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On the road.
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "ringtail5" journal:
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05:27 pm
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E-Mail
Just to let everyone know I am doing fine but my Yahoo! email is on the fritz.
If you want to contact me by email please send it to daniel.j.brown1@us.army.mil
Thanks.
Current Mood:  annoyed
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08:58 pm
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When theres nothing to wite about... write about nothing.
So what did I do today... Well I woke up... always a good start. I then sat in my bed for like 5 minutes and tried to tell myself that I wanted to go to the gym... It didn't really work but I got dressed and went anyways. Once there I did what we call in the Army "shammed". I didn't really work as hard as I could have. Why? Well I guess it was one of those days. Its kinda sad though that usually shamming is reserved for a NCO you don't like who is making you do some PT for some stupid reason... But today I did it because it was a lazy day. I still got something out of my time in the gym, but I"m sure I could have gotten a little more. It probably doesn't matter in the long run because I go 6 days a week anyways.
Next I went the the bane of the Army. EO training! Oh my goodness. Be thankful if whatever job you work in doesn't have this kind of training. Its two hours of whining about how we should all watch our Ps and Qs around everyone! And usually its taught by the worst offender. It was painful. And the worse part is it HAS to happen once every three months or someone gets in trouble. Army Reg. Oh well... I guess the good point from that is that I didn't have to spend those 2 hours in front of a computer trying to catch bad guys.... or is that a bad thing... you decide.
Hmm.. looks like I did pretty good not having anything to say... I'm already up to lunch. Which was pretty non-descript except that they salads here are very good and fresh and I also had chili too. It was quite spicy but also very good.
Moving on. So I finaly went into work and started... working... blah blah blah... ya thats all I can say. LOL hehe azbrush_popper would ask me, "Hows work?," and I'd say "Good." And thats it. Certainly challenges you to find something else to talk about. And that leads us up to now.
So I'm sitting here typing way more than I thought I would hopping that tomorrow is a better PT day than today was... Wish me luck!
P.S. I like my purple cat.
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: We don't need no stinking Music!
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08:37 pm
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I'm drawing a complete blank on this one today... so lets call it a Ramble.
Ok so humans can get used to anything, right? So that certainly explans why the Army (and my unit specifically) won't let anything stay one way for over a week. I have worked 3 different shifts in the last 2 days. First I was working night shift, which I enjoyed... then I was moved to Day shift which was pretty easy to get used to. Then today the day shift changed to be 12 hours long... ok, your right Mr. Army, that 8 hours I worked yesturday doing almost nothing was just too fun. So lets make it 12 hours of joyous boredom. If your wondering how I could possibly have nothing to do, just understand that in my job, if theres nothing comming in, you can't magically make it appear. Well some people can but when they do its just called "Busy Work". Like rewriting a report, or making one prettier for the officers that eventually read it. Of course with too much beautification they get confused and stop reading.
One thing I've learned to do is make things as blatantly obvious as possible with out breaking any rules. The sad part is the officers whom recieve these reports are supposed to know what I'm talking about with out me saying it outright. Here in the journal entry is a perfect example. If you know what my job is you may know what I mean by what I have written. If you don't then you might be kinda confused. I understand and I'm sorry, but theres not much I can do about that.
Any who! Enough about secret squirrel stuff.
So we have little shops around the base called "Hajji Shops". They sell all kinds of stuff but they make alot of money from selling DVDs for about $2 per disk. You can get anything! They have boxed sets too, they cost more than $2 but they usually have the whole series instead of just one years worth of shows. However you do get what you pay for. I.E. sometimes they don't work or if the movie is a recent release then the person who filmed it in the theater held the camera crooked for the whole movie. But like I said $2!!! I'm thinking of getting some boxed sets that I don't ever intend on buying the actual boxed set to. Like the Simpsons or something like that. azbrush_popper and I collect movies so for things like 24 and CSI we're going to want a pretty boxed set, so I won't buy that kind of stuff.
Ok now I know you've been thinking about it so I'll tell you my perspective on the term: Hajji.
The meaning of the word Hajji is someone whos completed the Hajj, the, at least once in a lifetime, trip to Mecca that all Muslims are supposed to take unless you are physically unable to. What it means now: arab person. How I feel about it: /shrug. I might feel bad but every kid out in the city calls us Joe no matter what, so its kinda just a way for us to communicate. Many of our names are difficult for each of us to pronounce. So Hajji, in my oppinion, is much better than: Hey You!
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: My MP3 player eats Batteries. :(
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12:54 am
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Yup... its early.
Right, so its like one in the morning over here and I"m awake... so whats that mean... you know what it means people, work. Yes my work keeps me up to the wildest hours of the day or night as that case may be. So right now I'm in between shifts. Guard shifts. This is because every once in a while I have to stop what I'm doing (i.e. trying to catch bad guys) and pull a two week stint of tower guard. Its not too bad realy. I get to talk to people over a radio useing words like "roger" and "over" and all that hardcore stuff. And we get to sit there and watch...well nothing. I have two night shifts and thats what I look at... the night. Every once in a while I can see some kids (aka people younger than me) walking around their neighborhood kinda like I remember doing during highschool. Most of the time I think of random ways someone might try to attack us but I really doubt thats going to happen. Now don't think I'm not ready for it if it does... but if I was them... I wouldn't attack me. Anyway, enough talking about attacks (which for the record we haven't had any... AT ALL). Oh well, enough ranting for one day. See ya'll.
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: The clicking of keyboards. by US Army
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02:09 pm
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First Blood...
I have drawn my first blood in the Army. I just completed a CLS (Combat Life Saver) course and do graduate you had to start an IV on one of your fellow students. My partner was a guys in my platoon that was taking the course with me along with about 28 other people I didn't know. We knew this was coming so We had talked about it a few days before hand.
Me: Do you wanna go first or shall I?
Him: I've been know to pass out.
Ok, so he gave me the IV first. His first try failed and he felt real bad about it but I wasn't in that much pain so I just helped him calm down and try again. He got it on the second try. I thought he did real well.
Then it was my turn. Having known that he might pass out I did what I could to calm him down. I hit his vein on the first try. As I pulled the needle out of the catheter his blood flowed down his arm and he said, "Wow, thats warm!" I got the IV started and as was well. He said latter that he was proud of himself for not passing out.
It was pretty cool all in all. And now I'm a Combat Life Saver. *fanfare plays*
Current Mood:  accomplished
Current Music: Hail and lots of it.
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06:09 pm
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Post-poned.... sorry that was sad. :)
Lets see the wounds are mostly healed just in time to get some new ones.
Last week I went to the M4 rifle range and did ok for me. Better than most 32 out of 40 but not to my standard. My only real consolation what that it was the first time I had every fired the M4 before, and now I know what I need to work on. Its called the prone possition and its not as x-rated as it sounds. At least I had fun. One thing about the military's choice of weapons that that becuase the round is so small the kick from the rifle is almost non-existant which make for a enjoyable shooting experience because you can do it forever and not get brused or tired. I was only supposed to shoot around 80 rounds but because I was on reange detail (my platoon was running the range) I was able to hang around and shoot off the extra round left over. The it takes more paper-work to return unused rounds that to come back empty. So I actually shot about 120 or so rounds. Which I wish I could do every day or two. But I don't think the tax payers would appreciate the expense of me and 100,000+ other Soldiers doing that.
Today, because yesturday was a holiday, was vehicle maitinace day. Basicly we make sure it still runs like it did last week this time and make sure that everything we found wrong with it last week is still wrong with it this week. Now some things do miraculusly repair themselves because I'm sure that our mechanics don't do anything but hang around the water coolers and talk with everyone. But thats ok because... well it;s not really ok but I'm a patient person and... Ok I'm just a SPC so I couldn't really ruffle feathers even if I wanted to.
After finnishing most of my checks on the truck (hum-v) I was working on my platoon leader told me to go back to the barraks and get my stuff so I could go to the AT-4 range today in about 15 minutes. I being the obedient Specialist said, "cool" or something like that. So I've gone to 3 ranges in just over a week and that is a cool thing. For those of you who don't know the AT-4 is a rocket launcher (anti-tank). It's a one-shot throw-away weapon but unfortunatly I didn't get to fire a real one (darn tax payers). So I shot 5 9mm tracers out of a AT-4 made to do just that at 5 rusted our troup carriers parked in a field for that purpose. It was still really cool. I missed out on the AT-4s at basic becuase I was on KP (kitchen patrol) that day. :( Anyway this made up for it. Now I am officially "familiarized" on the AT-4. Not qualified because to do that I would have had to shoot at least one live rocket. Oh well maybe next time.
TTFN
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Little baby tourturing parents.... hmmmm I miss that.
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05:56 pm
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Theres beautiful scenery if you can see through the red haze of pain.
Ok so maybe it wasn't that bad but if you had asked me on the 4th through the 12th mile of the ruck march on Tuesday that probably what I would have told you. Of course Tara called be a wuss so I kinda just have to suck it up but thats ok because in the world in my mind I did OK for my first 12 mile ruck. I finished in 3 hours and 50 minutes which unfortunatly is 50 minutes past the time I need, but I also didn't run at all. I did that becuase I wanted to make it though alive. Or at least with most if not all of my 2000 parts working.
**Warning the next line is not for the weak of heart**
I also found out from this little jaunt that its posible to get blisters on the top of you feet as well as the bottom.
** OK its safe now.**
Any way I get to help run the M4 range tomorrow and fire a barrowed M4 to qualify. I don't get to shoot mine becuase its missing one of the 2 pins that keeps it from falling apart and the armorer hasn't fixed it yet. No be suprise but it would have been cooler if i got to shoot my own weapon.
On something of a side note its raining like mad here right now so the range tomorrow should be nice and muddy.
TTFN
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05:18 pm
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Zonk!!
I must say that although almost everyone in the Army is motivated to BE in the Army, we all don't want to do anything if we can help it. This morning we formed up for PT (Physical Trailing) and the Company Commander took charge. He then yelled, "Zonk!" And as commanded, we all ran away.
Yup Zonk is the Army command to get the heck out of dodge. At least while in garrison. In the feild its probably more like: Oh Sh**!! This was fine with me because of the ruck march yesturday. Anywho I went back to my room and kept reading Rainbow 6. That book rocks. I've even learned (finaly) what the 6 means. And strangly enough every time the book mentions Ft C. I feel proud (I've been here less than a month). Oh well its a really cool book and it should be turned into a movie but not till I've read the script as a technical adviser. Am I qualified? Yes, I can point out a retarded script at about 50 paces. Basicly its like this: if it isn't word for word by the book its bad; in the not good way.
Oh never trust a moving company whose name rhymes with Lemming. At least in the FT C area.
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02:47 pm
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The Aftermath
Well it was what I thought it was. 9 Miles nothing like a sequel to a well received rap movie unless you thought the first one was painful... No blisters = good. No feeling but pain = typical. At least the issued (read gave) us camelbaks to use for now. Those things rock. If you walk/run/hike alot get one, or join the Army. I must suggest though that the camelbak you get should have some insulation between you and the water because it can get kinda warm. Anyway it was fun. By the way it was a ruck march not a run. I am not so Army as to run 9 miles with 30+ pounds on my back. Well not yet anyway.
The most truly Army part of is was that after we finished we had about 1 hour to clean up and get to the land navigation course to walk around the forest for about 3 more miles with only a compass, protractor, and a map to keep us on the right track. Well if I wasn't before (and I was) I'm in the Army now.
Current Mood:  sore
Current Music: Your in The Army Me now (in my head)
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06:19 pm
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The one, The only uhhhhhh. Hi.
Ok, well everyone has got to start somewhere and I think this will do. Hello to every one and welcome to probably the most typing I've done in quite some time. Please excuse... pretty much everything for the same reason. I hopefully will write in this journal everything I can and forget to write about the stuff I can't (LOTC knows what I mean) anywho I am to go on a "9-mile Ruck" tomorrow beginning at about 0530. Wohoo!! or Hooah or whatever. I'm also supposed to be going to both the M4 range and the grenade range in the next few weeks so wish me luck and the target a quick and painless paper/plastic death. Till next time kiddies...
and I'm spent.
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: uhhhh...... yup just uhhhhh
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ringtail5's journal