Made it.

I've finally made the rank of Specialist. Even though I've technically been one since November, I just got pinned today. Good things are going to start happening to me now...

Pressure

Just got the information on our inspection. The last Arms room guys left me a lot to catch up on. There is far more paperwork involved in running the army than the government. If we were to ever lose a war, it would be because we didn't file the paperwork fast enough.

Miss Who?

Upon meeting my First Sergeant over in Afghanistan, I never in my life thought I would ever think that I might miss him if he ever got switched to another company. I guess the Army doesn't work any differently than the civilian world. The known quantity is always better than the unknown.
Once I got to know him or rather once he realized I actually do work, the relationship became much easier. He didn't resent me quite as much.
In any case, it'll be sad to see him leave in a few months. You just never know who you're going to miss.

New Site!

I've just set up my new site for my story. I'll be updating it as I write the pieces. There's pictures on it and I'll try to let everyone know when there are updates. Just click on the new link or go to robertdannenberg.com.

From Disneyland to Afghanistan. The Year I Became a Soldier

Because I loved her, is that really ever a good reason to do something that could get you into a dangerous situation? I guess it doesn’t really matter since love is unquantifiable and can often lead to doing what later appear to be stupid things.
From Disneyland to Afghanistan is my story of how a 34 year old decided it was finally time to enter into the service and do his part for the country.
When my tax return gets back I’m going to try and work more on this project. I’ll upload it to it’s own site with .Mac and continue telling my story. Further information will be coming…

Just one of those dreams

Had one of those dreams the other night. The kind you don’t want to wake up from. I was sleeping in the dream but aware of someone else next to me. It seems so simple but God knew from the beginning that we need a partner in out lives. In that dream I had one and felt her touch and it seemed so comfortable.
So simple, just sleeping but knowing that I wasn’t alone. For those of you with someone in your life like that make sure you let them know how much they mean to you, all the time. Don’t take it for granted. Valentine’s day is coming up you know…

Snow!

Twice in as many years I’ve seen snow since leaving Minnesota, once in Afghanistan and now here in North Carolina. I didn’t believe my parents when they said it actually gets this cold here. Thank goodness the globe is warming and we won’t have to worry about this stuff again.

I know it's a bad picture, but trust me, there are big fat flakes in the sky.

OCD

What is it about organizing things that makes me feel good? Anytime there is a mess in an area that I’m going to be working in I have to straighten things out. I can’t concentrate on what I need to do when there is a mess.

The Arms Room I’ve inherited was a complete mess with the exception of the weapons, which of course needed to be in order. Everything else was in piles. Most of the papers were stuffed in drawers and years out of date.

According to the regulations, two years is the longest any paper would be kept on file to track something. I found four and five year old papers and memos. So far I’ve gotten everything out of the drawers and into piles, which I will further, break down into current and shred stacks.

The room is already looking a lot better despite the piles of papers everywhere. It just makes me feel better knowing what I have and do not have. The inspection coming up at the end of the month should go a lot smoother.

Tuesday

Sorry for the lack of new stuff but I’ve been a little busy this past week. I’m taking over for the Armorer position in our company and there’s lots of paper involved with it.

A lot of people ask me what it is that I do all day so I thought I would let you know what I did Tuesday.

5:00 am. Got up in anticipation of a barracks check. Shaved. We can’t show up in the morning unshaven, very bad. No NCO’s to check on us, false alarm or too lazy themselves to get up. I’m thinking the later.

6:00 am. OP’s(operations) meeting. Basically finding out what is going on in the coming day, any upcoming inspections or details, maybe a jump or two. This is where I as the Armorer find out that the people jumping are drawing weapons at 13:00 (1:00).

6:30 am. First formation then onto PT. Ran a few laps around the wooded engineer trail. Finished that up about 7:30 and went back to my room to shower and change.

9:00 am. Began to organize the arms room. You know, get it the way I like. I also began the arduous task of going through the weapon list and make sure that the serial numbers all match what I have.

11:40 am. Woops, late for lunch.

1:00 pm. Weapons draw for the night jump at 8:00.

2:30 pm. Went back to the list.

4:15 pm. Went home for the day, at least for a little break. Waited for the call later to come back and receive the weapons.

8:00 pm. Waited.
9:00 pm. Waited.

10:00 pm. Decided I might as well lay down.

12:30 am. Got the call that they were on their way back.

1:00 am. Received the weapons and Night Vision scopes they had… still had to wait for the people on chute detail.

2:00 am. Chute detail gets back.

2:30 am. Turn in the keys and go to bed. (at least I don’t have to come in till noon.)

And they want me to reenlist?

One of the reasons, among an ever increasing amount, that I will not reenlist is the necessity of NCO’s to feel that they need to come by the barracks early in the morning every once and a while and make sure I’m not living in filth.

Never mind the fact that I’m Thirty-six years old and know how to take care of myself. I guess it’s just all the micro managing that happens around here. They want to create leaders but don’t let anyone make their own decisions. Everything is handed down from one to the other. Thus it is never assumed that you’re doing the right thing. A bit of a hassle for those of us who do.

Good Times…

Time Machine

Here we go, moving forward another year and I want to know where my jet-pack is. I ask that every New Year and nobody can answer me. While I can buy one for $200,000 it only takes me a short distance and I’m looking for something a bit more practical.

After taking time to visit family in Colorado and relax before going back to work, I’m ready to face another year. Oh how time flies. A short year ago I was in Afghanistan looking forward to getting back to the states. Now I’m anxious to get back over seas and start making that deployment money again. No word though on when that might be.

I often find myself thinking about where I was a year ago and wondering what I’ll be doing a year from now. Kinda my way of time traveling through life. On the one hand I think, I’ll still be in the Army but at least I’ll be under the year mark left before getting out. My body likes that idea. I just hope this year goes as fast as the last one.