Army Dentists?

Yeah, I know, I don't have any pictures. Sorry. Today was not a day for that sort of thing anyway. Today I was suppose to go to Sick Call so I could go to the dentist. Well, I was told that when we go to sick call, we need to wear our PT uniform. (Our work out clothes) So I get dressed, wait for almost an hour in our company office so I can get my medical records. Then I wait for another half hour for the ride to South Hood. (The distance from North to South Hood is about 45 min.) Well, I get down to the dental clinic, the only one on post, about a 1/2 hour before their sick call hours end. There is a sign on the door that says that PT uniforms are not allowed in the building! So, I grab my phone and call the number on the door. I talk to this soft voiced PFC who appears to be frightened by my tone for voice when I was trying to make sense of their rules. I asked her, since I was just outside the door in PT's, if I could just schedule an appointment. She said that I could not do that, I had to go to sick call first. Then I asked her if they would make an exception about the hours and take me as sick call once I got back to North Hood and changed my clothes. She said no. I have to go back tomorrow. Oh well, at least it gets me out of the hanger for another day! Well, that is about the biggest bit of Army crap so far today.

Jeremy

Tools Away!

Holy cow! Things here have been a bit frustrating these past few days. For starters, since I am sheet metal, I require a lot of special tools and materials to do my job. Well, we don't have the tools, and I had to have a friend from the facility back home send me some materials so that us two sheet metal guy could do a job. What sucks is, now that we have the materials, they did not want to ground the aircraft long enough to do the repair. To top it off, yesterday, we packed up all of our tools to send over. So now we have no tools, but we do have the parts. Then, two days ago, I was asked to take a look at some damage. I gave them my professional opinion yet they did not heed it. Which makes me wonder, with all the people who apparently have more skill at this job than me, why did they even bother to bring me? Oh, yeah, I know why. Because Phillips and I are the ONLY two people in the unit who have been to sheet metal school for the Army. We are the ONLY ones certified to do our jobs, yet there are so many others who like to tell me how to do it. Oh well. That is about all for now. I need to get going. I have to get ready for a class tonight. Fun!

Goin to the Range

Well people, it is that time. Time for me to go to the range. "What is the Range?" you may ask? Simply put, it is the place that I go to shoot my rifle. We have to hit some pop up targets sitting in various different positions. Now normally, we would only shoot 60 rounds out of our weapon for a qualifying range. You only get so many rounds and you are required to hit a certian number of the targets. However yesterday (when I did the daylight portion of the range), I shot 240 rounds! No, I did not suck at shooting, although I did do some of the worst shooting I have ever done, they just had a TON of extra rounds. So they let us nine guys fire off all the extras! It was pretty fun. By the way, did I mention that yesterday was my birthday? Most of you already knew that. But that was some birthday, getting to shoot all those extra rounds! Thank you to all of you who sent cards and boxes. It is very appreciated. So anyway, back to the range. The way that it works is, we get into our position, and these forms pop up in front of us. I have enclosed a picture of the forms. They pop up at certian distances from your position, and you have to shoot them. You only get one shot per target, so if you miss, you miss. If you hit the target, then it falls back down. If you miss, it stays up for a set time and then goes down on its own. One or two targets will pop up at different distances, depending on the program that they are running in the range tower. Tonight, we get to go do the night fire portion of the range. This means exactly what it sounds like. We will be shooting at the targets in the dark. The targets will have glow sticks attached to them so we can see them and every thirb round in our magazine is a tracer (Glows once fired) so we can get a better idea of where we are shooting. SO, that is about all that there is for the range. I will keep you posted, and I will try to get some pictures, or video of the range tonight.

This is a shot of the firing positions that we shoot from.

This is a picture of the forms that we shoot at. Pretty life like eh?

Some of the guys waiting for the range to go "Hot". Which just means waiting to shoot.

Another Day, Another Dollar

Okay, where do I want to start? Well, I think I will start at the begining, since that is the best place to start. Today was supposedly the last day that I had to play "Catch up" on classes. However, it really is not. Just for the time being, we are at a bit of a stand still with the classes. We just got done with a HUGE exercise and things around here are begining to settle back down. The last few days have been a bunch of G.I. Joe training that got me all muddy, wet and tired. It was very fun! At one point in the training, we had to climb over a wall with all of our gear on. Well, the wall was very tall (About chest height), and the gear gives you limited mobility. I got my right leg up on the wall, and shoved off the round with my left leg. The only problem is, I am not very tall, and I did not get enough umph behind the kick, and I got stuck on the wall. I was just kind of flailing on the wall with nothing to grab and nothing for my feet to touch. So, the guy giving the class had to push me over the wall. He had to do the same for a couple other short people. It was quite funny. So, I went down to get the mail today and I had a TON of cards from people for my birthday! Thank you to all of you for the cards. I am one of the people in my barracks that gets the most mail. I like it. Thank you all for the mail. Sorry for not having any pictures up. I really don't take a lot of pictures here in TX. There is nothing here worth taking a pictue of....... Texas sucks. One last thing. If any of you have met my daughters, you know how sweet and cute they are. I sent a letter to my girls last week and in that leter I told them that I was going to have Barb send me some crayons so I could color them some pictures. Yesterday, I was IM-ing with Barb and she told me that Kate, when she heard that I wanted some crayons, took the brand new pack of crayons that she got for her birthday and put them in the box that is being sent to me for my birthday. How sweet is that? My daughters are the best. I am a very lucky and blessed man to have Barb and the girls at home.
Well everyone, that is all for now. Some advice for all: It doesn't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.

A Quick Look

Well, I have the best wife ever. Yesterday, I received in the mail an AT&T Wireless card for my computer. This little device allows me to get on the internet from my bunk in the barracks. This way, I have no time limits, and I can get on the internet whenever I want. Which is great because we just had a TON of people show up yesterday. The chow lines are about 20 minutes long, as the least, and by the time you get to the food, most of it is gone! Bummer. So anyway, I have been working 12 hour shifts the last few days. That wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that there is NOTHING to do for me. Don't get me wrong, there is quite a bit of work for a sheet metal guy, but we do not have the propper tools, or any material. So, I pretty much just sit around the hanger all day. That will change when we get to Iraq (Hopefully). On a final note, here are some pictures of the local wildlife.

Enjoy!

The video below is for Kate on her birthday. I hope it plays well. Not much new here, just the same old stuff, on a different day. In case you didn't know, today is Katie Jo's birthday. She is three years old! I have no idea where the time went to. Kate, Happy Birthday Baby!! I love you!!

No Pictures Again

Greetings to all from Texas. It still sucks here, and I still have not had a chance to get any pictures or movies up on the blog. Sorry. Well, let me bring you up to speed. It is hot, and we are outside about 80% of the day. In the last few days, I have almost missed 4 meals due to bad timming that I have no control over. The past few days, us five (the ones who were drafted), have had training every day to catch up to all of the classes that we need to do. What sucks about that is we already did these classes with your own unit, but since the people certifying didn't see us take the classes, they don't count. So now we have do go through 32 classes and 12 big events. This will be good. Oh well, crap happens. I need to go, my time on the computer is running out.