E-5: The New E-4 (or, Thought I Was Done with IET part II)

Today was another day of weed pulling, dirt sweeping fun.  I won't go into all the details again, because, believe it or not, today was remarkably similar to yesterday.  But I took pictures with my camera phone today (sorry about the poor quality) to document where your tax dollars are going.  (SPOILER ALERT: Your tax dollars are not going toward tools for us to use in order to complete our job.  Our hard-earned Army dollars (our paychecks) went toward that!)

 

Here we see SGT Hintz demonstrating the "kick" method of weed removal.  It's simple- the traditional school of thought says to kick at the weeds with the toe of your boot, but an alternate method is to kick at it with the inside edge of the boot, as if you were passing a soccer ball, or, if you are feeling brave, you might try the "reverse heel kick."  It's a little more difficult to master, but yields greater power and less pain.

 There were a lot of vines growing through this fence and, the Army, being the soul-less, emotionless entity it is, declared that the aesthetic pleasure brought about by the look of a vine and moss covered fence was not in line with official DoD policy.  The vines had to go.  We used a leatherman saw and a hook device (not pictured).  This took a long time.  And now, thankfully, that side of the property is just as ugly as the rest.

 Yes, it's him.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is the INSCOM NCO of the Year.  It's a pretty big deal.  One would not normally think that a soldier of this caliber would be stuck doing such menial work.  But here he is, using an e-tool he borrowed from a fellow soldier, to hack at weeds in the pavement.

 

 

 

And finally, we see SGT Hintz using scissors borrowed from one of the teachers inside the building to cut weeds.  The weed whacker we tried yesterday didn't last very long.

Kid Nation

Firstly- if you don't watch Kid Nation, or don't know what it is, you need to start watching CBS on Wednesdays at 8:00.  I'm not really a big fan of reality shows, and I really don't watch much tv at all these days, especially considering I don't currently have cable, but I will go out of my way (as I have the past two weeks) to watch this show.  I don't know what it is about the series, but it's incredibly interesting and addicting.  Maybe it's the inner political scientist in me that likes to see how kids try to deal with the problems of governing and dealing with other people.  Or maybe it's because I like to think that I wasn't such a brat when I was that age.

The show's premise: A bunch of kids, ranging in age from about 8 to 15, are thrown together in a deserted town.  They start with some necessities, like food, soap, etc, and have to rebuild this town.  They learn along the way about leading, working together, cooking, and managing everyday life.  The kids divided themselves into four districts (red, blue, green, and yellow), and each week they compete in some sort of challenge to determine the pecking order of the districts in the town.  That is, the team who finishes first becomes the upper class and receives the highest salaries, second becomes the merchant class, third the cooks, and fourth the laborers (who have to deal with garbage and clean toilets, for the least pay).  Each district has a council member, the leader of that district, who is sorta in charge.  And each week, the four council members discuss who is most deserving of the gold star, a two pound solid gold star worth $20,000.

I've grown to really like a few of the kids.  There are some natural leaders in the group (Sophia, Michael, Laurel), some immature kids who will hopefully learn a lot from participating in the show (Taylor!) and some kids you just can't help but love (Alex, wise beyond his years; DK, smart and a natural leader; Jared, hyper and a little strange).

Last night, as usual, there was plenty of conflict between Taylor and the rest of the town.  Last week, Taylor was voted out of her position on the town council because she was a poor leader and, really, not a very good member of the town.  She doesn't participate in chores.  She wakes up late every day.  She doesn't contribute to town.  But what really made this episode memorable, and what almost made me think life was not worth living, were the events involving the town meeting (which is held every week to discuss problems and to award the gold star).

Most of the town hates Taylor.  As I said, last week she was voted off the town council.  Last night she refused to do her job, and when she was punished, she basically laughed in the faces of the town council.  The town meeting turned into a shouting match with people yelling at Taylor to leave town.  It was pretty ruthless.  But DK stood up and defended her a little bit.  He could see it was getting out of hand and just mean.  He shut everyone up, said his piece, and sat down.  When it came time for the host to ask who wanted to leave the town, DK rose his hand.  This would have been a little sad any other week (it's always a little sad when one of the kids feels like he can't take it anymore and decides to leave), but it was very emotional last night.  Before the town meeting, the council discussed who was most deserving of the gold star, and they quickly and unanimously agreed upon DK.  This was the first time in the series that the council reached a decision so quickly.  So when he rose his hand to leave, after having defended the most unpopular kid in town, I felt like my heart was going to stop.  Every one of the kids was in tears.  I couldn't believe that DK might choose to leave before discovering he was going to be awarded the gold star (if he had left, he wouldn't have gotten the star).  Thankfully, Guylan, in his first real test of leadership (he was voted onto the council last week), stepped up and took DK outside to talk.  He was able to convince DK to stay (without telling him he was going to get $20,000), and my heart was put at ease.  My faith in humanity was restored.  I can go on living, knowing that one of the few kids on the show who I think really deserved the star didn't give up. 

Thought I Was Done with IET

For those who don't know, IET is an army acronym that means "Initial Entry Training," and it refers to the period of time from when an enlistee enters basic training until he graduates from AIT (advanced individual training).  IET is a time when a soldier is frequently harassed by higher-ranking non-IET soldiers (sergeants+) about anything from having missed a spot shaving to having dirt on his boots.  It's a time when a soldier is at the mercy of his instructors and superiors and must obey many, many unnecessary rules.  But two things I will always remember from my IET days are police calls and weed picking. 

Oh, how I miss squatting or kneeling for hours and hours, pulling tiny green weeds from the cracks of pavement and from gravel paths.  Filling dozens of bags with leaves, twigs, and grass, yet somehow only having finished five square feet of sidewalk.  And all for the beautification of some side alley no one will ever walk through.  And I must not neglect to mention raking dirt.  That's right... Raking Dirt.  Why?  I don't know.  I guess dirt doesn't look organized when it's just lying around without grooves.  Or maybe it's because our supervisors had to fill our time with something, and since there wasn't enough sidewalk to go around, but plenty of dirt patches where even weeds refuse to grow, someone came up with the idea of raking nothing.  (By the way, a few months ago when I was at WLC, I started calling the action of raking dirt "dress-right-dressing" the dirt.  If you don't know what it means to dress right dress, ask me sometime and I'll explain the [lack of] humor in my joke.)

So, anyway, I finished IET a year and a few months ago.  I have since been promoted to sergeant.  Most of the people in my unit are sergeants or above.  Yet today, a dozen of us were out pulling weeds from the cracks in the pavement outside a building almost no one uses.  I guess the garrison commander is going to be cruising post Friday or something, seeing how things look.  I don't know.  But I guarantee he will not visit this building.  And, if he does, he's not going to wander out back to look at the fenced-in pavement that is used for nothing.  And get this- we were sent to do this pointless task without any sort of tools or herbicide.  It was a group of NCOs kicking at the weeds to loosen them and rip them from the pavement.  We probably looked pretty stupid.  That's how I spent my day today.  Your tax dollars.  And guess what.  That's what I'll be doing tomorrow.  Probably all day.  And if we don't finish, maybe we'll finish Friday morning.  Army Strong!

An Old Blog

While downloading some great new add-ons for Firefox this morning, I accidentally stumbled upon an old blog of mine, from my early days at DLI.  I read a couple of the posts and decided I'd put a link to the entire blog here.  Hopefully there isn't anything too embarrassing there.  If there is, I may end up removing this link.  But for now, read away!

Oh, and you may be wondering what's been up lately?  I moved into my new room about a week ago, but haven't had an internet connection until yesterday.  I've been out of touch with the outside world.  But it's all good now.  I'm slowly catching up on what I've been missing.

Update

Real quick, I just finished a book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, and it really opened my eyes. It talks about some of the key steps countries have taken in the past on their paths toward dictatorships, and explains how if things don't change, America could be well on its way. The thing is, dictatorships usually don't just spring up overnight. It's a gradual process that people don't realize is happening. Hitler turned Germany into a fascist dictatorship, but he did so within the framework of the laws at the time. By the time people realized what was happening in the country, it was too late to do anything about it. Anyway, read this book. It's a little scary.