asu

this is me in the formal asu- army service uniform, or 'dress blues'. pretty fancy, huh?

released

last night's social was a good time. we schmoozed with some colonels and there was music and drinks. i actually worked details, got there early and put together some propane heaters, then worked the keg all night. it was definitely the place to be, however, because then everyone has to come to you.

they cancelled pt today, nice, and will release us for the weekend around 4. we are no longer required to sleep in the barracks, so i can bug out when my posse gets here. i do have to work cq (the guard desk) tomorrow from 4-6 am, but i'll take advantage to get to bed early tonight and i'll go for a run right at 6.

i e-mailed the ordnance branch manager, and today i received and updated rfo (orders). upon reading, i'm 99% certain that i now will be able to go to fort lee from november to september. this will make relocating as a family infinitely easier. thanks to everyone for the prayers and support.

we're just killing time now, i think i'll try on my new dress uniform (pic to follow).

one week to go

hey, to everyone who tunes in. everything is beautiful in georgia when it gets cold. it has been real chilly in the mornings (around 40) and nice throughout the day. we had a good run this morning, about 6.5 miles- this was our last group run.

this afternoon is the battalion commander's social, it's a chance for all of the officers in the brigade to come and drink for free, lol. really, it's supposed to be for us to socialize and chat it up with some of our senior officers. it should be fun.

family arrives in two days, i'm stoked.

as i transition out of this place, i am asking everyone to pray for me that it is a smooth ride and that everything works out in the best possible way for my family.

sorry the coin pictures were so blurry (alex), i had to use my phone to do it.

liberty dollar

our class coin

new orders

hello family. today was an eventful day here at ocs. we had our senior-level inspection today and, as a company, we passed. three individual rooms need to be re-inspected tomorrow (not mine). this is one of the last milestones in our cycle.

we had a briefing on our discharge paperwork; see, you can't be enlisted and an officer, so we are receiving honorable discharges on next wednesday. then we commission the next day as lieutenants. fortunately my paperwork did not need to be corrected, so i saved myself a lot of time. later, we had our branch lunch. there are no ordnance officers in our battalion, but sfc flugga is a mechanic in ordnance (on of our current trainers) and he came out with us and talked about some of the goings-on in an ordnance company.

after dinner we had a meeting to discuss the social events and graduation. it should be a fun two weeks, or as fun as possible in this environment. we got our class coin and silver dollars as well. the class coin is commemorative. the silver dollar is traditionally handed to the first enlisted person who salutes you, i'll probably save it for my duty station...

which leads me to the big news. i received my follow on orders. i will be part of the 42nd fires brigade, stationed at ft. hood, tx. this is definitely not the worst assignment out there. unfortunately, i was misinformed about 'snowbirding'. i have to go to texas in november, then i will tdy (temporary duty) over to ft. lee from may 13 to sep 13, then head back to ft. hood. this will have a major impact on lots of things, so we'll have to see how everything works out.

in the short-term, we have our final pt test for record in the morning. i've never taken an apft in the cold weather, i hope i do well. i have been performing in the 250/300 range, it would be nice to beat that.

and the best news, after tomorrow's briefing with the battalion commander in the afternoon, we get full privileges. that means that the end of the work day comes and we get released; we can change clothes, leave post, etc. i don't have anything to do, but the freedom will be nice. the other nice point is that it was confirmed that we are not required to sleep on post after friday, so i can stay at the hotel; good to know.

have to go, need to get up at 0430.

the10k

what a day. i got up early and had some breakfast before heading out o uchee campgroound for the oktoberfest 10k. there were 25 or so of us from this ocs class running. the company commander was also there, he's an avid runner. since we were not released yesterday, this turned out to be a great even in which to participate.

the race was challenging, 10k trail run, all in the woods, lots of muddy sections and, man the second half was almost all uphill, whew. i had a lot of fun, worked hard but definitely didn't kill myself on this one. i finished in 51:50, and according to the guys with the really good gps watches it was a 6.6 mile route. i feel pretty good about it, you can't get road times in the woods, ya know.

after the race we got to hang around and drink oktoberfest beer with the captain, fun stuff. we had some german food and coffee and i got a little buzz, nice.

we came back and are waiting to find out if we'll be released at all. according to the 1sg, only 1st and 2nd plt are accounted for and will get let go, 3 and 4 are screwed. we'll see what happens this hour. as long as i get to mass tomorrow i'm cool with anything.

used my new ipod for the run, it's really accurate for distance and is a great aid. unfortunately i didn't set it to shuffle and listened to three alanis morissette songs before i realized it was running alphabetically by artist. i had to hit 'next' a ton of times, then got a couple counting crows songs, then wailed on the button again and got a creed song, then hammered some more to get to a dave matthews song, then pounded away and have no idea where i got from there. i still don't know if it was helpful or a hindrance to be so lost- hah. also a bummer, i forgot to stop the workout when i crossed the finish line (i set it for 10k and thought it would stop automatically) and so i ot gigged for an extra kilometer while i walked around getting water and a banana, messed up my time to be sure.

can't wait to get to my next race. also, gonna be training for the 18 miler with bobby c next october and have to bike to train for a triathlon with mama-bear. i'll be ready in a few months.

god bless, 2 more masses before graduation.

end of week 10

wow, 10 weeks done, 1 and a half to go. it has been a whirlwind of activity here, and by that i mean we have done the same things repeatedly. in an effort to stress the crap out of candidates, we had a 1,000 word essay based on a leadership book due yesterday (thursday) and a 5-slide powerpoint presentation with speaking notes. also, we had the fast three days of history which covered everything from just after the civil war to iraq and afghanistan, this culminated in an exam this morning. during the week, we had recovery ops all of our 'free' time. this include heavy barracks cleaning and was dominated by weapons cleaning. we got most of our weapons accepted on wednesday, but the machine guns (240B) got sent back. we had to re-clean all 22 of them last night, it makes it hard to study. well, anyway, that's over now.

the other challenge this week was that while we were in the field we did not get a chance to do any good pt. everyone felt out of shape. this morning was our 'graduation' run. this is a 4 mile run, but it's at a slow pace, just under 9 minutes per mile. unfortunately we had two people who had to be treated medically at the end of the run, one at the hospital. thankfully, they both will be ok.

today we''ll keep cleaning the barracks and do some minor paperwork. we have a briefing on leadership with the colonel this afternoon then that's it. the rumor is that we won't get released tonight, maybe we're being messed with, who knows. tomorrow i am running with a few guys in the oktoberfest 10k on base, this should be fun, it's a trail run in the woods- woot.

monday we have our senior inspection of uniforms, equipment and barracks. there is a pt test on tuesday. that's pretty much it, lots of paperwork and briefings. can't wait until next saturday to see danielle and the boys and mom.

getting there

man, it's been a tough week, and it's only wednesday morning and we had monday off until 5:00 pm. hah. weapons maintenance has been going non-stop; me, personally, i'm really close. two little trouble spots, and i should be good by lunch time today.

we started history part two yesterday. it's just as boring as history one was, but compressed. for example, we did all of the time between the end of the civil war to the end of world war one in 3 hours. then all of wwii in 3 hours after lunch. it's crazy. today we did all of korea and vietnam up through 1975.

our test is on friday. our inspection- class a uniform, equipment issued to us, etc. was rescheduled from tomorrow to monday (yessssss!) and next week will be all paperwork and a pt test.

my good friend mike, with whom i went to basic and came here with, got stopped by the mp's, with two friends of his on sat night. even though they were not arrested, they have been removed from our class and will start over on day 1. the next company to class up will start in two and a half weeks, right after we graduate. i feel really bad for him, but he's taking it well. ironically, over in headquarters he will get the weekends off, but we may have restrictions this weekend because of the incident.

i got a go on my weapon late morning, finally. things are looking up...

rodger dodger

hello there sports fans! we have cleaned and cleaned and were finally released around 2100 (9pm) this evening. we will draw weapons again on monday to finish cleaning them. go figure. tuesday, we start history 2.p it will be hard but not impossible; heck, nothing is.

today, we cleaned and cleaned again and etc etc, reference my last post if you don't think we cleaned weapons a lot- lol.

this weekend i will clean my field gear and get ready for my last 2-3 weeks here at ocs. i am excited to be done, more excited to see danielle, danny, bobby and mo c. it will be a good time. i hope fort lee rocks. i'm sure we'll love it.

roger, out.

field work complete

phew. it was a pretty good time, out in the field at mcbride's bridge. i received my second 'go' for leadership, executing a flanking assault on an objective replete with bunkers as the squad leader. 2 for 2, yay me. actually, a few people did not do so well and are headed back to hq to join the next company and try leadership lanes again. i would not like to have to repeat any part of the course, but especially not weeks 8 and 9 with new people, it will be tough for them; i wish them the best of luck.

we got in last night and cleaned weapons. then we got up at 0330 this morning, drew out the weapons, and went on a 10 mile ruck march. four poor souls in my platoon fell back a little ways and will have to repeat the march, this is terrible and hopefully will get overturned, they made good time despite the lag.

after the march we had an mre for breakfast (sucks) and cleaned weapons. then we broke to take our platoon and class photos. fun. then we cleaned weapons. then dinner, then we cleaned weapons. i dropped the firing pin retaining pin for my m16 tonight in the grass. this is a ridiculously small piece and i thought i was in a real jam. fortunately i remembered that i had a magnet up in my locker and was able to find it, in the dark, wow. tomorrow, we will clean weapons.

my family will be here in two weeks and a day, this thought carries me forward. we have a three day weekend assuming the weapons pass inspection tomorrow, that's a nice thought too. it's getting closer and closer to the end of this course, woo-hoo.

love you all, peace.

refit 2

having just returned to the barracks from a week in the field, i am feeling particularly grimy as i write this update. flx2 (field leadership exercise) began this past week with squad stx (situational training exercises). the army loves acronyms, obviously. a squad stx is a chance to show your leadership skills in 'real' situations. one squad leader plans a mission based on a platoon level order and briefs the squad. another squad leader takes over and executes the mission. it was a blast. my platoon was opposition fighters on monday (lots of naps in between runs), ran lanes or stx on tuesday, had duty/security on wednesday, lanes again on thursday and opfor- naps again- today. it was a good week and went by pretty quick. i was personally only evaluated once, i volunteered to go first on tuesday morning. i received a 'go' and that took the pressure off for the week.

the food stunk, we all got sick of mre's, pooping in port-a-johns is no fun, the shentunt started to reek, etc. typical field environment; but it really was fun. we go back out sunday afternoon and will finish in the field on thursday. then its back to class in week 10. as for this weekend, we aren't allowed off post, but we can go to the px to refit and get our stuff cleaned.

we have hit some ocs milestones, we're into october, we're over 2/3 done, we have less than a month to go, etc. my favorite one is that my mom and family will be here in three weeks!!

next week i should get my orders and i'll find out when we're moving to virginia. lots of excitement!