Pushing The Envelope

My normal unit is ok, the 452nd CSH that is. However, I’m glad (so far) that I was mobilized with the 477th Med Co (GA). Cause with this unit I’m doing things and getting training & experience that I never had before with the 452nd. A large part of it is the training in regards to military vehicles. How to drive them, service them & care for them. Also the other soldiering skills I’m learning. See normally the kitchen staff is a world of their own. We have our own formations our own PT (work out time). We normally didn’t interact with the company or unit’s leadership; cause the only NCOs and Officers we saw were related to the kitchen. Except when we served the others their meals. I’m talking about more in deployment situations with these generalizations. So there are always circumstances that are the exceptions. I’m just glad that I have the chance to roll up my sleeves and get involved in these new things. Like yesterday for example. There was next to nothing happening at the motor pool. So a few of us were marched back to the pad and we cleaned a few Saws (large machine guns that need to be mounted before a person can fire them). Now that was the second time in my life that I handled one of those weapons. The first time was on US. Weapons Day back in basic a year and a half ago. So I got to be introduced in how to take it apart, clean it and put it back together. Now that I think of it I think I did help clean one a few times back in basic training on my bay guard duty at 3 am once or twice. But that’s only a faint shadowy memory.

Yesterday evening I ran into a roommate of mine from Advanced Individual Training from about a year ago. He and I shared a room with three other soldiers. He was with me at 92 G (Golf) school. Which was my first AIT coarse to get certified as a basic food service specialist. He is working over in the dining facility doing head count as people enter the facility. I asked him how he got lucky enough to work in the dining facility and I’m changing axels in the motor pool? He said that he’s regular army and works for the division unit so he’s able to get some sweeter deals. He also told me that a few other golfs from our class were attached to infantry units. And they were out knocking on doors looking for intelligence on insurgents and so on. So I told him I’d stick with changing tire treads. Knocking on the doors of Iraqi nationals seems high on the list of dangerous assignments.

There is a PT test coming up in December. So next week the Commander is going to start mandatory group PT. See normally we stretch for about 20 minutes as a group three times a week then break up for individual PT. A lot of people play volleyball, others go running, I always head to the gym for my work out. And I prefer to keep doing it that way. In fact we all do. But the Commander calls the shots. So we’ll just have to roll with it and see how it will impact my routine.

Today is my day off. “Church” doesn’t start for a few more hours though. I say it like that cause currently there is no service. The one that I found on an old schedule is out of business. So it’s just me going out there for now. I’ve been trying to seek out the right chaplain to see about getting the ball rolling. See the main hurdles are finding out if there is a group of any size of SDAs to warrant starting a service. Then secondly, finding someone to lead out in a worship service. See not just anyone can do it. It has to be either a chaplain or someone with an official written Ecclesiastical Endorsement from the SDA church. So if a chaplain can’t be found, I’m going to try to get in touch with the local SDA Iraqi mission.