3 More Years

Well... the Army is getting 3 more years of service from me.

 

 

I reenlisted today, on Friday the 13th, right before Battalion Suicide Stand Up day. I figured I'd need all that suicide prevention training I could get after signing my life over to Uncle Sam for 3 more years.

 

Just kidding!

 

I had my favorite nurse, Major Perkins, reenlist me today. She's been one of the best mentors and biggest inspiration I have had while being stationed at Fort Campbell. I'm really honored she took time out to participate in my ceremony. She kicks ass!

 

My reenlistment opportunities were slim this go around. The only options I had were needs of the Army (which is just as scary as it sounds-- it gives the Army permission to do just about anything to you) or stabilization (which will keep me in my current unit at Fort Campbell for 12 months). I chose stabilization. It's not like it really mattered. I'm going to be in Egypt for the majority of my stabilization.

 

I'm so proud to serve another 3 years, and can't wait for my next reenlistment window to open so I can reenlist to be indefinite in the Army and complete a 20 year career. Hooah! Go Army!

9 Inches Lighter

James and I went home to Iowa to see my parents for Thanksgiving. We had a really nice holiday. While I was home, I went shopping with Mom on Black Friday. It's not what you're thinking. We didn't wake up at 0300 to assault Walmart or wait in line outside Best Buy. No, instead we went out around noon and went to Pier 1 Imports and Kohls. The rush of crazy deal seekers had passed by the time we started shopping. I got a super cute yellow purse and a hair cut.

 

I've been wanting to cut my hair for a while. My hair was excessively long. So long that the ends would curl because they rested in my lap when I sat down. Having long hair is really cool looking but it's not really cool to find 2 foot hairs everywhere in the house. I find hair woven into my clothes from the dryer. I find hair floating through the air. I find hair in the refrigerator! It's everywhere.

 

I cut 9 inches of hair off.

 

 

I feel so light without the hair. And for the first few days I really liked it. But now that I've gone back to work and have to wear it in a bun, I regret cutting it so short. I have a tiny ridiculous bun on the back of my head now. I wear a bun way more often than not, so I will be growing my hair back to the excessive length it was.

 

I'm still finding 2 foot long hairs everywhere in the house, but eventually that will pass. And eventually my hair will be really long again and I can bitch about finding it in the fridge and start this vicious cycle all over again.

EFMB Fort Campbell: Nope

I'm not going to get into the specifics because broadcasting my failure hurts. I am not an EFMB badge holder. It wasn't in the cards for me to finish the 20k road march. My enemy won again.

 

I'll try EFMB again when I redeploy from Egypt next year.

 

Insert sad face here:

 

 

 

 

EFMB Fort Campbell: Down to the Wire

Today is the third day of lane testing. I am happy to report I am still very much in the game. My last combat testing lane is tomorrow-- CTL 3. One this lane I will have to assemble a radio and do a radio check, navigate under barbed wire on my back through a mud pit, extricate a patient from a truck, place a patient on a SKEDO litter and pull him to the litter obstacle course where I will have to take a litter over a low wall and a high wall, call in a 9 line medevac request and load patients into a Blackhawk helicopter. Oh that's all...

All that is what stands between me and my arch nemesis: the 20k road march. I've tried so hard to maintain good health while I've been in the field, but it was a lost cause. I have a terrible head cold just in time for the road march. I have absolutely no voice. I'm going to have to whisper all my commands on tomorrow's lane, and transmitting my 9 line medevac request might be a little sketchy. Yippee. I'm not going down without a fight.

Here are some sweet pictures taken during EFMB testing (most from CTL3): 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EFMB Fort Campbell: Written Exam

I took the EFMB written exam today. I went into the test very confident. I was the first one in my classroom to finish (in only 20 minutes). As everyone finished and joined me in the holding area, we started discussing all of the 60 questions we could recall. Typical Army test protocol... I started feeling less confident as I compared my answers.

Formation for all 4 platoons was held roughly an hour later. Like always, there were way more no-go's than go's so just the roster numbers of the go's were called out in numerical order. My roster number is 417. It didn't take very long to get to my number. But it was called. Woot! 417 is a go for the written test!

 

Only 42 candidates out of 150 passed the written exam and 19 of those candidates were in the 86th CSH. We are dominating as a platoon.

One task down, 3 lanes and land nav to go!

EFMB Fort Campbell: Candidate of the Day

Today I was the EFMB Candidate of the day. I was interviewed by 2 local newspapers about my epic 6 time EFMB journey yesterday. The story was about what keeps me going back and what the badge really means to me. They're going to run a story on me in tomorrow's Leaf Chronicle so my battle buddy SGT Stone went down my practice CTL 3 lane with me to take pictures to submit with the story.

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20131114/NEWS01/311140036/Earning-badge-honor

Because of this, I got recognized as the Candidate of the Day and got some love from the 86th CSH blog. I didn't even know the CSH had a blog! How hip of my unit.
 

I try really hard to remain positive about EFMB through out these 6 attempts. But it really is pretty embarrassing that I haven't succeeded. It's nice to know that my perseverance is actually something people want to hear about instead of poke fun at me about. And if they are making fun of me, well fuck it, I'm going to get the badge this time and every badge looks the same regardless of how many attempts you made.

http://86thcsh.wordpress.com/

http://86thcsh.wordpress.com/efmb/

EFMB Fort Campbell: Still Swollen

The swelling was not a one time occurrence, as I has originally hoped. Except this morning, my right eye was way more swollen than the other. It gave me a Quasimodo-esque look. I still don't know what I am allergic to.

 

Swelling aside, I had day and night land nav yesterday and kicked the course's ass. 4/4  both day and night. Like I mentioned earlier, this land nav course is ridiculously easy. My platoon had a 97% pass rate at  night-- that should put it into perspective how easy this course is.

I'm going to pop a bunch of Benadryl tonight and hope I wake up in the morning looking less like a monster and more like an EFMB ass kicking machine... or just more like myself.

EFMB Fort Campbell: Swollen!

We hit the projected low, as wether goes, yesterday. Freezing rain and wind all morning, and then cold wind the rest of the day. These are always fun conditions to train in.

 

You know what they say, if it ain't raining, we ain't training.

In the late afternoon, I started to have very itchy eyes. I didn't really think too much of it. I suspected they were just dry from the wind. Later that night I saw how bloodshot my eyes were and still chalked it up to the wind.

But this morning I woke up with my eyes swollen shut. At first I thought, "Am I really still so tired I can barely open my eyes?" Then I checked out what I looked like on my reverse camera on my iPhone. I was totally shocked to see my eyes almost completely swollen shut.

 

I look like I have Down's Syndrome. It doesn't hurt. And it doesn't affect my vision. It just itches and I look really crazy. I went to sick call and got some Benadryl. It cleared up the swelling relatively quickly. I hope this was a one time freak incident. And if not, I hope I discover whatever I'm allergic to.

EFMB Fort Campbell: Confidence

I'm feeling ever so confident about this EFMB. I know it's only been 2 days, but I have a good feeling about this one. Maybe it's Lucky Number 6!

I had day and night land nav practice yesterday and I stomped the course. I had 2 day iterations where I found 4 out of 4 points in less than an hour. And for my night iteration, I found 4 out of 4 points in just under 2 hours. The course is probably the easiest course ever to exist in the Army. I am not complaining about this at all-- I'm not challenged, and it boosted my confidence just a little bit more.

 

And today I had CTL 1 (trauma lane) practice. It is verbatim the exact same CTL 1 lane that I had in March. I was floored it hadn't been changed up. Since it's exactly the same, I don't really need to learn anything, I just need a refresher. That's a great thing and it boosted my confidence just a little bit more.

This EFMB has a million times better accommodations than my last EFMB in March. First off, we are living in hard standing buildings that have working heat. AND we have mattresses instead of cots. We have showers available to us EVERY NIGHT. And a laundry facility on site! I don't know how to act being spoiled like this. Being clean and warm has boosted my confidence just a little bit more.

This just might be my EFMB. I just might walk out of this one a badge holder.

Black Listed

I tried to take Picasso Scissor Hands to the PetSmart groomers today to have his nails trimmed. His nails were clicking over the linoleum like the raptors in Jurassic Park, so it was time.

 

He's been to PetSmart about 100 times, but he is always a nervous wreck when he's there. His whole body shakes and convulses. He lays his ears back whenever someone approaches him. He won't eat a treat that's offered to him. He won't even play with another dog that sniffs him. Basically, he's nothing like himself when he's at PetSmart.

 

Today as I signed him in, he was shaking terribly as always. One of the groomers came out and tried to lasso him with one of their leashes to take him into the back room and Picasso jumped up and snapped at the leash. It scared the girl. Understandable. But Picasso was scared, too. I asked the girl if I could lasso him for her, and she told me, "No, I have to do it." Well, suit yourself. She tried lassoing him again and he snapped again.

 

She told me she absolutely could not trim Picasso's nails because he is a "mean dog". Mind you, Picasso was totally freaking out at this point. He couldn't get away from this woman and her lasso fast enough. I was miffed she referred to Picasso as a "mean dog" so I left without another word.

 

Once Picasso and I got into my car, I could smell it... he had expressed his anal glands during the second attempted lassoing. He had, no doubt, left anal gland juice all over the groomer's floor and I was too mad to notice. Ha, that's what you get, groomer lady: call my dog mean again and see what happens.

 

Does this even slightly resemble a mean dog?!