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.