This week started out pretty rough. I was in the ER for a few hours Sunday. I though my cellulitis in my legs were flaring up again. I was on the couch all day Saturday and Sunday morning with cold sweats, hot flashes, a fever and painfully sore/achey legs. When I finally went to the ER they sent me home with some painkillers and couldn't really figure out what was wrong.
Monday
I cant remember much that happened this day. I was in a fog because I still felt pretty shitty so I stayed in my office and just did paperwork and sent emails.
Tuesday
Started working on an Excel document to track the 200+ vehicles in our motor pool. Have to figure out every vehicles serial number, registration number and bumper number. Its going to take me a while to make sure we have them all. I was also assigned by Capt B to make sure that our S4, Supply, section is keeping on top of the various details we need to ensure the unit redeploys home successfully. This includes ensuring we can move all their weapons from the airfield to the units buildings, ensuring all the returning enlisted soldiers have access to barracks rooms etc. Its a lot to put on just 1 SPC and 1 PFC so I need to make sure they get all the help they can.
Wednesday
Not much happened this day. Same old drill a lot of paperwork, emailing, and running paperwork between buildings. But I did finally feel 100% from the weekend. I did have to run to a cardiologist on base as a follow up because the ER thought my resting heart rate was too high. The cardiologist had me take an EKG and my heart is apparently really healthy and he thought they might have been overcautious. So some good news at least.
Thursday
This was a pretty relaxed day like most of my Thursdays. Went by quick and it was the last day before a 4 day weekend so basically just spent the day getting busy work done before the weekend. After that we had the Easter Egg Hunt for all the soldiers in the squadrons children. It went well had about 20 kids show up and over 500 eggs for all of them. One of my PFC's dressed up as the Easter bunny and did a great job dealing with all the kids from a 6 month old up to about age 7. It was a pretty good way to end a week that started out rough.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
April 7th-11th
Monday
This was another rough day to start off an interesting week. After the run around I had to go through last week getting my vehicles dispatched, I was hoping this week would be a little easier. No such luck. Maj L was a giant pain in my ass again and even though I gave him the dispatches at 0930 and told them we needed them asap in order to go pick up parts for our vehicles, he seemed to have other stuff going on. I checked into his office at least 5 times and he either wasn't there or said the dispatches weren't ready. By the time he finally got to them it was 1530 and we'd lost most of a day of work on our vehicles. I liked Maj L in the beginning but since he was on his way out of his unit I think he'd checked out. Thankfully his replacement Maj C seems eager to work with me.
In the middle of the day I had to attend the S-3 sync meeting because Cpt B had to run an errand. I was a little nervous when I walked in because the room was full of Lieutenant Colonels and Majors. I was lowest ranking one there. I only had to talk for one slide, so I wasn't too scared about that. Then when it came to me, someone else covered it before I had a chance to say anything. So I basically sat in an hour and a half long meeting for nothing. Army life.
Tuesday
This was a very interesting day to say the least. I woke up my normal time for PT around 0520. I left my house at 0540. I was on the highway to base at around 0550. I live 4 miles away from the main entrance to Ft. Hood. I did not even get through the gate until 0830. It was bumper to bumper traffic the entire way. 1 in every 3 cars had to stop at the gate, the driver had to get out open their hood, trunk, all other compartments and all their doors and have it checked. All of this was because of the President coming in for the shooting memorial Wednesday. So I missed PT due to traffic and was only in my office about 10 minutes before I had to go home and change into ACU's for work.
Because of the horrible traffic jams I wasn't able to get much work done because it took so long to get around base. The memorial was throwing off a lot of stuff for the week. I drove by 3 Corp Headquarters building, here the memorial would take place. I saw some kind of wall had been put up overnight. As I got closer I saw that the wall was built out of shipping containers. I found out later that they were stacked 3 containers high and 2 containers deep. All because of the Presidents visit. Crazy.
Wednesday
Most of the base had the day off due to the invite-only shooting memorial. Plus all the gates to base were closed for a 4 hour period so it was almost impossible to get on base anyways when you added in the heightened security.
Thursday
I didn't really record anything interesting happening this day. I'm pretty sure I just sat in my office sending emails and doing paperwork. Nothing too special.
Friday
Nothing super exciting happened this day either. Hard to write down interesting stuff happening when the unit does no training. Only notable thing was I had to give the safety brief at final formation because Cpt B and CSM T were both gone. Pretty much the same you give out in ROTC. Don't drink and drive, do drugs, or be a dumbass but in a lot more words.
This was another rough day to start off an interesting week. After the run around I had to go through last week getting my vehicles dispatched, I was hoping this week would be a little easier. No such luck. Maj L was a giant pain in my ass again and even though I gave him the dispatches at 0930 and told them we needed them asap in order to go pick up parts for our vehicles, he seemed to have other stuff going on. I checked into his office at least 5 times and he either wasn't there or said the dispatches weren't ready. By the time he finally got to them it was 1530 and we'd lost most of a day of work on our vehicles. I liked Maj L in the beginning but since he was on his way out of his unit I think he'd checked out. Thankfully his replacement Maj C seems eager to work with me.
In the middle of the day I had to attend the S-3 sync meeting because Cpt B had to run an errand. I was a little nervous when I walked in because the room was full of Lieutenant Colonels and Majors. I was lowest ranking one there. I only had to talk for one slide, so I wasn't too scared about that. Then when it came to me, someone else covered it before I had a chance to say anything. So I basically sat in an hour and a half long meeting for nothing. Army life.
Tuesday
This was a very interesting day to say the least. I woke up my normal time for PT around 0520. I left my house at 0540. I was on the highway to base at around 0550. I live 4 miles away from the main entrance to Ft. Hood. I did not even get through the gate until 0830. It was bumper to bumper traffic the entire way. 1 in every 3 cars had to stop at the gate, the driver had to get out open their hood, trunk, all other compartments and all their doors and have it checked. All of this was because of the President coming in for the shooting memorial Wednesday. So I missed PT due to traffic and was only in my office about 10 minutes before I had to go home and change into ACU's for work.
Because of the horrible traffic jams I wasn't able to get much work done because it took so long to get around base. The memorial was throwing off a lot of stuff for the week. I drove by 3 Corp Headquarters building, here the memorial would take place. I saw some kind of wall had been put up overnight. As I got closer I saw that the wall was built out of shipping containers. I found out later that they were stacked 3 containers high and 2 containers deep. All because of the Presidents visit. Crazy.
Wednesday
Most of the base had the day off due to the invite-only shooting memorial. Plus all the gates to base were closed for a 4 hour period so it was almost impossible to get on base anyways when you added in the heightened security.
Thursday
I didn't really record anything interesting happening this day. I'm pretty sure I just sat in my office sending emails and doing paperwork. Nothing too special.
Friday
Nothing super exciting happened this day either. Hard to write down interesting stuff happening when the unit does no training. Only notable thing was I had to give the safety brief at final formation because Cpt B and CSM T were both gone. Pretty much the same you give out in ROTC. Don't drink and drive, do drugs, or be a dumbass but in a lot more words.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
March 31st-April 4th
I let myself get behind on posting again, but I think I'm keeping better track of events now than I was before so here goes for this week.
Monday
The week started off by the unit receiving our new Command Sergeant Major, CSM T. He's an old school tanker, pretty sure I heard him say he'd been in 27 years and had just gotten to Hood after spending 2 years in Camp Casey, Korea. He definitely embodies the stereotypical CSM behaviors/attitude. Seems squared away but a bit of a hard ass too, in a good way.
Later on I finally got time to sit with Cpt B and just talk. We went to a little dive burger joint off base in a rough side of Killeen, but I was stuffed on a pretty good burger and fries for 5 bucks so I was ok with it. Cpt B and I discussed college and BOLC stories for a little while before heading back to work. All in all a good day.
Tuesday
This was a really long and rough day. Started out with my computer shitting the bed and shutting down my account so I had to run back and forth to Brigade HQ's S6 office at least 4-5 times to try and get my account reinstated. It eventually got fixed but it just drove home how much I truly hate army computers and anything involving them.
The other big issue of the day was trying to get two of our vehicles dispatched (able to leave the motorpool) so Chief M could pick up parts to repair some of our downed vehicles. I had to try 3-5 times to get Maj L to sign them. He kept finding problems with the dispatches, which I get need to be fixed but he made me take 3 trips instead of 1. Then when I finally got the dispatches fixed he said he wasn't signing them anymore and his replacement Maj C would be signing them. By the time I got in touch with Maj C and got him to sign them, it was 1530 and Chief M had lost the entire workday to work on his vehicles. Needles to say he and I were both annoyed and had a good venting session with each other.
Wednesday
I was going to try and talk about the normal stuff that happened in the beginning of the day but it seems pretty pointless now. Obviously this was the day that the shooting happened on base. I was almost out the door at 1645 when, as I was packing my bag, I heard one of the Sgt's in the hallway say "Uh I just got a text saying there's an active shooter on base and the base is on lockdown". Naturally everyone in the building came out and walked outside to see if we could hear anything. It was Cpt B, a Sgt, 2 Pfc's and myself left in the building. As we got outside we heard police sirens and the base siren system screeching out "SHELTER IN PLACE". A few NCO's out in the road were yelling at random soldiers to get in doors and eventually yelled at us to go inside too. So the Sgt and Pfc's went around locking all our doors and windows then we all sat in my office and kept an eye on the news. We eventually found a local news channel streaming online and watched coverage. I started getting texts from a bunch of family and friends freaking out thinking I was in danger. I found out later I was more than 15 blocks away from the incident and never was close to danger. Also got a call from my ex checking on me so I definitely felt appreciated that so many people were concerned about me. Eventually they gave us the all clear and I left my building at 2100. It took me until 2230 to get to my buddy 2lt H's house. All in all a very long and stressful day, but I was safe which was the important thing.
Thursday
Because of the shooting Wednesday, PT was canceled for Thursday and reporting in time was 1000. When we got into the office we got the word that the next two days were stand down days, meaning no training allowed, and we had to complete some tasks set down by the commander of the base General Milley. Thursday everyone on base had to have their vehicles searched, civilian and soldiers alike. I had mine searched by Cpt B. No big deal. Everyone also had to fill out a SLRT (cant recall the meaning of the acronym) but its basically a quick survey asking about emotional and psychological health. Sad to say it but the Army was definitely in cover there ass mode. Since it was still early release day we got out at 1500 and I got out of work after only 5 hours.
Friday
Started the day off by finding out we were still in cover the Army's ass mode and was told we had to inspect ever one of our soldiers barracks rooms. Thankfully as Rear D, we only had about 10 rooms to check. I got to tag along with CSM T and 2 other NCO's while we inspected half of the rooms. The barracks on Hood are actually pretty nice to me. Didn't find anything outstanding except for a few knives in one Pvt's room, but they were legal. It was interesting watching CSM T interact with the lower enlisted. He was able to find a way to connect with all of the,=m. He talked about collecting knives and mixing music with one and playing Xbox One with another. He really does seem to care about his subordinates even though he is still pretty new to the unit.
After the barracks checks not much else needed to be done before final formation. I was able to have a pretty long discussion with both CSM T and Chief M. Got to learn more about them and their experiences and crack some jokes/trade stories. It was a good way to end a stressful week for all of us.
Monday
The week started off by the unit receiving our new Command Sergeant Major, CSM T. He's an old school tanker, pretty sure I heard him say he'd been in 27 years and had just gotten to Hood after spending 2 years in Camp Casey, Korea. He definitely embodies the stereotypical CSM behaviors/attitude. Seems squared away but a bit of a hard ass too, in a good way.
Later on I finally got time to sit with Cpt B and just talk. We went to a little dive burger joint off base in a rough side of Killeen, but I was stuffed on a pretty good burger and fries for 5 bucks so I was ok with it. Cpt B and I discussed college and BOLC stories for a little while before heading back to work. All in all a good day.
Tuesday
This was a really long and rough day. Started out with my computer shitting the bed and shutting down my account so I had to run back and forth to Brigade HQ's S6 office at least 4-5 times to try and get my account reinstated. It eventually got fixed but it just drove home how much I truly hate army computers and anything involving them.
The other big issue of the day was trying to get two of our vehicles dispatched (able to leave the motorpool) so Chief M could pick up parts to repair some of our downed vehicles. I had to try 3-5 times to get Maj L to sign them. He kept finding problems with the dispatches, which I get need to be fixed but he made me take 3 trips instead of 1. Then when I finally got the dispatches fixed he said he wasn't signing them anymore and his replacement Maj C would be signing them. By the time I got in touch with Maj C and got him to sign them, it was 1530 and Chief M had lost the entire workday to work on his vehicles. Needles to say he and I were both annoyed and had a good venting session with each other.
Wednesday
I was going to try and talk about the normal stuff that happened in the beginning of the day but it seems pretty pointless now. Obviously this was the day that the shooting happened on base. I was almost out the door at 1645 when, as I was packing my bag, I heard one of the Sgt's in the hallway say "Uh I just got a text saying there's an active shooter on base and the base is on lockdown". Naturally everyone in the building came out and walked outside to see if we could hear anything. It was Cpt B, a Sgt, 2 Pfc's and myself left in the building. As we got outside we heard police sirens and the base siren system screeching out "SHELTER IN PLACE". A few NCO's out in the road were yelling at random soldiers to get in doors and eventually yelled at us to go inside too. So the Sgt and Pfc's went around locking all our doors and windows then we all sat in my office and kept an eye on the news. We eventually found a local news channel streaming online and watched coverage. I started getting texts from a bunch of family and friends freaking out thinking I was in danger. I found out later I was more than 15 blocks away from the incident and never was close to danger. Also got a call from my ex checking on me so I definitely felt appreciated that so many people were concerned about me. Eventually they gave us the all clear and I left my building at 2100. It took me until 2230 to get to my buddy 2lt H's house. All in all a very long and stressful day, but I was safe which was the important thing.
Thursday
Because of the shooting Wednesday, PT was canceled for Thursday and reporting in time was 1000. When we got into the office we got the word that the next two days were stand down days, meaning no training allowed, and we had to complete some tasks set down by the commander of the base General Milley. Thursday everyone on base had to have their vehicles searched, civilian and soldiers alike. I had mine searched by Cpt B. No big deal. Everyone also had to fill out a SLRT (cant recall the meaning of the acronym) but its basically a quick survey asking about emotional and psychological health. Sad to say it but the Army was definitely in cover there ass mode. Since it was still early release day we got out at 1500 and I got out of work after only 5 hours.
Friday
Started the day off by finding out we were still in cover the Army's ass mode and was told we had to inspect ever one of our soldiers barracks rooms. Thankfully as Rear D, we only had about 10 rooms to check. I got to tag along with CSM T and 2 other NCO's while we inspected half of the rooms. The barracks on Hood are actually pretty nice to me. Didn't find anything outstanding except for a few knives in one Pvt's room, but they were legal. It was interesting watching CSM T interact with the lower enlisted. He was able to find a way to connect with all of the,=m. He talked about collecting knives and mixing music with one and playing Xbox One with another. He really does seem to care about his subordinates even though he is still pretty new to the unit.
After the barracks checks not much else needed to be done before final formation. I was able to have a pretty long discussion with both CSM T and Chief M. Got to learn more about them and their experiences and crack some jokes/trade stories. It was a good way to end a stressful week for all of us.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
March 24th-March 28th
This week wasn't too busy or exciting but I did learn a lot of useful info. Capt B. had told me the previous week that he was going to make me the Environmental Compliance Officer for the Rear D, and presumably the detachment when they got back from Egypt. The training was a week long 0900-1600. I still did PT with the Rear D, but after that I went to the training on the other side of base in a tiny little shed.
I waited to long to post this to remember everything that happened each day so this will be a brief summary of the entire week of class. What the Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) is basically responsible for is enforcing federal, state, and Fort Hood environmental regulations in the unit to keep them from getting thousands of dollars in fines levied against them. These fines are mainly levied against units that have dirty or unorganized motor pools and units that trash the training areas on base. Besides the usual things like trash problems, recycling issues and spills of oil etc., the ECO also has to make sure there unit does not destroy significant cultural and environmental landmarks through out the training area.
I thought the training would be the typical Army training. Death by Power Point for hours on end with a 10 min break every hour. While this was true for part of the training the rest was actually pretty interesting. The instructor Mrs. H was a retired MSG so she knew she had to keep us all engaged or we'd just zone out and wouldn't learn a thing. She made sure to bring in plenty of other people to instruct us on the different aspects of the things we were responsible for. One of the most interesting to me was an instructor who came to talk to us about protecting cultural artifacts on base. He brought in some examples of the random stuff they'd found all over the training area of base, including arrowheads, musket balls and weapons. I even got to hold an 1862 Colt revolver from the Civil War that had been dug up on one of the ranges. That definitely was a highlight of my time here so far. I'm going to try and look into going to the center on base that does all the archeology sites on base and see if I can learn more.
Besides that we went to a few different locations on base that are designed to keep Ft Hood from being fined. The recycling center here employs about 80 people and will recycle basically anything. They sell all of the products to different vendors, using the money to pay all the employees and then they use the rest of the money to provide soldiers with entertainment. They pay for NFL league pass and the UFC fights/boxing matches at the NCO club. Also during the budget crises last summer, Ft hood was the only base in the U.S. to have a fireworks show, at the cost of 49,000 dollars, all paid for by profits of the recycling center. This definitely made me reevaluate my thoughts towards recycling.
Overall, the training was very useful, and it gave me plenty of things to look for to help improve my units motor pool and compliance with all the different regulations. It was also a nice way to get away from the unit for a week and experience something new.
I waited to long to post this to remember everything that happened each day so this will be a brief summary of the entire week of class. What the Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) is basically responsible for is enforcing federal, state, and Fort Hood environmental regulations in the unit to keep them from getting thousands of dollars in fines levied against them. These fines are mainly levied against units that have dirty or unorganized motor pools and units that trash the training areas on base. Besides the usual things like trash problems, recycling issues and spills of oil etc., the ECO also has to make sure there unit does not destroy significant cultural and environmental landmarks through out the training area.
I thought the training would be the typical Army training. Death by Power Point for hours on end with a 10 min break every hour. While this was true for part of the training the rest was actually pretty interesting. The instructor Mrs. H was a retired MSG so she knew she had to keep us all engaged or we'd just zone out and wouldn't learn a thing. She made sure to bring in plenty of other people to instruct us on the different aspects of the things we were responsible for. One of the most interesting to me was an instructor who came to talk to us about protecting cultural artifacts on base. He brought in some examples of the random stuff they'd found all over the training area of base, including arrowheads, musket balls and weapons. I even got to hold an 1862 Colt revolver from the Civil War that had been dug up on one of the ranges. That definitely was a highlight of my time here so far. I'm going to try and look into going to the center on base that does all the archeology sites on base and see if I can learn more.
Besides that we went to a few different locations on base that are designed to keep Ft Hood from being fined. The recycling center here employs about 80 people and will recycle basically anything. They sell all of the products to different vendors, using the money to pay all the employees and then they use the rest of the money to provide soldiers with entertainment. They pay for NFL league pass and the UFC fights/boxing matches at the NCO club. Also during the budget crises last summer, Ft hood was the only base in the U.S. to have a fireworks show, at the cost of 49,000 dollars, all paid for by profits of the recycling center. This definitely made me reevaluate my thoughts towards recycling.
Overall, the training was very useful, and it gave me plenty of things to look for to help improve my units motor pool and compliance with all the different regulations. It was also a nice way to get away from the unit for a week and experience something new.
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