Journey of a National Guard Soldier going Active

Sunday, April 24, 2005

reply to "annonymous" comments

To "regulator"

I need to adjust my attitude. Maybe. I never said for a moment that leadership in general was bad, only in certain aspects and certain people, This is my military as much as yours, I'm proud of who I am because of my service and what I've done and will do in the future. I'm not a punk "drug-selling" kid who's other future would be at BK or Mc D's. At what point did you think that soldiers that wore the uniform on "weekend drills" don't have the dedication? I don't regret a minute of my time here. I don't know if you do. And yes, this is my "first real deployment" I'm 20. How many am I supposed to have at age 20? As for first time outta states; that would be a no. Been everywhere, some on my own, some not. I don't know if you just read a certain post that someone told you to read out of comical purposes, but "one" post doesn't define who I am, only how I feel at that certain point. You can't blame me for being born 20 some-odd years after you, but I do foresee a minimum 20 yrs service for myself, whether it's some active or all active or none active, It's the life that we choose. Either way, everyone makes their sacrifices and that doesn't make me better than you, nor you better than I. It's too bad you come to such a hasty conclusion about someone that you don't even know.

To "annonymous"

I'll keep that in mind boss. As for PT, I try to PT on the road, time willing, but back at base, it's nice to just relax. Ya, that's my bad on my part. As for branches and MOS's, I do know that Trans is a branch and 88M is an MOS. I did not intend to demean you or other soldiers by the things I wrote. I wrote "stereotypically" that doesn't mean, EVERYONE. It's a general sense, in respect to the people I've talked to and things they tell me. As for you choosing the branch of service the way you did, that's fine, nothing against that. There's many other's who have chose their certain MOS's and Branches due to "NON-stereotypical" circumstances. Again. I said "stereotypically", and if I did offend you, for that I do apologize. Now as for personal attacks on the soldiers from 1864th. That's on you. Most the soldiers from that unit that came of the 518th are good soldiers, regardless of what you think. I know it's not gonna take much time till you find out who I am anyways, so I think I'm going to stop posting till I the reprecussions are over.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

In the rear

Been back in Navistar for a good 4 days now, Not a whole lot to do, I got TOC duty tonight; pretty much watch the MTS and hold down the fort for the night. We had a 518th barbecue tonight. It was great. Not all the guys were there due to missions and whatnot, but a good 15-20 of us guys were there. 1SG was there bullshittin with us. We had steak, hot dogs, some nasty ass soy burgers. But overall it was great, it's shit like this that keeps a unit close; too bad it won't be for long. The 1st Platoon SGT found out about this site, so now I'm a little bit worried about the shit that I wrote. I already went ahead and took off a couple sentences from a post couple days ago; just specific stuff about certain leader's back in home unit. Guess Johnny Rotten was too obvious. Oh well, Imma the rest the way it is, fuck it.

I'm off. Gonna watch some movies and shit on my laptop.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Things are goin downhill

So let the animosity and negativity begin.

Already there's resentmenty on who's going to get picked and who's not. It's pretty much going to end up a "I'm better than you are" situation. Already today there's a butting heads of some SGT's. There's a SGT that supposedly kissed major ass and somehow got the heads up that he got picked. This pissed of my TC SGT. So he pretty much just said "Fuck all you, take my name off the list, I ain't gonna be part of this favoritism bullshit."

Now, PT is optional. It may not seem like a big thing to you, but to us; it was stressed as one of the top priorities in maintain soldier skills and a good health. 1SG and CO are both PT fanatics, but now, it seems like they just gave up. Fuck it.

Rumors Rumors and Rumors, it's gettin shitties by the day. They put out that we're supposed to start moving back on May 15 and that they will put out the list for who's chosen on May 1st. Ohhh..the suspense.

It's gonna be shitty goin back. Damn. I can't stop thinkin bout it. I used to think about nothing but going on leave, now my mine is filled with this bullshit.

You'd figure that they would do this after the current rotation.

We're hearing that they might even make our job an MOS, something about rewriting Transportation Doctrine and SOP. Transportation for the longest time was viewed as "in the rear with the gear" lazy ass job, but with this was and most likely future wars (Iran, Syria, N. Korea) Transportation is on the front lines.

They say that's what the test platoon is for, I'm thinknig that the 55 platoon will get the high speed shit. The new 1114 Humvees, the M4's and M9 pistols, all that good stuff.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

We had a good run

My unit's getting disbanded.We switched battalions from a Transportation Battalion to a Field Artillery. Now, after a mere two weeks, we were told in morning formation today that we're being disbanded.Now we have to go back to our "respective" units.There's supposedly some kind of project where 55 soldiers in the company will be "chosen" to be part of a platoon that falls under the old Trans Battalion, and will still perform Gun Truck Security missions.But as for my unit as we know it. As of May/June. It's all history.
This unit was a one-of-a-kind. Soldiers from Nebraska,Nevada,Illinois, and Ft. Eustis. We all came together to form a unit like no other, a bond like no other. In the end of the day we all knew we had it better than our home units.
We were pushed harder, had more demanded from us, but we came together; even under asinine circumstances at times, to be soldiers that knew they had a purpose, a sense of accomplishment.
But now, alot of us will have to go back and deal with the bullshit that awaits us at our home unit. The National Guard/Garrison Mode/Bullshit.
I know that because of my rebellious past, I'm 90% sure that I won't be selected to still be in a Gun Truck unit.
So ya, 55 soldiers getting selected, I for some reason know that I'm not gonna get picked, I argued too much with NCO's and have too many negative counseling statements...oh well.
It's not that bad at home unit, lol. There are good NCO's and people there. Just alotta bullshit you gotta deal with. You figure: "Shit, I get shot at, ambushed, mortared and blown up, can you seriously leave me the fuck alone about making sure my fuckin button is buttoned?!?! Thanks" (Giving thumbs up sign)

Monday, April 18, 2005

The 1 Fingered Victory Salute

This is purely awesome.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/index.php?e=bushuncensored.wmv

original link courtesy of ebaumsworld.com

I give you our president: George W. Bush

I like him now, purely for that. My man.

SPC. Hubbard

So here's an uplifting link about the soldier in my other platoon. The soldier that got hurt in the ambush. He's doing better back home. Good to hear

http://www.journalstandard.com/articles/2005/04/11/local_news/news01.txt

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Get low...Get low


Posted by Hello

This is all from the Ambush, where 26 insurgents were killed


Soo..ya..the windshield works Posted by Hello


915 that was in that ambush, notice the window and the traver round on the door Posted by Hello


Battle Of Bismark - RPG HOLE Posted by Hello

Random cool pics I took


Satan's Minion :) Posted by Hello


Into the sky Posted by Hello

I swear to god I saw a UFO !!!

So ya, here we are sittin on Tampa, with 4 convoys ahead of us, 2 convoys behind us..all stopped. We're waiting for EOD to come and dispose of the bombs, we've been waiting for 2 hours now...it's still dark. We rolled at 2100 from Anaconda, took route Golden. WE ALL HATE GOLDEN...it's such a fuckin long ass route, and sooo boring. It's funny because the big wigs say that that route is safer because not hat many houses nor good ambush spots and whatnot, BUT ITS FILLED WITH IED'S !!!!! I don't get it, maybe it's just me, but I'd rather get ambushed with small arms and RPG's get get hit by IED's. Call me stupid, but it makes more sense to me. Enemy I can see, enemy I can kill. IED's....just you're unlucky day.

So we stopped on Tampa, on a 6 lane highway, dark out, with houses on both sides of the highway about 200 meters off. This is no big deal, just like any other Iraqi landscap, but then outta nowhere, every single light on the left side just shut off, like the whole grid, it was freaky..then it goes back on..THEN the right side did that. I'm tellin ya, It was weird for a moment there, everyone was waiting for something to happen...nothing did. By the second hour, everyone was just passed out, some were sleeping some were shooting the shit, by the second hour, SPC S. in my truck was passed the hell out, and I was layin on the hood starin at the stars shootin the shit with SGT H. who'd think that you'd be chillin like that in a war zone...lol. (Good thing this is anonymous...other wise I'd be in trouble..lol)

So ya..been too lazt to post anythin worthwhile.

Weather's gettin hotter - bugs gettin bigger
- I bought electric fly swatters though..so it's gonna BE ON LIKE DONKEY KONG

oh oh..I got to see Sara yesterday :) It was a quick hello. We were waitin outside Scannia, waiting for the convoy to finish lining up after gettin fueled up. We BS with the local peddlers, and are about to roll out when out of the corner of my eye I saw her. She was coming home form school with her usual gang of kids. I haven't seen her in over a month or so. I was really happy to see her. I dunno...I guess it's weird..I don't care.

I told SGT H to gimmer 2 mikes. I walked up to her, said What's up and gave her this bear beanie baby I've been waitin to give her for a while now, and I fished a 5 outta my pocket and gave it to her. I told her I had to go. "See ya next time, you better be here...later" and I ran back to the Humvee and we rolled out. It was cool.

So here's a picture of a dog that I took about a month back. We were RP'ing on Tampa, and I saw this dog on the side of the road, I look at it and the dog started wagging its tail and looked happy to see me. It was weird because ALL the stray dogs I see are schizo-paranoid of people let alone soldiers....for good reason tho...soo much road-kill, it seriously is sad to see dead dogs...for me anyways. but ya..I wanted to give "Boots" some food but I had none, all I had was a frappucino, so ya..I gave boots 2 frappucino's lol.


"Bootz" Posted by Hello