This is probably going to be mostly poetry, but it'll be the things the occur to me to write down while at work... Please feel free to leave your comments in my Guestbook...
See the Roster
18 Mar. 01
You'd never imagine this, but Terminal Leave is awesome. I finally have the time to spend with the girls, to pick up hobbies, and to sleep in past 5am! What fun! So, Army life has rather picked up:)
I guess that I'll probably get to continue this...When Brent goes in, I can update from the civilian spouse side of things:) I guess that's about all. I'll let you know when I'm officially off all rosters:) Bye for now!
17 Jul. 00
Well, amazing what will go on without me updating, huh? Well, I missed all the fun this
summer...The 2 week long field exercise to Ft. Jackson, and later on, the month long exercise
in Texas. I missed these fun and exciting training exercises because I, once again, came up
positive for being pregnant, and my 1st Sergeant decided to keep me back at the company.
Which is the really cool and fun part about being pregnant. Unfortuneately, the baby's
supposed to be born a few weeks after the date I was supposed to get out, and the Army
won't cover it, so I extended for 6 months. It's not going to be too bad, other than not seeing
my family...I'll get four months of paid vacation. Oh, well.
Anyway, I have resigned myself to the inevitable. I'm stuck out here, and so are the kids and
Brent, so we're trying to make the best of it...At least we'll have a pretty good Christmas. And
we can get a bunch of bills paid off. So, it's not all horrid...
That's all for now. Hopefully, next update will be when I get out, and close this page forever!
11 Jan. 00
Remember how I said that my company was going to get me
trained as a mail clerk? I was dreaming...I'm far, far
to vital to my company for me to get the chance to do
something that I enjoy doing...Back to the motor pool
and the military vehicles, the field and the rest of
that rot...
I am so bummed out about it. So miserable. This is
the greatest disapointment yet. I truely hate the
Army...For those of you who enjoy it, please disreguard
this rant session, I am really sick of being here.
So, like, this is the lowest point in my military
experience...I guess I'll see you around if it changes
any...
08 Jan. 00
Well, guess what? It's the new millennium:), and new
things are happening to me. My company has decided to
send me to be trained as the new unit mail clerk. It's
pretty fun so far...I spend all day up at battalion,
and I don't have to PMCS any military vehicles (except
the mail truck) and I get out of things like details
and ceremonies. Plus, no more field!!! Unfortunately
for the Army, this break didn't come in time to convince
me that I should re-enlist. Especially since I know
for sure that there is no guarantee that I would get
put in the mail room again.
But, let me tell you, I totally love the mail room. I
get to spend all day sorting mail and redirecting it,
and there's a lot to do, and not a whole lot of
down-time, so I don't get bored much. It's wonderful.
I don't have to rush stuff, because there's enough
time to work at my pace, but there's not so little to
do that I get totally bored and want to sleep. Besides,
there's lots of magazines to flip through:) So, I have
found something in the Army that doesn't totally suck.
Bye now:)
The following two entries I wrote while in the field from 06 Dec. through 10 Dec.
I think I write more when I'm in the field. I'm not
sure this is a good thing. On one hand, it's nice to
have the time to write. On the other hand, it means
there is enough time to get bored, and that's time I
could spend with my family. I think that's the worst
part of being in the military-while I understand that
I can't go home every five minutes that we have down
time, I hate spending hours just hanging around waiting
for someone to decide we're done for the time being and
can take care of personal things. I know that my morale
would skyrocket if the time we spend here was better
managed. I constantly hear that there's going to be
changes, but it all stays the same.
*
I got a new commander. Yeah, another change of command ceremony, but company level isn't as bad as anything higher. Still looking forward to getting out someday (not fast enough, but the time passes, I suppose). Conley did say "I told you so..." big suprise there, huh? Other than that, I'm looking at going to the field in the next couple of weeks (YUCK!!! I want to get out!!!) And then having half day schedules, which means I go to PT and come home after lunch. Not to bad, huh? And as the year 2000 rolls in, I have 8 months and counting. Not days or even weeks yet, but counting still...And even with that short of an ammount of time, I may still have to go to a JRTC, month long field problem. (See "YUCK" note above...) I guess that about completes my notes for here today...Other than I'll grin and bear it, for a little longer, at least...See ya:)
Well, well, well...I guess Conley'd say "I told you so..." I've decided to get out when my time comes up. It's been kinda fun and interesting, but I'm done. No more Army work for me. I think I'll go back to being a college student and let Brent make the money. Also, I'm currently working shift from 4pm to midnight. Not bad, but I only see Rebekah for about 2 and a half hours a day. I kinda miss her. That's all for right now...
I had fun at the Change of Command Ceremony. It was
pretty hot, but we did well, and Pass and Review is
always fun...(That's where you march as a formation in
front of the new command...)
Anyway, I have survivied a night stay in the field...I
guess I'd better get used to the idea that I'm stuck
being field deployable...We went out on Tuesday and
stayed the night until Wednesday. We set a few fires
in the forest, and practiced being volunteer
fire-fighters to put them out. We hunted 2nd Platoon
and were in turn hunted by 2nd Platoon. And the
Commander gassed us with Riot Gas. Some fun, huh? It
actually was. We rucked a few blocks out, and then
returned to the company by HummV
to clean weapons, which isn't
fun, but it could have been worse...We still got home
at a pretty normal time. I guess that's all for now...
See ya later:)
No sling-load. Bummer. It got cancelled because the
helicopters are all grounded for maintainance. I had
so wanted to report my attempts at looking like I was
on M*A*S*H...Which is what it looks like on video,
kinda. We got to watch the last sling load mission
when we were preparing for this one that got cancelled.
At least they told us before we had the trucks ready.
Anyway, since I'm not doing the sling-load, I get to
march in a Change of Command Ceremony. Some fun. We
stand around while people make long speaches, then
march past the audience. On the other hand, we get
released immediately following weapons turn-in, which
means we get most of the day off. I guess it's not so
bad a trade. I'll get back to this later:)
I venture forth into the field again at the end of this month. No more "No-field Profile", and a new platoon sergeant on top of that. Maybe I can get out of the office? My current platoon sergeant is leaving us on Friday. He promises we'll miss him...But maybe his predecessor will not learn of my computer skills:) I think it's unlikely, though, there are to many remaining NCOs who know of my typing skills. I also get to participate in a sling-load operation, which is where we hook Hummers to a helicopter and go flying with them. Some fun, huh? So I guess I get to try to be the asset to the Army that some people in my company want me to be...
Another huge downfall of the "No-field Profile"...I can't go out and play paintball with everyone else in my company, because I might break out. And, I don't care how much fun it is while doing it, three hours of paintball cannot be worth three weeks of itching...Which is what I'd suffer if I did go. If only they'd let us play in the hollowed out, mock cities...Then I could go and get welts right along with everyone else!
For those of you who actually stop by here occaisionally, I thought I'd mention some of the things that I actually do, and do fairly well. Having been banned from the field has it's downsides (this next week they go out to the woods to learn to make boobie traps and learn to be more effective soldiers-sounds like fun to me...) I have started to take up things called correspondance courses, which are composed of work books sent to me, and when I feel that I have mastered the information within, I send the completed test sheet back. Therefore, while they are gone this week, I will still have a thing or two to do. I also spend my time typing up things for my platoon. Basically, I have turned into a fairly fit, M16 qualified secretary...Who also knows a few discusting things about maintaining vehicles (for example, I now know HOW tires get on the rims...YUCK!)
Here are some observations that I've made since
coming out of the field with a no-field profile...
These Are the Reasons I Should Run Screaming From
The Army ASAP...
Beware...Beware...For the things you are
about to read will lead to certain depression...
JUST KIDDING!!!
I wrote this stuff at work, on days that had been hard
and the guys were really being obnoxious.
---------------------------
I don't work to be the same
Maybe that's my problem
I make myself a target
By being unique
An individual
Even in uniform...
I couldn't hide in a crowd.
----------------------------
They've called me "Milady"
But also "Pansy"
I suppose I bring out
The chivalry
And condemnation
In them.
Thank you for visiting. I'll probably put more stuff
up here, if I don't find it too depressing...
This frog will take you back to my wierd world...
