You were invited!

I can't remember if I posted my official change of command invite, so I'm doing it now. This was about 3/4 of my company leadership--we had 6 folks not in the shot--but the intent was to have my Executive Officer, LT RAY Romero (far left), 1SG Dobos (middle), and myself (right) to be rappelling down. It proved a little more difficult because I zipped down too fast, and tore my achilles heel (and spent the next 7-8 weeks in excrutiating pain, going from crutches/cast/cane to just hobbling around). It was designed my "Monkey", one of the America's Army war-gamers who had come through in Nov 07 and did a 4 day Mini-BCT with 40 other civilians. We put them through the ringer---but he designed the Bulldog for us, and the invite. Impressive!

Change of Command Pictures

I truly love this picture---didn't realize that my designated photography, PFC Carey, had taken these because he saved them to my camera's hard drive, not the memory chip, so these are the only two salvageable pictures from the entire day, but well worth the memories. The one above is the rendoring of salutes. My former First Sergeant, Gabor Dobos, is saluting in the foreground. This is during the National Anthem, which explains why we are all saluting. I'm still in Command at this point, because I'm on the right hand side of my Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Heintzelman (middle) and my predecessor CPT Dave Smart. What a great feeling after giving my last speech, with my call sign "Bulldog 6. Out" for the last time. I almost skipped off the field. The picture below is my Company, at that time on May 23rd, 2008. It was quite warm that afternoon, but everyone looked great and stoic, bearing down in the humidity. About 210 Soldiers strong, with full cadre/leader representation with 12 Drill Sergeants and the rest of my then headquarters staff. SSG Chris Whitworth, Training NCO, SGT Stephensen: Supply, PFC Carey (I had initiated his packet to kick him out after many failed attempts to rehabilitate him to doing his jobs, to no avail). Great team, great memories. The hours were well worth the pay-off, in the end!

MORE TO FOLLOW!

http://southdakotadreaming.blogspot.com/

Stay Tuned for adventures to come in my new blog (link above)

One last thing

I don't know how I could have forgotten two of the best confiscated contraband notes that were found in my tenure as Commander.

The first one is a love note---I sent both of them packing and had them start over, after I gave this 17 year old female Soldier who wrote this a harsh reprimand. Needless to say, the next week, another note was caught by the male she was writing to with two highlights: "The cap'n let me off easy. I convinced her I was a good girl...." and "You better rip this up and throw it away. You ain't worth losing my bonus over." We found it laying on the floor. Guess he wasn't too interested :) I didn't change any spelling or words to keep the authenticity of it.

"Watz good with ya papi?I'm bored and can't sleep so I decided to writeyo sexeii azz...but anyway let me get straight to tha point, I'm feelinyou like Michael Jackson be feelin on them little bois....LMAO! But real talk I know you just want some azz but I don't really care and I would f*** the shit out of you!! Just thought I would let you know.Anyway...write me back and let me know watz good boo. Kisses, MPS.

You be smelling good as hell.


This one is a Hate Letter---the Soldier whose bunk we found it under avidly denied writing it, but the writer seems to have gotten burned. Badly.

My dear Cristine,First of all, I hate you. And that's bad because I don't even know you.But I do know b**ches like you. You feed on drama. Also you're just made because Faust has a new, better girl. You're that old, tired bitch. Ihope you die in a car wreck. Please forget to buckle up. If that doesn't work, just play on the f***ing highway. It should be fun. Youare one scandolous hooker. I hope you fall down some stairs immature cu*t. I would laugh. Faust said the next time he speaks to you, we hopeyour in a box. Once upon a time, there was a dumb bitch. You are that dumb bitch. I can't buy a pack of smokes without running into 9 guys you f***ed. I hope next time you swallow, you gag on that sh** and cease to exist. I hope you spontaneously combust. I would piss on you just enough to amuse me, but enough enough to put you out. I heard about your tramp stamp too (tattoo for you retards). Hopefully you can follow footsteps. Nobody cares bitch. Oh I forgotr. The poor guy who's gotta clean that shit up that's who cares. Any ways, I hope you fade away in a fantastic manner. Catch you on the flip side stupid STD magnet. Holy crap, we hate you turd!

PS. Crackwhore

It is finished.

I changed out of command on 23 May 2008. The ceremony was less than 30 minutes under the blazing South Carolina sun. I had some dear, wonderful friends show up to support me--and it was over, just like that. Stay tuned for my new adventures....

Pride goeth before the fall

So here is the update.

Not sure exactly how it happened, like there wasn't a snap-crackle-pop....but on Wednesday, day 2 of my last cycle of Basic Training, I was in my element. Climbing ropes/ladders, swinging across the tower on a rope, rappelling--all over the place. I noticed that my right foot/ankle was hurting, but I didn't pause long enough to favor it. It was only after we took our Company photo (see previous blog) that I noticed how much pain I was in. It got worse every minute, so I had to stumble and walk by the troops to my car so my fine mighty XO (exec officer), 2LT Romero, could drive me to the ER. There was no rush on their end however, since I sat like a crying, whimpering baby in pain for 2 hours in that ER. Apparently, privates in training trump permament party with a 27 on a 1-10 pain scale. I am now sporting this ridiculous thing (see above), which I had to take off last night because the itching and claustrophobia was intense. Follow up next week---not sure that it is a bad break, so once the swelling is done, we'll redo the xrays. Got some nice painkillers and 2 days off from work, so I had cabin fever last night since I couldn't even drive. Anyway, what a way to end my last cycle. Trying to outdo and show off on the rappell tower---KARMA~

Last Cycle!

Today is pick up for my last group of trainees for Basic Training. 22 females arrived last night (and we were expecting 11 males), so no idea what to expect for numbers tonight. Max we can get is 240, but I still have around 10 "holdovers" that didn't graduate last cycle. 3 still can't meet the Army standard for their PT test, 4 left that I'm separating out of the military, one guy who had hernia surgery on 4 FEB and has been on convalescent leave since....so they just get to hang out until paperwork comes through. We graduated my sixth BCT cycle on Friday, 21 March. I started with 220 Soldiers on 3 January, and graduated with 179. Why the high attrition? Let me count the ways....

One homosexual ("Ma'am, I have something to tell you. You can't ask and I can't tell").
14 entry level separations (failure to adapt)
2 familiy care plan chapters
8 "existed prior to service" medical problems, meaning they came in the Army and somehow their condition was waived or missed--like scoliosis, shoulder injuries, etc.
And the rest I newstarted mid cycle, which means they didn't meet the standard for some phase of training, so we put a packet together and sent them off to another unit that was a few weeks or in several cases, an entire cycle, behind so they had to redo the training.

The 179 we graduated was a good, decent group who worked hard--and I don't feel guilty about graduating a single one of them. There has been in the past a few Soldier who have layed under the radar and snuck through, and we find out at the end that they were shamming, or abusing the system, or bullies or whatever else...but the axe has been coming down hard and it's great to have support from higher to be able to have that flexibility.

30 May will be my last graduation, and will be my change of command ceremony here at Fort Jackson. No due replacements for incoming Captains, so I will probably pass the command off to my fine, up and coming 2nd Lt who serves as my Executive Officer now. I'm definitly ready to move on---will stay here in Ft Jackson through the summer and will relocate to our nation's capital, Washington DC area, this fall to serve a one year internship with a governmental agency. Quite excited, but don't want to get too anxious until I have papers in hand. That's why the Army always keeps us on our feet!