The week crawls along, today being a Tuesday. It's hot, incredibly so lately. Good weather to be wearing a full uniform and beret in? Perhaps not. There was some talk of going back to the patrol caps we used prior to berets being used, but so far no word on that. (This is Army-wide, not just our unit). The patrol caps do seem a little more practical, and functional. Berets with a dress uniform, which is not designed for combat, are another story.
At any rate, today was the change of command, or responsibility, for the 696th's First Sergeant. Most of us were in attendance, and set up camo nets for shade, as the sun was pretty potent. These would be the same camo nets we inventoried a couple months ago, just in case you were wondering. (Didn't think so). At any rate, someone who will remain nameless (you know which platoon you are... douchebags) put them back into the truck and back to our storage cage messed up eight ways to Sunday. So that means we now have to lay them out in the hot sun tomorrow and put them together the right way, the way they were supposed to be put in there in the first place! Oh well, no sense getting too stressed about it. We can't all exude excellence, as we do on a regular basis. Another thing that occurred to me today- if you are looking for me in the motor pool, don't assume I'm sitting in the office holding my breath waiting for you to come find me! Believe it or not, there are more pressing things than waiting for you to show up at some unspecified time. However, if I told you I would be in the motor pool, guess where I more than likely am? And don't spend two seconds looking in the office door (where I'm not) and then say you couldn't find me. Chances are I'm out where the trucks are. You know, those big bulky wheeled jobs that I'm qualified to operate and you're not? Yeah, those ones.
Okay, now that I've unloaded all my venom on that one, all in all it was a pretty good day. I'm already beginning to like this new First Sergeant, as he seems to have an incredible ability to cut through the BS that seems to accumulate around us. We can only hope the trend continues! Interestingly, in our battalion, we are the only unit- the others are what are called batteries, composed of a couple units. And we support all of them with our trucks, cooks and mechanics. But then again, being an artillery unit, the batteries are primarily concerned with artillery. But we're still cooler. And I kind of like this new First Sergeant's goal- let's make the rest of these guys look bad when compared to how overwhelmingly cool we are. There was talk of what I remember as being called a Ranger run back in basic- you have two five-gallon jugs full of water, approximate weight 60-65 lbs, that need to make it across the finish line, about a mile away. You may or may not be in full gear (battle rattle, as it's known), and carrying a weapon. Because once those water jugs cross the line, it's time to shoot a qualification round with your rifle. The rifle weighs something on the order of 7 pounds, so this is a pretty tough, but very rewarding training exercise! There's another event called Fit to Fight, where you do a ruck march, then a PT test, and I'm not sure what all else. The PT test, at least the old one, consisted of two minutes of pushups, two minutes of situps, then a two-mile run. Too easy! At least, if it's something you want to do. If you have to do it, it kind of sucks. But if you really want to be out there kicking ass, it goes pretty smoothly. Besides, anything to show off in front of the batteries.
On a sadder note, I hear there was a shooting at Hartford Distributors- strange, so often these news stories seem like they're happeining to someone else, but I know where Hartford Distributors is, and used to process incoming shipments when I worked as a receiver for a grocery store, way back when. Sad, that these things happen. Although I think the world is not quite as scary a place as the news would have us believe. But then again, who knows? I just live in my own little corner and try to hold things down here, and hope the rest of the world does the same. Perhaps in time there will be a way to prevent things like this from happening- everyone, it seems, needs someone to confide in, and someone to trust. My thoughts and hopes are with those people and their families today- there's usually a better solution. Try to see past the illusion, pervasive though it may be.
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