aadler | Day the 4th at Fort McCoy

The exercise field was dry this morning, but there was a brisk breeze cool enough to be uncomfortable, at least at first. (Yes, you pay closer attention to the weather when you’re out in it every morning.) We’re getting accustomed to the routine, and several things that were bewildering mysteries at the beginning are making a lot more sense now. The forms may vary somewhat, but this really is just an advancement — and in some cases, review — of what I learned in the previous-phase course.

Today we turned in draft outlines of presentations we’re to make (individually) later in the week. The instructor handed them back, many marked with suggestions and corrections, and then spent ten minutes elaborating on exactly what the outline needed to be. Mine had only one notation: “OK”. The presentation itself is very brief, and I’ll be speaking on a subject I’ve addressed several times before. No worries.

As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, I’m seriously considering moving over to active duty Army once next year’s deployment is finished. In my current MOS (military occupational specialty), active duty would require me to go to Airborne school. (Even if I could pass — doubtful, since I’d have to be able to run at a nineteen-year-old pace — I’d much rather keep my knees. Airborne guys come down hard.) Yesterday I ran into someone in the related MOS to which I had thought of transferring, and I asked him about possibilities. His response was not encouraging: currently, the active duty side of that MOS is being run by ex-SF guys, and they’re trying to turn their troops — the same people my unit regards as a watered-down version of what we do in the field — into mini-Green Berets. Maybe things will be different by the time I return from Iraq, two years from now, but I think I should investigate some other possibilities.

On the brighter side, the scales today showed I’d lost ten pounds in the last three days, with a reduction of three and a half pounds since yesterday. I honestly don’t see how that’s possible, but I’ll continue my current program for a while longer to compensate for any internal error. I still have almost a week; at this rate, if it continues, I’ll knock off another five pounds in the next couple of days and have a BIG margin of safety.

A few days ago, my unit commander sent out a letter inquiring if anyone would be interested in going to a school to pick up a secondary MOS, one used within my unit even though our primary focus is elsewhere. As it happens, I was doing that kind of work at Guantanamo, so I replied that I’d be willing to do that, although the duty already scheduled for me at the National Training Center would probably prevent me from starting with the initial class time posted. Waiting to see the results on that one.

As I mentioned before, we get up every morning at 4:00 AM for physical training (PT). Consequently, I go to bed at 8:00 PM to make sure I get enough sleep. Which is what I’m going to do now.