January 24, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
19:45
Since the grunts have apparently begun attacking some city, the computers have been closed. I’m typing this out of Microsoft Word with hopes that I can email it to myself when I get a WiFi Connection and then get the file out of the email and copy it.
It’s a scary thing to think that there’s a battle going on relatively nearby. It seems like they’re going on everyday, but you don’t really think about it until you’re right next to one. I could’ve sworn I heard some kind of distant explosion, which no doubt isn’t training.
I’m sitting at the WiFi area, and everytime someone walks by they ask if the internet works. Andrews got pretty impatient at one point and said “NO!” and it turned out the person asking was a Sergeant, which made for a deliciously awkward moment for me to witness.
The good news is that I’ve finally started working on a literary project that I’d like to turn into a novella. I think that outlining it and planning it out will make it easier for me to take it seriously and actually get some work done on it. When I have no direction on a story project I find it much harder to work on it and I’m usually pretty nervous about where it’ll end up. I don’t feel like I have any control over it myself, which can be normal for writers if they let a story take an organic progression.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Guns, Guns, Guns!
January 21, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
18:22
Today at around 3PM we were supposed to go and zero our rifles. This means that we shoot about ten total rounds and adjust our sights so that if we have to shoot someone, the round should hit the person.
Instead, most of us were woken up before we were even out of our sleeping bags around 07:00 and told to get all our gear on. Flak jackets, helmets, gloves, ear protection, eye protection, rifles, etc. We walked over to our regimental office and took a bus (it was about three bus rides and of course my platoon was on the last one) to the range.
My platoon OF COURSE was in the last stick to shoot, so we waited...till maybe three or four before we even got our targets and ammunition. I didn't really try extremely hard on this, because the targets we use simulate such an unrealistic distance for me to be shooting someone at. My sights were set pretty good anyway, and I only fired the ten rounds while some others' sights were off and they weren't even hitting the paper target at all. This made things take longer as usual.
I was probably at the range today from about eight till four. At the end, we were all issued 180 bullets for our weapons, and we had to individually load them into magazines. If you've never done this before, you have no idea the annoyance it is, especially without a speed loader. And if you've never done it you don't know what a speed loader is; just know I did not have one.
LUCKILY, yesterday I bought the first seven seasons of Family Guy for $30 and it's actually a legitimate DVD. I bought Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and it turned out to be a shitty copy of Couples Retreat. That was only $2 though, so I can't complain. The officially sanctioned "Camp Leatherneck Bazaar" has a lot of interesting DVDs that I'll probably bring home. They've also got a few strange rugs with sewn pictures of airplanes flying into the twin towers and AK-47s. I asked how much for the twin towers one and the dude said $45, so I can probably at least talk him down to $35. We'll see.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
18:22
Today at around 3PM we were supposed to go and zero our rifles. This means that we shoot about ten total rounds and adjust our sights so that if we have to shoot someone, the round should hit the person.
Instead, most of us were woken up before we were even out of our sleeping bags around 07:00 and told to get all our gear on. Flak jackets, helmets, gloves, ear protection, eye protection, rifles, etc. We walked over to our regimental office and took a bus (it was about three bus rides and of course my platoon was on the last one) to the range.
My platoon OF COURSE was in the last stick to shoot, so we waited...till maybe three or four before we even got our targets and ammunition. I didn't really try extremely hard on this, because the targets we use simulate such an unrealistic distance for me to be shooting someone at. My sights were set pretty good anyway, and I only fired the ten rounds while some others' sights were off and they weren't even hitting the paper target at all. This made things take longer as usual.
I was probably at the range today from about eight till four. At the end, we were all issued 180 bullets for our weapons, and we had to individually load them into magazines. If you've never done this before, you have no idea the annoyance it is, especially without a speed loader. And if you've never done it you don't know what a speed loader is; just know I did not have one.
LUCKILY, yesterday I bought the first seven seasons of Family Guy for $30 and it's actually a legitimate DVD. I bought Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and it turned out to be a shitty copy of Couples Retreat. That was only $2 though, so I can't complain. The officially sanctioned "Camp Leatherneck Bazaar" has a lot of interesting DVDs that I'll probably bring home. They've also got a few strange rugs with sewn pictures of airplanes flying into the twin towers and AK-47s. I asked how much for the twin towers one and the dude said $45, so I can probably at least talk him down to $35. We'll see.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Next "Seven" Months
January 20, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:34
I found out yesterday that I am going to be an "Ops Chief" which means that I'm going to be spending this deployment sitting behind a computer, and that's fine with me. I just talked to a friend of mine that I ran into yesterday and he told me about a convoy he went on. His vehicle actually struck an IED. I guess it wasn't too bad; he said the wheel flew off but everyone was fine. According to him, it was more like a car accident than anything else.
He told me another story he'd heard about another MRAP being struck by an IED and two Marines in the back were killed. They died not because of the explosion, but because they weren't wearing their seatbelts and they were thrown into the ceiling. The force of the impact broke their necks.
Anyway, the whole thing I'm doing is going to involve a lot of computer work and paperwork, getting manifests for incoming and outgoing flights and whatnot. I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing this at Camp Bastion (the British base next door) or on a FOB (Forward Operating Base). I really hope it's not a FOB. That's more dangerous and rustic. I most likely won't have any means to communicate other than letters.
Unfortunately, I have a 50% chance of either staying here or going to a FOB.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:34
I found out yesterday that I am going to be an "Ops Chief" which means that I'm going to be spending this deployment sitting behind a computer, and that's fine with me. I just talked to a friend of mine that I ran into yesterday and he told me about a convoy he went on. His vehicle actually struck an IED. I guess it wasn't too bad; he said the wheel flew off but everyone was fine. According to him, it was more like a car accident than anything else.
He told me another story he'd heard about another MRAP being struck by an IED and two Marines in the back were killed. They died not because of the explosion, but because they weren't wearing their seatbelts and they were thrown into the ceiling. The force of the impact broke their necks.
Anyway, the whole thing I'm doing is going to involve a lot of computer work and paperwork, getting manifests for incoming and outgoing flights and whatnot. I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing this at Camp Bastion (the British base next door) or on a FOB (Forward Operating Base). I really hope it's not a FOB. That's more dangerous and rustic. I most likely won't have any means to communicate other than letters.
Unfortunately, I have a 50% chance of either staying here or going to a FOB.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Dust
January 18, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:04
I just realized I've been typing 2009 as the year for my past few entries, so I went and changed that. Embarrassing...
We flew over here in a C-17, which is an Air Force plane. All I really need to say is that it was uncomfortable. For about two hours I couldn't get in a position that felt good enough for me to fall asleep. On top of that I was on top of someone on either side of me and I had a backpack and my laptop bag on my lap. It sucked.
When we finally landed I realized that this was going to be pretty similar to Camp Wilson in 29 Palms, although it's colder there. It got pretty warm during the day yesterday, but I was drinking water all day so I felt pretty good.
Leatherneck is kind of confusing. You can't really get a map and there aren't signs anywhere to show you directions. All kinds of people are walking around. People in different branches of the U.S. military, people in foreign militaries, civilians, Afghani policemen. There's a lot of SUVs driving around. There are cars everywhere actually.
I spent the day walking around yesterday and found a bazaar with a friend of mine that everyone refers to as "The Hodgi Shop" or however you spell it. I was hoping to see some of those crazy bootleg DVDs that people always bring back to the U.S. from foreign countries, and luckily this place was full of them. They had a few copies of Avatar.
I've been doing much of the same thing today, although the bazaar (which includes "Smily Jewlary Shop") wasn't open yet. Neither was the PX, but I'm not sure what I'd buy there anyway.
I have not found a working WiFi signal yet, which is disappointing because a message from the advanced party was sent back to my chain of command saying that WiFi was easy to come by. They must have been talking about Kyrgyzstan.
This might be harder then I anticipated.
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
09:04
I just realized I've been typing 2009 as the year for my past few entries, so I went and changed that. Embarrassing...
We flew over here in a C-17, which is an Air Force plane. All I really need to say is that it was uncomfortable. For about two hours I couldn't get in a position that felt good enough for me to fall asleep. On top of that I was on top of someone on either side of me and I had a backpack and my laptop bag on my lap. It sucked.
When we finally landed I realized that this was going to be pretty similar to Camp Wilson in 29 Palms, although it's colder there. It got pretty warm during the day yesterday, but I was drinking water all day so I felt pretty good.
Leatherneck is kind of confusing. You can't really get a map and there aren't signs anywhere to show you directions. All kinds of people are walking around. People in different branches of the U.S. military, people in foreign militaries, civilians, Afghani policemen. There's a lot of SUVs driving around. There are cars everywhere actually.
I spent the day walking around yesterday and found a bazaar with a friend of mine that everyone refers to as "The Hodgi Shop" or however you spell it. I was hoping to see some of those crazy bootleg DVDs that people always bring back to the U.S. from foreign countries, and luckily this place was full of them. They had a few copies of Avatar.
I've been doing much of the same thing today, although the bazaar (which includes "Smily Jewlary Shop") wasn't open yet. Neither was the PX, but I'm not sure what I'd buy there anyway.
I have not found a working WiFi signal yet, which is disappointing because a message from the advanced party was sent back to my chain of command saying that WiFi was easy to come by. They must have been talking about Kyrgyzstan.
This might be harder then I anticipated.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Manas
January 15, 2010
Manas AFB, Kyrgyzstan
10:09
It's been a little under 24 hours since I made it to Kyrgyzstan. I may just abbreviate the name of the country because it's really annoying to type.
Anyway, I left Lejeune early evening on Tuesday and the trip lasted almost two days. It was a 3+ hour flight to Canada. I'm forgetting the name of the city the airport was in. It started with a G and is located on an island. We were there for maybe an hour, I bought this strange orange soda I've never had that tasted sort of weird. There wasn't much to see at the airport that was different from an American one. Although, the cigarette packs have pretty hilarious warnings on them. Each one has a different warning which seems like more of a threat. The one that stands out in my head: "Cigarettes will make you impotent! Smoking cigarettes for long periods of time will restrict the blood flow to the penis, which prevents erections." That's nearly verbatim. They were pretty in-your-face, and I was impressed by that. I don't really remember the other ones.
It was a 5+ hour flight to Germany. Leipzig (sp?) to be precise. The airport there limited us to a sort of quarantined military area. I enjoyed that airport, although we almost had a 12+ layover due to the plane being broken down. Luckily, we were there maybe 4 hours.
My first impression of Germany was certainly positive, though. I can only imagine how the rest of the country is if there were refrigerators of individual bottles of beer and cans with pre-mixed Jack & Coke and Bacardi & Coke. Not to mention it seemed like both gift shops had about 1,000 bottles of Absinthe. I was tempted to buy an Absinthe T-Shirt, but I decided to wait till the trip home.
We finally left Germany and had a 6+ hour flight to Kyrgyzstan. It seems like an interesting country. Most of the locals seem to be half Russian and half Chinese by their appearance. They speak Russian as well. The sad thing is that this is probably one of the worst Air Force bases there is, but I still like it better than Camp Lejeune. I had an AMAZING breakfast this morning. When I eat breakfast at Lejeune, I always kill my appetite and don't want to eat anymore. When I started eating here, I wanted to keep eating just because I enjoyed the food so much. I wasn't even that hungry. Another great thing is that the locals working here don't know enough English to be assholes to us like in Lejeune. You'd never guess that a civilian would talk down to, disrespect, or just all-out take for granted a person in the military. That's life on Camp Lejeune. There's absolutely no advantage to doing anything there. Any service offered on Lejeune could probably be done better off base. I'd rather be stationed here then there.
Other than that, there's not a whole lot for me to do. Since I'm considered a "transient" I'm not allowed to leave the base and explore Bishkek, the capital (or capitol?) city. It seems like a cool place to visit, somewhere that a lot of people wouldn't consider. Probably not too crowded or expensive.
I could be here for another hour, or for another week. No one has any idea when we're actually heading out.
Manas AFB, Kyrgyzstan
10:09
It's been a little under 24 hours since I made it to Kyrgyzstan. I may just abbreviate the name of the country because it's really annoying to type.
Anyway, I left Lejeune early evening on Tuesday and the trip lasted almost two days. It was a 3+ hour flight to Canada. I'm forgetting the name of the city the airport was in. It started with a G and is located on an island. We were there for maybe an hour, I bought this strange orange soda I've never had that tasted sort of weird. There wasn't much to see at the airport that was different from an American one. Although, the cigarette packs have pretty hilarious warnings on them. Each one has a different warning which seems like more of a threat. The one that stands out in my head: "Cigarettes will make you impotent! Smoking cigarettes for long periods of time will restrict the blood flow to the penis, which prevents erections." That's nearly verbatim. They were pretty in-your-face, and I was impressed by that. I don't really remember the other ones.
It was a 5+ hour flight to Germany. Leipzig (sp?) to be precise. The airport there limited us to a sort of quarantined military area. I enjoyed that airport, although we almost had a 12+ layover due to the plane being broken down. Luckily, we were there maybe 4 hours.
My first impression of Germany was certainly positive, though. I can only imagine how the rest of the country is if there were refrigerators of individual bottles of beer and cans with pre-mixed Jack & Coke and Bacardi & Coke. Not to mention it seemed like both gift shops had about 1,000 bottles of Absinthe. I was tempted to buy an Absinthe T-Shirt, but I decided to wait till the trip home.
We finally left Germany and had a 6+ hour flight to Kyrgyzstan. It seems like an interesting country. Most of the locals seem to be half Russian and half Chinese by their appearance. They speak Russian as well. The sad thing is that this is probably one of the worst Air Force bases there is, but I still like it better than Camp Lejeune. I had an AMAZING breakfast this morning. When I eat breakfast at Lejeune, I always kill my appetite and don't want to eat anymore. When I started eating here, I wanted to keep eating just because I enjoyed the food so much. I wasn't even that hungry. Another great thing is that the locals working here don't know enough English to be assholes to us like in Lejeune. You'd never guess that a civilian would talk down to, disrespect, or just all-out take for granted a person in the military. That's life on Camp Lejeune. There's absolutely no advantage to doing anything there. Any service offered on Lejeune could probably be done better off base. I'd rather be stationed here then there.
Other than that, there's not a whole lot for me to do. Since I'm considered a "transient" I'm not allowed to leave the base and explore Bishkek, the capital (or capitol?) city. It seems like a cool place to visit, somewhere that a lot of people wouldn't consider. Probably not too crowded or expensive.
I could be here for another hour, or for another week. No one has any idea when we're actually heading out.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
My Morning
January 12, 2010
Camp Lejeune
09:35
Don't ever complain to me about your morning again.
05:45
I wake up and get dressed. Around six I begin walking.
It takes me about 30 - 35 minutes to walk from point A to point B, so my arrival is about 06:45. That's 1.7 miles.
When I reach my destination (the regimental headquarters) I wait in line for about an hour and a half to take a piss test. I finish that at apprx. 08:10 - 08:15. I begin walking again.
About 1.8 miles of walking straight from point B to point A, which in this case is the chow hall. I finish breakfast at about 09:00 (actually reaching the chow hall at around 08:40).
I then walk to the PX.
About 0.8 miles to the white dot. I buy a couple Master Locks and walk back to B, the barracks.
To those of you who's Facebook statuses I've been reading:
I don't care if you have classes starting at eight in the morning. In most cases you have a car, so you don't even have to get up all that early. You MIGHT have to wake up an hour early if you're going to Parkland to beat traffic, but big deal. Again, you have a car. You have a heater in the car. You probably have a coat on too.
I'm done.
Camp Lejeune
09:35
Don't ever complain to me about your morning again.
05:45
I wake up and get dressed. Around six I begin walking.
It takes me about 30 - 35 minutes to walk from point A to point B, so my arrival is about 06:45. That's 1.7 miles.
When I reach my destination (the regimental headquarters) I wait in line for about an hour and a half to take a piss test. I finish that at apprx. 08:10 - 08:15. I begin walking again.
About 1.8 miles of walking straight from point B to point A, which in this case is the chow hall. I finish breakfast at about 09:00 (actually reaching the chow hall at around 08:40).
I then walk to the PX.
About 0.8 miles to the white dot. I buy a couple Master Locks and walk back to B, the barracks.
To those of you who's Facebook statuses I've been reading:
I don't care if you have classes starting at eight in the morning. In most cases you have a car, so you don't even have to get up all that early. You MIGHT have to wake up an hour early if you're going to Parkland to beat traffic, but big deal. Again, you have a car. You have a heater in the car. You probably have a coat on too.
I'm done.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Weekend
January 10, 2010
Camp Lejeune
16:52
I haven't posted since Thursday because I had the day off Friday, didn't do too much on Saturday, and likewise today.
Of course on Friday, I never got any notice that my missing gear statement had been signed and was ready for me to take to CIF (Consolidated Issue Facility). I guess the Lieutenant Colonel had the day off too, or was too busy to sign his name. So maybe I'll be taking my main pack to Afghanistan without the lid, the waist belt, or the worthless radio pouch inside. I would like the lid and belt though. Those are kind of integral when it comes to that pack.
I don't think that it's really hit me yet that I'm going to Afghanistan though. I mean if I really think about it, I still can't grasp it totally. It's just going to happen when I finally walk off the plane. Apparently I have to have a three to five day layover somewhere else on the way there. Should be interesting.
I'm not sharing my DS or my PSP and I guarantee people will ask me to use them. Does it make me mean though? Not really; they had two weeks at home to prepare themselves for this deployment and they knew they weren't going to have their phones, so if they didn't get a laptop, books, or some type of portable device, I guess they're just going to be having a lot of thumb wars or something overseas.
Camp Lejeune
16:52
I haven't posted since Thursday because I had the day off Friday, didn't do too much on Saturday, and likewise today.
Of course on Friday, I never got any notice that my missing gear statement had been signed and was ready for me to take to CIF (Consolidated Issue Facility). I guess the Lieutenant Colonel had the day off too, or was too busy to sign his name. So maybe I'll be taking my main pack to Afghanistan without the lid, the waist belt, or the worthless radio pouch inside. I would like the lid and belt though. Those are kind of integral when it comes to that pack.
I don't think that it's really hit me yet that I'm going to Afghanistan though. I mean if I really think about it, I still can't grasp it totally. It's just going to happen when I finally walk off the plane. Apparently I have to have a three to five day layover somewhere else on the way there. Should be interesting.
I'm not sharing my DS or my PSP and I guarantee people will ask me to use them. Does it make me mean though? Not really; they had two weeks at home to prepare themselves for this deployment and they knew they weren't going to have their phones, so if they didn't get a laptop, books, or some type of portable device, I guess they're just going to be having a lot of thumb wars or something overseas.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
More Stupidity Part 1
Camp Lejeune
January 7, 2010
18:34
I entitled this "Part 1" because I know that without a doubt, more are going to follow in the future.
Today was a very long say. We didn't get off work till nearly 6PM whereas yesterday we were released a little after 2. Today was a little more eventful to say the least.
Since TMO never came, I was expecting it to happen today, which was not the case. It wasn't even mentioned until the end of the day.
Instead, after our morning accountability I had to go to the S1 office to get my Missing Gear Statement signed by a "Counseling Officer" (any officer outside of my immediate chain of command. I walked into S1 and some PFC got out the Certified True Copy stamp and stamped both sheets. He then told me that I needed to get an officer to sign it and 2ndLt Gauss was not in the office, and I was kind of counting on her to be there. It turns out she's on advance party to Afghanistan and is probably there already. So, I had to awkwardly walk around the CLB-6 Headquarters deck for about ten minutes like a fool.
Finally I encountered a 2nd Lieutenant and a Gunnery Sergeant. I pulled him aside awkwardly and asked if he'd do me a favor and sign the counseling officer line on my sheet. He asked if all he had to do was sign it (2nd Lieutenants are oblivious to most things that go on in the military) and the Gunnery Sergeant interrupted with "No, he has to get counseled," after which he turned to me and said "Go to the S3 and find Lieutenant Graff!"
"Ooh-rah, Gunnery Sergeant," I answered and walked away to the S3 office and then asked another GySgt at a desk where I could get an officer to sign the spot he needed to sign. He pointed me in the direction of a 2ndLt standing nearby having a conversation with a few other NCOs, so I stood and waited silently, which was awkward like the rest of the morning had been. Finally I was able to get his attention and he looked over my statement.
"Wow, looks like you really need this stuff. You can't wear the main pack without the waste belt," he said, stating the obvious of course. "I'll sign this so you can get it done."
He signed it and I was finally able to leave, returning to Gibson's van parked in the parking lot. He was listening to an iPod and another guy, Smith, had been sleeping in the back of the van the whole time (and continued to do so until about 10:30). We returned to the barracks at about 8:30 with word that we'd need to be at "Building 308" at 11:30.
At 9:30 a text woke me up in my room saying that we had to be at 308 at 10:30 instead. I went out to the van and got a ride over to 308 which was near the CLB-6 headquarters a few buildings down. We were told we needed to be there "for a brain scan" which no one really believed. Since we've gotten back from leave, a piss test has not yet been administered. Usually when we're sent to some area to do something out of the ordinary, we take it as false pretenses for urinalysis administration. Well, the weird thing was that it really was a brain scan, but first we needed to get an H1N1 vaccination shot, which kept us waiting in line for at least an hour and a half.
While we were waiting in a large and mostly empty office area, Corporal Cardec, one of the three Corporals in my platoon, entered the room with some envelopes and was followed by Cpl Boddy, who was carrying a larger stack. Wouldn't you know it? They were all mine. Now I was stuck with a big stack of envelopes and two magazines from October.
Finally, our platoon was up for the shots, and then we gathered 25 people into a tiny office in the corner and waited for about twenty minutes until this civilian female entered and said our brief would be in ten minutes. After ten minutes she returned and started up this worthless power point presentation that appeared to be running automatically. The projector was too close to the wall for there to be a big enough picture for everyone to see. A different female then entered the room and told us not to pay attention to it and to listen to her instead.
She told us what we were about to do, which was sit at a computer, enter a bunch of our own information and then take this strange test. It started by asking me a series of questions about my mood and asking me to rate how close I was to that emotion on a scale of 0 to 6. After that I had to click whenever a white asterisk appeared on the blue screen. After that I had this code which matched a symbol with a number from 1 through 9 and I had to decide if they were properly matching the symbol with the number below the large key on the top of the screen. After that a strange rubicks cube picture popped up and disappeared and then two reappeared and I had to pick the one which was previously on the screen. I fell asleep during this part a few times. Then the symbol/number combinations popped back up again, but without the key, so I had to decide if they were right or wrong based on my memory of the previous scenario. After that there were more asterisks and it was finished.
That took up a large portion of the day, till at least 14:15 I'd say. So, now I had to go to the S1 shop with Sgt Bognar, who'd forgotten about it and seemed a little flustered when I reminded him. Cpl Cardec accompanied the two of us while we walked down the parking lot back to the CLB6 HQ building that I was at in the morning. We went to the S1 shop and spoke to Sgt Wang I believe and she told us that the Certified True Copy stamps needed to be signed by an officer as well, so we searched the building for an officer and eventually found one in the 2D MLG Comptroller's Office or something like that. I stood outside in the hall and listened to Sgt Bognar try and convince and explain to the officer what was going on, eventually he got the signature and we took the papers back to S1 and they held on to them and I have no idea when I'm going to get them but it's either got to be tomorrow or Monday and possibly Tuesday but that's the day I'm leaving.
After this, we were supposed to be back outside the company office for bravo company at FC 413, so I tagged along with Sgt Bognar and Cpl Cardec and managed to get free Burger King because one of them had a gift card and spent it on us, which was cool because the shots and brain studying examination went through lunch time.
After that we returned to the company office parking lot and were told to leave and come back at 1600 (4PM), so I rode back to my barracks with the NCOs and went to my room for about 45 minutes before walking back at 1600. We didn't end up starting the promotion ceremony till around 1800 and it was only for two people. Apparently we were waiting for other sections to finish up at the shots/brains thing before we could start, so we froze while waiting for them, since there's no place to go inside.
The promotions finally ended, we recieved a brief from 2ndLt Copes and GySgt Goodreau and were told we have the day off tomorrow.
Of course I have to stay in my room because the TMO people are apparently coming around at 8AM to get my stuff, which I think is probably a 40% chance of actually happening.
And Sgt Bognar flipped out for some reason because apparently he asked for a volunteer and no one answered. Pena raised his hand but Sgt Bognar considered it too late and told us we all needed to be in a formation tomorrow, but then the Corporals changed his mind I guess because now we don't have to have a formation and people can go out of town.
Either way, I'm sure tomorrow will be just as pointless as yesterday.
January 7, 2010
18:34
I entitled this "Part 1" because I know that without a doubt, more are going to follow in the future.
Today was a very long say. We didn't get off work till nearly 6PM whereas yesterday we were released a little after 2. Today was a little more eventful to say the least.
Since TMO never came, I was expecting it to happen today, which was not the case. It wasn't even mentioned until the end of the day.
Instead, after our morning accountability I had to go to the S1 office to get my Missing Gear Statement signed by a "Counseling Officer" (any officer outside of my immediate chain of command. I walked into S1 and some PFC got out the Certified True Copy stamp and stamped both sheets. He then told me that I needed to get an officer to sign it and 2ndLt Gauss was not in the office, and I was kind of counting on her to be there. It turns out she's on advance party to Afghanistan and is probably there already. So, I had to awkwardly walk around the CLB-6 Headquarters deck for about ten minutes like a fool.
Finally I encountered a 2nd Lieutenant and a Gunnery Sergeant. I pulled him aside awkwardly and asked if he'd do me a favor and sign the counseling officer line on my sheet. He asked if all he had to do was sign it (2nd Lieutenants are oblivious to most things that go on in the military) and the Gunnery Sergeant interrupted with "No, he has to get counseled," after which he turned to me and said "Go to the S3 and find Lieutenant Graff!"
"Ooh-rah, Gunnery Sergeant," I answered and walked away to the S3 office and then asked another GySgt at a desk where I could get an officer to sign the spot he needed to sign. He pointed me in the direction of a 2ndLt standing nearby having a conversation with a few other NCOs, so I stood and waited silently, which was awkward like the rest of the morning had been. Finally I was able to get his attention and he looked over my statement.
"Wow, looks like you really need this stuff. You can't wear the main pack without the waste belt," he said, stating the obvious of course. "I'll sign this so you can get it done."
He signed it and I was finally able to leave, returning to Gibson's van parked in the parking lot. He was listening to an iPod and another guy, Smith, had been sleeping in the back of the van the whole time (and continued to do so until about 10:30). We returned to the barracks at about 8:30 with word that we'd need to be at "Building 308" at 11:30.
At 9:30 a text woke me up in my room saying that we had to be at 308 at 10:30 instead. I went out to the van and got a ride over to 308 which was near the CLB-6 headquarters a few buildings down. We were told we needed to be there "for a brain scan" which no one really believed. Since we've gotten back from leave, a piss test has not yet been administered. Usually when we're sent to some area to do something out of the ordinary, we take it as false pretenses for urinalysis administration. Well, the weird thing was that it really was a brain scan, but first we needed to get an H1N1 vaccination shot, which kept us waiting in line for at least an hour and a half.
While we were waiting in a large and mostly empty office area, Corporal Cardec, one of the three Corporals in my platoon, entered the room with some envelopes and was followed by Cpl Boddy, who was carrying a larger stack. Wouldn't you know it? They were all mine. Now I was stuck with a big stack of envelopes and two magazines from October.
Finally, our platoon was up for the shots, and then we gathered 25 people into a tiny office in the corner and waited for about twenty minutes until this civilian female entered and said our brief would be in ten minutes. After ten minutes she returned and started up this worthless power point presentation that appeared to be running automatically. The projector was too close to the wall for there to be a big enough picture for everyone to see. A different female then entered the room and told us not to pay attention to it and to listen to her instead.
She told us what we were about to do, which was sit at a computer, enter a bunch of our own information and then take this strange test. It started by asking me a series of questions about my mood and asking me to rate how close I was to that emotion on a scale of 0 to 6. After that I had to click whenever a white asterisk appeared on the blue screen. After that I had this code which matched a symbol with a number from 1 through 9 and I had to decide if they were properly matching the symbol with the number below the large key on the top of the screen. After that a strange rubicks cube picture popped up and disappeared and then two reappeared and I had to pick the one which was previously on the screen. I fell asleep during this part a few times. Then the symbol/number combinations popped back up again, but without the key, so I had to decide if they were right or wrong based on my memory of the previous scenario. After that there were more asterisks and it was finished.
That took up a large portion of the day, till at least 14:15 I'd say. So, now I had to go to the S1 shop with Sgt Bognar, who'd forgotten about it and seemed a little flustered when I reminded him. Cpl Cardec accompanied the two of us while we walked down the parking lot back to the CLB6 HQ building that I was at in the morning. We went to the S1 shop and spoke to Sgt Wang I believe and she told us that the Certified True Copy stamps needed to be signed by an officer as well, so we searched the building for an officer and eventually found one in the 2D MLG Comptroller's Office or something like that. I stood outside in the hall and listened to Sgt Bognar try and convince and explain to the officer what was going on, eventually he got the signature and we took the papers back to S1 and they held on to them and I have no idea when I'm going to get them but it's either got to be tomorrow or Monday and possibly Tuesday but that's the day I'm leaving.
After this, we were supposed to be back outside the company office for bravo company at FC 413, so I tagged along with Sgt Bognar and Cpl Cardec and managed to get free Burger King because one of them had a gift card and spent it on us, which was cool because the shots and brain studying examination went through lunch time.
After that we returned to the company office parking lot and were told to leave and come back at 1600 (4PM), so I rode back to my barracks with the NCOs and went to my room for about 45 minutes before walking back at 1600. We didn't end up starting the promotion ceremony till around 1800 and it was only for two people. Apparently we were waiting for other sections to finish up at the shots/brains thing before we could start, so we froze while waiting for them, since there's no place to go inside.
The promotions finally ended, we recieved a brief from 2ndLt Copes and GySgt Goodreau and were told we have the day off tomorrow.
Of course I have to stay in my room because the TMO people are apparently coming around at 8AM to get my stuff, which I think is probably a 40% chance of actually happening.
And Sgt Bognar flipped out for some reason because apparently he asked for a volunteer and no one answered. Pena raised his hand but Sgt Bognar considered it too late and told us we all needed to be in a formation tomorrow, but then the Corporals changed his mind I guess because now we don't have to have a formation and people can go out of town.
Either way, I'm sure tomorrow will be just as pointless as yesterday.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
One Week
January 6, 2010
Camp Lejeune
13:36
A week from yesterday, I'll be on a plane ride to Afghanistan. I'll probably actually still be flying at this hour, or at least just landed.
Today is the TMO storage day and it's irritating to have it a week before we leave instead of maybe this Friday or something. I have to get everything I'm not packing or throwing away before I leave into three boxes for storage. It only took me two last night. We were told yesterday after the "class" they gave us on properly storing the items that they'd come around the barracks at 8. They still haven't showed up. I called one of my Corporals to let him know this, he hasn't gotten back to me in forty minutes and the rest of my platoon is at the gym working out right now. I haven't eaten lunch.
This is my fourth day getting back from leave. From December 19th through January 3rd I was back in Champaign. It was an enjoyable experience and worth the 31 hour trip it took me to get home due to bad weather. The only thing that was awful was the torture I went through knowing that my return here was imminent soon. It was constantly on my mind. I even had a nightmare or two about it, just like I had nightmares about coming home while I was at Camp Wilson for Mojave Viper training. I had a couple dreams that I arrived home and forgot all of my stuff back in the barracks. I had a dream about halfway through leave that I was already back here.
We haven't done too much since I've been back. I've had to get a second missing gear statement for lost CIF gear during the Mojave Viper movement. They gave me almost all of my gear the first time, but I guess they'd rather be smartasses instead of help me out. The woman working there knew full well that when I wrote "ILBE Main Pack" on the first statement that it included all the components which I wasn't aware needed to be listed seperately.
So she said, "Do you need the shoulder straps?"
"Uh...yeah, I didn't know that was seperate," I answered.
"Yes, it's a separate piece attached to it."
Of course she didn't ask me if I needed the waist straps, radio pouch, or lid. Now I have to get a second missing gear statement passed all the way up the chain of command and get what I'm missing probably by Friday, and I've been sitting in my room all day doing nothing but waiting for someone who's probably not going to come. And that's a wasted day I could've spent going to the S1 to get the last signature I need from "someone out of my chain of command" and the stamps on the paper so I can get it passed to my platoon commander.
Worthless. We're so time efficient around here.
Of course I asked "Who do I need to sign this as the counseling officer?"
"Someone out of your chain of command," one of my other Corporals said and pretty much handed the papers back to me and walked away.
It kind of reminded me when I first brought this up to Corporal Cardec and he said "Yeah, we'll take care of you" and never said anything about it again before leave, so now I have less than a week to get it done. The best part? Those three worthless components are worth almost $140. So total, almost $3,000 worth of crap was lost in my main pack during the movement to Mojave Viper. The worst part is that it's a fucking hassle to get it all back. There's a cloud of bureaucratic bullshit between me and the missing gear that's so thick you could...you know, cut it with a knife.
So while I've been waiting, what have I been doing? I took a two and a half hour nap. I've been watching videos online. Of course if I had my car I would've gone to the S1 myself to get that crap done with.
This is the Marine Corps.
Camp Lejeune
13:36
A week from yesterday, I'll be on a plane ride to Afghanistan. I'll probably actually still be flying at this hour, or at least just landed.
Today is the TMO storage day and it's irritating to have it a week before we leave instead of maybe this Friday or something. I have to get everything I'm not packing or throwing away before I leave into three boxes for storage. It only took me two last night. We were told yesterday after the "class" they gave us on properly storing the items that they'd come around the barracks at 8. They still haven't showed up. I called one of my Corporals to let him know this, he hasn't gotten back to me in forty minutes and the rest of my platoon is at the gym working out right now. I haven't eaten lunch.
This is my fourth day getting back from leave. From December 19th through January 3rd I was back in Champaign. It was an enjoyable experience and worth the 31 hour trip it took me to get home due to bad weather. The only thing that was awful was the torture I went through knowing that my return here was imminent soon. It was constantly on my mind. I even had a nightmare or two about it, just like I had nightmares about coming home while I was at Camp Wilson for Mojave Viper training. I had a couple dreams that I arrived home and forgot all of my stuff back in the barracks. I had a dream about halfway through leave that I was already back here.
We haven't done too much since I've been back. I've had to get a second missing gear statement for lost CIF gear during the Mojave Viper movement. They gave me almost all of my gear the first time, but I guess they'd rather be smartasses instead of help me out. The woman working there knew full well that when I wrote "ILBE Main Pack" on the first statement that it included all the components which I wasn't aware needed to be listed seperately.
So she said, "Do you need the shoulder straps?"
"Uh...yeah, I didn't know that was seperate," I answered.
"Yes, it's a separate piece attached to it."
Of course she didn't ask me if I needed the waist straps, radio pouch, or lid. Now I have to get a second missing gear statement passed all the way up the chain of command and get what I'm missing probably by Friday, and I've been sitting in my room all day doing nothing but waiting for someone who's probably not going to come. And that's a wasted day I could've spent going to the S1 to get the last signature I need from "someone out of my chain of command" and the stamps on the paper so I can get it passed to my platoon commander.
Worthless. We're so time efficient around here.
Of course I asked "Who do I need to sign this as the counseling officer?"
"Someone out of your chain of command," one of my other Corporals said and pretty much handed the papers back to me and walked away.
It kind of reminded me when I first brought this up to Corporal Cardec and he said "Yeah, we'll take care of you" and never said anything about it again before leave, so now I have less than a week to get it done. The best part? Those three worthless components are worth almost $140. So total, almost $3,000 worth of crap was lost in my main pack during the movement to Mojave Viper. The worst part is that it's a fucking hassle to get it all back. There's a cloud of bureaucratic bullshit between me and the missing gear that's so thick you could...you know, cut it with a knife.
So while I've been waiting, what have I been doing? I took a two and a half hour nap. I've been watching videos online. Of course if I had my car I would've gone to the S1 myself to get that crap done with.
This is the Marine Corps.
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