No More Panera Bread

I have been a customer of Panera Bread for several years, primarily due to the free wi-fi connection in their stores. I have had innumerable business lunches and personal working sessions there. I was also relying on their wi-fi access to stay connected while here in Atlanta during my mobilization.

Over the past two days, though, I have twice been prevented by their content filter (provided by "Sonicwall.com") from accessing web content that I wanted to view.

Yesterday I was prevented from accessing www.youtube.com, where I wanted to go and view my daughter's music video (apparently they are categorized by the network nannies as having "adult content"). Today I was blocked from www.bianchi-intl.com, where I wanted to shop for a holster to take with me to the Middle East. It seems that Bianchi sells merchandise in the category of (*gasp!*) "Weapons".

I believe in both the First and the Second Amendments, and I resist any effort to encroach upon either freedom. On the other hand, I also believe in property rights, and I respect Panera's right to limit access through their wi-fi connection if they think it is in their interest (even if they are mistaken and misguided).

I very strongly resent their attempt to limit what I can access on the web, and will no longer visit their stores at any time, for any purpose. They have made their choice, and I will make mine and take my business elsewhere.

I urge anyone who values freedom and free access to information to do the same. There are places with better coffee and better sandwiches, and other options for wi-fi access to the internet.

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Now to go and try to find someplace to get online and shop for a holster before Tuesday...

Packing

Saturday 10/7/06

I stayed up very late last night just relaxing and watching TV. This morning I woke up at 0730 but lounged around until 0900 before getting up to go out and do PT. It was a beautiful clear morning, the birds were singing, and it was cool outside – perfect for PT. Afterwards I came inside and showered and got into my day.

I stayed in my room all day with the TV on Fox News, sorting through and organizing my gear. It was kind of novel for me because I almost never watch TV, so having it on in the background while I worked was interesting.

Today I concentrated on the field gear (as opposed to uniforms and personal items).

The first thing I did was put together my M40 protective mask. They issued me a brand new one, still in the box. So I had to take out all the components, read the instructions, and put it all together. The filter canister is still sealed in its original spam can, and I left it there rather than break the seal. I also didn’t bother with the hood since somebody told me the new chemical protective overgarment (of which I have a brand new sealed set, but have never seen) has a hood on the coat. Our training suits at Eighth Army were still the old type, so I’ll have to get my hands on one of the new suits and make sure I know how they are configured. But my mask is all set up and ready to go – all I have to do is open the filter and screw it in. (They finally went to NATO standard filters in about 1998).

After I finished the mask, I set up my armored vest. This new style vest is designed to replace web gear of all types. It is completely covered with MOLLE attachment points. I had bought some additional pouches for it, and wanted to set it up before packing it. One pouch I bought, based on a recommendation from someone I met at TSIRT who has been over there before, was a replacement first aid pouch. This one is slightly larger, and has a red strap on it to designate it as containing medical supplies. I transferred the contents of the first aid kit into this pouch, and then attached the original pouch next to it for general storage. I also attached the two double magazine pouches I had bought, and a compass/GPS pouch. I also attached the neck and throat guard to it, which I had not done before. I didn’t put in the ballistic plates, as I thought those would be better packed separately, allowing the vest to bend and conform to the inside of the duffel bag (the vest alone without the plates is supposed to defeat anything up to 9mm; with the plates it can defeat 7.62mm (.30 cal.) They are mega-heavy. I’m not especially happy with the holster they issued me – I thought it would be OK, but after seeing what some of the other people bought and talking to people who had been there, I think I’ll probably go ahead and buy the kind of holster they had. Too bad I didn’t get it when the 641st ASG/MTC would have paid for it. Oh well, live and learn.

After the vest, I put my helmet back together. The new helmet has a pretty complicated suspension system, plus attachment points for night vision devices and sun/sand goggles. I had to put these on and replace the cover (which I had taken off to have my rank insignia sewn onto), and then adjust everything. I found out over the past few days that the straps continually slip and loosen up, so once I had everything where I wanted it I secured it with brown tape. (Yes, the old green 100mph tape is now available in brown….). Finally, I got out the sun and sand goggles, set them up with the dark lens, and adjusted them to fit on the helmet.

Finally, I set up the ALICE pack on the frame. I am still a little ambivalent about taking this, but I believe I will unless I absolutely cannot fit it in once I have everything packed. I would only need it if I was sent forward into Iraq or Afghanistan, but I have to be prepared for that possibility.

After this I dumped out all the field gear and sorted out the things I am definitely not taking. Then I packed the remaining stuff into a duffel bag, as carefully and densely as I could. I managed to get it all into one bag, except for the ALICE pack (which is exactly what I was hoping for). So now I have one fully-packed duffel bag, and two more allowed (well, three, but my footlocker counts as one).

With respect to the uniforms, I unpacked the ACUs they issued with the intention of taking two sets and leaving two behind. But it turns out that the ones they issued and the two sets I had bought for myself earlier are not the same. The four sets they issued have an additional label in them: “Bug Off”, and some additional instructions. They have been treated with permethrin, an insecticide. Apparently with proper laundering, this treatment is permanent. Although they did issue some permethrin spray with which I could treat my other two uniforms, I decided just to take these four new ones and leave my other two behind instead.

So now the bed is piled up on one side with the uniform items they issued, and the duffel bag I brought from home is still packed and waiting to be opened up and consolidated.

Funny how all this minutiae consumes so much time and energy. But I’m really glad I have the time to take care of it all now at my leisure, rather than being under time pressure like some of the people I was going through the process with. I feel like I should be pretty organized when I get over there so I can get right to work.

I got done with all this around 1600 or so, and once I looked around, I felt pretty good about it and decided that was enough for one day. Time to come to Panera Bread at Lenox Square for my internet fix!

Mood: Confident
Music: Dragonforce - Through the Fire and Flames

Happy Birthday!

Friday, 10/6/06

Today I am 48 years old. That was the average age of National Guard majors in 1940, before the big buildup for WWII. At that time this was considered a bad thing - an indicator of the poor shape of the interwar Army.

I’d like to think that thanks to advances in medical care and overall health that 48 is not as “old” as it was then. While I sometimes feel what I think are probably the normal aches, pains, and general creakiness that accompany middle age, I really don’t feel old. As I’ve said earlier, I feel better overall than I have in years – like I’m where I belong, and doing what I’ve always been meant to do.

I started the day with PT, which I haven’t really had time to do much of lately. I even got to bridge, thanks to SFC Gibson at the 641st ASG/MTC, who managed to get me one of the old closed-cell foam sleeping pads to take with me. I always follow my three minute back bridge with ten reps of over-the head leg lifts to stretch my back the other way. That exercise, more than anything else, keeps my back and neck in shape. It’s been a week since I did it (and I was beginning to feel it) but I feel great now!

I had long list of things to do today, since it’s the only day anything will be open on post today due to the holiday. I started off with laundry so I’ll have clean clothes to wear. After lunch (microwaved pizza from last night) I went to clothing sales for some small items (although they didn’t have the magazine pouches I wanted), the commissary to get some food for the weekend (so I don’t have to eat out all the time), and the alteration shop to get some sewing done. Now I have sewn-on rank on my boonie hat and helmet cover, and a nametape on my gym bag.

I saw the coolest thing while walking back and forth on my errands. On the way to all the PX facilities, I walk past the old parade ground, a very large open park (probably about ten acres or so) in front of the old post headquarters. It’s kind of a cool place – it’s surrounded on all sides by old, majestic oak trees, and the streets on both sides have very old red brick buildings – senior housing one side (Staff Row) starting with the CG on the corner and the CSM next door, and big old brick barracks on the other side (Troop Row). At the far end is the old post HQ building, with the flagpole in front of it. It’s very picturesque – I can easily imagine horse cavalry and soldiers in campaign hats formed up on the parade ground. Last night there was a huge orange harvest moon overhead and I just stopped and looked at it for awhile.

Today on the way back from clothing sales I saw a very large hawk (I’m not sure what kind – my friend Cynthia the Falconer would know) just standing in the field about 50-75 feet from the sidewalk. It had a freshly-killed squirrel and was just starting to feed on it. I was very surprised to see it so close, and slowed down to look at it as I walked by. After passing it, I stopped and watched it awhile. I must have made it nervous, because it picked up the squirrel and flew away. I say “away” advisedly, because although it angled away from my position, it actually flew closer to the sidewalk, and stopped in the shade of a tree about 20 feet from the walk. I watched it for a couple of minutes and then turned around and went back to my room.

I put away my groceries and collected the stuff to take to the alteration shop, and left about twenty minutes later. Surprisingly, the hawk was still there. This time I walked very slowly and did not turn my head to look directly at it, but looked at it sideways from behind my sunglasses. It didn’t seem the least bit perturbed, so when I came up even with it on the sidewalk I stopped and watched it for awhile. It was busy feeding, and I was so close that I could actually hear the sound of the squirrel’s flesh ripping as the hawk tore off chunks with its beak. It was way cool! I didn’t want it to get nervous again, so I walked slowly past it and went on my way.

Imagine my surprise when I came back another forty-five minutes later and it was still there! I guess they don’t eat fast. Once again I slowed down as I approached, and it just kept feeding. I paused briefly to look back at it after passing by.

When I walked by again later, the hawk was gone, so I went over and looked at the remains of the squirrel. It was quite a sight. The hindquarters (the parts that have the most meat) weren’t touched at all. The head and forelimbs were also intact, but were peeled back like a banana. The spine was sticking out, and was picked clean, as was the entire body cavity. It looked kind of like a popsicle that’s had the paper peeled back and been completely eaten, with just the stick left poking out of the paper. My falconer friend told me that when she hunts with her birds, she gives them the heart and liver (since those have the nutrition they need) and she keeps the parts we think of as “meat” for herself. I didn’t realize when she told me this that it replicates the way the birds eat in the wild.

You get used to seeing crows and seagulls and other scavengers feeding on scraps and road kill, but you just don’t get to see a raptor and its prey like that very often. I guess it was my birthday present from Mother Nature. :-)

Speaking of the outdoors, I really enjoy the poetry of Robert Service – he lived around the turn of the last century, and at one stage of his literary career he wrote a lot of poems about life in the Yukon, including the well-known winter campfire tale “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. I have a volume of his work at home which I almost brought along, but ended up leaving behind (the only book of poetry I decided to bring was the complete works of Kipling – maybe now I’ll actually read it!). There is one Robert Service poem that I have identified with since the first time I read it many years ago. I think that it describes me and my life in many ways (although not completely, I hope!). Since a birthday is inevitably a time of both reflection and looking forward, I will include the poem here:

The Men That Don’t Fit In

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.

- Robert Service

Now that I’ve picked up on the second half of my Army career, perhaps this will turn out to be my “proper groove”. I’ll be doing my best to make a deep mark. :-)

Mood: Happy
Music: North Sea Gas – Lochanside (Two Recruiting Sergeants)

Farewell to Ft. Benning

Thursday 10/5/06

Today was my last day at Ft. Benning. I was up late Wednesday evening packing my gear so I’d be ready to clear and depart quickly after we got done today. We got another early start and headed out to the TSIRT site for weapons and tactical training.

The tactical training was very basic stuff that everyone has had before, but they view it as an important level-setting tool to make sure everyone at least has the basics. Of course it’s been a very long time since I did the basic infantry stuff, and some things have changed, so it served its purpose with me.

As we were standing in an extended formation working on immediate action drills (e.g. “Target right! Ready! Up!”, after which you turn to the right and engage the targets with your M16), I had to laugh. People pay big bucks to go to tactical rifle courses – some of my friends have done so. And here I was, at the finest infantry school in the world, getting paid to learn it because it’s part of my job. :-)

After we finished that we crawled around in the dirt for awhile refreshing our memories on the low crawl, the high crawl, advancing under fire, clearing obstacles, etc. I could have done without the sand down my pants, but I guess it was my PT for the day. And now all my nice clean new equipment has had a baptism of the red Georgia clay I remember so well from OCS and Airborne School.

Then we went inside for weapons training. We broke out into classes based on our assigned weapons, so I was in the M9 pistol class. That was pretty boring for me, but I went through the motions – what are you going to do? I’ve never fired the M9, but the internal mechanism is nearly identical to the Walther P-38, with which I am very familiar. I ended up helping the woman next to me, who was an IG officer and didn’t know anything about it. I wasn’t too happy with the way they taught us to lubricate the pistol either, but that is largely a function of where you’re stationed and what works best under local conditions, which they pointed out. We basically went to the range with dry guns, which is a recipe for malfunctions. But I followed their regimen.

We went to the range and went through the standard Army rigmarole, and finally got to the firing line to shoot. It was a pop-up range, which was fun. They had a series of magazines with different numbers of rounds loaded in them, and told us which ones to use for each table of fire. Then a series of silhouette targets would pop up at different distances, sometimes one at a time and sometimes more than one. We had to engage them before they disappeared. We had ten rounds of familiarization fire first, and then 40 rounds to engage 30 targets. A passing score (“Marksman”) was 16 hits, Expert requiring 26.

I did pretty well, but was disappointed because I missed two targets (this is not a hard range for an experienced shooter). My first miss was at the farthest target, with a one-round magazine. I was so ticked off to have missed that I didn’t reload quickly enough – I might have been able to get off a second shot had I done so. I just didn’t think of it in time. My other miss was during a 5-round string during which my pistol jammed on every single shot. Each time I fired it, it jammed and I had to clear it before the next shot. I still hit every target I saw, but my attention was focused on the pistol and I didn’t notice that the last target was actually two – one behind the other. I knocked the first one down and only then did I see the second one behind it. It disappeared before I could clear the pistol for a second shot.

The coach on the firing line said it was a bad magazine. So now I’ve experienced the reality of what I read about earlier – poor quality or worn out magazines leading to malfunctions with the M9. This is exactly why I spent $250 on brand-new high quality magazines before I left - so I’d have my own and not have to worry about this problem. Given the type of jams I was experiencing, it is possible that with proper lubrication the gun would have continued to function despite the bad magazine. I also think it could have been a worn-out recoil spring. But there’s no way to know, and it’s not my assigned weapon, anyway, so it doesn’t matter at this point. I’ll see what they issue me when I get there and deal with it then. I also brought along my own cleaning supplies and lubricants – I intend to keep my gun running properly once it’s issued to me.

I was hoping for a perfect score, but still managed to fire expert under somewhat adverse conditions. So I felt pretty good about it.

After that they drove me back to the company area and I went through outprocessing. I just had to put away my gear from the range, re-pack my backpack for travel, and check out of the unit. A few papers to sign, turn in my linen and room key, and wait for my ride. He arrived literally at the moment I was signing the last form, and we loaded up the van and left.

I got in to Ft. McPherson and checked into Army Lodging again. Last time I had a nice roomy suite with two rooms and lots of space. Now that I have a huge pile of stuff to sort through and re-pack, I am in a very small single room. I had difficulty even find a place to put everything while it was still packed! It reminds me of Groucho Marx in his stateroom in “A Night at the Opera”. I have no idea how I am going to sort it all out, but I’ll manage. It will be interesting. :-)

So now I’m here for four days, at least. I’ll get to an internet connection sometime to upload this entry, but for now I’m essentially incommunicado.

TSIRT

We are spending two days in TSIRT. I don't even know what the acronym stands for, but it's a fair bet that the last "T" is for "Training".

It was a very long day and I'm tired, so this will be a short entry, and also the last one for a few days until I get settled back at Ft. McPherson and can get back to an internet connection sometime over the weekend.

Some of the training we got was classified "For Official Use Only", so I can't talk about a lot of specific details, but it revolved around two major subjects. One was how to recognize and react to unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices (UXO/IED). That was pretty good - we had some classroom lectures and then went outside and went through practical exercises in recognizing the types of devices they have been encountering in theater.

The second half of the day was first aid training. One of the things they issued us the other day that I didn't write about was the new individual first aid kit. I opened it up and looked at it last night. I've always been kind of fascinated by first aid kits, but this one is really high-speed. It is a no-nonsense combat first aid kit, way better than anything I've ever seen before. It contains tape, a trauma dressing, a couple of smaller battle dressings, a breathing tube to open the airway, and a CAT - "Combat Action Tourniquet", which can be self-applied with one hand.

So this afternoon we got classroom training and practical exercises in first aid for traumatic injuries. Most of the photographs they used in the presentations were from in theater, and were pretty graphic. I naturally have mixed feelings about it - it's comforting to know that the Army is so serious about taking care of the individual soldiers - this first aid kit and the training we received were developed based on past experience and have resulted in a substantial decrease in combat fatalities. But it also drives home the reality of the conflict in a dramatic and graphic way. It's good to know that everyone who goes over there has this training and has this type of equipment with them, even if I am not going to be in the worst parts of the actual combat zones.

Tomorrow we go out to the TSIRT site again for weapons qualification and some tactical training. Then we go back to the MTC to outprocess and I'll be picked up to go back to Ft. McPherson. I expect to spend tomorrow night back in the Atlanta area.

Because this is a four-day weekend for government workers, nobody will be around Ft. McPherson from Friday through Monday and I'll be on my own. I expect to be occupied sorting through all this equipment and figuring out what to take and what to leave behind, and how to pack it.

I'm sure I'll end up back at the Panera Bread in the Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta at some point to get my "internet fix". But until then I'll be cut off. I've been slowly getting used to have my internet connection in short doses. I have become so used to having it available all day, every day, that it has been very odd not to have it. It makes me feel very cut off at times. It's almost funny when you look at the lengths I have to go to to get online, but it's worth it since so much of my connection with the world now flows through this little machine. :-)

CIF, SRP, and ACUs

Today was stressful, but we got everything done.

What made it stressful for me was that we had a full day of processing planned, but I knew I also had to get to the dental clinic for an exam, and I knew I needed a filling. We never made it there yesterday, and it was dicey today. But the longer it took for me to get over there, the less time there would be do deal with any issues before everything closes on Friday for a four day weekend. Since I'm supposed to fly out for Kuwait on Tuesday 10/10, there's no time to play with.

We started off at the CIF at 0730. There we were issued a country-specific set of field equipment. This was mostly the standard Army field equipment like I've always had, although some of it was in desert or ACU camouflage pattern. Canteens, rucksack, sleeping pad, duffel bags, wet weather gear, cold weather gear (!), NBC protective suit, protective mask, etc. The only thing I got that I haven't been issued before was one of the new protective vests.

The equipment is a curious mix of old and new - they are in transition to a new configuration of load-bearing equipment completely based on the protective vest, but they don't have all the stuff yet and so are still issuing old stuff as well. Some of it doesn't really make sense, and I think I'll leave a bunch of it behind and buy a few of the newer items that they didn't have, so I have a complete and correct set of equipment.

I was really disappointed to see that they issued me an inflatable sleeping pad. Had I planned to use it to sleep on, it would be great. But I was expecting the old closed-cell foam pad, and was planning to use it as an exercise mat. It turns out they don't issue those any more, and since I left mine at home expecting to get one, I'm SOL. I'll need to buy one here if I can. I don't think it's a practical item to ship over, but it may come to that. I can't do my bridging exercise on very many surfaces without tearing up my forehead, and that pad is one that I've found that works. Darn!

I walked out of there with three duffel bags of stuff, although very loosely and carelessly packed.

After that we went to the SRP. This was the real thing, for which my trip to Ft. Snelling MN was a rehearsal. It was a real cluster. They had a variety of stations, such as legal, finance, etc., and we had to go through them all. Once again there were a variety of groups in a variety of stages of processing, this time including civilian contractors. I felt very frustrated at all the wasted time, repetitive paperwork, and conflicting instructions from different people. To add to the inefficiency, they scheduled us to start at 10:00 AM, actually got started at 10:45, and no sooner finished all the preliminary briefings and started processing us than they started sending their people to lunch. So we sat around and missed our lunch while they went and got theirs. (Oh, by the way, we didn't get any breakfast, either, since we had started early trying to beat the rush, failed, and missed it after all). So not only was I feeling time pressure, I was also hungry. They do have packaged meals for when you miss chow, but we didn't have any in our vehicle so we were SOL. Anybody who knows me can imagine that I was a bit irritated. But I got the important things done, including finance, and got all the right pay options started. The work they did at Ft. Snelling and at Ft. McPherson before I came sped things up a lot, so it went pretty quickly once my turn came.

Once we got through the SRP, I was able to get over to the dental clinic and get an exam. My file was totally empty since they sent my reappointment physical and dental exam to HRC back in January, and it never got to my unit. So they had to start from scratch. It turns out that I can get the filling I need in theater, so it won't keep me from deploying. That was a major relief, and I felt much better after learning that - all the pressure is off now. Just the normal stuff to take care of.

After the dental clinic we went and picked up our ACUs (Army Combat Uniform - the new digital ones). We made it just under the wire. That was a very efficient operation - they had our stuff all picked and packed in the biggest Ziploc bags I've ever seen. We were in and out in a matter of minutes.

After that we got back in time for the evening meal (hooray!). After chow I ran a few errands and came to my hangout here at Subway to get on the internet.

Tomorrow we go for a variety of training and briefings, and on Thursday we go for weapons qualification and I don't know what else. I'll have to put together some of my field gear to go out there - I was really hoping to just take it all up to Ft. McPherson before messing with any of it, but oh well.

I managed to complete a module of CGSC yesterday, my first in over two months. I'm going to try to get another one done tonight. I have two hours before they close and kick me out...

RFI and Medical Processing

Today we processed through the RFI Center and the medical section.

RFI stands for "Rapid Fielding Initiative", which is the Army's way of pushing new equipment out to the field quickly. It was well-run and efficient, and we got some cool stuff:

MSS - Modular Sleep System, a high-tech sleeping bag system
Sand and Wind Goggles
Uvex Protective Eyewear
Camelbak hydration system
Nomex gloves (2 sets - cold weather and hot weather)
Fleece cap
Fleece jacket
Fleece pants
Moisture-wicking t-shirts
Lightweight long underwear (2 sets)
Moisture-wicking boot socks
Combat boots (2 pair - hot weather and cold weather)
Knee pads and elbow pads
ACH - Advanced Combat Helmet with ACU cover and NVG mount
Duffel bag to put it all in.

The way they issued it was as high-tech as the stuff they gave us. They scanned our ID cards, and produced bar-coded nametags we stuck on our shirts. At each station they scanned our nametags and then scanned the stuff we got. At the end it printed out a hand receipt which we signed.

That sounds pretty run-of-the-mill to anyone familiar with supply chain management and warehouse operations - but if you'd seen the number of paper forms I've had to fill in by hand over the past few weeks, this is revolutionary by comparison. Too bad all the Army's supply and administrative operations aren't this up to date.

After we got that stuff, we went for ACU fitting. This was also pretty well-organized. Instead of trying to fit and issue at the same time, they fitted us and made a record of our sizes. Then we go back tomorrow and pick up a box that they will have put together with all our stuff in it. Even though it seems counterintuitive to have us go back twice, I guess this helps them manage their inventory more efficiently.

After that we went to the medical facility for processing. This wasn't too bad, but it was more like what I've come to expect. Multiple people with individual parts of a large job, and just enough confusion and crossed purposes to make it somewhat inefficient. In our case the situation was complicated by the fact that a large group of soldiers (about 50) were redeploying from Afghanistan. Pre-deployment and re-deployment briefings and processes are very different, but use some of the same forms and paperwork. They got us mixed in with those people by mistake and it confused things for awhile. But we got it straightened out.

I got a whole mess of shots, since nothing I had had in the past was of any use except for polio. I got a DNA sample taken, blood taken for other tests, got tested for smallpox and TB, and got innoculated for Tetanus, Typhoid, and Anthrax. My arm hurts! (And now I have a Smallpox test on my arm that will turn into a scab that I have to nurse for 14-21 days - can't get soap or shampoo on it, have to change the band-aid every day, can't touch it without washing my hands, etc.). That will be convenient!

I have to go back for a dental exam and an eye exam (to get a prescription for reading glasses). These are not on the schedule, so they have to be fit in someplace. The next couple of days are likely to be pretty busy.

Tomorrow we go to CIF to get the rest of our clothing items issued, and also go through our administrative processing (I'm guessing that's finance, insurance, etc).

Right now I'm going to try to knock out a module of Command and General Staff College - I haven't completed a module of that course since before going to Korea, and I need to get it done in less than a year.

So - time to get to work!

Photos (really!)

Ok, the photos are really, really ready. The only caveat is that if you dig into them on Flickr, you'll see sizes listed which are incorrect. I shrunk them substantially to fit on my free account, but the size still reads as though it's the original off the camera. I have much more detailed images, but have not stored them on Flickr due to upload bandwidth limitations on the free account.

Now I don't know whether to clean up the blog by deleting all the references to my photo troubles, or to leave them here as a testament to how hard this was for me to figure out. I guess I'll leave them - what the heck. This is supposed to be an unvarnished account of what I see and do while mobilized.

Speaking of unvarnished acccounts, maybe this is a good place to point out that I can't publish all my photos - when I was photographing FORSCOM HQ, a security guy came out and told me it wasn't allowed. He didn't make me delete the pictures off my camera, but it was pretty clear that they didn't want people taking pictures for security reasons.

The smartass in me wanted to go back with a tape measure and start measuring the gaps between the concrete barriers and taking notes. I probably could have told them I was just boning up on my engineer skills, especially if I had taken along my copy of FM 5-34 (Engineer Field Data). I quickly got that irreverent impulse under control. So I kept the photos, but I somehow suspect they might object to my publishing them here....

Anyway, I can finally post photos, and the ones listed in the earlier entry can actually be viewed!

Mood: Triumphant
Music: Beethoven - Ode to Joy

Spoke too soon

Well, I'm not done yet, apparently. The html from the photos screwed up the formatting of my blog and now you can't see my profile.

*sigh*

I'll keep working on it. Photos may come and go until I figure this out....

Mood: Mildly Frustrated
Music: Mozart - Requiem ;-)

Photos (Finally!)

I have finally succeeded in posting photos to my blog. I didn't use the exact way any of the tools said to do it, because none of them actually put the photos into my text postings where I wanted them.

Perhaps in the future I can post my photos first, and then write the text around them. I'll try that the next time I have photos to post. But for now, I posted the photos to their own separate entries using Flickr, cut and pasted the html from these to the existing blog entries, then deleted the photo entries. Cumbersome, but effective!

The cool thing about posting photos from Flickr is that they have their own captions, which you can see by clicking the link under each photo. This takes you to Flickr and lets you see the photo and caption there.The enties that now have photos in them are:

10/1 - Ft. Benning, 25 Years Later
9/30 - 3rd Army, FORSCOM, USARC, and Breakfast
9/23 - Cleared From My Unit

Mood: Satisfied
Music: Handel - Concerto No. 3 in G Major

Ft. Benning, 25 Years Later

Sunday 10/01/06, 1600

I am now at Ft. Benning, Georgia. I was last here 25 years ago for OCS and Airborne School. In some ways the place is just the same, and of course it’s changed in some ways, too.

For example, I’m sitting in a Subway sandwich shop collocated with an MWR facility (game room, TV room, wireless hotspot) that is within sight of the Airborne School. Not only is that something new, but there are actually OCS candidates in here buying sandwiches and pizzas. I’d heard that the new Army was not as tough, but that’s going too far! We had to mount a major midnight commando operation just to get pizza delivered to the OCS barracks. :-) Perhaps it’s a privilege they were able to earn somehow….

I took a few photos of some of the Airborne training facilities. The jump towers from the 1939 World’s Fair are still here, and the other ground and tower facilities are just as I remember them. I am quartered in an area not too far away from there, and since it’s the weekend we are actually eating in a mess hall right next to the Officer Candidate School. Does that ever bring back some memories!


Ft. Benning - Airborne School Towers
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

I was driven down here from Ft. McPherson in a van this morning, and reported in to the company about 10:30. They got me signed in and assigned me a room, which I have to myself so far (although there are 4 bunks in it). RHIP in some cases – I have my own latrine (bathroom) including a shower, so for now I don’t have to do the communal shower thing. The wall locker is like a bank safe – definitely a change from the flimsy sheet steel lockers we had when I was here before.

I went to clothing sales and got an ACU pattern briefcase – I will now retire my old mapcase, which I brought with me to carry my paperwork around in. The mapcase will stay in the US along with whatever else I decide to leave behind. If I can find a tailor shop on post I’ll get a nametape sewn to the new briefcase. STRAC!

They have vans to drive us around, so I shouldn’t have to walk quite as much as I did at Ft. McPherson. I definitely plan to go back to clothing sales and look around – it’s much bigger and better stocked than the others I have been in recently. Of course, this is Ft. Benning, Home Of The Infantry. I’d expect it to have a good MCSS. I need a couple little items, like a sewing kit with the right color thread (although it will be for repairs only – the new ACUs do not require any patches to be sewn on; everything is velcro).

Tomorrow at 0800 I am supposed to meet one of the NCOs to go down and draw all my CIF and RFI gear. After that I’ll start going through the administrative processing (medical, finance, etc.). Then I’ll go through some training exercises to make sure I’m still up to speed on core warfighting tasks (I’m guessing they will include use of the protective mask, weapons qualification, immediate action drills, and who knows what else - whatever they want me to do). I don’t think I’ll be low-crawling through any barbed wire or jumping off the towers this time around, though. :-)

After I get done here I’ll head back up to Ft. McPherson. But for the next few days I’ll be here at the “Benning School for Boys”. (And it really is still that, despite the larger role of females in the Army these days). There are definitely women here, but in much smaller proportion to men than other places I’ve been in the Army. This is the Infantry Center, and since women still do not serve in the combat arms, they are less prevalent here. I’d say the ratio I’ve seen is roughly 30:1 or so, just going by the soldiers I’ve seen walking around and here patronizing the place I’m in. Go to a transportation, quartermaster, or medical unit, and you’ll see a much higher ratio of women. But the infantry is still a man’s world.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that hardly anyone is overweight here. I’ve mostly been hanging around reserve units and higher-level headquarters, and while everyone has to pass the PT test, I’ve seen plenty of people carrying around too much weight (they even make *me* feel thin!). But here it’s a different story. These people are young and fit, and the older officers and NCOs I’ve seen so far are fit as well. All these people look like what you’d expect the Army to look like – like something straight off a recruiting poster.

It’s cool to be back here. The cliché would be to say it makes me feel old, but it doesn’t. To be sure, I’ve had to smile a few times. One young man I saw was wearing a Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” t-shirt. I’m sure he wasn’t even born when that album was released, and I was already in high school (or maybe even college). But despite the reminiscences and the realization that it really was 25 years ago that I was here as a young man, it doesn’t make me feel old - quite the opposite. I feel energized, centered, and “together” in a way I haven’t felt for a long time. I think this is really where I belong. What on earth was I thinking for all those years?

Mood: Energized
Music: Berlin, “No More Words”

Waaah! (Somebody call the waahmbulance)

Saturday 9/30/2006, 1930

(I think I’ll start date- and time stamping my postings, because I can’t adjust the timestamp on the blogging tool. I have irregular access to the internet, and I am composing them in Word and uploading them when I can, so the timestamp on the blog doesn’t necessarily correspond to when I am writing them.)

If I believed in that sort of thing, I’d say my patience was being tested today. It was a day of minor annoyances. I’m not even sure I can remember them all, but I’ll try.

My last posting was written from 0900 – 1000 Saturday morning, while waiting behind the Burger King at the PX for the barber shop to open. The day was just beginning, and the first minor annoyance (no breakfast) had already manifested itself. Unless, that is, you count the reason I was waiting at the barber shop in the first place.

My mantra of “high and tight, and #1 on top” apparently hadn’t reached the lady barber’s consciousness yesterday. She was too busy talking to her eleven year old on the phone to pay much attention to me. When she *finally* finished, she stuck the mirror in my face and what I saw looked OK, so I paid and left. When I looked in the mirror this morning, I saw that my hair was still much too long on top (well, OK, the upper sides; I don’t have any hair on top at all :-) ) – definitely not a #1 (as short as it gets without just having skin). I was waiting at the barber shop to ask to have it fixed. So I guess no breakfast might have been Annoyance #2.

A few minutes after ten, I packed up the computer and went around the corner into the PX, to find that the barber shop was not yet open, despite the posted opening time of 1000. Annoyance #3. Several other people were waiting. We waited around, making conversation and speculating about what the trouble was. One by one they left, until I was the last one. (Where else was I going to go?)

At about 10:45 or so, an employee finally came, expressing surprise that nobody was there and explaining that her car had broken down. She didn’t have her keys, so she had to mess around getting some. She had no intention of staying to cut hair, but had intended to take care of her car. Then she discovered that the other employee had decided not to come to work today. So she stayed around to work. I had been hoping to have the barber who had cut my hair wrong fix it, but since she wasn’t there this woman fixed it. She didn’t have a cash drawer and couldn’t take payment, although in my case it didn’t matter since I wasn’t paying. I tipped her anyway. So now my haircut was OK, but it was already nearly afternoon. Time to think about lunch.

I decided to go back to my room and drop off my camera and a couple other things, because my bag was heavier than I wanted to carry around downtown all day. I walked back to my building (all of this involved much walking around the post, similar to the post in Korea). Imagine my surprise and delight when my room key (magnetic card) failed to open the door! Annoyance #4. The cleaning ladies were there and let me into the building and into my room. But the card just wouldn’t work. I called the front desk on the room phone. No answer. Great. I left a message, rearranged my bag as planned, and then set out across the post for the Army Lodging office. When I got there they told me that my card was demagnetized because I hadn’t kept it in the little sleeve. (I threw away the sleeve because they wrote my building and room number on it). So I took a new sleeve and remagnetized card, and set out for downtown. Annoyance #4 dealt with.

I headed for the train and went downtown to seek a Wall Street Journal, some lunch, and a wi-fi hotspot.

Annoyance #5 – no Wall Street Journal. Anyplace. The first “Newsstand” (well, that’s what the sign said) had only one newspaper, a few porn magazines, lottery tickets, and a lot of cigarettes. The second two were closed. Walking many blocks in several directions failed to yield a single WSJ. So I gave up and decided to just read it online once I got to a wi-fi location.

Annoyance #6 – hard to find a wi-fi hotspot. I walked many more blocks, failing to locate any of the places I had written down. Many were closed for the weekend; some I couldn’t find. I finally ended up in Peachtree Center, an underground mall with a large food court. I was hungry and it looked good. I stopped at information and asked if they knew a hotspot. The lady pointed to a sign that said “Hot” in the food court and said people connected to the internet there, but that they had to plug in. I didn’t have an Ethernet cable with me, so I was bummed. I set off to find an Ethernet cable in the mall, since I didn’t want to talk around looking for a wireless hotspot anymore.

Annoyance #7 (or maybe #6a) – ignorant employees who don’t understand internet connections. Finally I gave up and decided to sit down by the “Hot” sign. I noticed somebody using his computer with no cable. Long story short, the people the “information” person saw had been plugging in their power cables, but it was in fact a wireless hotspot. She just had no idea how it worked.

OK, things were looking up! I went back to an oriental takeout place that I had seen, and got a huge pile of various flavors of chicken and some fried rice for lunch (I think it was about 3:00 PM by then). I sat down and had a nice meal and actually got on the internet for awhile. I kept getting kicked off, but I don’t categorize that as a real annoyance – it’s free, so what do you expect? It wasn’t really too bad.

Across from the food court was a store called “International Records”. They were having a retirement sale – all CD’s were $1. I went through the bins and picked up a few that looked good. A couple I already knew I’d like – Six Concerti Grossi by Handel, and the Yellow River Concerto with Yitkin Seow at the piano. (I heard this playing once at a booth at a street festival in Plymouth, but never bought the CD). Others were more speculation – a collection called “Autumn Moon - The Chinese Virtuosi”, the “Nordic Roots” I’m listening to now, a collection of hits by The Motels, The Fixx, and Berlin (seems OK), and one loser that wasn’t what I thought it might be. I ripped them into my computer and put them on the iPod while I chatted with friends over Yahoo Messenger and with Anna on AIM.

So in the end it seemed like the day had been redeemed. I packed up, got on the train, and returned to Ft. McPherson. I went to plug in my computer and….crap!

Annoyance #8: I am using an (expensive) international surge suppressor with multiple country adapters. When I unplugged it at the Peachtree Center, I was neither careful nor observant, and the North American adapter stayed plugged into the wall. So I was here and it was there. Nothing to do but go back and get it.

1 ½ hours, $3.50 in train tickets, and a lot of walking later, I was back here with the adapter in hand. Time for a nice glass of Jack Daniel’s on ice, and a therapeutic session of complaining on my blog. Waaah!

It’s ok, don’t call the waahmbulance. I’m all better now. :-)

Mood: Tired
Music : Nordic Roots ( e.g. En Geng Ska Han Greta)