Hey everybody!
Got home a little while ago from this weekend's drill and thought I'd stop by.
The drill was today, but most of us decided to camp out at the facility overnight since it is a long drive for a lot of them. Our 1SG lives in Florida now, but drives up here to stay with his unit. Our batallion Chaplain Major lives in TN, but still drives down on Sunday to spend time with us. Second Batallion, second to none!
It was a fun, though hot, weekend. The building we use at Georgia Public Safety Training Center is not air conditioned. Last night we just killed some downtime, grilling out, drinking beer, staying up late. I said screw sleeping in the building, it'll be cooler outside. So I dug my air mattress out of my 3-day pack and set it up on the back porch without a tent or sleeping bag. And I was right. It was cooler outside. Eventually. Like at about 0200 or so. And once I accepted all the damn bugs, I got a couple hours sleep. The temperature was still bearable when our 1SG started blowing his whistle at 0400.
This morning we had a joint land nav exercise with a local CERT (Community Emergence Response Team, http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/) Close to 20 showed up and were divided up into smaller 4-person teams. Team Two was called out and the S3 SGT looked at me and said "Team Two is yours, Private."
Oh. It's a TRAINING exercise. Thanks for telling me in advance.
So I got to take charge of 4 civilians on a land nav course a little over a mile long through very dense woods in very hilly terrain. Civilians who had only had classroom time, and apparently not much of that.
They were lucky. They wore street clothes. We were in full ACU's (think long sleeves in 90+ degree Georgia heat with 90+ percent humidity) plus had our LBE vests on. I do like my LBE vest though. It has a compartment in the back for a Camelbak hydration bladder.
My team did ok, with only a little "guidance". I only had to stop them once, when one member and his pace counter went off in nearly opposite directions while the 3rd member with the compass who was supposed to be keeping them on a certain azimuth just stood there with his face hanging out not saying a word. To make it a perfect near-eff-up, my Brigade Command Sergeant Major had decided to tag along with MY team to see how I'd do. He never said a word. I let them go about 10 meters, looked at him, he just rolled his eyes. I told the stationary to call them back and REMINDED (caps intended) them of the instructions I'd given them before we started.
Minor deviations on a 185 meter leg of a dense forest land nav course aren't acceptable. Trust me. Try running a course late at night with red-filtered flashlights looking for markings that in daylight are flourescent orange.
After that, they 'got it' and did fairly well for beginners.
Apparently I'm doing something right, as the NCO's are pushing me to (pardon the Witness lingo, but in military context it is sorta funny) reach out as one would to become a Ministerial Servant. Last night our S3 SGT assigned me to put together a PT regimen. Then this afternoon when we were discussing BN matters, assigned me to prepare to teach a radio communications class at next month's FTX if the regular instructor can't make it. And since he gave me the assignment, that means the regular instructor WON'T make it.
The S3 was sort of a jerk to me when I first started, but I guess I've done something right.
Upcoming missions were announced, one of which is a support mission at Fort Stewart where we will work with combat troops of the Army and NG, I'm definitely going for that one. We get to play the part of hostiles in one of a couple of Middle Eastern conflicts.
But you know what really made my day?
On the way home, in uniform as we don't change out of them until we actually get home, I stopped by Kroger to pick up a big fat sirloin for dinner. As I'm standing in the checkout line, I feel a tug at my sleeve. I turn to see a goth-looking kid of about 16 or 17 with hair down to his ass looking at me. He says nothing, just shakes my hand.