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...