Journal vidstudent's Journal: Drill Weekends as a Corporal
Ah, yes, my other job.
Normally, we start on a Friday Night, showing up in formation in cammies at 7:00 P.M. or 7:30 P.M. Note that I do not say "around" - this is the military, and you will be prompt for it unless you like cleaning bathrooms and getting yelled at. This time, it was a Saturday start, so it was around 3:50 A.M. that I left Delta, Ohio to go to Detroit, State I Don't Care About. (For more on why I hate that state, click here.) The morning involved weapons cleaning, the afternoon involved a retirement formation and a Battle Skills Test - Two Whole Hours of Fun! - and the hour after final formation, when we were to be released, was taken by an emergency equipment location and repair order writing session. Yes, it could have been handled much earlier, but the Inspector/Instructor staff member involved chose not to tell us about it until the last minute. And I could've been in the SvC Chaos tournanment too...oh, well, I got to be cremated in Street Fighter III: Third Strike. At least I landed Q's super on the Chun Li in the loser's bracket...small, small victory, I know.
Sunday morning was gear inventory. It should be noted that, normally, we are given a computer printout of what we have and what we rate, and we note what's there and what's not. The same inspector/instructor noted above is converting this very specific accountability method to simply marking down "set numbers" on what we have, seeing as he had no accountability on the stuff that was checked out for the other companies in our battalion when they went to Afghanistan, Djibouti, and Iraq. This is where the corporal situation differs from the private to lance corporal or the sergeant and above scenarios. I had been up late at the arcade, and my sleep from 1:30 A.M. to 6:00 A.M. wasn't cutting it. I managed to offer some assistance on the work, but it became clear to me that the task was well at hand between three groups of non-NCO's led by senior lance corporals. Thusly, I drank a lot of water, checked on things, helped people, drank more water, walked a bit, helped people, found a place to hide, napped a bit, came back and saw things were still on track, ate noon chow, sat through a class held by the PWST officer, bugged the admin office over various matters, and went back to nap until the drill was over, as there was nothing more to do.
It scares me that it's so easy to find places to hide in the Brodhead Armory.
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Drill Weekends as a Corporal
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