Sweatshops: Another Day, Another Dollar
I don't know, I just needed a catchy title.
This week went by quickly, probably because we had Monday off. We started learning about actual comm stuff this week, like different kinds of callsigns, different kinds of networks, propagation of radio waves, etc. Nothing too exciting. Thursday night was field day again, and though cleaning probably only took us an hour and a half, waiting for the two different NCOs to show up and inspect our room took about three hours, so not much free time Thursday nights, it looks like.
I don't know if I mentioned that my roommate Klauer is class commander, as in basically the student in charge of the class. Well, three of our four squad leaders got fired yesterday for failing our first difficult test, and so Schauer and Heller, my other two roommates, are now squad leaders. I'm the only one in our room without a billet. I guess I oughtta start applying myself or something, IF I decide I have any desire to be a squad leader or anything along those lines. I'm not sure I feel like putting up with it, but on the other hand, I feel like I'm the slacker of my little four-Marine group for not being locked on enough to be put up for squad leader.
We PTed on Wednesday like I have never PTed before. We did a lunge run first, that is, running around for awhile then doing lunges for awhile. That transitioned into running up a mountain in soft sand, which is about the worst possible thing we could do around here. It was wretched. If you consider how thin the air is around here and the fact we were already pretty exhausted from the lunge run, and the fact that overall the run was probably four miles or something, I would hope you could have a little sympathy for us. Or maybe I just like to bitch. Regardless, it exhausted me, and I'm still aching.
I got a few pieces of mail this week, which was very exciting. My books finally arrived (I'm a hundred pages or so into book 8), as did a copy of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from Matt Berge, which I found to be exceedingly thoughtful. If you were male and lived on this base for awhile, you would understand just how thoughtful. The male to female ratio is something like 150:1 or something, and that's just females, not attractive females. Young men need something beautiful to look at, you know!
Anyways, I also got a very nice letter from my friend Eavie back at school, including a few pictures from my last Monday Ribco, and Mom sent my new debit card, which was probably not a good idea on her part. I did, however, just change my direct deposit from the goofy Marine Corps-issued bank out here to the credit union back home, so my folks can pay my bills and such, should any bills arise (like too many charges on my charge card).
Being quickly bored with the books I had bought at the store to kill time while waiting for my new ones to arrive, I ended up starting and beating Freelancer on my computer. What a great game. Now I'm smuggling drugs and scavenging wrecked spacecraft for heavy weapons, so that I can get the biggest damn ship with the best damn weapons and fly around worry-free. Also, flying around in that game and playing the storyline again makes me want to write fan fiction for it again ('again' meaning I want to finish the story I started a year or so ago; I won't pretend to have actually finished a story anytime in the recent past). I haven't had much luck coming up with more for the story I had been working on.
We had our first pre-test day quiz on Thursday, and I aced it, so I got cocky about the test and ended up with an 87. I was pretty upset with myself over that, but it got me roaring to do much better on the next test. At least I didn't fail the test, like 21 of the 55 people in our class! Our instructors were pretty peeved over that, which is why I now have the room to myself for four hours today and tomorrow, as my roommates are supervising study sessions for all those who failed.
Schauer and I caught up with a few Marines from my unit on Tuesday at the bowling alley, and they mentioned that while we were at MCT, the Commandant came to talk to the company, or maybe it was the whole battalion. I'm a little upset over that; I would have loved to meet General Hagee. He's something of a hero of mine. I think the only way I could do one better is to meet LtGen. Mattis, who I revere as a demigod. I think LtGen. Mattis may very well be the next Commandant, anyhow.
This week went by quickly, probably because we had Monday off. We started learning about actual comm stuff this week, like different kinds of callsigns, different kinds of networks, propagation of radio waves, etc. Nothing too exciting. Thursday night was field day again, and though cleaning probably only took us an hour and a half, waiting for the two different NCOs to show up and inspect our room took about three hours, so not much free time Thursday nights, it looks like.
I don't know if I mentioned that my roommate Klauer is class commander, as in basically the student in charge of the class. Well, three of our four squad leaders got fired yesterday for failing our first difficult test, and so Schauer and Heller, my other two roommates, are now squad leaders. I'm the only one in our room without a billet. I guess I oughtta start applying myself or something, IF I decide I have any desire to be a squad leader or anything along those lines. I'm not sure I feel like putting up with it, but on the other hand, I feel like I'm the slacker of my little four-Marine group for not being locked on enough to be put up for squad leader.
We PTed on Wednesday like I have never PTed before. We did a lunge run first, that is, running around for awhile then doing lunges for awhile. That transitioned into running up a mountain in soft sand, which is about the worst possible thing we could do around here. It was wretched. If you consider how thin the air is around here and the fact we were already pretty exhausted from the lunge run, and the fact that overall the run was probably four miles or something, I would hope you could have a little sympathy for us. Or maybe I just like to bitch. Regardless, it exhausted me, and I'm still aching.
I got a few pieces of mail this week, which was very exciting. My books finally arrived (I'm a hundred pages or so into book 8), as did a copy of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from Matt Berge, which I found to be exceedingly thoughtful. If you were male and lived on this base for awhile, you would understand just how thoughtful. The male to female ratio is something like 150:1 or something, and that's just females, not attractive females. Young men need something beautiful to look at, you know!
Anyways, I also got a very nice letter from my friend Eavie back at school, including a few pictures from my last Monday Ribco, and Mom sent my new debit card, which was probably not a good idea on her part. I did, however, just change my direct deposit from the goofy Marine Corps-issued bank out here to the credit union back home, so my folks can pay my bills and such, should any bills arise (like too many charges on my charge card).
Being quickly bored with the books I had bought at the store to kill time while waiting for my new ones to arrive, I ended up starting and beating Freelancer on my computer. What a great game. Now I'm smuggling drugs and scavenging wrecked spacecraft for heavy weapons, so that I can get the biggest damn ship with the best damn weapons and fly around worry-free. Also, flying around in that game and playing the storyline again makes me want to write fan fiction for it again ('again' meaning I want to finish the story I started a year or so ago; I won't pretend to have actually finished a story anytime in the recent past). I haven't had much luck coming up with more for the story I had been working on.
We had our first pre-test day quiz on Thursday, and I aced it, so I got cocky about the test and ended up with an 87. I was pretty upset with myself over that, but it got me roaring to do much better on the next test. At least I didn't fail the test, like 21 of the 55 people in our class! Our instructors were pretty peeved over that, which is why I now have the room to myself for four hours today and tomorrow, as my roommates are supervising study sessions for all those who failed.
Schauer and I caught up with a few Marines from my unit on Tuesday at the bowling alley, and they mentioned that while we were at MCT, the Commandant came to talk to the company, or maybe it was the whole battalion. I'm a little upset over that; I would have loved to meet General Hagee. He's something of a hero of mine. I think the only way I could do one better is to meet LtGen. Mattis, who I revere as a demigod. I think LtGen. Mattis may very well be the next Commandant, anyhow.
posted by Roger W. at 3:42 PM
5 Comments:
Glad you got your package Roger. Take it easy.
Are the people that failed really stupid, or are you just really smart?
Dear Tyler,
Both.
Semper Fidelis,
Roger
So does Klauer fire the squad leaders when the class does poorly? If he's in charge, how come he doesn't get fired?
You said he'd make a good officer someday, I guess you're right.
No, Klauer didn't fire them, the instructors fired them and asked Klauer for suggestions for new squad leaders. And frankly, after a few similarly bad incidents like these, I'm surprised he hasn't been fired. Not that I don't think he's the best man for the job, but generally after the class screws up enough times, the man in charge, be it "class commander" (something unique to MOS school), guide, or squad leader, will be fired without hesitation (at least in these student environments...it takes much more to fire a platoon sergeant or squad leader in the fleet).
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