Earlier this week, I got some good "face time" with my 1SG because I approached him about a matter concerning the Joint Services Color Guard. I have recently taken over as the NCOIC and was having trouble procuring volunteers for an upcoming event. I asked him if he could poll the cadre to find interested personnel, not just for this particular event but in general so that I could have a rotating roster of possible candidates for participation. He thought this was a great idea, at least ...

Yesterday, Wednesday, the trial of 1LT Ehren Watada, accused of missing movement and unbecoming conduct, ended in a mistrial (due to, some say, prosecutor bungling). Watada had refused to deploy to Iraq with his unit and made public statements denouncing the legality of the war both before and after his unit deployed. Watada's lawyers had wanted to bring the legal standing of the invasion into the trial as a defense, as justification for his actions. A military judge ruled this out. ...

Today, the offer I was made yesterday became official when I accepted the position of the base Joint Services Color Guard NCOIC (i.e. head dude of the guys who carry the flags). I'd like to think I was offered the position by the previous NCOIC because I will do a good job with it. I'm not saying I won't do a good job, because I will, but I realize that the offer was made more out of my perceived willingness to take the job off his hands. I don't hold it against him. He's one of my favo...

As I mentioned in my last post, I now list my profession (so far, only on MySpace) as "warrior monk." Yes, greywar, it sounds better than "geek" and it means something much more to me as well. Sometimes through adversity, things can become more clear. Not perfectly clear, in my case, but... I did a lot of reading. A lot of self-improvement books. Some spiritual works: Purpose Driven Life . Some Zen: Zen In The Martial Arts, The Method of Zen . Some military related books: In Th...

pseudosoldier : Write more. Add lots of blogs about your kiddos and about stupid and/or interesting things that happen at work. Maybe toss in some relationship musings. My sons are awesome. Since Christmas, they have been playing through Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (pseudo jr sometimes refers to it by its full title) almost NON-STOP, at Gram and Grandpa's house, at their Momma's house and at Daddy's place. On the way back from Virginia (we drove from and to Texas), th...

It has taken me awhile to write this but for no particular reason. There are no OPSEC concerns nor was it any great fiasco. I guess I just didn't. On 14DEC06 (was it so long ago already?), I participated in the Joint Service Color Guard for a wreath laying ceremony as part of Wreaths Across America. Link We had some trouble with attaining a representative from the local Navy Detachment. Apparently, they sent only one Boatswain's Mate to do both the Color Guard and the wreath laying. ...

This is the first time I've seen my boys since I gave them back after Christmas. Contractually, that weekend was mine but I offered it to her because the boys missed their mother, and it didn't make much sense to give them back on a Wednesday afternoon just to take them away again on Friday. I'm finding that I'm feeling more domestic while they're here. Areas of the apartment that were "good enough" for me aren't when they're around. I actually broke out the vacuum cleaner just now and ...

Please note that this article is not specifically about this site, although that is where I'm most familiar with the term "free ice cream" from. But it could easily be changed to be so... I've placed this under Personal Relationships instead of Blogging, though. I subscribe to a free "online" "magazine" about a hobby of mine: collectible miniature games (CMGs). Specifically, the magazine is "Critical Hit: The Only Magazine Dedicated to HeroClix." The guys who produce it are doing it ...

We received notification late (1440) Friday. The family had requested full honors but we were unable to organize the firing squad in such a short time. The deceased served honorably so was certainly entitled to military honors at his funeral, so myself and another Staff Sergeant made the arrangements for today. We performed it as a two-man detail and practiced at his house prior to arriving at the cemetery. We saluted the casket as the pall bearers carried it to the site. We positioned...

Today, I began to take over the Physical Training responsibilities for the soldier trainees who have a restriction on what sort of PT they can perform due to an injury. My first assessment is this: they've had it too good for too long. We (and I mean the SFC in charge of the overall PT program for our company; I'd just be the guy to implement and hopefully influence his direction) had previously allowed the students to utilize the gym facilities during directed PT times with minimal inter...

My online class began in early December and is slated for 8 weeks, so it's half over. I discovered, when I arrived at my parents' house, that the free internet connection that the military program I am involved with provides was unavailable to me, possibly due to password/userID issues. My attempts to contact them were met with much resistance, as the Helpdesk personnel seemed to intentionally misinterpret my requests for assistance. Additionally, I had some initial trouble installing re...

I've been feeling pretty domestic this week. I've made banana bread (because I had near rotten bananas), bourbon yams (for a Company holiday party) and cookies (because my sons are here). These are all things I'm pretty familiar with making now... so come January I'll need to branch out. Heck, I've almost gotten these recipes memorized I do them enough. And I'm not even counting dinners, grilling meat or making casseroles. I do need to whip something up in my underused crock pot s...

Last Friday, the cadre member serving as the Platoon Sergeant for the linguist students asked if I would be willing to help out with a Color Guard detail for a wreath laying ceremony on the 14th. Three of the four Army personnel who would normally participate would be involved in a combatives class. I told him immediately that I'd be happy to do it. (I checked with my supervisor after that, but I knew my battle buddy would be able to cover down on our class for the day.) There were no p...

This year is the first year I'm going to send out Christmas cards... if I actually go get any to send out, that is. Apparently, WalMart doesn't carry anything but single cards, and that's a pain buying a bunch of those. I mean, I don't have to get a lot; I'm only sending to female friends and married male friends whose wives are also my friends. This is further limited by the fact that I have to have their address already... I need less than a dozen (since I'm excluding my family; they're...