5 March 2007
I love the Army, only here can you make 20 new friends while working a 24 hour shift on a Saturday. Sadly, all my new friends were made because we were all staying up through Saturday making sure all the soldiers were safe and sound in their barracks. You see, my 20 new friends were the 20 sergeants and their assistants who were 'guarding' their own companies barrack buildings while I served as the ranking officer on duty for our battalion, driving throughout all 8 companies throughout the night making sure everyone's doors were locked and the sergeants were doing their safety check. It is fun though that after knowing a person for only five minutes, all of which time is spent turning door knobs to make sure they're locked, you feel like you're best friends and make fun of each other for time in service, what company they're in, how long they still have in Korea, etc, etc, etc. It definitely sucks staying up for 24 hours straight, especially when it's a Saturday and your own company leadership is out having a going away part for the two best sergeants in your company, but there were no assaults during my watch so it was a good night.
I only have to pull this duty once a month. It's tough, I'm a fan of my bed and I like to sleep, but I know that my mom sleeps better knowing I'm safe, so if I help other people's mothers, it's all a good night.
Another good thing about Saturday was I did get away from my duty for about an hour and presented awards to two of my soldiers who's time in Korea is up and they are flying back to the States this week. One was for the platoon sergeant for my platoon who flew home today. He's been a good mentor even though I only worked with him for a month. The other was for 'the Specialist' the same one who drove me and the other four LTs around our first week here. He's been a constant source of entertainment for us the past month. He works in the mail room so every time we checked out mail we were sure to leave with a smile, with our without mail. Both of them are people who remind me that there are people in the Army who do their job well and because it has to be done and it was an honor to be the one to present their awards, even if the only reason I did it was because I was their Platoon Leader.
Other than Saturday, my week was pretty chaotic, but normal in a scary kind of way also. We're working on sending the chemical protective vehicles home so my life has been consumed with coordinating with different transportation units and agricultural inspection units to make sure the vehicles make it out. We've also been cleaning them which has not been an easy task seeing as how they haven't been opened since last monsoon season when they were flooded with mud. But this task has shown me very quickly how our unit works and who is in charge of what, I know most of the sergeants who can get things done now and they know me, whether that's good for them I'm not sure yet.
I've also taken over the maintenance of our company, making sure the weekly checks of all our vehicles is done. We have about 80 vehicles all together, 10 tracked ambulances, 6 wheeled ambulances, about 15 HWMMVs and 10 LMTVs which are basically the big trucks. We also have several generators, a couple trailers that pull water containers, and other trailers that pull gear or more soldiers. I'm also in charge of all the weapons, night vision goggles, chemical protective masks, and basically any other item in a company that could possibly need maintenance. Again it can be an overwhelming task. We have over 140 weapons that need to be serviced this month along with 80 chemical protective masks on top of all the other tasks our company gets. It wouldn't really be a hard task, but our company on a good day consists of about 8 soldiers where as most companies are over 120 strong. Because I'm in the medical company, most of our soldiers are the doctors and techs who work in the clinic so the enlisted medics who aren't supporting units are the only ones around to do work. It's tough, but we're a pretty close group and work well together as a whole.
It's weird for me to think I've been in Korea two months already. Sadly this is the longest I've been in a single place since last May. It feels like home and sometimes I forget that I'm in a different country, let alone Korea, 20 kilometers from N. Korea. Friday we had an alert, a practice if you will to see how fast we would react if N. Korea were to attack. It's weird to think I'm voluntarily living that close to that kind of danger, but then again most days I forget I'm in Korea, but then I hear someone speak Korean, or see the garbage man urinate against the trash container (I see this every trash day, I don't know why I'm so lucky as to walk out of the building every time he's doing this), see one of the hundreds of stray cats here, or see English and Hongul signs and realize after two months I still have not learned Hongul. A well, it's all part of the fun and adventure of living here.
Thanks for all your messages, I love hearing about what you're all doing and to learn that the US is actually experiencing a winter where as I, once again, for the 16th year in a row, am not:( Love you all.
I only have to pull this duty once a month. It's tough, I'm a fan of my bed and I like to sleep, but I know that my mom sleeps better knowing I'm safe, so if I help other people's mothers, it's all a good night.
Another good thing about Saturday was I did get away from my duty for about an hour and presented awards to two of my soldiers who's time in Korea is up and they are flying back to the States this week. One was for the platoon sergeant for my platoon who flew home today. He's been a good mentor even though I only worked with him for a month. The other was for 'the Specialist' the same one who drove me and the other four LTs around our first week here. He's been a constant source of entertainment for us the past month. He works in the mail room so every time we checked out mail we were sure to leave with a smile, with our without mail. Both of them are people who remind me that there are people in the Army who do their job well and because it has to be done and it was an honor to be the one to present their awards, even if the only reason I did it was because I was their Platoon Leader.
Other than Saturday, my week was pretty chaotic, but normal in a scary kind of way also. We're working on sending the chemical protective vehicles home so my life has been consumed with coordinating with different transportation units and agricultural inspection units to make sure the vehicles make it out. We've also been cleaning them which has not been an easy task seeing as how they haven't been opened since last monsoon season when they were flooded with mud. But this task has shown me very quickly how our unit works and who is in charge of what, I know most of the sergeants who can get things done now and they know me, whether that's good for them I'm not sure yet.
I've also taken over the maintenance of our company, making sure the weekly checks of all our vehicles is done. We have about 80 vehicles all together, 10 tracked ambulances, 6 wheeled ambulances, about 15 HWMMVs and 10 LMTVs which are basically the big trucks. We also have several generators, a couple trailers that pull water containers, and other trailers that pull gear or more soldiers. I'm also in charge of all the weapons, night vision goggles, chemical protective masks, and basically any other item in a company that could possibly need maintenance. Again it can be an overwhelming task. We have over 140 weapons that need to be serviced this month along with 80 chemical protective masks on top of all the other tasks our company gets. It wouldn't really be a hard task, but our company on a good day consists of about 8 soldiers where as most companies are over 120 strong. Because I'm in the medical company, most of our soldiers are the doctors and techs who work in the clinic so the enlisted medics who aren't supporting units are the only ones around to do work. It's tough, but we're a pretty close group and work well together as a whole.
It's weird for me to think I've been in Korea two months already. Sadly this is the longest I've been in a single place since last May. It feels like home and sometimes I forget that I'm in a different country, let alone Korea, 20 kilometers from N. Korea. Friday we had an alert, a practice if you will to see how fast we would react if N. Korea were to attack. It's weird to think I'm voluntarily living that close to that kind of danger, but then again most days I forget I'm in Korea, but then I hear someone speak Korean, or see the garbage man urinate against the trash container (I see this every trash day, I don't know why I'm so lucky as to walk out of the building every time he's doing this), see one of the hundreds of stray cats here, or see English and Hongul signs and realize after two months I still have not learned Hongul. A well, it's all part of the fun and adventure of living here.
Thanks for all your messages, I love hearing about what you're all doing and to learn that the US is actually experiencing a winter where as I, once again, for the 16th year in a row, am not:( Love you all.
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