its never easy

Well as always with me it is a very interesting time I can now as an E4 say I have flat out refused an E6 and not only did not get in trouble but also got an apoligy from him as well. It was an intense situation and I'm not gonna lie as I was walking away from it I was holding back tears (something that does not happen to me much) so basically the situation was that the night before this we were all given a specific order not to fire our weapons the next day by our staff sargent dickerson well that next morning we convoyed to another part of the base then when we got there about 630 am we were standing near the vehicles waiting to be told what to do next and I got waved over away from the group by an oc/t staff sargent ( oc/t means observe, control and train) so he asks me if I have any ammo and the answer was yes which I told him then he asked to see it and of course all my stuff was on the other side of the humvees from everyone so I procede to go to me equipment and show him that I do have ammo. He then tells me to put a mag into my weapon. By now I was wondering what was going on and why I would be being told to do this stuff but then when I finally put my mag in he tells me to load and fire my weapon. I was shocked by this order ad looked at him for a few seconds with so much running through my mind I can't even explain it all but I told him now which suprised him but then a battle insued between us in which I had no back up or friends and was thuroughly reminded by him that I was disobeying a direct order from an nco ( non commisioned officer) I even offered him my weapon to fire for himself "if it is such a big deal" but he would not do it he said I had to. so finally it got so loud and heated that other people came over and rescued me from himand started to drag me off to chow...I was so shaken by everything and not even sure if I had done the right thing that as I walked away I was fighting back tears so I stoped to gather myself for a minute and a first sargent ( I think is an E9) came over and asked what happened I explained my self and the whole situation and my previous orders from my staff sargent and he told me that I did the right thing and made the right decision....at the end of the day the other staff sargent apologized and I was even called a here by ssg dickerson in front of the whole detachment for sticking to my guns and following his orders no matter what! Totally awesome cause he would not normaly say someting like that!
Btw if there are any questions cause I didn't explain well just ask!

yes its been a while

Wow soooo clearly it has been a while since i have posted on this blog and a lot has happened since then! For starters if any of you didn't know I am deploying to Afghanistan for a year starting in december. Because of this looming event in the horizon I have been training with my platoon/detachment (12 man group) what seems to me non stop. I am currently in FT Mcoy WI since july 9th and untill early aug. Comming up I also have my regular drill in aug and sept then will be gone most of oct for more training at ft dix then in november we begin our premobalization training right before we leave the country. Today july 20th hs been the 2nd time I have touched a PLS (which is the primary vehicle to my job in the army a big 10 wheeled truck) since my AIT training last summer funny huh? You would think I would get more stick time but oh well I did real well and impressed the others with how smothly I operated it which was nice. Also the weather here is like nothing I have ever seen before anywhere the last few days have been high 90s wth 100% humidity something I could have never imagined even after training at ft knox in KY and then ft lenardwood in MI as soon as I step out side i am sweating and the barrel of my m16 is wet its really weird.

crazy week

Well here I am again sitting in csc 101 about to graduate from college and I am learning how to proficiently use word. Maybe its just me but I find this just a little silly but apparently I need it to graduate so ill just go along with it. So speaking of graduation I just turned in my application for a degree this afternoon and found out that they no longer have my Acceptance to the major paper anymore so I need to redo that as well….but I have ordered my cap and gown which was exciting and now me graduating actually is real to me!and i broke my nose.....

first post from school

So guess its been a little while since I have updated this and im not really sure what made me think about it other than the fact that I am sitting here in my computer lab for CSC 101 and all we have gone over is really basic silly things that I am sure my 12 year old brother Stephen knows. I feel like things have been going really well lately I am a little worried about my car and the transmission troubles I have been having with it but throughout my career as a car owner I have learned that I have absolutely no luck with cars I look forward to the day where I have a car that I like that runs without any problems for more than 6 months. Oh well someday I guess. I have been enjoying my classes so far and for the life of me cannot believe that I am finishing my last sem it is so weird I am so excited to be done with chapter in my life but also a little nervous to have to move on from it as well. My room is finally organized to a point where I am happy with it and I love the fact that I have no roommate so the only mess I ever have is my own! I am really hungry right about now and it is only 536 and class does not end until 630 I just reached into my bad to grab and eat the banana I brought and realized that I probably should not have left it in my room for so long before now haha. I have so much army and internship paperwork to complete that’s been hanging over my head to long but I have been so on the go I have not been able to get to them but then I realize that I do have the time if I made it but I have been enjoying hanging out with people since I got back so much cause I missed all my friends over break that I have not had the time in almost a week since I have been back to sit down and do them! I know it won’t happen tonight because as soon as I get out of class Dan and I are working out then im going to eat and after that I guess got suckered into watching Grey's Anatomy w some friends followed by the Office well that’s enough for now and im sure if I have a computer in front of me during a boring class again I will write some more until then later!

Wow so lots of things have happened since i have last posted anything on here...i easily passes my fist written test on wed the 26th but even after all kinds of in class coaching 3 of the 12 in our platoon managed to fail it. Because of how i had done on the test, another guy and i were chosen to help the 3 to study all that night to be ready for a retest the next morning. That day was really crazy for me because i was given the job of being class leader which meant that i was responsible for everyone in the platoon and keeping everything organized while making sure everything that needed to be accomplished was taken care of, also we got our equipment/gear that morning and it had to be put together by the following morning......Well i somehow managed to get everything done including actually putting my own gear together (imagine that) and we started driving the next day. one of the few vehicles we drive as 21 victors is called the M1075 PLS (Palitized Loading System) it is a massive 10 wheeled truck that is basically a flatbed truck with a crane built onto it so that it can pick up anything from flat racks loaded with ammunition to dump beds to concrete mixers all in all a very massively universal truck. at the end of that day 2 of the 3 pp retesting had passed and we were becoming very familiar with loading and unloading as well as driving around the PLS. The next few days we became more familiar with the PLS and the final one person who could not pass the written test managed to pass. Then the on Friday the 4th i passed the load/unload portion of the test and now all i need to do is pass the driving test on Mon the 8th. Passing will be easy because i have already driven the route and did well so as long as i dont hit anyone or something like that i am all set. After we all pass the driving tests we begin working with concrete all week which is going to suck because the last few days have been in the high 90s with no sign of it getting any cooler. We gave also been pt-ing like crazy here (even more than at basic) and i have been doing more on my own i scored a 267 on Tuesday the 1st with my best run time and sit ups ever and i want to push myself to a minimum of 180 (at least 90 points in each of the 3 events) with the ultimate goal of getting a 300 (perfect score) on our last pt test on Monday the 14th so we will see what happens with that. I am doing well time is for the most part flying by and i will be done in record time and looking forward to a summer in shorts and a tee shirt!

last time online for a while...

well the waiting is about to come to an end I am finally going to be able to move out of the bay with all the screw ups that i got put in because i got here so early, also my reception starts tomorrow i will get issued all my gear and spend the rest of the day doing paper work. then starting Tue and continuing to Thurs or Fri I will be in classes and taking written tests on the material. Then next Mon i have my first PT test and after i pass that i will get my computer and laptop back ( which i either loose tonight or sometime tomorrow....After all that i will have 2 weeks or so to work with the different construction vehicles i will be driving i will finish up with a week or so of combatives training than i am DONE HERE!

training at ft lost in the woods

so i am sitting here in the USO ( a place for all soldiers to chill out at on the weekends) at ft lost in the woods otherwise known as FT Leonard Wood, not really doing much just enjoying being on my laptop do what i want to do and not having to be waiting on my toes for the next Sargent to walk in and come up with some random odd job for me to preform so i look busy. I have been here for 8 days so far and apparently i got randomly sent here early because my class of 21 victors does not begin until this Mon something i look forward to because although my training is only 4+ weeks long and i am getting payed just to sit around here i just cannot wait to start and then be done then maybe be able enjoy this summer a little bit and even get a tan ( something that did not happen last summer at FT Knox)