4 April 2007
Okay, I've been caught. Sorry I haven't written in about two weeks, but sadly that shows just about how exciting my life is here, nothing to report but work work work. But like Mom tells me, it'd be like this in a civilian job, just for me I'm now known better as "Hey L.T." or "The Ma'am"
I now know why people say not to go to Korea, especially for their first tour. Coming straight from OBC to here has been hard, especially because I have no direct supervisor who's an officer, just the sergeants in my company. They're all good at their job, the 1SG (highest ranking sergeant in our company) has become my mentor, and my go-to-guy is the lowest ranking platoon sergeant because he's the best at his job. We're slowly stumbling through everything, learning as we go. Some lessons are hard learned and I want nothing more than to curl in a hole and hide. Other's are the slap your forehead kind and say "Dang it! I knew that."
The stand in commander for our unit left last week, so it's been a rough transition with that also. I also learned last week the true validity of "Queen for a Year" which is what people all call females who come to Korea, especially officers. To give you a little insight, I'm one of 260ish females in my battalion of over 1200 soldiers, and there are about 400 females at Camp Casey out of about 4000 soldiers. So I'm grossly out numbered here by 'Joe's'. Out of about 20 LTs in my battalion, I am 1 of 6 females. Technically speaking, these are the only 5 other people I'm supposed to hang out with due to rank and gender, which leads me to being Queen for a Year...
Medical Service OBC is for all officers going into the medical field, so Doctors (MDs and PhDs in psychology, etc alike), Veterinarians, Physical Therapists (PT), Physicians Assistants (PAs), nurses, you get the point. There are 6 battalions at Casey, 6 different units - my battalion is the brigade support battalions (BSB), so we support the brigade. I know they say never use the word in the definition to define it, but the Army's pretty dummy proof with these acronyms. But to further explain it, companies within a Battalion are named with a letter, so I'm C Co (Charlie Company), we also have Alpha (A), Bravo (B), Delta (D), Echo (E), Fox (F), and Gulf (G). A, B, C, and HHC which is the headquarters unit with the colonel and all the staff jobs, we make up the base units. D, E, F, and G are forward support teams (FSTs) that support other battalions. We have infantry, armor, field artillery, and scouts.
Okay, I'm getting to my point...every battalion has medical coverage, whether it be 40 people (a platoon) or a company (what I'm in). Each battalion has a PA and I went to OBC with every PA here, we all came together. So, because I know these guys, and yes they're all guys - for some reason there are only 3 female PAs, they were already here, but I know them now too. Anyways, so I know all these male PAs and have ended up hanging out with them more than the four other females in my battalion. It's kind of funny because they always talk PA stuff and I always talk platoon leader stuff, but it's made me realize that the chances of a group of females hanging out together is pretty slim.
Last weekend one of the medics in the infantry battalion was leaving so I went with my friend, the PA, a fellow officer, to the farewell. I ended up being the only female and didn't realize I hung out with all guys until that day. Sad but true. It's especially interesting hanging out with all guys - for those who know what guys are like, take that, add being in the military, add being away from their wives, add them being medics and you've got some very interesting conversations taking place. Needless to say, I got a good ab workout that night from laughing so much - mostly out of embarrassment because of what they were talking about, but it's a good way to forget the annoyances of Casey.
As far as the Korean Kids go...I've been volunteered to head a volunteer program where soldiers go to the elementary schools in the city Casey's in and teach English. I'm the 4th grade teacher, along with one of the soldiers from my battalion. We effectively taught the kids nothing our first day, because lets face it, this isn't Bear Creek! The kids here in Korea, they're crazy. Take Kindergarten Cop for example. Good Old Arnold had to go in there, all huge and authoritatively with a whistle to calm those kindergarteners down. I have 4th graders and I'm pretty sure Arnold wouldn't have any luck. These kids are out of control!!! They're funny, but they run around the room, hit each other, scream in Korean. I laughed a lot that day too. I'll have to get a video and send it because I just don't have the vocabulary to do it justice. As nice as it would be to have my Saturday morning's to myself, trying to teach 9 year-old Korean kids how to say "My favorite color is yellow." Not, "My faborit coror is lellow." is fun and will eventually be worth it.
So, now you're all caught up. My vehicles are loaded onto some ship down south and going to be fixed. So that head ache's over. We're supposed to be getting a commander, maybe this week, maybe in July, I'm not sure. It's April so supposedly it'll stop being cold and yucky, then again it's April and monsoon season is about to start. Let's just hope that since I'm taller than a lot of the Korean's that means I won't drown walking to work. Survival of the fittest right? If they're tall enough I should make it.
I now know why people say not to go to Korea, especially for their first tour. Coming straight from OBC to here has been hard, especially because I have no direct supervisor who's an officer, just the sergeants in my company. They're all good at their job, the 1SG (highest ranking sergeant in our company) has become my mentor, and my go-to-guy is the lowest ranking platoon sergeant because he's the best at his job. We're slowly stumbling through everything, learning as we go. Some lessons are hard learned and I want nothing more than to curl in a hole and hide. Other's are the slap your forehead kind and say "Dang it! I knew that."
The stand in commander for our unit left last week, so it's been a rough transition with that also. I also learned last week the true validity of "Queen for a Year" which is what people all call females who come to Korea, especially officers. To give you a little insight, I'm one of 260ish females in my battalion of over 1200 soldiers, and there are about 400 females at Camp Casey out of about 4000 soldiers. So I'm grossly out numbered here by 'Joe's'. Out of about 20 LTs in my battalion, I am 1 of 6 females. Technically speaking, these are the only 5 other people I'm supposed to hang out with due to rank and gender, which leads me to being Queen for a Year...
Medical Service OBC is for all officers going into the medical field, so Doctors (MDs and PhDs in psychology, etc alike), Veterinarians, Physical Therapists (PT), Physicians Assistants (PAs), nurses, you get the point. There are 6 battalions at Casey, 6 different units - my battalion is the brigade support battalions (BSB), so we support the brigade. I know they say never use the word in the definition to define it, but the Army's pretty dummy proof with these acronyms. But to further explain it, companies within a Battalion are named with a letter, so I'm C Co (Charlie Company), we also have Alpha (A), Bravo (B), Delta (D), Echo (E), Fox (F), and Gulf (G). A, B, C, and HHC which is the headquarters unit with the colonel and all the staff jobs, we make up the base units. D, E, F, and G are forward support teams (FSTs) that support other battalions. We have infantry, armor, field artillery, and scouts.
Okay, I'm getting to my point...every battalion has medical coverage, whether it be 40 people (a platoon) or a company (what I'm in). Each battalion has a PA and I went to OBC with every PA here, we all came together. So, because I know these guys, and yes they're all guys - for some reason there are only 3 female PAs, they were already here, but I know them now too. Anyways, so I know all these male PAs and have ended up hanging out with them more than the four other females in my battalion. It's kind of funny because they always talk PA stuff and I always talk platoon leader stuff, but it's made me realize that the chances of a group of females hanging out together is pretty slim.
Last weekend one of the medics in the infantry battalion was leaving so I went with my friend, the PA, a fellow officer, to the farewell. I ended up being the only female and didn't realize I hung out with all guys until that day. Sad but true. It's especially interesting hanging out with all guys - for those who know what guys are like, take that, add being in the military, add being away from their wives, add them being medics and you've got some very interesting conversations taking place. Needless to say, I got a good ab workout that night from laughing so much - mostly out of embarrassment because of what they were talking about, but it's a good way to forget the annoyances of Casey.
As far as the Korean Kids go...I've been volunteered to head a volunteer program where soldiers go to the elementary schools in the city Casey's in and teach English. I'm the 4th grade teacher, along with one of the soldiers from my battalion. We effectively taught the kids nothing our first day, because lets face it, this isn't Bear Creek! The kids here in Korea, they're crazy. Take Kindergarten Cop for example. Good Old Arnold had to go in there, all huge and authoritatively with a whistle to calm those kindergarteners down. I have 4th graders and I'm pretty sure Arnold wouldn't have any luck. These kids are out of control!!! They're funny, but they run around the room, hit each other, scream in Korean. I laughed a lot that day too. I'll have to get a video and send it because I just don't have the vocabulary to do it justice. As nice as it would be to have my Saturday morning's to myself, trying to teach 9 year-old Korean kids how to say "My favorite color is yellow." Not, "My faborit coror is lellow." is fun and will eventually be worth it.
So, now you're all caught up. My vehicles are loaded onto some ship down south and going to be fixed. So that head ache's over. We're supposed to be getting a commander, maybe this week, maybe in July, I'm not sure. It's April so supposedly it'll stop being cold and yucky, then again it's April and monsoon season is about to start. Let's just hope that since I'm taller than a lot of the Korean's that means I won't drown walking to work. Survival of the fittest right? If they're tall enough I should make it.
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