What did I just step in?

[Frisco]

Well, I signed the contract back at the end of February, but the packet had to be processed through Sacramento before I could do anything with my unit. I've been pestering my recruiter and Readiness NCO every week for the last eight weeks, waiting to hear something. On Monday, I stopped by the armory to check in, and found out that my name now appears on the unit roster.

While I'm filling out paperwork with the Readiness NCO, he asks me, "Are you up on your compass skills?"

"Oh, sure."

"Can you teach a class? We're doing Land Navigation next drill, and we're short on instructors."

"Uh, maybe. When is the next drill?"

"May 2nd through 4th."

"I can get up to speed by then," my mouth said before my brain had a chance to shut it tight.

So I get the training schedule in my e-mail today, and I see that I'm down for two one-hour blocks of instruction, "Using a Compass" and "Determine Location on Ground (terrain association/map/GPS)". Nothing like jumping into a new unit head first! Now, I just gotta figure out how to stretch out a compass class to fill a one hour block...

[Hickman]

What a great opportunity to introduce yourself to the unit, pretty smart on his part ;)

[Frisco]

Yeah, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.:)

I'm just happy to finally be moving forward again after spinning my wheels for two months. Now I just gotta dig up the FM and familiarize myself with this newfangled GPS thing...

[SteveLord]

No one expects classes to be fun. And many soldiers have had to give them at one point or another. Just cover the objectives and be professional about it.

[Mildawg]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -GASP/WEEZE- HA.

Been there. :D

[roadwarrior038]

hey frisco, what unit are you in...im in calif too...getting ready to sign the contract

[Hickman]

Yeah, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.:)

I'm just happy to finally be moving forward again after spinning my wheels for two months. Now I just gotta dig up the FM and familiarize myself with this newfangled GPS thing...

They use GPS now? Oh how times have changed ;)

[alvarez]

maybe you stepped into a big ole steaming pile of.......

[Frisco]

maybe you stepped into a big ole steaming pile of.......

...SSSSHHHHaving Cream, be nice and clean, shave everyday and you'll always look keen!

Steve, sound advice. I need to knock out a training outline to turn into the LT in charge by Sunday, so I'll just go by the numbers.

roadwarrior, I'm in 223d MI up in San Francisco. Are you PS or a first timer?

Hickman, yeah tell me about it. I gave my DD-214 to the Readiness NCO, and he said, "Dude, I was like five years old back then."

[Mildawg]

They use GPS now? Oh how times have changed ;)

LOL, the plugger is a pretty sad GPS as they come, big ole brick of a thing, but they got this nice new-fangled system in your humvees in Iraq where you can see your vehicle and the terrain just like a GPS, but you can annotate things on the maps in real time and it'll be viewed by the whole system in other vehicles, i.e, ambush areas, heavy IED areas, mission ops/directions.. neat neat stuff.

[roadwarrior038]

roadwarrior, I'm in 223d MI up in San Francisco. Are you PS or a first timer?

im in sacto...prior usaf 11 years security police...looking for a good ARNG unit to get into thats close by....the recruiter is trying to talk me into mp/cid/mi...

[Frisco]

There's plenty to chose from in your neck of the woods - I believe my BN has a Detachment up there as well. In hindsight, it only took me about four months start to finish to get here. It seemed like forever, but I know there are plenty of folks here have been trying much, much longer. I'm glad I did it, though, and I'm very happy to where I'm at right now.

Good luck - hope you find a unit.