Bendrr

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Posts by Bendrr

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  8

  The Way of the Kick and the Punch

  by ColdRedRain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just got my blackbelt in tkd!

  after 5 years, 9 girlfriends, 5 jobs, 2 presidents, i finally got my bb.

  now, it's on to another martial art.....

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  Bendrr

  Hoo-Ah!
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  7

  Finally got registered

  by Sargeant Pepper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  finally got round to registering.. i couldn't login using my old jwd details and so had to change my username slightly.. anyway it's great to be back.

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  Bendrr

  You spelled Sergeant wrong.
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  12

  Bendrr Checking In

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

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  Bendrr

  BTS, looks like Florida doesn't have a State Guard / SDF. You could always cross the state line though. 5 BN is always recruiting.

  And I may just take you up on your offer one of these days. But if you blow a whistle in my ear at 0400 I'd go to jail for what would result.
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  12

  Bendrr Checking In

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

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  Bendrr

  Hey there Mary!

  I'd only enjoy it more if we actually got paid. But I didn't sign up for the money, or lack thereof. We always make jokes about getting a raise or "just take that out of my check".

  Like I said on an earlier thread I made about GSDF. I passed up on the opportunity to serve a long time ago when I was a dumb kid. Now I have the opportunity to make good on that debt I owe and I'm going to make the best of it in whatever way I can serve.
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  12

  Bendrr Checking In

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

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  Bendrr

  Never too late, Burn.

  Not sure which state you live in, but if yours has a State Guard / State Defense Force, go for it.

  It doesn't matter how old you are or what you can or cannot do, what matters is Parati Servire. Ready to serve. That's the GaSDF motto.
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  12

  Bendrr Checking In

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

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  Bendrr

  Oh and Chickpea, you'd love our BN and BDE CSM's. Both train with Blackhorse (2 BN). Both are 'Nam combat vets. When we had our orientation flights in a UH-60, the BDE CSM bitched to hell and back when the crew chief closed the side doors.

  When the 1SG showed up to open up our building at jipstick, BDE's CSM was already there. Sound asleep on his issue cot. He came out and drank with us wearing his ACU undershirt and a pair of pajama bottoms. Cussed up a storm in front of the female CPL, then at breakfast made us stop and told her to say grace.

  They're old school. If you eff up, anybody else would just give a stern reminder. CSM Simmons will demand push-ups and put you on KP. Even the officers show him respect.
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  12

  Bendrr Checking In

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

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  Bendrr

  Chickpea, y'all didn't have the beads? Oh wait, I still haven't gotten either the beads or knotted up some 550 cord. I just keep count in my head and use a notepad. I've got my 100 meters dialed in to 62-64 paces depending on terrain but I hate trying to do the math in my head in the field.

  something else altogether to be part
  of something bigger than yourself
  and organized to carry out a mission
  innit, blud? one of those "if i have to
  explain it..." kind of things

  You know it! The mission doesn't succeed unless you personally MAKE it succeed. Somebody's always going to slack off, you've got to be the one to do what it takes to make it work. (remind me to tell you privately about the YCA Graduation last weekend)

  I had a potential recruit come join us today. Someone I've known for a long time. He's prior service, Air Farce. Sergeant at Cheyenne Mountain even. He got assigned to a different team and had never learned land nav in the Air Farce. (bash away!) So when we get done, he tells me "I was handed a compass and told to use it! I don't know how to do this!"

  Um, here's a clue. If you don't know, ask. You attend drills to learn, and to learn from your eff-ups. Lord knows I've gotten yelled at many times.
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  12

  Bendrr Checking In

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

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  Bendrr

  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.
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  19

  How you can help shut down Iranian Government websites

  by Elsewhere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the ways a website can be shut down is a technique call ddos (distributed denial of service).

  the way this works is very simple: if you have enought people loading a particual website over and over again the web server gets overwhelmed and cannot function... effectivly shutting down the website.. you can help do this to the iranian government websites by loading the following page:.

  http://www.pagereboot.com/?url=http://www.irib.ir&refresh=1.

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  Bendrr

  I tend to agree with Simon on this one.
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  2

  Finished IET!!!!!!!

  by Bendrr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm operating on less than 4 hours sleep since 0530 yesterday morning, so y'all bear with me.. first things first.

  the converse acu boots were comfortable but hot.

  too much padding around the ankles and in the tongue.

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  Bendrr

  I'm operating on less than 4 hours sleep since 0530 yesterday morning, so y'all bear with me.

  First things first. The Converse ACU boots were comfortable but hot. Too much padding around the ankles and in the tongue. Plus, I was told by one Sergeant that they're not regulation. However that was overruled by the Btn's Sergeant Major.

  We can bend the regs a little since we do supply our own gear and we don't get paid to wear it. I think the exact ruling I was given on the unauthorized matter was "fuck that! wear them!"

  This weekend was mostly CPR, first aid, and land navigation. We did two land nav exercises Saturday. All I can say is thank God for Camelbacks! One of the exercises was a nighttime land nav course and we had to use red-filtered flashlights.

  We got back from the final exercise last night about 2340 and got our assignents for fire watch. In other words, guard duty. Yes, that is a regulation. Someone must be up and on duty at all times. I got the 2400-0100 shift and then the 0300-0400 shift. The first shift was easy enough, a SFC from the National Guard 148th Support Batallion was spending the weekend so he kept me company. The 0300 shift was a bitch though.

  The food was top notch, as always. And yes, we had shit on a shingle for breakfast this morning. Our platoon Sgt gave me a plate of sausages to take home. You may not get paid, but in Blackhorse (2nd Btn) you do eat well.

  Graduation was at 1530 this afternoon. I received my "mosquito wings". That's the Private stripe, 1 chevron. Breaks? What breaks? Oh that's right! The schedule was just a suggestion. We had to practice D&C because 5th Bde's commander attended today's graduation. So there was lots of marching at half step, column right, column left, facing movements, and of course that wonderful about face.

  And of course yours truly, as squad leader, had to run around to the various NCO's and officers to nail down some details on protocol when they were left out of our instructions. My guys were asking me when we practiced, so it was my job. The details got worked out and the ceremony went off without a hitch.

  No drill this month. Our scheduled drills are the last Sunday of every month, but there's not one for this month. Unless *something happens*, the next time I put on my ACU will be for our FTX at the end of May, which will be a 3-day weekend spent camping out in the field and no one is telling us what sort of training will take place, only that we shouldn't plan on getting any sleep.

  Oh and our 1Sgt advised us in formation to start eating a lot of cheese 3 days beforehand because taking a leisurely dump won't be an option.