...but we were on MSN Messenger
Published on August 29, 2004 By pseudosoldier In Personal Relationships
Perhaps it's best that he couldn't hear the gurgling, choking noises I was making towards the end of this conversation:

[Bold indicates names I changed. Italics are my after-the-fact running commentary.]

GUS says:
yo yo yo
pseudosoldier says:
How's it going?
GUS says:
ok...first class tomorrow at 0800...Calculus
pseudosoldier says:
PT tomorrow at 0530.
pseudosoldier says:
I'd kill for a 0800 Calc class instead.
GUS says:
sorry...I forgot I am not allowed to complain...is Monnie still i the unit?
Monnie would be the equivalent of the pet name that GUS has for SGT Monobrow. It's a shortened, cutesy version of MB's last name. I have always found it vaguely homosexual, and I think MB has, too.
pseudosoldier says:
Yes.
GUS says:
He must be fuming
pseudosoldier says:
He's 2nd squad leader now, in place of Negrodamus, who has gone off to Green-to-Gold ROTC at some college.
pseudosoldier says:
He's mostly done fuming.
pseudosoldier says:
It was just down to four of us, after the mass exodus from the stoploss lifting.
pseudosoldier says:
But you know who was left then.
GUS says:
you Monnie Smilie and SGT C. right|?
pseudosoldier says:
Neg.
pseudosoldier says:
Cochise.
pseudosoldier says:
SFC C (acting 1SG, actually) never really counted...
pseudosoldier says:
He's over *there*, anyway.
GUS says:
three outta four ain't bad? Yeah...I shoulda never forgot Cochise though...how is he?
pseudosoldier says:
Not bad.
pseudosoldier says:
Hoping to pick up 6, soon.
pseudosoldier says:
Missed it by 6 points for September. Little bitter about that.
GUS says:
ouwie
pseudosoldier says:
He's in a good position once he gets it, as he'll get out soon after we're done with mission.
pseudosoldier says:
No time to really shoulder additional duties...
GUS says:
ahhh, so he isn't reenlisting...
pseudosoldier says:
no
pseudosoldier says:
He would be taken aback that someone would think he would, actually.
GUS says:
well, he always held his cards close...hard to tell with him...also, I am sure his wife had a say.
pseudosoldier says:
Certainly.
pseudosoldier says:
She doesn't want him to stay in, either...
pseudosoldier says:
But he wouldn't want to keep doing this.
GUS says:
yeah...how are you doing with the weight program?
I can't recall if I had actually told him I was on the weight program. It doesn't matter, really.
pseudosoldier says:
meh
pseudosoldier says:
They were supposed to put me on in January, but didn't.
pseudosoldier says:
They screwed up the paperwork.
pseudosoldier says:
So they put me on as of July.
pseudosoldier says:
It's just the same old...
pseudosoldier says:
Just a hassle, no teeth to their threats.
GUS says:
but no six until you get off.
pseudosoldier says:
wtf
GUS says:
I am in the same boat.
pseudosoldier says:
Do you think I want 6?
GUS says:
HA!
pseudosoldier says:
Why do *you* want 6?
pseudosoldier says:
geez
GUS says:
sorry...didnt' mean to make you mad.
pseudosoldier says:
An odd turnaround for a guy who wanted out so bad.
GUS says:
And yeah...I am masochistic and I do want six
GUS says:
I grew
GUS says:
I guess
pseudosoldier says:
"I will go AWOL before I spend one day in past my ETS"
pseudosoldier says:
Might be paraphrasing that a bit...
GUS says:
ouch...yeah, I remember that...can you forget that please?
pseudosoldier says:
have to go get my mopp suit
pseudosoldier says:
back
pseudosoldier says:
Listen, I was surprised that you decided to do Reserve time.
pseudosoldier says:
I was a little disappointed, as you seemed to be setting yourself up for future screw-jobs.
pseudosoldier says:
The Army could've called you up when numerical unit went over.
pseudosoldier says:
The Army could call you up when numerical unit #2 goes back.
pseudosoldier says:
I'm unclear of what you might've been thinking... how the positives may have outweighed the negatives.
pseudosoldier says:
I know I made a mistake reenlisting.
pseudosoldier says:
AND the Army made a mistake letting me.
pseudosoldier says:
The whole deal has generated nothing but ill feelings for me.
pseudosoldier says:
I still have no awards to speak of.
pseudosoldier says:
1 GCM and 1 overdue GCM.
GUS says:
But I am attached to alphabetical unit...so it is unlikely that I will go anywhere unless my unit gets called up..
pseudosoldier says:
bah
pseudosoldier says:
Or the unit could get called up and you all could be parceled out.
pseudosoldier says:
Maybe you're right about your unit, tho...
pseudosoldier says:
You're still placing yourself under the stress and scrutiny that is the overweight program.
pseudosoldier says:
And if you aren't feeling stress and you aren't under scrutiny, I would put to you that your unit isn't doing its job.
GUS says:
and the three times they have been mobilised wince 9-11 they stayed at alphabetical agency. I knew exactly what I was doing...my main goal was to get through one semester before gettting calles up...that is done...the rest is gravy.
1. It has been debated whether he has ever known what he was doing.
2. Odd that he mentions gravy. Just, odd.

GUS says:
Not only is my unitt not doing it's job...they recognise that I do the job so much much better than most in my unit...that they have made my PT NCO...even with my flag.
GUS says:
And if I get called up I have already asked to be parcelled out...I wou,ld rather be in the ME than NSA
GUS says:
The Reserves...what can you do...
GUS says:
I have been hitting the gym just about everry day...I should be off my flag by Oct drill.

At this point, I closed my laptop, severing my connection to the internet and to GUS.
Am I overreacting? Perhaps he has figured it all out? Or does, as my SO put it, he lead a charmed life? Does, as I observed, God love drunks and people like GUS?

Comments
on Aug 30, 2004
OMFG! He's the pt stud in his reserve unit? Christ on a crutch! Hahahah A six??? Hahahaha?
But what the heck; good for GUS.
on Aug 30, 2004
Ah, but what's good for the GUS is good for the... well, no one else, I fear.

It makes me want to cry, honestly.
on Aug 30, 2004
meh....never reenlist.....sigh....death to the infidel Gus
on Aug 31, 2004
Do I know GUS? Is it who I think it is?
on Aug 31, 2004
no dude, GOD has no love for GUS
on Sep 01, 2004

Is it who I think it is?

yes

Frankly I wonder how much of this is either outright fabrication on GUS's part and how much is his skewed view of what is actually going on. To listen to the stories he told of events I witnessed he has little problem either stretching the truth and/or never had a clue in the first place.

on Sep 01, 2004
Gus!

wow...I still think he rode the short bus to school...

Hworang
on Sep 03, 2004
you know, I don't hate everything about Gus, just his GUTS!
on Sep 04, 2004
Who is this GUS person? Someone I know? Cause the only tard from 15th I know out here in the Aug Det is SGT Timmy. If it is him, rest assure that he is not doing anything extraordinarily well out here. In fact, its just the same as it was out there. Everybody hates him.
on Sep 26, 2004
GUS is, of course, his opsign. You know, EL, the ones you hated, that made us Gs elitist bastards or somesuch? (Should I tell you that *everyone* has one now, even the Js and Ks?)
The news you posted is reassuring, in a "there may be a higher power after all" sort of way.