yea all the IA marines i know from my battallion and some of my school buddies have been going 7-9 month deployments with like free 30 days leave when they get back.
nightshift and mindless paperwork F T L
FREE 30 days? So they dont even waste their own leave days when using that?
And they just do nightshifts with mindless paperwork too?
Man the military is unbalanced all over the place.
I’m not even in infantry(i guess close, atleast over here), but i’ve been outside the wire in Iraq, over 100 times already and still counting. And when i return to the states we’re only getting 18 days leave, of which expends our own supply.
Yet some people pencil push and become FOBBITS, and get a cool 30 days of leave.
Man i’m disappointed in that.
I think somebody somewhere in the chain, is fuckin up.
I visited Doha a couple of times when I lived in the Middle East. Really really nice city. And Roxie, level of living in the Middle East is MUCH higher than the US, depending on your social position. But i’d say the middle class there is like the upper class here.
I wrote a short story…
For my Gerontology class “Health and the Older Adult” final, we had to write a story. Imagine if we woke up one day and we were 98? What would life be like? I wish I could’ve made it less simple, but we have only limited pages.
Tuesday, September 29th, 2082
Today I woke up very confused. My vision was clearer than it had ever been, however, I could not recognize my surroundings. I did not remember these walls and the scenery, though beautiful, was alien. I was not alarmed, but I was not comfortable. I stayed quiet and tried to get out of bed, but I was stiff. All over my body, it was harder to move.
Moving slowly and deliberately I swung my stocking covered legs over the side of the bed and into some curious looking, ugly brown house shoes. It took a few pushes to stand up, but thanks to the cushioned support of the shoes, the strain of standing was minimal. Letting go of the headboard post, I felt immediately unbalanced and grabbed the opal colored cane leaning by the post.
Breathing hard and slightly sweaty, I shifted around the room, taking in my surroundings. Neutrals covered my bedroom. Soft colors covered the walls, floor, and bed sheets with contrasting colors on the corners, drapery, and furniture. A desk in front of a wide padded chair with armrests, the smallest computer I?d ever seen, and a television on the wall.
The remote and telephone by my bedside where equipped with large numbers that looked as if they glowed in the dark. Upon a second look, it was more than a telephone. It appeared to be an intercom, with buttons labeled ?kitchen?, ?front door?, and ?backyard?. Finally, my bookshelves and storage were completely within my reach, considering I had always been shorter than the average person.
I moved toward a door on the southern wall of my room. Nearing it, I saw a cushioned, raised padding. As I stepped on it, the door began to move back slowly to reveal a bathroom. A wide, but low rimmed bathtub with shower attachment, a vanity, a bidet, and a rail a long the wall. This was nerve wracking! I don?t know this place! I haven?t had a bathroom connected to my bedroom in ten years! I was sweating again.
I creped closer to the mirror, my stiff legs made the short walk a journey. I must?ve done some vigorous exercise or hurt myself yesterday. I?ve never had to move like this.
I saw a woman moving towards me. She was moving at the same rate of speed. I had never seen her before! Had she been there the whole time? My breathing became labored as I tried to move faster. She kept the pace with me. I gripped the rail along the wall and pulled myself to the sink faster, dropping my cane, not looking back.
I waved my hand underneath the faucet and the water rushed out. I wetted my hands and rubbed them along my face to try to calm the dizziness, but I did not recognize this face. The topography, geography of it was completely different. Had I been in a bad accident? Was it this other woman?s fault? Using the rail, I turned around to confront her, but she wasn?t there. The gapping doorway between my bedroom and bathroom stared back at me.
Slowing my breath, I inched along the wall?s rail and looked around my bedroom. There was no one there. I began to cough and realized that was enough for now. Bending slowly to pick up my cane, I turned back to the sink to dry my hands and wash my face. With my hands on the rails by the sink, I looked up into the mirror. I stopped breathing. I couldn?t believe what I was seeing. The old woman I had been looking for and running from had returned. She was before me. She was?is me!
My face was darker, my nose had widened. The bags under my eyes were prominent and deeply lined with crow?s feet. My eyes had fallen underneath my drooping lids and my famous ?chipmunk cheeks? where more prominent. My hair had thinned considerably and I was wearing it short, like my grandmother used to. I gazed at my hands, once known for their similarity to a baby?s, they where now thin, the skin translucent, and the veins where not shy about showing through.
Looking around the vanity I spotted a paper cup next to a bottle of pills labeled Osteosolo. Upon picking up the bottle, I turned it around to read the back.
*Presenting the new & improved Osteosolo! The only one you need for maintaining bone density/mass and cartilage! If taken three times a week (preferably with meals) as part of your post-surgery Osteo-therapy, Osteosolo will promote and maintain your new cartilage and bone density. Osteosolo will eliminate inflammation, morning stiffness, arthritis, and bone weakness!
Osteosolo will help you live the life you?ve always had and wanted! *
If I was taking these, then why was I stiff this morning? I took two.
My stiffness quickly alleviating, I walked over to the desk. There was a picture in a frame of myself with a very handsome man, both of us in traditional looking, but colorful, wedding garb.
?Presenting Mrs. Maria and Mr. Donavan Jackson-Thomas.
Wednesday, January 1st, 2014.?
I woke up alone. I wondered where Donavan was now.
Next to the picture, there was a date book stamped with the year ?2082?. I sat down to flip through it, my stiffness gone. Apparently, I am a very busy girl?older woman. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I had a bike-riding club at 9 am and a swim aerobics class at 3pm. Tuesdays was ?Shopping day w/Amanda and Shanell.? I smiled with easy recognition. I knew those names! Amanda and Shanell are my best friends, but looking outside, I could tell this was not Georgia. Where are we? Moreover, how are we still together? Reading further still, I discover Saturday is family night?
Family night. * I wondered who was my family now? Tearing up, I realized my parents nor could my sister could possibly be alive. I strode over to the intercom and looked more closely at the names labeled there. ?Damien?, that was my nephew! The listing continued, ?Amanda?, ?Shanell?, and ?Justice?. These last three were friends from college! As I grasped that we must all be living together, the shock eased.
I eagerly set myself in front of the date book, looking for other clues about my life and how it had progressed. I discovered a security badge with my picture. I was working at the Vancouver Public Recreation Center as a ?Fungineer? on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, 9am until 1pm.
Things aren?t looking so bad. I?m living in a city known for its beauty, in a country known for its universal healthcare with four amazing people and I had a part time job! Investigating more, I noticed doctor?s appointments with the words ?check cholesterol and sugar levels?. I grimaced realizing that while I no longer had to worry about osteoporosis, my vision, nor arthritis, the risks of high cholesterol and diabetes was still present. I frowned even more as my stomach bubbled. Perhaps I should have waited to have that meal with the Osteosolo.
I opened a drawer of my desk, searching for any clues that I might have diabetes. I searched for a blood sugar testing device or insulin shots and found none. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued to hunt for more traces of my current life. A laminated bit of printed internet news caught my eye.
*?Donovan Jackson-Thomas, Dead, 84.? *
A picture of my handsome husband was smiling up at me. He had died in a car accident on Wednesday, May 18th, 2067. The article described Donovan as a devoted husband, in perfect health, an architect, on the way from a boardroom meeting when the other driver ran through a red light and hit my husband?s car straight on. He died immediately. I was surprised he had been driving at 84! Sad that I would never know him, I was buoyed by the fact that I could not remember the pain of the loss and that I was surrounded by friends and family.
Glancing through my date book once again, I noticed that I had taken the day off from the Recreation Center to enjoy my birthday. I walked back to the bed and got comfortable. Some extra sleep couldn?t hurt. Besides, it?s my 98th birthday, I think I?m entitled.
DaDesiCanadian: Really? Where did you live in the middle east?
Oh haha, one thing i was mad about, in Doha, was that we weren’t allowed to take pictures. I really wanted to take a picture too, cause you know how middle eastern women wear that burka black dress making them look like ninja? Well in Doha, one of them was fully covered up, and talking on a cell phone! Ninja on a cell phone, that shit wouldve been one of the funniest pictures i’ve taken while being in the middle east.
Roxie: That post is HUGE
Long time no see late night. :tup:
Tonight’s story: Star may have killed the computer prematurely. so far, I can tell that the fan isn’t running as fast as it should. I can see that it isn’t up to speed. sometimes it does go at full speed, but not always. :wtf: sometimes it just cuts off, freezes, etc. all in all, I’m sure this thing will be sitting on the roadside soon.
That’s enough whining from me.
To my military peoples: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. you ladies and gents are doing a great job that doesn’t always (as in hardly ever ) shows you the respect you deserve. well, I’m gonna go on record as saying Good Job to all of you.
-Starhammer-
hi all
ive had this on my mind awhile and i didnt think making a thread about it would make any sense so i’ll just post it in here. if you were to strangle a smurf what colour would it turn?
Starhammer: Much thanks.
Random things:
Check this out, over the past couple of months, i’ve gained like over 20 pounds of muscle.
Right now I’m 5’11 and weigh 180 or so pounds. I don’t even look it, i guess.
The gym is like crack.
I ate just about, a whole jar of peanut butter yesterday. It tastes good, and it’s got mad protein.
My goal is to be cut up at 185-190 pounds by the end of the deployment. Pretty close.
Today, i was shaving in the latrine(bathroom) and a mortor landed like 200 meters away, I was scared as fuck and my hands were shaking.
I hate mortors, cause you have no control over them it’s too random, you can get killed at random. And being on a small camp the chances get upped. However, incoming is pretty rare in this camp for whatever reason.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is tight. Leaps and bounds better than the first game.
I would have failed. My story would have been:
“i have arthritis…too painful to write”
LOL
That’s better then me I would have put one word in big bold letters ALZHEIMER’S
oh who’s the cos-play model she’s hot. way better to look at then Man Faye!!!
You didn’t read it, did you?
:sad:
No one did…
I had to wait until I was sober to make anything of it, but I finally did.I’m not absolutely sure what to make of it, but it was a pretty interesting read. I’d say that looks like an accurate portrayal of what may happen if a person was to awken in that situation. I guess if I had a clue about what Gerontology is, maybe I would be able to better appreciate the story. still, just by itself it’s a good read. :tup: I hope you get a good grad on it.
-Starhammer-
^ Looks like we have a winner of the tournament. He meant grade. It sounds good.
Sup, LN.
Things are beginning to turn around, but it’s just a midwind. I’ll have to do the rest of the damage to make it all work, but hell, it’s me. I’d be a fool not to.
Looks like I have a payment to owe to a mentor’s friend of mine for acquiring an an intern position at a subsidiary one of the biggest communications companies in our country for a field-related position. All I need to do is repost my original site online and retake my old hosting or switch my domain over for the investigation period. They’ll look at that. If this don’t challenge me, I’ll cut of all my services. Even the phone will be thrown through the glass window.
Stranger part: another company asked me to do a challenging freelance gig. Bring it.
Finally discovered the challenge that is VERSUS mode for Capcom fighting games. The CPU takes steriods and takes the fight seriously.
…this will go well.
I’m still jet lagging badly from my TDY to Japan.
Also, good news and bad news… Good news: I am now NCOIC of my section, working an E-7 slot as an E-5. Bad news: I am now NCOIC of my section, working an E-7 slot as an E-5. I really impressed everyone with my performance in Japan. I had some people who were hating and didn’t believe I could do it, even though I had a lot of people who backed me. I proved all those higher ups wrong and cemented my status as the best in the Pacific. I also got put in for an ARCOM and AAM by the units I did work for, since my work there was so sharp. Still, I don’t want the position nor do I really care about it…
I’m [being forced into] going to the promotion board next month. If things go well (they will whether I do well or not) then I could be promoted to E-6 before I hit 22 years old. I don’t want that either. In fact, I’m holding back all my college transcripts and almost all my awards simply because I don’t want to reach the point cutoff. My E-6 course is 6 months long in Ft. Gordon, GA - not a place I want to return to.
I think I’ve proven all I need to prove though… earned my stripes, proved my worth, stand above my peers… but I just feel like moving on to something different now, I suppose…
I guess that did not go as well as I wanted. in that case, I hope she gets the grades to become a grad. :tup: There. Fixed.
-Starhammer-
Ducky you beast.
Hey, so are you gonna try and get a bronze star though?
It’s good that youre in an MOS that’s isolated enough to allow you to be such a monster at it. Where I am, everyone is just in it for themselves and try to screw over the next guy. Those that DO the tough stuff and survive it, don’t ever get the credit they deserve. Having a fucked up command doesnt help that.
If the deployment part of my job wasnt so fun and free, i’d be hating the army right now. And there’s still alot of stuff we shouldnt be or have to do, but we’re forced to do it anyway. And all of the crucial important stuff we do, our team gets shafted out of recognition for it. Even when it comes to the awards, other teams and detatchments are acting like what theyve been doing is so much more dangerous. When infact their SIGACTs don’t match up with the claims.
I would like to acheive that this semester. Never did that before this year, but I am looking to start. It sounds wonderful. And I have only been in that position once. It must be rewarding as it sounds.
–
Spoke to the freelance position dude yesterday and I’m nearly set for both a paying gig and a summer intern, so I’ll have to meet him next week to sign all the paperwork.
–
The marking situation I had with a few assignments has been dealt with. The teacher received work from our team that was stated to be incomplete and we do not understand how come the site didn’t work. She stated that we have to accept the median pass mark for each assignment since she did not want to risk having to mark it again and failing anyone.
–
Still in the bed on the laptop at 8:54am, downloading my work, realizing that I have to acquire some Mother’s Day things, so the tournament’s out. Happy mother’s day to the mothers of those here. Raising such great posters must take a very special femine person.
…that went well.
I’ve got a lot more awards and ribbons than I care to wear… I’m not going to talk about that though.
My MOS is actually pretty overstrengthed nowadays… so it’s hard to excel since people are screwing each other over. It’s pretty fucked up when sergeants aren’t training their soldiers in our MOS since they don’t want their soldiers to outperform them.
You’re lucky that your deployment is fun - for us signal guys, you are either (a) stuck working in a TOC, (b) stuck doing jack shit in the rear like fixing radios, or maybe you get lucky and © are good enough to roll out and set up new commo at new FOB’s. The only problem with © is that you will probably get shot the fuck up or RPG’ed during it. We really need to switch to all SATCOM’s for commo. Carrying around a radio with a big “shoot-me” antenna isn’t really working anymore.
Don’t worry about your command being fucked - you will get recognized eventually since your NCO’s know the hard work you are doing and will push for your awards until they go through. Shit, my command is fucked too - I’ve gotten coins from 5 of the 6 battalions in my brigade… the only one I am missing is my own - but I manage to be pretty well decorated since my NCO’s and the officers I work for kept pushing for my awards.
My deployment being fun is just the luck of the draw. If i was most anywhere else in our company, i’d probably be hatin things right now. Haha well, i DO occasionally carry around a “shoot-me-snipe-me” manpack speaker on dismounted missions. Depending on the day, you get a lump in your throat when everyone around is lax on security.
I just got a good roll of the dice when it came to the deployment set up. And even now, our command is trying to jerk us out of our AO for the last operational month when it’s not needed. Can’t even let us finish up in our own fuckin AO. Those we support want us to stay, but our own command is trying to yank us.
Back at the time, our team was having internal conflicts, but that shit got squashed and understood. Our team is probably the tightest in the company because we work together and have no problems. Supposedly we’re our 1SG’s favorite team. That doesn’t matter anyhow cause everyone else tries to shit on you, just to make themselves look grand.
I actually got a coin from our battalion, but everyone did. It’s not even worth anything cause of that.
We’ll see how things go when i get back to Ft. Bragg later this year. I won’t stay in this battalion if i have the choice. I’ll go to 8th, a regional bat, and see how things work.
Honestly though, i just think that it’s THIS company that’s lame. I know C co, who we replaced for this deployment is probably better off than we are in terms of command.
A lot of people I talk to in the Army love the location where they are stationed but hate their units. I think it’s an Army wide problem.