Last Call - a '75 classmate
12 years ago
8/29/08
8/24/08
Reservists, Powerpoint, and Ruck Marches
Well, it has been about three weeks since my last substantial blog entry. Sadly, I think we humans are generally more apt to complain about hard times, than we are to be grateful for our daily blessings. It kind of reminds me about how I am closest to God in my times of need (usually in response to a crisis) rather than in my everyday walk with Him. It is a lesson we are taught in sermons on Sunday mornings, but I still find myself out of touch following long periods of "smooth sailing" in my spiritual life. In my case, it is an unconscious trend that leads me momentarily off the path that is best for me in my Father's eyes. And I guess that is the heart of the problem... our faith has to be a daily conscious effort to choose the path that God has intended for us rather than haplessly wander astray. I am guilty of excessively using the spiritual "cruise control" through life, but God has a tendency to bring us to a crossroads or in some cases a dead end.
Today, I visited my first church in Fayetteville, NC. I originally conducted an internet search for Southern Baptist churches close to my area and got about 50 different ones inside a ten mile radius. I started looking at the closest ones and realized that there were about 10 or so inside a one mile radius. All of them (from their websites or from Google streetview) looked like traditional red brick churches with the steeple and Sunday School annex. I realized that I was looking for a less traditional-looking church (if you know what I mean), so I did a search for non-denominational community churches. I found several of these as well, but finally picked one that is about two miles away for a few reasons: its proximity, its straightforward/informative website, and it was the only one that pictured a worship band with guitars and stuff. It was called Church of the Open Door (www.thedoor.org) and it turned out to be a mix of tradition and contemporary. First, it had its own brick and steeple church building, but it also had a well mixed congregation of ethnicity, gender, age, and personal fashion sense (meaning I wasn't the only one not wearing slacks and a tie). The few people that came up to me and talked to me (outside of the typical "meet & greet") happened to be retired servicemen probably somewhere in their 60's to 70's. They both saw my haircut and figured I was an Army Airborne soldier, and were quite shocked when I told them I was a Navy submariner. One of them happened to be a Navy vet, though, and he got a kick out of it. The pastor gave a great message all centered around the story of Noah and the events leading up to the destruction of the earth from Genesis 6. The theology and doctrine was sound (as I figured it would based on their visitor information on the website) and I will probably go to church there for the rest of my time here in NC. I am sure all of you don't care so much about my ramblings about church selection and such, so I will tell you about my time in the Army since I last wrote.
So as it turns out, I am enrolled in the Mobilization Civil Affairs Course which falls under the Army's 1st Training Brigade (similar to the Navy's Naval Education and Training Command for those who care). There are 33 students in the class consisting of two Marine officers and one Navy officer (me). All of the Army officers are reservists ranging in rank from O1 to O5, the Marines are active duty O4's, and of course I am an active duty O3. At first, I was weary about having to interact with so many reservists, but as it turns out, I have A LOT to learn from all of them. The basic goal of Army Civil Affairs is "to win the hearts and minds of the people." CA is like the post-invasion force; the first and greatest use of CA was during the rebuilding and de-nazification of Germany following WWII. These days military CA practitioners may find themselves directing or supervising a wide array of projects from issuing small business micro-loans to building schools or hospitals, from repaving highways to inspecting railways, from supervising large-scale agricultural projects to providing small-scale veterinary care, from establishing a country's stock exchange to digging wells or building water purification plants, or from providing security to training local police forces. You can understand why people with a lot of "outside experience" might be excellent personnel to employ in the military CA community. Out of my class there are two lawyers, a PhD physicist, a metro rail inspector, an air marshall, two police officers, a federal officer, a game warden, an IT company exec, a stuntman/actor from LA, a professional boxer, two airlines pilots, a multi-engine land and sea certified flight instructor, and countless other professionals. It really is an amazing group of people to work with. The funny thing about the CA community is that your civilian credentials often times trump your military rank. In the Navy it is said that "the needs of the Navy" will prevail, but in CA the needs of the people will dictate your position or importance to the cause.
So with this being more a classroom environment, I haven't really done anything that seems really "Army-ish" except for a couple of ruck marches. Those are just hikes through the woods wearing a fully loaded ruck sack. A ruck sack is basically a military hiking backpack that usually weighs 50 pounds or more with all the essential gear one would need out in the field. We've done two so far - one was for three miles and the next one was for five. I forgot to take pictures in my Army get up so you all will have to wait until next time. Thankfully, I haven't had any blisters. A friend who used to be a Marine told me to wear two pairs of socks when doing those ruck marches and so far it has worked. The final week of the nine week long course will incorporate a full-fledged Field Training Exercise (FTX), where we will be living in a mock Forward Operating Base (FOB) and going "outside the wire" each day to interact with the locals and supervise different humanitarian projects all-the-while legitimizing the government of the host nation. Apparently this is going to be as close to the real deal as possible with live fire exercises and paid actors who will pretend to be Middle Eastern villagers. At some point we will be tasked with completing a mission that will require us to walk in excess of 25 miles with our rucks (hence all these little ruck marches to get us prepared).
Well, that is enough writing for one night and should be enough to make up for the last three weeks. Once again, I appreciate everyone's prayers and support. Keep 'em coming!
Today, I visited my first church in Fayetteville, NC. I originally conducted an internet search for Southern Baptist churches close to my area and got about 50 different ones inside a ten mile radius. I started looking at the closest ones and realized that there were about 10 or so inside a one mile radius. All of them (from their websites or from Google streetview) looked like traditional red brick churches with the steeple and Sunday School annex. I realized that I was looking for a less traditional-looking church (if you know what I mean), so I did a search for non-denominational community churches. I found several of these as well, but finally picked one that is about two miles away for a few reasons: its proximity, its straightforward/informative website, and it was the only one that pictured a worship band with guitars and stuff. It was called Church of the Open Door (www.thedoor.org) and it turned out to be a mix of tradition and contemporary. First, it had its own brick and steeple church building, but it also had a well mixed congregation of ethnicity, gender, age, and personal fashion sense (meaning I wasn't the only one not wearing slacks and a tie). The few people that came up to me and talked to me (outside of the typical "meet & greet") happened to be retired servicemen probably somewhere in their 60's to 70's. They both saw my haircut and figured I was an Army Airborne soldier, and were quite shocked when I told them I was a Navy submariner. One of them happened to be a Navy vet, though, and he got a kick out of it. The pastor gave a great message all centered around the story of Noah and the events leading up to the destruction of the earth from Genesis 6. The theology and doctrine was sound (as I figured it would based on their visitor information on the website) and I will probably go to church there for the rest of my time here in NC. I am sure all of you don't care so much about my ramblings about church selection and such, so I will tell you about my time in the Army since I last wrote.
So as it turns out, I am enrolled in the Mobilization Civil Affairs Course which falls under the Army's 1st Training Brigade (similar to the Navy's Naval Education and Training Command for those who care). There are 33 students in the class consisting of two Marine officers and one Navy officer (me). All of the Army officers are reservists ranging in rank from O1 to O5, the Marines are active duty O4's, and of course I am an active duty O3. At first, I was weary about having to interact with so many reservists, but as it turns out, I have A LOT to learn from all of them. The basic goal of Army Civil Affairs is "to win the hearts and minds of the people." CA is like the post-invasion force; the first and greatest use of CA was during the rebuilding and de-nazification of Germany following WWII. These days military CA practitioners may find themselves directing or supervising a wide array of projects from issuing small business micro-loans to building schools or hospitals, from repaving highways to inspecting railways, from supervising large-scale agricultural projects to providing small-scale veterinary care, from establishing a country's stock exchange to digging wells or building water purification plants, or from providing security to training local police forces. You can understand why people with a lot of "outside experience" might be excellent personnel to employ in the military CA community. Out of my class there are two lawyers, a PhD physicist, a metro rail inspector, an air marshall, two police officers, a federal officer, a game warden, an IT company exec, a stuntman/actor from LA, a professional boxer, two airlines pilots, a multi-engine land and sea certified flight instructor, and countless other professionals. It really is an amazing group of people to work with. The funny thing about the CA community is that your civilian credentials often times trump your military rank. In the Navy it is said that "the needs of the Navy" will prevail, but in CA the needs of the people will dictate your position or importance to the cause.
So with this being more a classroom environment, I haven't really done anything that seems really "Army-ish" except for a couple of ruck marches. Those are just hikes through the woods wearing a fully loaded ruck sack. A ruck sack is basically a military hiking backpack that usually weighs 50 pounds or more with all the essential gear one would need out in the field. We've done two so far - one was for three miles and the next one was for five. I forgot to take pictures in my Army get up so you all will have to wait until next time. Thankfully, I haven't had any blisters. A friend who used to be a Marine told me to wear two pairs of socks when doing those ruck marches and so far it has worked. The final week of the nine week long course will incorporate a full-fledged Field Training Exercise (FTX), where we will be living in a mock Forward Operating Base (FOB) and going "outside the wire" each day to interact with the locals and supervise different humanitarian projects all-the-while legitimizing the government of the host nation. Apparently this is going to be as close to the real deal as possible with live fire exercises and paid actors who will pretend to be Middle Eastern villagers. At some point we will be tasked with completing a mission that will require us to walk in excess of 25 miles with our rucks (hence all these little ruck marches to get us prepared).
Well, that is enough writing for one night and should be enough to make up for the last three weeks. Once again, I appreciate everyone's prayers and support. Keep 'em coming!
8/6/08
Civil Affairs School
So the Navy finally figured out where to put me (two days late). But not too late! I started the Army's Civil Affairs Officer training course today. The class is still in the "death by power point" phase so I didn't miss anything really important. The class will get physical, though. We will be marching (in full gear) for sequentially longer "humps" culminating in a 20-26 mile march sometime around eight weeks from now. Anyway, its not that bad. I have a little anxiety for tomorrow, though. I have to run an Army PFT tomorrow; the standards are similar to the Navy's, but the run is two miles instead of one and a half. I am more concerned about the heat than anything.
Someone offered me some savvy advice about my blog. The spirit of what he told me was to keep a positive outlook... and let that be my message to you all. It is to be expected that I will have rough times and there will be growing pains as I adjust to being "in the Army," and I guess I had been used to a relative comfort zone in my career for the last few years. His words couldn't have come at a more perfect time, because I was feeling pretty discouraged and felt a great cynicism setting in. So for all of you that offered me words of encouragement and advice, I thank you. I will do my best to shine the best light on those around me, while protecting my own character and attitude.
Well, the E-4 monitoring the computer lab is bugging me for being on the computer for 20 minutes now, so I will have to cut this short. Family and friends, thanks again for the prayer and support!
Later,
Jonathan
Someone offered me some savvy advice about my blog. The spirit of what he told me was to keep a positive outlook... and let that be my message to you all. It is to be expected that I will have rough times and there will be growing pains as I adjust to being "in the Army," and I guess I had been used to a relative comfort zone in my career for the last few years. His words couldn't have come at a more perfect time, because I was feeling pretty discouraged and felt a great cynicism setting in. So for all of you that offered me words of encouragement and advice, I thank you. I will do my best to shine the best light on those around me, while protecting my own character and attitude.
Well, the E-4 monitoring the computer lab is bugging me for being on the computer for 20 minutes now, so I will have to cut this short. Family and friends, thanks again for the prayer and support!
Later,
Jonathan
8/4/08
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
