Of Pens and Swords

So, my significant other’s car was gotten into by someone. Her’s wasn’t the only one, a few other cars got broken into as well. It seems the person had no clear idea of what she wanted to do, however. She just made a mess, and left a pile of crap on the ground. At least nothing was broken or stolen though.

My sister emailed today. It seems that her nephew was killed in a fire yesterday.

I started with the new Nasty Girl unit here. It’s a sustainment brigade…I never heard of it, and apparently, neither had the people in the unit either. Talk about having a mission clear as mud. It’s going to be fun, however, being there to help this unit stand up. Its a new concept (if I understand the concept that is) and theoretically, it sounds like it could work. What I immediately liked is that the leadership that is in place right now, even though it’s temporary, seems to have a firm grasp on The Army way. It seems that they’re actually trying to do things the right way, and that’s nice. Not that I want to talk badly about other National Guard units that I’ve been in, but they typically have their own rulebook they follow, written by people that have been in the same unit for 15 years. They do it their way, not necessarily the Army way. That, I have never liked. I’ve irritated a commander or two with my disdain of the Old Boys club. Anyways, the people in the unit here seem to be pretty squared away. There is quite a mix of people. The drawback? There is at least one, probably two, Fuller’s in the unit….entirely too hard corps for themselves, for being desk jockies.

I’ve decided not to go full bore like I have a way of doing. I think I’m going to take it easy, help where I can, when I can, and get involved where I think would be beneficial to the other people. I’m not going to automatically try to influence the other people in the Jedi ways, so to speak. It’s going to be hard I think, but I can do it. I already noticed that I have an automatic response when I see something that should be fixed. Take for instance I walked into the back where a few people were training on a training weapon system. The first person I saw was holding his weapon all jacked up, and shooting all over the place. I’m not sure if his squad leader was there or not, I didn’t even ask. I automatically got involved by showing him where he was going wrong, yada yada yada. After that, I realized that I again jumped in…..I know, it’s a hard call…but I also know that the past 7 years of doing just that has gotten me absolutely nowhere, while the people who sit back and don’t do jack shit get the acknowlegement for completing the task. I’m not going to be the fat, lazy bastard who earns his wage off the backs of those that work….I dunno. To be honest, I’m getting really tired of getting passed up for both promotions in grade and in responsibility by those that can’t or won’t do half of what I do. It is frustrating.

I also know that I go into every unit with a clear outlook, not begrudging the service for a past units history. I’ll do the same here, I’m just hoping that it works out this time. Eventually, it has to work.

Ok, I’ve officially spent more time writing this than I have on any other single task of the day. It’s also time for me to go home. Eat soup. Do some push-ups. Maybe jog again. 24 is on tonight. WHO KNOWS! MAYBE THE PLOT WILL TWIST IN ANOTHER DIRECTION!!! GET OUT OF THERE! NOW!!!

Since I first joined the Army, one of the ways to relax, have fun, bond, so forth, was gaming. Specifically, computer gaming. Around 1997 or so, the best FPS (First Person Shooter) that came out (I think) was Rainbow Six, based off of Tom Clancy’s incredible imagination (and ability to skim a lot of data from multiple sources). This was a game where you and team-mates operated in pretty realistic scenario’s with realistic weapons, and hunted down bad guys or conducted covert missions. It was a game where one bullet would end your game, not the game where you get shot ten times, eat a snickers and you’re all better. About a dozen of us actually used it to try actual tactics and beta test new ones for real life scenario’s as well, though, mostly we just played the game.

1SG (First Sergeant) would usually bellow at us for wasting time, for not really doing anything but playing Super Mario or whatever, but whatever. There was literally an army of us out there, going online, and waxing each other. Over, and over, and over again. We built teams, had our own rules, and those of us that operated as a “team” hated the luck of those 10 year old kids that the word “team” was a fluid term, them killing themselves as much as killing the OpFor. Overall, however, these skills were never put to any good use.

Now, the Army is actually going to be able to use the years and years of FPS experience for real. Something called CROWS is out. It’s a remote operated system that puts the gunner behind a screen and a joystick, instead of in the turret behind the weapon.

I’m not going to reiterate a lot of news prints about this system. I’ll instead put a few links for you to read at your leisure.

TRADOC news
Strategy Page
Recon Optical
Engadget

I’m sure that I’ll be chastised about saying that soldiers and soldiering is being taken by automation, but I think that any tool that can increase both the hit probability and the survivability to the soldier is alright in my book.

I miss carrying equipment, being nasty dirty, a pinch of copenhagen, eating mre coffee. I miss having brothers, and having inside jokes that never get old. I miss knowing that I was one of the step-children in the army, and we were only wanted when we were needed. It was always a good feeling to know that you were the go-to guy to get a unit out of trouble by calling in the wrath of the gods upon who-ever thought they could get away with being a bad-guy.

It wasn’t the fact that we carried Thor’s hammer that made me feel good, but knowing we held the responsibility to use it wisely.

I don’t mind the life I have now…resident geek, a family. My body is broke though I still refuse to except that…I just miss the old life too.

I don’t like feeling like there is more I could be doing. I miss having soldiers, and miss the responsibility I had to those soldiers and their families.

I think that in some regards, having kids is my way to keep that feeling going. I don’t want to treat my kids as soldiers, but I can train them in some respects, like I used to my other kids, the FNG’s.

Some days, I just really miss being a soldier.