Happy last day of July

Tomorrow is going to be August. Where did July go?

The cat is busy checking things out and woke me up a few minutes before five which is OK.

I have made a few changes and seem to actually be sleeping a little better. For one thing I have pretty much eliminated alcohol in any amounts. I did have two beers and not finish the second at Camp Perry with the Marine team. However that was in the very early evening.

I've also been traveling a lot on family business and have been busy this summer. 

Still, I have cut back on my eating and  seem to have lost a little weight. I should get a little more exercise this summer though. 

All in all things are looking pretty good.

It's rather funny about the Marine teams I see at Perry. I have never seen and enlisted Marine get out of line. The only Marine I saw get out of line several years ago was an officer that couldn't keep his mouth shut. 

Someone once asked me why the Marine team usually gets beaten by the Army Marksmanship Unit.

The AMU is a dedicated full time outfit under the Army Recruiting Command. The shooters are there full time polishing their skills.

The Marine team is really only a very small cadre that has other duties at Quantico and the team is augmented by summer pickups that have done well in the Marine fleet matches.

It's surprising that the marines do as well as they do under those circumstances.

Even the years I don't shoot at Perry I make it a point to go and visit the women of CMP the Marine team and a couple of vendors on commercial row that I have known for years.

Visiting the team reminds me that there are a lot of damned fine young people out there and is sure has changed since the early years after 9-11. For several years after 9-11 visiting the team could be a pretty painful thing when I started playing the who do you know and how is so and so doing. There were a lot of casualties early on. It hurt hearing that one of the guys you met the previous year had been torn up or killed.

What is interesting is the attitudes the service people have. Some are trying to climb the ladder and make a full career out of it. Some are planning on getting out.

I actually heard a pair of sergeants griping because they got promoted which sound odd unless you look at their side of it. One was going to leave after his enlistment expired.

Booth agreed that they would have loved to have the option of being career corporals because they loved being team leaders as opposed to squad leaders or platoon sergeants. I can see this.

However the up or out policy makes it impossible. A person get promoted to Staff Sergeant in ten years or less or they get out. I have very mixed feelings on the policy. Back in my day a GI had 12 years to make Staff Sergeant or it was adios.

A couple of years ago I met a Staff Sergeant armorer that said he'd accept promotion to Gunnery Sergeant but that was it. He wanted no part of being a Master Sergeant because that meant the end of his career as a gunsmith. He liked working with his hands and like many people hates paperwork. Master Sergeants in his field administrate and that wasn't his bag.

I can certainly understand that as I am no King of the Filing Cabinet, either.

Many years ago there were career privates and corporals. I read a book by an old Marine that had been run through boot camp by a pair of corporals that both had over twenty years of service. Corporals were bad dudes back then.

I can see the attitude of the two sergeants. They enjoy running small teams of men because they get to know them well.

I can see why one of the two is getting out. He'd be miserable as a platoon sergeant  filling out forms and training schedules. I hope he does well on the outside.



  




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY