But I didn't win...sigh
Oh well look towards the future...or something else equally inspiring. Overall I placed 4 out of 52. Not to shabby! I had an GPA of 97% so you can see the competition was tough. I also got a Challenge Coin from a full bird Colonel. Not many Marines let alone Cpl's can say that!
First there were three different tests based on the several classes that we received. I got a 96, 100, and 100. They were pretty simple tests based upon knowledge that we all should have known before coming to the course. I guess most didn't. High 80's and low 90's were common.
Next was drill. Not just marching anymore like in Boot Camp(silent laugh for Jared) but actually leading Drill. Calling commands and moving your formation were you want it. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially while moving. Throw and NCO sword into the mix and it is down right tricky. Good for me our Gunny back in Denver insisted on all of us, even the Lance Cpl's that don't rate the sword, learning at least the basics. I also had to march my class back and forth to the classroom when I was in 29 Palms so the commands and marching were pretty simple for me.
All in all the only 98% in the class is pretty respectable!
Just a few history tidbits. The Marine NCO sword is the oldest Military sword in constant use. The Marine Officer sword or Mameluke sword is actually the oldest but they stopped using it during the Civil war. This is when the Cavalry sword, now known as the NCO sword, started being used. The officers soon wanted their old swords back so the Mameluke sword was reinstated. They the gave the Cavalry sword to the Enlisted men and it has been handed down to what are now NCO(non commissioned officers). The Corps is also the only branch of service that allows ALL NCO's to carry a sword. Pretty stinkin nifty if you ask me!
PT of course was no problem!
We had a few other events that were all pretty small but not all that interesting.
So at no fault to myself I came in a respectable place, made some good friends that might someday turn into important contacts and pretty much got a 10 day vacation from the boredom that is starting to grab at us.
Busy is GOOD
In other news I got a Care package from Kimber! The fingers are a huge hit! I am a huge fan of the cereal. Thats pretty much all I ate in SLC. Booberry, Frankenberry and Count Chocula. Thanks so much to the whole family. It really means a lot!
Anywho back to the grind...with a smile on my face.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Random stuff...
First of all if you don't know Autumn has a Blog. I have gracefully asked her to send out invites. For those of you who don't have public accounts her E-mail is autumn.fullmer@students.columbiabasin.edu so send some invites.
Moving on. Cami recently did a post about a new alarm clock and explained that she has problems waking up to one.
Sorry Cams I have no real solution to this...
I am aweful at waking up. All or most of you know this. Since being late is, shall we say, frowned upon in the Military, not waking up is not an option.
My solution...4 Alarm clocks. First my watch goes off about 30 mins before I want to wake up. This gently stops my REM cycle without really waking up. Then I have a digital clock that is really cool but unfortantly really quiet. This one goes off about 20 mins before I want to wake up to let me know it is almost go time but it doesn't really jolt me enough to get going. Next is my phone. This has a really loud but short Ringer that jolts me awake about 5 mins before go time. Usually I just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling waiting for it to stop. After this I would fall back asleep so I got yet ANOTHER clock. This one is loud and won't stop ringing until I push snooze or turn it off completly. I had this bad habit of just grabing it a pushing snooze a bunch of times untill I only had about 2 mins to get ready...so I put it on the other side of the room so I have to get up to turn it off.
It's crazy but it works...then I go work out.
Next is my morning "FROG" (see Kimbers blog)
My Frog is working out. If I don't go first thing in the morning I will put it off until it is 2200 and I have to go to sleep. I love wordking out in the morning because it gets my blood pumping and I am truly ready for the day.
I want to hear what everybody's Frog is so..share.
My name is John and I have a Frog...Hi John
I got GOODIES from Mom! The cookies where a HUGE hit. Everybody loved them. So was the chex mix treats but I quickly hid them so they wouldn't all disappear. KUDOS MOMMA!
The package got here on the 17th so it took about 8 days.
Next is Cpl's Course. I am leaving tommorow for a 2 week course that is supposed to teach me everything I need to know about being the first leader in my Chain of Command. It is gonna be a whole bunch of organized PT, AWESOME, a bunch of Drilling and even some Sword Manual. That's right we use swords! It should be an AWESOME experaince!
Now normaly I would just coast through the event like I usually do but I have been challenged. One of the other guys in our unit is going and I am supposed to beat the trash out of him. Everone has told me their high expectations and now I have to try...
Oh well I guess it will make the time go even faster if it is a huge competion for #1
I will let you know how it goes.
Wish me luck!
Moving on. Cami recently did a post about a new alarm clock and explained that she has problems waking up to one.
Sorry Cams I have no real solution to this...
I am aweful at waking up. All or most of you know this. Since being late is, shall we say, frowned upon in the Military, not waking up is not an option.
My solution...4 Alarm clocks. First my watch goes off about 30 mins before I want to wake up. This gently stops my REM cycle without really waking up. Then I have a digital clock that is really cool but unfortantly really quiet. This one goes off about 20 mins before I want to wake up to let me know it is almost go time but it doesn't really jolt me enough to get going. Next is my phone. This has a really loud but short Ringer that jolts me awake about 5 mins before go time. Usually I just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling waiting for it to stop. After this I would fall back asleep so I got yet ANOTHER clock. This one is loud and won't stop ringing until I push snooze or turn it off completly. I had this bad habit of just grabing it a pushing snooze a bunch of times untill I only had about 2 mins to get ready...so I put it on the other side of the room so I have to get up to turn it off.
It's crazy but it works...then I go work out.
Next is my morning "FROG" (see Kimbers blog)
My Frog is working out. If I don't go first thing in the morning I will put it off until it is 2200 and I have to go to sleep. I love wordking out in the morning because it gets my blood pumping and I am truly ready for the day.
I want to hear what everybody's Frog is so..share.
My name is John and I have a Frog...Hi John
I got GOODIES from Mom! The cookies where a HUGE hit. Everybody loved them. So was the chex mix treats but I quickly hid them so they wouldn't all disappear. KUDOS MOMMA!
The package got here on the 17th so it took about 8 days.
Next is Cpl's Course. I am leaving tommorow for a 2 week course that is supposed to teach me everything I need to know about being the first leader in my Chain of Command. It is gonna be a whole bunch of organized PT, AWESOME, a bunch of Drilling and even some Sword Manual. That's right we use swords! It should be an AWESOME experaince!
Now normaly I would just coast through the event like I usually do but I have been challenged. One of the other guys in our unit is going and I am supposed to beat the trash out of him. Everone has told me their high expectations and now I have to try...
Oh well I guess it will make the time go even faster if it is a huge competion for #1
I will let you know how it goes.
Wish me luck!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
The things I do for my country!
First of all what a great day!
Woke up early(0345) and sore from the previous day's workout. We go to the gym to get an hour of cardio in before work. Get back to the cans in time to catch the early bus to the chow hall. This is AWESOME cause I never catch that darn early bus.
Get to the chow hall and what do they have? Actual blueberry pancakes. This is an AWESOME first. They are, of course, delicious.
From here we manage to find the fifth season of scrubs...and watch the heck out of it. Laughter ensues all day long.
After that started it was just a waiting game. Tonight is wing night...tonight is Poker Night...TONIGHT IS SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!!!
Long story short on the poker, I eventually kicked everybody's behind and won!
The only downside to this is the fact that the games don't start here until 11 pm. This means we are all up until about 0130 watching the game. I grab a quick 2 hours of sleep because the Cowboys aren't doing so impressive.
I wake up at 0330 to cover the rest or Radar watch. At this point I have hit 24 hours with just 2 hours of sleep. My mood is worsened a little when I found out the Cowboys lost...but it was quickly recovered when while I watched the Patriots get stomped.
Now normally I would catch a bus back to the cans at 0700 but today is different. I take this awesome Sunrise as an omen of a good day.
This sunrise is SO COOL because we simply don't get sunrise or sunset here. The are almost never clouds so all we usually just see is a big bright cirlce moving up and down past the horizon. Today was different.
I found out that there was a Air Refueling trip that we were being offered. This means that we get to go up in a BIG C130 Airplane and watch from great points of view while we refuel a couple of F-18'S in flight.AWESOME!
The only problem was that it was at 0830 and I had had 2 hours of sleep. Oh well, you only live once right. So we decide to go. We get to the appropriate location with all our gear(we were told to bring flak and kevlar) and waited.
As it turns out the flight had been rescheduled for 1100. Great more waiting. So instead of waiting on the nice and comfy couches they had there, our command decides that we should go pick up the other two guys who were supposed to take the later flight. Thats fine lets do it.
So a Staff Sgt comes and picks us up to take us back to the cans. In theory we could have gotten another 2 and 1/2 hours of sleep but between waiting, driving, getting lost, driving some more we burned that time up pretty fast. Thats fine we are Marines and we know the solution to this kind of problem.
CAFFEINE!!!
So we get the Staff to drop us off at the PX and we quickly purchase some wings in a can(Redbull). Now we have another problem. Our truck left because the Staff had to do something and we now had all our gear, an extra backpack for one of the other guys, a case of redbull and only 45 minutes to get back to our cans...which happen to be just under 1.5 miles away. So we walk and in good amazing Marine Corps fashion, we make it with some more sore muscles and 15 minutes before we have to go back to the flight line.
Chug some Redbull and we are off.
We get there on time and are taken to our plane. We get a Combat takeoff at around 1130, which is better than ANY roller coaster I have ever ridden!
After we get to height our Pilots surprise us and say that we can fly it if we want because we have about an hour before we refuel. I AM STINKIN SPEECHLESS!!! So we take turns getting in the Pilot seat and with help from the Co-Pilot we each get turns spinning the plane. I have a big old grin on my face the entire time.
After this we get word that the F-18's are inbound so we go below to the cargo area. Once again I am grinning from ear to ear!
Sorry for the crummy quality but my camera screen broke so I couldn't actually see what I was taking pictures of. Turns out my guessing wasn't to bad.
After that we promptly landed and waited for the other two guys.
While we are waiting I ask the Marine who is sitting post in the shop where the closest head is. He takes a look at my name and gives a chuckle and a "nice name killer."
Sitting before me is Sgt Fullmer of Marines. He is from Idaho Falls. He said that his family comes from Jean(sorry if that is wrong) Fullmer the heavyweight boxer. What are the odds. We talk about home and family for a little while until our ride gets there to pick us up.
After all that it is 2 pm and we decide that we have to go to the gym so our cycle doesn't get messed up.
after that is was pretty much the same old reading, eating, blogging and here I am, it's almost 9PM and I haven't slept in almost 42 hours.
Great day and I'm sure it's gonna be some great sleep.
Good Night all you fans out there!
Woke up early(0345) and sore from the previous day's workout. We go to the gym to get an hour of cardio in before work. Get back to the cans in time to catch the early bus to the chow hall. This is AWESOME cause I never catch that darn early bus.
Get to the chow hall and what do they have? Actual blueberry pancakes. This is an AWESOME first. They are, of course, delicious.
From here we manage to find the fifth season of scrubs...and watch the heck out of it. Laughter ensues all day long.
After that started it was just a waiting game. Tonight is wing night...tonight is Poker Night...TONIGHT IS SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!!!
Long story short on the poker, I eventually kicked everybody's behind and won!
The only downside to this is the fact that the games don't start here until 11 pm. This means we are all up until about 0130 watching the game. I grab a quick 2 hours of sleep because the Cowboys aren't doing so impressive.
I wake up at 0330 to cover the rest or Radar watch. At this point I have hit 24 hours with just 2 hours of sleep. My mood is worsened a little when I found out the Cowboys lost...but it was quickly recovered when while I watched the Patriots get stomped.
Now normally I would catch a bus back to the cans at 0700 but today is different. I take this awesome Sunrise as an omen of a good day.
This sunrise is SO COOL because we simply don't get sunrise or sunset here. The are almost never clouds so all we usually just see is a big bright cirlce moving up and down past the horizon. Today was different.
I found out that there was a Air Refueling trip that we were being offered. This means that we get to go up in a BIG C130 Airplane and watch from great points of view while we refuel a couple of F-18'S in flight.AWESOME!
The only problem was that it was at 0830 and I had had 2 hours of sleep. Oh well, you only live once right. So we decide to go. We get to the appropriate location with all our gear(we were told to bring flak and kevlar) and waited.
As it turns out the flight had been rescheduled for 1100. Great more waiting. So instead of waiting on the nice and comfy couches they had there, our command decides that we should go pick up the other two guys who were supposed to take the later flight. Thats fine lets do it.
So a Staff Sgt comes and picks us up to take us back to the cans. In theory we could have gotten another 2 and 1/2 hours of sleep but between waiting, driving, getting lost, driving some more we burned that time up pretty fast. Thats fine we are Marines and we know the solution to this kind of problem.
CAFFEINE!!!
So we get the Staff to drop us off at the PX and we quickly purchase some wings in a can(Redbull). Now we have another problem. Our truck left because the Staff had to do something and we now had all our gear, an extra backpack for one of the other guys, a case of redbull and only 45 minutes to get back to our cans...which happen to be just under 1.5 miles away. So we walk and in good amazing Marine Corps fashion, we make it with some more sore muscles and 15 minutes before we have to go back to the flight line.
Chug some Redbull and we are off.
We get there on time and are taken to our plane. We get a Combat takeoff at around 1130, which is better than ANY roller coaster I have ever ridden!
After we get to height our Pilots surprise us and say that we can fly it if we want because we have about an hour before we refuel. I AM STINKIN SPEECHLESS!!! So we take turns getting in the Pilot seat and with help from the Co-Pilot we each get turns spinning the plane. I have a big old grin on my face the entire time.
After this we get word that the F-18's are inbound so we go below to the cargo area. Once again I am grinning from ear to ear!
Sorry for the crummy quality but my camera screen broke so I couldn't actually see what I was taking pictures of. Turns out my guessing wasn't to bad.After that we promptly landed and waited for the other two guys.
While we are waiting I ask the Marine who is sitting post in the shop where the closest head is. He takes a look at my name and gives a chuckle and a "nice name killer."
Sitting before me is Sgt Fullmer of Marines. He is from Idaho Falls. He said that his family comes from Jean(sorry if that is wrong) Fullmer the heavyweight boxer. What are the odds. We talk about home and family for a little while until our ride gets there to pick us up.
After all that it is 2 pm and we decide that we have to go to the gym so our cycle doesn't get messed up.
after that is was pretty much the same old reading, eating, blogging and here I am, it's almost 9PM and I haven't slept in almost 42 hours.
Great day and I'm sure it's gonna be some great sleep.
Good Night all you fans out there!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Guilty As Charged
I would like to say I have been super busy...which I sorta have, but it is an equal mix of super lazy.
I just read the Partner by John Grisham. Great book. Especially the end. Yes I am about to ruin the book so if you want to read it...look at next paragraph. Basis of the story: Man steals 90 mil from some bad guys. Runs away to Brazil, falls madly in love with a local, get caught because lets face it, you just can't turn your head on 90 mil. Anyway, gets away with theft, gets away with murder. He has a plan for everything...except for the last two pages when he finds out that the girls and the money are gone. Money ruined love....ohhhhh.
Anyway great book with a great twist at the end.
I have been watching Scrubs. Season 1 to Season 4 in less than 2 weeks. The show just cracks me up over and over again.
I have worked my way up to a full hour cardio session on the stair master. Calfs of WONDER!
On Monday we had to do actual work...I know it sound crazy. We were replacing the slipring in the Roxanne. The Slipring is probably the single largest piece of equipment on the Radar and it is HEAVY. It basically takes the signal from the spinning part of the Radar to a stationary part where all the wires connect to so all the wire don't get wound up and destroyed. Anyway there are about 2 dozen wires on the top half and about 15 wires to connect on the lower half. So we pull it all out, fix what is broke and stick it back in.
Now we like to get the guys who haven't done something very often a chance to get on the gear as often as possible. Since I have changed about seven sliprings I got the top half and My Lance Criminal(LCPL) got the lower half. It took about and hour to finally get all my wires connected and Pearson still wasn't done below so I went to see what the problem was.
The problem: one, just one of the wires won't reach...why? Because he put the darn thing in backwards. This means I have to undue ALL of the top wires again, pull the thing out just an inch and turn it 180 degrees.
Lessen learned. You must inspect what you expect. I have nobody to blame but myself and because of this a 2 hour job turned into a 4 hour job. I did the responsible thing( I REALLY DID) and controlled my anger and took the blame instead of following my first instinct, which would have involved fists and yelling and I'm sure a bloody nose or two.
Am I GROWING UP....it can't be happening. I have tried so hard to fight maturity and here it comes creeping up on me anyway. It's simply not fair!
I just read the Partner by John Grisham. Great book. Especially the end. Yes I am about to ruin the book so if you want to read it...look at next paragraph. Basis of the story: Man steals 90 mil from some bad guys. Runs away to Brazil, falls madly in love with a local, get caught because lets face it, you just can't turn your head on 90 mil. Anyway, gets away with theft, gets away with murder. He has a plan for everything...except for the last two pages when he finds out that the girls and the money are gone. Money ruined love....ohhhhh.
Anyway great book with a great twist at the end.
I have been watching Scrubs. Season 1 to Season 4 in less than 2 weeks. The show just cracks me up over and over again.
I have worked my way up to a full hour cardio session on the stair master. Calfs of WONDER!
On Monday we had to do actual work...I know it sound crazy. We were replacing the slipring in the Roxanne. The Slipring is probably the single largest piece of equipment on the Radar and it is HEAVY. It basically takes the signal from the spinning part of the Radar to a stationary part where all the wires connect to so all the wire don't get wound up and destroyed. Anyway there are about 2 dozen wires on the top half and about 15 wires to connect on the lower half. So we pull it all out, fix what is broke and stick it back in.
Now we like to get the guys who haven't done something very often a chance to get on the gear as often as possible. Since I have changed about seven sliprings I got the top half and My Lance Criminal(LCPL) got the lower half. It took about and hour to finally get all my wires connected and Pearson still wasn't done below so I went to see what the problem was.
The problem: one, just one of the wires won't reach...why? Because he put the darn thing in backwards. This means I have to undue ALL of the top wires again, pull the thing out just an inch and turn it 180 degrees.
Lessen learned. You must inspect what you expect. I have nobody to blame but myself and because of this a 2 hour job turned into a 4 hour job. I did the responsible thing( I REALLY DID) and controlled my anger and took the blame instead of following my first instinct, which would have involved fists and yelling and I'm sure a bloody nose or two.
Am I GROWING UP....it can't be happening. I have tried so hard to fight maturity and here it comes creeping up on me anyway. It's simply not fair!
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