Monday, January 31, 2011

Somewhere between week 3-4

Ok so I really don't know where I left off...but let me see if I can bring every1 up to speed on where we are at...Last week was kinda a blur to me...we did a lot more math and stuff dealing with mathematical formulas, wavelengths, frequencies, antenna's, wave propagation an a bunch of other stuff that I am still not sure bout. Then we had our second exam on Thursday...I thought I was good cause the night before we had our study group and I went over a bunch of problems that I was having problems with...well test time comes around and I feel pretty good...well bout 1 hr into the test I only have 14 problems done of 50...now I am sweating cause I am not sure if I am even gonna finish this...then I forget everything that was taught over the last few days...and the end result was I had missed 17 questions...I am only allowed to miss 15...O SHIT...not good....after class I am told to be in the classroom at 0500 to retake the test and if I fail it then I am done in this course and I will have to get a new job...well I did a brief review with one of my classmates and an instructor and went back to the barracks with my mind spinning not knowing what I am going to do if I fail...well 0400 rolls around really quick when you dont sleep....I get to class and have to wait 30 mins for the instructor to show up to give me the new exam....once inside I start to take this test and its the same exact test as the one the day before except the questions have been rearranged....(Wait this is an Army Test) no1 ever fails...LOL so I go on to knock it out and in the end only get 4 wrong...why couldn't I do this the day before still bothers me but nonetheless I passed the second test and now we are into week 4 which is all lecture till we go hard and heavy with more formulas and the hardest exam this course has...Till then I will try to do better in keeping every1 up to speed on my long journey back...Thanks

Thursday, January 20, 2011

2nd week of classes Day 1-3

Ok all I'm back with an update...After returning to school from a short 4 day weekend we jumped right back into things on Tuesday and started working with Right Triangle and Decibels...this was an adventure like I have never seen before (I for a lack of better words(DONT KNOW SHIT) bout either of these) but with the help of my new friends everything worked out and I was able to learn these. Now Wednesday is a whole new ball game...1st we start off with the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) which I am not really worried about cause I am in (good enough) shape to pass and I did...then we went back into the classroom to finish up Decibel and start on Logarithmic Calculations.  That all went pretty well then we went and had lunch and came back to start our math review...which turned out to be a 35 question mini quiz.  I did ok on it not great but just ok.  That night we had a down and dirty study group session where I learned what I was missing and pick up a few trick then off to bed I went. So here we are on Thursday morning and I have some butterflies cause if I fail this test then I have to retest and I am not sure that I can handle 6 more hours of math. Test time...it was the standard Army Math test...in other words it was easier then all the PE's that we had...and that made me happy. My final score was an 84%...I got 2 wrong because I forgo to put the unit of measure and 1 wrong cause I hit the wrong number...but oh well...I am happy with the results now I can start learning my new job in the Army.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Days 2-4

Okay so I am a little behind on this, give me a break its hard trying to keep up when you got a bunch of stuff going on. So here it is in a nutshell...in class on Tuesday we learned how to work the TI-86 calculators and took an ability test to see were we stood with our math knowledge on Wednesday it was Basic Mathematics and Algebra and on Thursday it was Exponents and Scientific Notations plus because of the 4 day weekend I decided to drive home to see the family.  Well for those of you who read this I am sorry I am not going into great detail bout this past week but I am at home and am gonna spend time with them. My next post won't be till Tuesday night. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

1st day of classes

Monday  10 Jan 2011
Well Monday was a pretty boring day...why you ask well mother nature like to pull pranks and she dumped close to 2 inches of snow/ice on Ft. Gordon so of course being in the south they were not prepared for this and had to shut down all of the daily operation. So all I really did was sit around the barracks and played spades most of the day.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Week 1

Day 1   2 Jan 2011
It starts at 1pm when I left my house in Clarksville, TN and started driving to Ft. Gordan, GA for AIT.  The drive down was pretty uneventful.  When I got to Ft. Gordan though it was (for a lack of better words) Fuck'd up.  I went to where I thought I was suppose to go 15th Sig BDE and they told me that they didn't know what to do with me and sent me to a holding company.(this was @ 930pm...it took me 7hrs to drive here BTW).  So I went to the holding company and talked to the NCOIC there and he told me that he could not put me up there because it was for E-4 and below..(I'm an E-6) and sent me to Lodging where I would get further guidance.  So I goto lodging and wait my turn in line and talk to the customer assistant rep, and I'm told that I need to go back to 15th Sig to get a statement from them so that they can give me a room free of charge...but before I go that they were going to call them to let them know.  Before I can leave the lady at the desk stops me and say that no one there is going to be able to help me cause I am not expected to be there...so after bout 1hr of waiting my mother-in-law pays for my room and I finally get some rest(bout 4hrs).

Day 2   3 Jan 2011
Ok so I got up this morning hoping things were gonna be better. HAHA joke was on me.  NO ONE know what to do with me...well finally someone points me in a direct where my class is suppose to start.  So I go there.  Well guess what happened...today is a training holiday and NO ONE is here to help me.  Just what I need.  I am tired from the lack of sleep and now I have no place to sleep what else could go wrong??? Well after 6 hrs of sitting around wait for someone give me some answers I get some good news...they found me a temporary room till I get in-processed back into the Army.  So here I am in a cold room where the heat don't work with a roommate that is lower enlisted and scared to talk to me cause he don't want to say the wrong thing and I am so tired that if I fall asleep I am unsure when what time I will wake up. Oh well maybe tomorrow will be better?!

Day 3  4 Jan 2011
Well I woke up kinda sore this morning, the beds that we have are just foam mattresses with a plastic cover over them so needless to say I would have been better off to sleep on the floor.  I didn't eat breakfast cause I was never informed of where I could eat at and being new to this post I just don't know where the chow hall is..(I know there is no excuse I'm an E-6 I should always know) but I didn't, but I did find the shoppette (gas station) and thought to myself why not get some coffee so maybe your day will be better....HAHAHA jokes on me again....the coffee taste like it had been sitting there for at least 2 days and was really hard to swallow...so it went out the window (my day was just gonna get worse).  So I went to do some briefings and talk to some civilians bout getting payed and getting my family enrolled into DEERS(Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System)..that went off without a hitch, with 1 exception..IT TOOK ALL DAY TO DO!!  Its like being the little kid that no1 likes, getting pawned off on some1 else and saying "here take this we don't know what to do with them"...maybe this was not a good idea after all...wait I'm doing this for my family so that I can take better care of them. Suck It and Drive on.


Day 4  5 Jan 2011
Well 2day was a little better but not by much.  I had my first run in with an idiot SPC who thinks it okay to talk to a SSG with his hands in his pockets and I very politely asked him in my GROWN UP voice if he had lost his military bearings and that if he back at his home unit what would the NCO there do if he talked to them in that manner. His response was "well I'm a combat vet they would not say anything to me"as he pointed to his CIB(Combat Infantryman's Badge)....Well I had a jacket on so he could not see what was there...so of course I being the good NCO that I am took my jacket off and showed him that I was too a combat vet with the same CIB that he had, he promptly went to the position of parade rest and I was happy to watch him nearly wet himself...I went on to tell him about the how he is to remember that he is not in his old unit and next time he had a brain fart like that around me that I would smoke the dog shit out of him.(that made me fell a little better).   So I moved on to my next mission to  be at the inproccesing building at 0745 to get the rest of pay issue straightened out and again that took all day.  So we didn't get done till right around 1700 and then went over to where our classrooms are at and talked to the instructors for a bit to find out more bout the coarse we are going to be taking which took bout an hour, then they told up they we done with us so we( me and the 3 other that showed up early cause we are all prior service) went to the chow hall and had dinner. Now I am sitting here in my room updating everyone on how the past 2 days went.  I sure hope this gets better cause I don't think it can get any worse. Till next time thanks for everyone's support and have a good night.



Day 5  5 Jan 11
Well today started off like any other day...I woke up and actually had a cup of coffee( in the room I am in some1 left a coffee pot so now I don't have to buy 1) so that is good for me.  I went back over to where we have been inproccessing, basically getting all of my pay, ID cards, family medical/dental stuff done and I find out that my security clearance paperwork has not been started.  HHMMM....makes me wonder if MEPS knew this before they sent me down here...the answer to that question is NO!....so after talking to the instructors of the course there is a chance that I may not be able to attend the class....now this is a unpleasant surprise.  So with this now weighing heavily on me I start doing what I need to do to get this fixed.  Well my 1st stop was at the security office and they tell me that I have had a check done but it was not complete so they issue me a temporary clearance, thinking this would be good till they get my clearance finished.  Well thats not good enough for the course.  So my next stop is the retention office where I take a seat to talk to one of the counselor to see what some of my option are.  Well apprently this is not the 1st time this has happened...(funny this does not surprise me) so the SGM ( Sergeant Major) in charge sat me down and told me that he and his staff are going to look into this matter and get it resolved asap (now this is good news to me cause for the 1st time this week some1 is trying to help me and not just push me to the side and say oh well) and to come back the next morning at 9 am to talk to him.  So that is all that really happened 2day...too bad it took most of the day to start getting some answer. Well after all that was done myself and a few others that showed up early decide to go for a little run cause the weather outside is getting nice. Well cause I am (for a lack of better words) kinda out of shape I go...well for some reason my body didn't feel as good as my mind did about this idea and at the turn around point I felt this little twinge in my calf...well that little twinge was the 1st and worse cramp I can ever remember having so that was the end of my day.  Man maybe next time I should stretch out...DUMMY!

Day 6  7 Jan 11
So today was a pretty cillax day only had a few things to do.  It start with me going to see the retention SGM and seeing what was up with me being able to make into this class and sure enough they did what was right and got me into it so that made me really happy.  I then proceeded to the hospital to make sure that my family was taken care of with the right medical care. That only took half the day.  So as it stands I am on the right track to getting an new MOS (Military Occupation Specialties) and on Monday I will be starting class with everyone else.  I guess it took some patients and flexibility.