Made in America

Wow, what a crazy 2 weeks!

First off, it's hard to believe I left Corvallis a week short of 2 months ago. Not quite half way, but soon! Last week was full of classes, as usual. I'm not sure if I've explained this before, but there are 2 main aspects to Field Artillery:

1) Fire Support- This is done in a 4 man team, spotting a target and calling for fire. This is definitely the easier part of Field Artillery, and will be the job I do at my unit when I come come...I'm okay with that.

2) Gunnery- This is the process of controlling the computational procedures, given by the 4 man Fire Support Team mentioned above, in order for the howitzers to fire. This of course involves 10+ items to compute that can have as many as 5 steps to gather the information. Yeah, it sucks. In a real world situation, there would be 4-5 guys doing the calculations and checking firing tables, and the Fire Direction Officer (my probable job in my unit eventually) would be clearing the data to be sent to the gun line to have 1 to 6-8 howitzers fire on a target. We just have to know how to do everyone's job, otherwise we would be a pretty ineffective leader.

Went to the lake again on the 14th...no surprise there. It's becoming quite a great break from the intense brain work...holding on to a tube while flying around corners at ridiculous speeds allows the important brain cells to rest. : ) Oh, and if you get a chance, buy Oakley sunglasses, mine were smashed, like both arms (the parts that rest on your ears...proper term? doubtful.) came off and both lens popped out. I looked on one of the arms and it read Made in USA, at that moment I KNEW they could be put back together. It did, and here is my motivational "Made in America" theme song for your time reading this blog post. Feel free to hit replay a few times if you want.

Wonderful day for tubing!

This picture below is priceless, in my opinion, so let's break this down. First of all, this isn't your typical houseboat. This is a Made in America "Red Neck Yacht." A shotty single-wide trailer, doubtfully well-mounted, to a flat bottom blunt-nose barge can't be found at your local boat dealership. Ok, let's work from the front of the "yacht" to the back, then top to bottom. 

1) Grill. Reasonable accommodation, I'll let that one slide.

2) Christmas lights hanging from the eve (on the second story too)

3) Air conditioner held up with 1 2x6 and the window sealed with cardboard from multiple packaging, including a Dr. Pepper box.

4) It's difficult to see, but there is a generator right above the float, which powers everything.

5) precariously small engine for the vessel size. It's a 70 hp : /

6) The American flag is a nice touch, very appropriate and appreciated.

7) The wooden cut out of the flip flops and palm tree are a little out of place.

8) Ok, the the best part, which is not only awesome, but a necessity if you're going to run a double decker: A SLIDE!

9) Can you spot anything else??

Made in America

Yes, of course I went down the slide!!! 4 times to be exact. This is the only picture to prove it, and I'm trying to "Tebow" It worked well until the slide wasn't there to help my form...oh well it was still a fun attempt : )

trying to "Tebow" but lack proper form

We were out in the field on Friday calling in fire. Let me tell you, there is just something awesome that happens within me when my words translate into a 155mm shell landing on a target. Oh, and it only took one horizontal adjustment to get close to hitting it steel on steel (when the round actually lands on the target), so that made me pretty happy. Tomorrow we will be in the field again, doing the gunnery side of sending rounds down range, which wont be as exhilarating.

James 1:2

85 days left...

Fire Hose

2 weeks of classes done, and the best way to describe the level of knowledge being taught is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose on full blast. It's kind of like this:

Except my instructors don't ask if we're ready, we just have to take it. It's not so much that the information is impossible, it's just that it's such a foreign nature that it takes so long to adjust. 20 isn't pronounced "twenty" it's "two-zero." We get "bingoed" each time one of our instructors hears us saying it wrong and owe a dollar to the pot. I haven't had too much trouble adjusting, but some others have. I owe a dollar...some are upwards of 10-12! At the end of the year we have a "Bingo" party with all the money that we "raised."He talks at such a high speed that it's hard to understand. He's a Marine, so some of their lingo is different than mine. Couple all of that together with a domineering instructor who makes you feel stupid for no knowing the answer to his question, even when you knew the answer, but weren't asked the question...I had no idea one man could posses so much power over 30 students. Each class is about 4 hours long, sometimes longer, and most students, including myself don't really fully understand the content until the last 30 minutes, haha. The homework can take upwards of 2 hours, so it's a real time consuming course. It's the hardest intellectual class I've ever been in, and has one of the highest failure rate for intellectual Army courses. I'm keeping my head above water, maintaining a 90+ and that's all that counts. 

My brain is already fried...

Weekends and Holidays are my saving grace around here. this last week we got the 4th and the 5th off, but had class friday. Saturday the 30th was by far one of the better days here. Alan Jackson with Easton Corbin and Gloriana came to Ft. Sill. He's an iconic country music star. 

Alan Jackson

He song my favorite song of his...It's kind of emotional, but how could you not sing it on an Army base? Rumor has it Brad Paisley will be playing here in mid August...FOR FREE! Those tickets could easily go for $100 when he has openers like Miranda Lambert and The Band Perry.

It's not an Oklahoma country concert unless you buy Coors light by the pitcher.

I of course spent some more time on the lake on the 4th of July. This time my uncle Mark is over from Nevada to visit his 2 kids (Shannell and Mark jr.), their spouses, and 2 grandkids, and brought his son Josh with him as well. When Josh and I get together, things get a little rowdy...we like jokes and to harass our family...it's pretty great, plus the others just cant keep up! : ) Mark used to pull me and some friends around on my dad's boat when he lived in oregon. I haven't seen them in a long time, so it was some good family time. In fact, today, I'm going back up to Sentinel to have a BBQ and maybe help install some accessories on the Shannell and Rodney's boat. 

Well that's about all I've got for now, I think I've covered it all. I miss everyone back home and only have 100 days left!!