist, scaring would-be hoodlums away...

Monday I got on the train heading back to the 'Burg and life as I currently know it. It was a great weekend and I hope someday I live close enough to the city that I can go for a run in Central Park or along the boardwalk at least once a week.

RIC and Graduation

A couple of weeks before graduation we had a regimental induction ceremony (RIC). We donned our ASUs, which have about as much comfort as a straight jacket, and stood through a 45 minute ceremony inducting us into the Ordnance branch of the Army. We pinned on our crests (the pin above our nameplates), chit-chatted with the Chief of Ordnance, and waited somewhat impatiently for him to leave so we could make a mad dash for the door and shed our straight jackets.

This past Thursday, we graduated BOLC. We walked across the stage, sang the Ordnance and Army song, took some more pictures, then said our good-byes. Most people headed home to see their families and pack up their stuff before heading to their permanent duty station. I, however, hopped on the train to New York, since I'll be staying here to attend another round of school.

Tough Mudder

Back in October, my friends from OCS convinced me to sign up for an obstacle course to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, a project that helps Soldiers. Little did I know that following the event, I would be a wounded warrior. It was a 9-mile obstacle course up and down the mountain side. It took four hours to complete and I buy the end, I was a wet, muddy, scraped up mess. I guess I should have figured that an event named "Tough Mudder" wouldn't be a cake walk...I hurt for three days following the event. Here's a link to the page so you can see the route: http://toughmudder.com/events/virginia/wintergreen-resort-course-map-2011/. This map doesn't do justice to the giant hillsides we trudged up and down, but click on the 'photos' and you should get to see some pictures of this horrific (but fun) event.

Michelle!

Last weekend my sister, Michelle, came to visit. I'd forgotten how much I miss living 20 minutes from her until she came to stay with me. I picked her up from Reagan airport in DC on Thursday and after grabbing a quick bite to eat, we fought the traffic to get home.

Friday, I took her to Virginia Beach. After walking the shoreline collecting seashells for Brooklyn and writing in the sand, we found a place to sit and enjoy the ocean view and sun. I'm not really sure what happened next, because I fell asleep. I'm getting pretty good at falling asleep anytime, anywhere. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.


Late afternoon we rented a two-seater bike and peddled our happy backsides down the length of the boardwalk and back. I figured it up; we probably walked about 3 miles and biked 5 that day. It seriously was exhausting, but fun.

Saturday we took a day of rest, sort of. We went out and bought me a crock pot and groceries and made a lot of food for me to freeze so that I can eat proper dinners now. It was Michelle's idea and it was a good one, cuz I've been eating like a queen every night this week. YUM!

On Sunday, I had to take Michelle back to DC, so we got up kind of early so we could see the city before her flight left. We walked the length of the National Mall, seeing the Capitol, Washington Monument, the White House and much, much more. The time with my sissy ended much too quickly but I'm so glad she came.



This week in school, we've been studying ammo; it's actually decently interesting. Tomorrow I'm going to DC again with a group to see the MLK Jr Monument and whatever else they have planned. And that brings you up to speed with me. So what's new with you?

Recovery and Hot Wiring

The week after the field, we learned the basics of recovering a vehicle using the wrecker. Then we got to do a hands-on application of what we learned. That was a fun day, let me tell ya. At first I tried to get involved, but it's really only about a 5-man team and there are 34 of us, so after standing around for a bit, I sat in the cab with the driver, my friend Caroline.


It was cool though. We took a turned over HMMWV and hooked chains up to it and used the Wrecker to get the vehicle right-side up so we could move it and CM (continue mission, or charlie mike). This process probably took us about an hour, but in real life, it only takes the experts about 15 minutes.


Also during this week, I had a minor issue with my car. Apparently there was a manufacturer recall; however, since I've had five different addresses in the past nine months, I must have missed the recall memo. So as I pulled into my parking lot one night, I put the car in park and went to turn the car off like normal. Except my key didn't turn. It just sat there. Running. There was a minute there where I'd actually thought I'd went crazy or stupid and had completely forgotten how to operate my car.


After sitting there befuddled for a bit, I drove to Caroline's house to have her car-expert boyfriend take a look at it. He couldn't fix it, but he did show me how to unhook my car from the steering column, so I could at least shut it off for the night. Basically he taught me how to hot wire my own car. Luckily the problem was fixed the next day.

SWFTX

Clearly I'm not a dedicated blogger, so I'm going to try and catch you all up to speed with the last few weeks. I'll keep the posts short so you don't get too bored.

A couple of weeks ago, our class got the opportunity to go out to the field with AIT students (Privates). The goal of this exercise was to simulate being on a FOB (Foreign Operating Base) in Afghanistan. We ran convoys, live fire training, urban operations and . haha Basically it was a week of no showers and early mornings and late nights in full battle rattle (helmets, bullet-proof vests, FLCs-to hold all our ammo and canteens, and an M16 rifle).

It was actually a really fun time, but I must say, there were a little too many chiefs and not enough Native Americans...(keeping it PC). For each Platoon of AIT Soldiers, there were 2 or 3 lieutenants. This obviously created communication issues and was kind of irritating at times, but the important thing was the AIT Soldiers got some almost real-life experience and we got to practice our leadership skills.

Oh and just fyi, at the end of the week, the NCOs out there helping us got to choose two AIT Soldiers to be the Log Warriors. Now, I don't really know what that is, but it means something to the Privates, so I'm proud to say that one of the Soldiers from my platoon was chosen as a Log Warrior. I take his success to be a reflection of my leadership during that week...

A New Chapter in Life

Well, I've moved on from traveling the world as an internal auditor telling people what needs fixed to moving from one Army base to another listening to what I need to fix. So far it's been an interesting ride. Stay tuned for future updates!