Training Day 61

Friday! Woo!

Language: I can't really remember what happened Friday... We did watch a documentary on a territorial dispute between my target country and one of it's neighbors. My class has really, really slowed down. We are going to spend all of next week reviewing this unit and taking the next test. Weird.

Military: Today was detachment-wide PT. It's a chance to exercise, build camaraderie, and hurt each other under the guise of some sort of game. Sometimes we have a long cadence run all over the base which is pretty fun. Normally we play trashball but today we played this bizarre game called 'Parker ball'. There's goals and there are balls (or potatoes due to St. Patrick's Day... it's weird what we've done to holidays) but after that the game gets interesting. We all have to wear some form of slipper or shower shoe on our hands and can only hit the balls with our shower shoes. No carrying either.

The first round I played sucked as I was at the part of the field with all the muscle-bound, over-aggressive idiots. These are the guys who like to hurt people for fun. They aren't even interested so much in playing the game as colliding with people. Bah.

The second round I played was a blast. I was with the people who were there to have fun and, while we still tumbled, the focus was on overall enjoyment and not doing damage. I found my niche in running around and snagging forgotten balls to move towards the goal. Diving for the stray potato and trying to wrestle it away from other Marines was fun... I even got into a tangle with Master Guns a few times. Heh.

And it was a pretty decent cardio workout running back and forth chasing produce.

Fitness: See above.

Automotive: My car was quasi-fixed during lunch. We put the spare on the proper limb, moved the spare tire to the rear, and put two good tires on the front drive wheels. Now I can move from point A to point B without fear of damage to my car. It was a bit frustrating as the civilians at the autoport were moving really sloooow and I was nearly late to class. Still. Mobility!

Personal: I just don't get some people... I really, really don't. And it's really frustrating when a situation appears to be one-sided where I'm the bad guy for sticking to what's important to me while other people can do whatever they want. Then there's the ambiguity of it all and...

Gah. It's frustrating. It's frustrating when I seem to be my own worst enemy too. It's frustrating when I'm approaching the end and I can't seem to do anything right.

...1

Training Day 60

Just... Ick. I can't wait for the weekend. I need to reset. Badly. Everything seems to be hitting the fan lately and I've shifted into 'survival' mode where I do enough to get buy and am really just killing time waiting for another day to start. I really need something to go right.

Language: Another day in class... I had two quizzes today. I think I aced the first one (military topics) and I earned a 97 on the second one (new vocab). Other than that, class was unexceptional. Oh. My section leader did sort of lose her mind today and was talking about stepping down from her billet as no one listens to her. We'll see...

Automotive: I was supposed to pick up my tire today, right? Didn't happen. Turns out that Goodyear doesn't have my tire in stock due to the nation-wide strikes they had earlier. They also changed the name on my tire due to the new fiscal year so none of our local suppliers have it. Now I need to go over there tomorrow to get them to mount the better spare and on Saturday I need to find a junkyard to buy a new rim. A 16" rim because my step-sister (the previous owner) decided to bling out a '96 Corolla.

Gaming: I may need to re-evaluate my stance on gaming this upcoming weekend... We'll see what happens.

Personal: The apartment hunting is not going well. Today I found out the scribe had botched my chit (all he had to do was staple it) but it looked like the Det Gunny never even took it out of his box in the first place. He had it all day. Maybe something will happen tomorrow and I'll receive word. My hopes were propped up today but a $550 studio I stumbled across but then the listing just vanished and the company responsible seems really shady... So I started looking at more property management companies. Ow. Just... Ow. There's so many of them and there's so many ways of getting screwed.

I'm not sure what to do. I hate that. I hate not having a direction to move in.

...2

Training Day 59

Language: Class was weird today. It started off quick then got really slow. I'm not sure why... I have noticed that my teaching team is moving slower through the chapters and I'm not sure why. Tonight's homework was just to study for the two quizzes tomorrow and do some little worksheet. Nothing too exciting...

What is exciting is that my speaking partner and I exchanged e-mails today. At the end of it all, we've decided that Saturday afternoon will be our first session. I'm looking forward to it and she seems to be excited too. She also mentioned to me today that she's been trying to learn how to swear but no one will teach her how...

She spelt 'damn' as 'dame' in her e-mail to me. Well, I took a page from my dad's book on child-rearing and applied it here. "They are going to swear anyways so they may as well learn how to do it right." Dad's efforts to make sure that I didn't embarrass myself in public with butchered curses were not wasted. Now I'm passing on that knowledge to a college student from a foreign country...

My speaking partner received a five-paragraph e-mail on the many uses of the word 'damn'. I wonder what she'll ask me next. I wonder if I can find that old card Dad had...

Medical: I have definitely caught something... I have this laundry list of stuff I need to go talk to medical about and they never pick up their phone. Hrm.

Personal: I'm still trying to track down an apartment and it is proving to be time-intensive. A couple of the ones I was eyeing fell apart and another person hasn't responded to my e-mails yet. Fortunately I stumbled across several 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartments for $800 or less today and they are being managed by professionals. I should receive better service from them and I hope to know more tomorrow.

Of course, this could all be for naught if my chit is shot-down. I doubt it will be, however. Today my platoon commander signed off on it and my scribe drops it in the Det Gunny's box tomorrow... Then it works it's way up the chain for a few more signatures. We'll see what happens.

Oh! 3!

Training Day 58

What a day... A good day. Just pretty crazy with everything going on at once. I've been really PT light lately but I've been pursuing other projects.

Language: I actually had fun today. Wild, isn't it? And we did our homework in class... I studied more vocab today, of course. The real interesting part is that I met my future speaking partner. It was a bit awkward as I didn't have any time to prepare, was late, and didn't have my books. Still, I met her and now we can start helping each other with our languages. My class leader introduced me to her through his speaking partner. This is really going to help my language learning. I feel like I embarrassed myself with how I stumbled over what should have been common vocabulary so I need to study the old stuff more.

I'm already teaching her new bits of English too... Besides the little tidbits here and there my big contribution to this afternoon's session was the word 'mercenary'. That was interesting.

Gaming: I've been trying to find better mods for Mount & Blade but I didn't even have time to play today. *gasp*

Personal: My hunt for an apartment continues... I found a dream apartment nearby that I am really hoping to snag. We'll see what happens with that.

I chatted with my dad today about this and that... And found out that my step-grandfather passed away this weekend. It wasn't a surprise to anyone. The doctors even said he needed to have surgery to live and he declined. He was 84 years old and had lived a long, full life... I just regret that I didn't get to talk to him quite as much as I would have liked to. Our families seemed to drift apart a bit after my step-mother died. Still, he was a WW2 vet. I felt a certain kinship with him for his service and enjoyed hearing his stories and he seemed to like mine. Of course, mine weren't nearly as interesting.

Pssst... 4

Training Day 57

Language: I was dragging all day today in class... But even when I'm half not-there, I can still handle my language. It's nice. Today's transcription homework was brutal and, as always, I pounded more vocabulary.

Medical: I feel a little sick. Besides that...

Wow. I spoke with the XO today. Remember my request for the grill and rice cooker? Denied. The XO made it very clear that it wasn't even possible. But then he told me that 'they' (I'm assuming the CO and the XO) were considering giving me BAH but since I only had 4 months left... Hold on. I rolled back and will be graduating in December. I'm pushing a year left on this post. Next thing you know, the XO tells me to put in a chit for a BAH request. For those of you who don't know, if that request is approved good ol' Uncle Sam hands me an extra $1032/month for an apartment. That would be absolutely amazing. Complete and total control over my health and my life... Here's hoping!

No. You may not party at my place.

Gaming: I am getting better at Mount & Blade and added some mods to the program. Now it's even more fun. Unfortunately, the best mods don't work with the latest version.

Personal: 5

Training Day 56

I love losing half my day to sleep after a guard shift. Between that and all the prep work I had to do with the upcoming week (such as get my hair cut, do all my laundry, roll up my sleeves, etc.) I feel like I got almost nothing today. The list sure is small.

Language: I had to do a whole lot of transcription for my homework... Ugh. Then some more exercises. Then some studying for tomorrow's quiz.

Personal: 6 ...And that's really exciting.

Training Day 55

I stood duty from 0700 on Saturday until 0700 on Sunday (as my special request chit was shot down). Therefore, the topic of this entire post is going to be Military. It is pretty rare that I get guard duty but it seems like I always get it on a Saturday when I do. Saturdays are 24-hour shifts but, due to Daylight Savings Time, I only had to stand 23 this weekend. It still demolished my plans for this weekend. Now, as it is guard duty, I am allowed to only work on language or military topics to stave off the boredom. This weekend I brought my stack of books from the Commandant's Reading List and devoured 6/7 of them.

The last time I just sat down and read a book was during the December Exodus break so it was actually nice to get in all that reading. The books were also quite good and each one provoked some thought or another...

As an aside, I hate sleep. I really do. I liken sleep to death. However, at the tail end of a 23 hour shift, my body really, really craves sleep and it feels so good when I finally do lie down.

Rifleman Dodd: This novella by C. S. Forester used to be issued and be mandatory reading in boot camp so I started with it first. It's the story of a British rifleman who is separated from his regiment during the Napoleonic wars. He was part of the British campaign in Portugal. The book details his journey back to his regiment.

Along the way he has to contend with being cut off from supplies, with being surrounded by the enemy, with being the only English-speaker for miles, with having no new orders to guide him... He has to take a lot of initiative. He works with his commander's intent. He knows why his regiment is there in the broadest of terms and, even though there is no chain of command where he is, he thinks of what would be the best thing to do for mission accomplishment and acts autonomously towards that goal. I think that the most important lesson from Rifleman Dodd is contained within the following quote:

"The only reward for the doing of his duty would be the knowledge that his duty was being done. That was how honour called; and glory--the man in the ranks did not bother with glory,..."

For Rifleman Dodd, honor wasn't measured by the amount of accolades he had in his SRB or the ribbons on his chest. He was given nothing for his service except a re-issue of his unserviceable gear and a warm meal. He wasn't promoted, given a medal, or even a pat on the back. The only thing that mattered to him was that he completed his duty and that is how he preserved his honor: away from the eyes of everybody.

A Message to Garcia: This was actually an old magazine article that became a phamplet that became an international sensation. It was inspired by an America officer who accepted the near-impossible task of delivering a message to a Cuban rebel. He had no idea where the rebel leader was. He had no supplies. He had no support. He was dropped offshore of Cuba and emerged three weeks later on the other side having completed his mission.

The article isn't a retelling of the story but rather focuses on what kind of person that officer was. It talks about the plague of society: People who will do anything to get out of doing work. People who ask questions they don't need to know the answers to. People who are just lazy and/or stupid. The writer talks about how all these people are throwing fits over the misfortune of the poor 'working' man... but he has to ask about all the employers who are desperately trying to find one man willing to actually work.

Really, I think the article boils down to "Shut up, listen to your commander's intent, and do your job." There's plenty of stuff you don't need to know so don't ask. You don't need to have your hand held by your superior - just keep in mind what he is trying to accomplish (what your stated mission is) and take the necessary steps. Never abandon your duty.

Of course, he said it a lot more eloquently and thoroughly than I have. It is a good read.

The Soldier's Load and the Mobility of a Nation: This is a treatise written by a colonel in 1950. At first it talks about the problem of over-loading troops and how that destroys their combat effectiveness. It talks about how fear and fatigue have the same effects, about the importance of letting troops rest, about how over-loading troops rapidly destroys their physical capabilities, etc. It doesn't start getting really interesting until later.

While I can keep in mind the weight concerns of highly-mobile and combat-ready troops, I found the writings on why we have this problem to be much more interesting. The colonel wrote about how staff members are killing our own troops because they make troops carry something for every possible occurrence. Troops carry too much junk to handle tasks they will never encounter on the battlefield. Troops even carry too much ammunition, water, and rations. Staff members are so worried that something will go wrong that they plan for every contingency, load the troops up, then make something go wrong (like drowning during an amphibious landing because the four cartons of cigarettes you were ordered to load in your pack soak up water).

It also talked about how the American public and the military is harming it's soldiers by coddling them. Rather than keep the supply lines trim, efficient, and fast with the necessary supplies, the rear is over-loaded with all the miscellaneous extras that troops don't need. Our military is under the impression that its troops need to live the civilian life, even when at war, so the rear is choked by all the comforts of home: junk food, extra clothes, entertainment facilities, etc. The reality is that, when troops were questioned in combat scenarios, they actually preferred the sparser lifestyle and took pride in what they were doing. There are other ways to stave off boredom then carting in a shipment of ocarinas (no joke).

Obviously I have no controls over the logistics in my life but it is something to keep in mind as I climb the ranks. I can control what extra gear I stick in my pack or what gear I toss as soon as I hit dirt. Then the arguments for a sparser, more-military lifestyle are always relevant.

The Defense of Duffer's Drift: This is also a military manual but it is much more interesting than the previous one. It's told as a recollection of a series of dreams where the author is charged with defending a point from a numerically superior force. He doesn't know why this point needs to be defended (but that is revealed later). I found the manual to be interesting and even humorous as it used a fresh British officer as the vehicle for the teachings. The contrasts between what he was taught at school, what he thought was proper, and what actually worked were entertaining and informative.

It is also a good way of making the material stick. While I couldn't recite the 22 rules the officer stumbled upon during his dreams, I can remember and contemplate the different things he did and what didn't work, what did work, and why. Therefore, in the future, as a small unit leader charged with setting up a fighting position, I can think back to Duffer's Drift and recall the story.

The Constitution of the United States of America: This was my third or fourth time reading the US Constitution and I get a little more out of it every time. I think the most disturbing thing all day was the sheer quantity of people who walked up to the duty desk and asked me why I was reading the Constitution. I don't know... It may have something to do with this little part of MEPS:

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

I think knowing what I am supporting and defending is important. Besides brushing up on what my individual rights are I also learned just how un-constitutional our government of the past century plus some change has been. The Constitution clearly states that all powers not clearly outlined in the Constitution belong to the states or to the people. The federal government isn't supposed to be this all-encompassing behemoth that it is. It's supposed to unite the states for matters that they couldn't handle well on their own. Matters such as international diplomacy, interstate trade, international trade, and warmaking. That's really it. Not education, crime, national resources, etc. States are supposed to handle that on their own.

I'm looking at you, Congress. You're curiously absent from my Oath of Enlistment and you are paid far too much for doing far too little except bloating the system.

Now to figure out just how a 20 year-old Marine goes about making a more constitutional federal government...

The Killer Angels: This is a novel written by Michael Shaara. I hear it's his best one and that his other works aren't really worth reading. Fortunately, I enjoyed this novel that retold the Battle of Gettysburg by piecing together the recollections of the generals there from their journals. It raised a lot of interesting questions for you.

The southern enlisted men said they were fighting for their rights but didn't know what those rights were. The southern generals used the analogy of joining a gentleman's club that promptly shoved its nose in their private lives and then, when they tried to quit the club, refused. I can actually see that as being true when I look at the bloated size of our federal government and how it's stomping all over states' rights. A northern general talked about how the south was trying to bring back the European aristocracy and that also seems true with the talk of how some men were common, some men were slaves, and the like. They even had European officers there mingling with the southern officers and the Englishman saying how much like England they were. The north and Europe thought the war was over slavery. Just seeing how all these different people could have the same viewpoints over the reasoning behind the war and how, ultimately, the reason ceased mattering... It was interesting.

The southern concept of honor was also interesting. The generals did a lot for their honor, including ignore the strategically superior option in favor of a 'glorious' massed charge on a fortified position. We had an officer who felt like he had to fall in battle because Jackson court marshaled him for cowardice (despite the fact that no one who knew him suspected him of such). We had these self-fancied gentlemen, with all their pomp and airs, talking about honor and God and glory... Then they pushed their men through a meat grinder to appease those same ideas.

I contrasted their definition of honor and glory with that of Rifleman Dodd's. Rifleman Dodd preserved his honor by accomplishing his mission and was not concerned with glory in the least. In order to complete his mission he had to do some under-handed things such as sabotage, ambushes, and night assaults. The southern generals, in particular General Lee, felt like they had to attack the northern forces (who were across an open field, atop a steep hill, behind cover, and supported by artillery) with a charge to preserve their honor rather than loop around and try to outflank the northern forces. They would be shamed if they didn't. Even the northern officers, such as Chamberlain, seemed to think the display was 'beautiful.'

I don't. I think it's disgusting. I've concluded that there was no honor in what the southern forces did that day and that, in fact, they dragged their honor through the dirt. The author felt compelled to describe the southern generals charging into the fray as 'knights' but I find that metaphor to be wholly inaccurate. Rifleman Dodd had the right idea.

You don't win honor through the pomp and ritual of being a 'gentleman' and foolhardy charges if you lose the battle. There is no honor is failing to accomplish your mission. Sir Charny, an actual knight and without peer in his day and age, said that honor was found in prowess and he did some classically under-handed things in his attempts to accomplish his mission. You can dress yourself up, make a show of being polite, and throw your broken body upon the altar of popular opinion... But that isn't honor.

That is chasing glory. They are two distinct things. Honor is reaching down, grabbing hold, and pressing on to accomplish your mission even when no one is looking. Glory is making a show of being brave so that later people will talk about you and say how brave and 'honorable' you were. Rifleman Dodd had it right. People should concern themselves with honor and not glory.

This is something I need to meditate upon and keep close to my heart...

Personal: 7

Training Day 54

So... This post is dated to Friday.

Language: I managed to make it through the day. Woo! Not a lot of studying today because of the upcoming duty. I'm relaxing.

Automotive: The autoport says they couldn't repair my tire and the warranty may not cover the damage to it... We'll see. Whatever happens, I am talking to my sergeant about getting that shoddy construction job outside the Air Force barracks fixed. I don't like having my new tires ruined because some contractor was lazy. This ruins my weekend, however, as I can't go anywhere on a spare.

Gaming: I'm getting a lot better at couching my lance and wrecking people in the arena with it. Now, if only I could quit being so poor so that I could get a decent horse and lance for the field. Then I need some cavalry.

Personal: 8