OK, I was just kidding.
Last three weeks have been really busy, lots of running around, getting tactically proficient, and ensuring that my mental and physical health is up to par.
Lot's of hurry up and wait, a grand staple of Army bureaucracy. A lot of waiting in one spot and then moving over to another spot for some more waiting.
Got my small pox vaccination, oh boy, that's a lot of fun. In fact, I got hit with 6 different needles on medical day. I'd think that this is a version of hell. Let's wait in line for hours and hours in order to endure something that really sucks and then move on to the next line, rinse, repeat.
Then we had to ensure we were able to point our weapons in the general direction of an enemy and squeeze the trigger. No problems there, but for me there never has been. Being able to hit what I'm aiming at is in my genes, apparently.
Then we had CONVOY LIVE FIRE. Oh boy, that's exciting stuff! Riding around in Humvees how they are SUPPOSED to be used, not these stupid 'hummers' you see that never leave the road. Training to react to combat situations.
One of the highlights was the humvee rollover training where they put you in a simulator and roll it over! Great fun. Then we unbuckled our seatbelts from upside down, flipped ourselves over and got out. We also did a 'side egress'.
Now we're getting into our job specific training. Less to talk about there, mostly boring computer stuff.
As for me, myself, and I? I'm doing well. It's too busy to think about how much it actually sucks working 12+ hour days every day. Hopefully the rest of the year will pass by just as quickly.
Monday, September 28, 2009
3 Down, 49 to Go!!!
3 Weeks into the year and I'm still here. What a great time I've been having. So... um... Yay.
And stuff.
We went through another OPSEC class, because they have to hammer these things into you. OPSEC is Operations Security. Basically, the concept is that there are people who are kind of smart and can figure out what we're doing based on what we're doing. Its pretty complicated.
Anyhow, blogs are part of this whole thing. So, from here on out, I'm changing a few things. First off, all instance of Daniel Oliver will now be Heinrich Dumbledore. Instead of Afghanistan, I'm going to Munchkinland. We'll make other changes on the fly in the same spirit. Just keep up and everything will make sense.
Seriously, it's pretty important.
Which is why this is the last post of this blog.
And stuff.
We went through another OPSEC class, because they have to hammer these things into you. OPSEC is Operations Security. Basically, the concept is that there are people who are kind of smart and can figure out what we're doing based on what we're doing. Its pretty complicated.
Anyhow, blogs are part of this whole thing. So, from here on out, I'm changing a few things. First off, all instance of Daniel Oliver will now be Heinrich Dumbledore. Instead of Afghanistan, I'm going to Munchkinland. We'll make other changes on the fly in the same spirit. Just keep up and everything will make sense.
Seriously, it's pretty important.
Which is why this is the last post of this blog.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Settling in for Training
Well, now we're in lovely Washington State with a great view of Mt. Ranier...
That is, when it isn't raining. Today the clouds cleared out and we were able to see it in all of it's "Hi, I'm a mountain ALL BY MYSELF OUT HERE" glory.
Was nice for it to not rain, but the tradeoff is warm and muggy. Not the biggest fan of muggy, myself.
My time in San Antonio was all right. I stayed at this place called the Drury Inn. I liked it, was pretty nice for a hotel overlooking a scribble of highway intersections. My time in San Antonio was well spent, getting all of my paperwork sorted and my gear issued so that I could integrate with the unit.
OK, I'm lying. I didn't do ANY of that. Most of the Unit wasn't around and along with the 5 who were, I was tasked with loading up all the gear onto palettes for shipment. It was great, hauling Army gear in 100 degree heat. We cleared out an entire supply room with no air conditioning and moved the stuff into another building. Then we 'palettized' it.
The unit arrived just before we came out to Lewis and I had to move Hotels. The Crown Plaza isn't quite as nice as the Drury Inn. When shopping around for a cheap hotel, I'm going to recommend the latter.
It was neat watching everyone come in and the unit just kind of go nuts trying to sort out everyone's last minute stuff. The best was watching them try to build the schedule to accommodate everybody. In a lot of cases they double booked folks, with so little time for so much training. Then, when we went to one thing over another, what ended up happening in a few cases was that a trainer or training materials never arrived, so we weren't able to do it. In this way, we happily missed out on both required events.
The flight to Lewis was a fun time. We loaded buses and drove off to the Airport. Instead of going through security like a normal schlub, we just drove onto the tarmac. Then we got to watch while they loaded out bags. Of course, I didn't have any nice government issue equipment, so I kind of stood out from the crowd.
Hey, Tactical Red is certainly an approved combat color!
Or not.
So now we're landed and settling in. Our schedule is very haphazard. We learn what we need to do in the hours just before it, and it changes about a zillion times. What ends up happening is a lot of downtime between events where we chill out in the bay and nap or play card or write in our blogs.
So far I can't really complain. The everchanging 'hey you' nature of it is pretty annoying, but mostly it just means a lot of time to chill out.
Accommodations are FIRST
RATE! Single bay with a load of bunk beds. We've got about 20 people in our bay. Only 5 of them are snorers, so that's exciting.
It's fairly primitive, bathrooms include a big open shower bay, so we don't lose that lovely 'wide open spaces' feeling when we need to get clean.
However, we DO get internet for a moderate price, so I can stay connected, and that's really important.
In other news, Congratulations, Cousin Maureen on your marriage. I wish you the best of luck and send my love.
That's all for now. You'll have to excuse the picture quality because I'm using my crappy cell phone to take the pictures.
See you all later!
That is, when it isn't raining. Today the clouds cleared out and we were able to see it in all of it's "Hi, I'm a mountain ALL BY MYSELF OUT HERE" glory.
Was nice for it to not rain, but the tradeoff is warm and muggy. Not the biggest fan of muggy, myself.
My time in San Antonio was all right. I stayed at this place called the Drury Inn. I liked it, was pretty nice for a hotel overlooking a scribble of highway intersections. My time in San Antonio was well spent, getting all of my paperwork sorted and my gear issued so that I could integrate with the unit.
OK, I'm lying. I didn't do ANY of that. Most of the Unit wasn't around and along with the 5 who were, I was tasked with loading up all the gear onto palettes for shipment. It was great, hauling Army gear in 100 degree heat. We cleared out an entire supply room with no air conditioning and moved the stuff into another building. Then we 'palettized' it.
The unit arrived just before we came out to Lewis and I had to move Hotels. The Crown Plaza isn't quite as nice as the Drury Inn. When shopping around for a cheap hotel, I'm going to recommend the latter.
It was neat watching everyone come in and the unit just kind of go nuts trying to sort out everyone's last minute stuff. The best was watching them try to build the schedule to accommodate everybody. In a lot of cases they double booked folks, with so little time for so much training. Then, when we went to one thing over another, what ended up happening in a few cases was that a trainer or training materials never arrived, so we weren't able to do it. In this way, we happily missed out on both required events.
The flight to Lewis was a fun time. We loaded buses and drove off to the Airport. Instead of going through security like a normal schlub, we just drove onto the tarmac. Then we got to watch while they loaded out bags. Of course, I didn't have any nice government issue equipment, so I kind of stood out from the crowd.
Hey, Tactical Red is certainly an approved combat color!
Or not.
So now we're landed and settling in. Our schedule is very haphazard. We learn what we need to do in the hours just before it, and it changes about a zillion times. What ends up happening is a lot of downtime between events where we chill out in the bay and nap or play card or write in our blogs.
So far I can't really complain. The everchanging 'hey you' nature of it is pretty annoying, but mostly it just means a lot of time to chill out.
Accommodations are FIRST
RATE! Single bay with a load of bunk beds. We've got about 20 people in our bay. Only 5 of them are snorers, so that's exciting.It's fairly primitive, bathrooms include a big open shower bay, so we don't lose that lovely 'wide open spaces' feeling when we need to get clean.
However, we DO get internet for a moderate price, so I can stay connected, and that's really important.In other news, Congratulations, Cousin Maureen on your marriage. I wish you the best of luck and send my love.
That's all for now. You'll have to excuse the picture quality because I'm using my crappy cell phone to take the pictures.
See you all later!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Introduction
In 1996, I joined the U.S. Army as a private. Since then, I have spent time in Korea as a crewmember on a plane, Texas as a an overpaid 'general laborer', and Hawaii as an intelligence analyst, working my way up to the rank of Staff Sergeant.
In 2007, I left active Military service and moved to California to give being a civilian a shot. My wonderful partner, with whom a wedding ceremony is planned sometime in the nebulous 'future', accompanied me and together we began a new life.
But the recession took its toll on us. Between the economic situation and my own life errors (like not getting a college education), I found myself laid off from my civilian job as a Technology Markets Research Analyst and unable to find work, living on unemployment for over a year. I attempted to return to the Active Component, but even that turned out unsuccessful, as the recruiters had met their quotas and weren't interested in getting me back.
Then, in June, I informed my reserve command that I would be willing to mobilize on orders. My commander immediately jumped on it and told me I would be heading out near the end of September. I waited for official word (that is: Orders) but none came. Then on August 7th, I got orders attaching me to the 321st Military Intelligence Battalion (MI BN) based in Texas.
It didn't tell me what to do, where to go, or who to call. It said nothing about when or where we were going. I tried to contact the unit, but could not reach them. Finally, after emails and phone calls, I was contacted by the unit on August 19th and told I was flying on August 25th.
So that's what happened and now I am in San Antonio, meeting a lot of new people and reconnecting with some familiar faces.
I will be away from home for the next year. In an effort to keep people up to date, I am going to keep this blog. I will try to give an account of what's going on and how I'm doing. It will include my observations and opinions on what I see and do.
As an Intelligence Professional, I won't be going into a lot of detail about the specifics of my actual job. As a Military Professional, I will have to be careful of any satirical notes on the shenanigans that are bound to occur. However, I will endeavor to keep things humorous and give an accurate account, from my perspective, of the journey.
To my dear family and friends, to my Love and to the people I love, I look forward to seeing you all again, sometime in the later half of 2010.
Please keep myself, Alicia who will be without me for the duration, my family, my unit, and all of our Soldiers that are at risk in your prayers; send us your love and positive energy, attune your crystals to beam your chakras, and generally just wish us well.
In 2007, I left active Military service and moved to California to give being a civilian a shot. My wonderful partner, with whom a wedding ceremony is planned sometime in the nebulous 'future', accompanied me and together we began a new life.
But the recession took its toll on us. Between the economic situation and my own life errors (like not getting a college education), I found myself laid off from my civilian job as a Technology Markets Research Analyst and unable to find work, living on unemployment for over a year. I attempted to return to the Active Component, but even that turned out unsuccessful, as the recruiters had met their quotas and weren't interested in getting me back.
Then, in June, I informed my reserve command that I would be willing to mobilize on orders. My commander immediately jumped on it and told me I would be heading out near the end of September. I waited for official word (that is: Orders) but none came. Then on August 7th, I got orders attaching me to the 321st Military Intelligence Battalion (MI BN) based in Texas.
It didn't tell me what to do, where to go, or who to call. It said nothing about when or where we were going. I tried to contact the unit, but could not reach them. Finally, after emails and phone calls, I was contacted by the unit on August 19th and told I was flying on August 25th.
So that's what happened and now I am in San Antonio, meeting a lot of new people and reconnecting with some familiar faces.
I will be away from home for the next year. In an effort to keep people up to date, I am going to keep this blog. I will try to give an account of what's going on and how I'm doing. It will include my observations and opinions on what I see and do.
As an Intelligence Professional, I won't be going into a lot of detail about the specifics of my actual job. As a Military Professional, I will have to be careful of any satirical notes on the shenanigans that are bound to occur. However, I will endeavor to keep things humorous and give an accurate account, from my perspective, of the journey.
To my dear family and friends, to my Love and to the people I love, I look forward to seeing you all again, sometime in the later half of 2010.
Please keep myself, Alicia who will be without me for the duration, my family, my unit, and all of our Soldiers that are at risk in your prayers; send us your love and positive energy, attune your crystals to beam your chakras, and generally just wish us well.
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