:: Monday, February 13, 2006 ::

What a hoot

So drill was ... umm ... fun. I stayed with SFC McDougal (he got promoted for anyone that's counting) in his travel trailer and that's what made it fun. We got some good bonding time. Of course, we'll be spending the next year or so together so I wasn't all that important, but oh well. It made drill interesting.

On Saturday we drove from Durant to Ada to Shawnee to McAlester to Durant. That totalled up to around ... a few hundred miles probably. We did some work inbetween cities. In Ada and Shawnee we got some paperwork taken care of. In McAlester we just ate dinner. So about 6 hours of driving for two hours of work. Sounds kinda wasteful doesn't it? Welcome to the US government.

I was packing things for our deployment yesterday, mainly office supplies and stuff, and I found four giant tape dispensers sitting in boxes in cabinets in a tiny corner in the armory. Each probably cost $40. Then I found all kinds of other wasteful stuff, too much for me to really remember what all it was. I just know that the government wastes way too much money. For example, the units all have things called PLGGRs (I don't remember what that stands for). They are basically really high tech GPS systems. However, the LTC that commands the 180 decided he didn't want to take those, but instead buy a whole lot of civilian GPS systems that cost $300 each. Yeah, we'll see about that one.

My brain is still frazzled from drill. I didn't do a whole lot of stuff, but I learned quite a bit. Some of it was stuff that I learned in AIT and this weekend was like a refresher course, but some of it was new. Moreover, it is going to take a long time for me to get used to being at a staff position in a battalion rather than an armorer in a company.

See, what I used to do was sit around and issue weapons, clothing, any random supplies that anyone needed. Now what I do is sit around and handle paperwork. See, I'm one level above where I used to be (but still rank and everything, just different job). At the company level, we (CPL Holman and myself) would issue out clothing and such. Now at the battalion level, we (SFC McDougal, three other guys, and myself) oversee the companies and make sure they are doing everything right. We help with inventories, inspections, issuing things, and other stuff. So this job will be good for me if I happen to stumble upon an AGR job with a company when I get back.

But I don't know what I am doing when I get back, so who knows. I would like to go to school, but we'll see.

Well, I guess I'm done for now. Stay safe out there.

God is good. All the time.
Peace

:: Ben 9:14 AM [+] ::
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