DoD Civilians

I'm in a HazMat class for the next two weeks. It would be gouge-your-eyes-out boring, but the civilian instructor is a pretty goofy guy. He keeps the class rolling along. The students aren't just Soldiers; there are Department of Defense civilians, too. The best part about it is I'm allowed to wear civilian clothes to class.

My partner for the next two weeks is an older gentleman who works at Redstone Arsenal in Arizona. He's completely lost in the sauce when it comes to understanding Soldiers and what we do on a daily basis. He was floored we do PT every morning and that the job description of a Sergent is really just a glorified babysitter.

Class starts at 0800. This guy generally rolls in around 0815. He is shocked everyday the class began on time. He says we are so discipline for being on time. I think he's just lazy because the other DoD civilians seem to get here on time. He's always asking me questions that the instructor literally just explained. He reads into questions way too far and tries to take me on his word problem rendezvous through limbo all day.

He's a chemist. That's basically a scientist in my book. So if my partner in a HazMat class deals with chemical makeup of hazardous materials every day of his working life, then why does he have such a learning disability in this Army class?

To top it off, he asked me today what a "round" was while we were learning about explosives and ammunition. HE WORKS AT AN ARSENAL.