A Year (Plus) In Review
So after seeing a friend's post about his year in review it occurred to me that my wife and I didn't do a Christmas letter this year in any form. So I'll go ahead and break down the year from my perspective. As with all things, let us begin a the beginning.
January (2012): The year started off for me at a Buckcherry concert in the Middle East. They played for New Years Eve and then just hung around talking to soldiers and airmen until the ball dropped (we had our own). Our relief was in country and working on taking over and we got to roll out exactly 367 days after we got there.
Coming home was glorious. It seemed like we were waiting in lines forever to handle the paperwork of getting back into the country, but once we marched into the reception room it didn't matter any more. We worked half days during our reintegration with no PT. Then I had to take a PT test the day before I started leave. I failed.
February: My corrective training was to run a trail that we call "The Canyon" at least 3 times a week, during 3 weeks of block leave. The trail is about 2.25 miles from bottom to top, you start pretty high up the Franklin Mountains, and go up even higher. By the time leave was over I had gotten my time down to about 45 minutes. Not super spectacular for 4.5 miles, but given the hills I'd call that pretty good. January/February saw a lot of traffic though our appartment. Aunt Cheryl came down, Steph came in, my parents came down with Joey. My friend Mike had his mother come out, and lots of friends from Ft Bliss came by to hang out. It was a good time.
March: My birth month was an interesting time for my Army career as it was spent at the Warrior Leader Course (WLC). WLC is the first school we attend to learn to lead soldiers as Noncommishioned Officers (NCOs). I had a blast in school and made a lot of good friends. My accademic performance put me in the top 20% getting me a spot on the Commandants List. I got sick as hell for the weekend of my birthday so that became a total wash, but Mass Effect 3 came out and was just as amazing as I expected it to be (Game of the Year from Gamestop).
April: This month was really the first "normal" month since returning from deployment. Our unit had a total leadership change with our commander leaving to go to training in Virginia, and our senior NCO taking over the headquarters unit. Our new leadership is interesting to say the least, but life goes on. We moved out of our appartment into a 4 bed/2 bath house.
May: Our lives would forever be changed this month. Mother's Day weekend while Mike took Natty (our oldest) to the movies, Mandy and I went and got a puppy. Maverick is a German Shepard/Border Collie. He is a beautiful dog and an absolute goofus, so of course he fits right in. Work would continue to be stressful and annoying, but May marked the first departure from our shop. Between May and August everyone that was in the shop before Mike and I got there would leave, signaling a passing of the guard from the old to the new.
June: This month would start another block leave, as well as the arrival of Tom (my brother-in-law) for the summer. Tom is a good kid at heart (though a bit lazy) and he really loves hanging out with the boys. All in all this was a really uneventful month.
July: Back to work after the 4th, my primary focus was taking care of the admin stuff necessary for me to head to Virginia for the Advanced Leaders Course (ALC). Luckily my partner in crime J left the beginning of July for ALC, so he was able to get me pointed in all the right directions for the paperwork. J being gone shifted a lot of the focus in our shop onto me as a leader, hopefully I did as well as I think I did.
August: The drive to Virginia was long and boring, but I arrived early enough that I was able to continue up to DC to spend a weekend with Cheryl. I've been to DC before, but this was my first time since I turned 21, so we spent a good part of a day walking around trying to find a good bar to hang out. After about 6 miles of walking, we stopped for a drink at a bar right across the street from her place. ALC was even more intense than WLC. ALC is school to teach senior leadership in the Army, as well as management and administration of a maintenance shop. I, again, made some good friends and really learned a lot. This time though I learned less from the actual instruction as I did from discussion with the other NCOs from different parts of the Army. There was a guy I knew from my initial training in my class, as well as another NCO from my unit. I also took a day and went skydiving. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life. My performance this time around was better than WLC, I was given Distinguished Graduate honors for being number 1 in my class. As the youngest one in the class, and 1 of only a few NCOs that had been NCOs for less than 2 years, this did nothing to diminish my ego. Plus my battle J had only been able to finish number 2. Bragging rights are a mother fucker. I also learned that the only way I gain real weight is to do next to no PT, and drink an average of 6 Guinness a day.
September: I returned home to find that my puppy was now the size of a full grown Border Collie, and he was still growing. My wife could now be accused of trying to steal a basketball anywhere we went, and Baby Gabby was rolling around like crazy in there. Tom had returned home, and Natty started school. While I was gone the old guard had passed, J and I were joined by my former soldier Will as the Sergeants in our shop, and we now had a whole crop of new guys fresh out of training.
October: With the start of the new fiscal year for the Army brings about many changes in operation tempo at work. We began our new mission as the testing unit for PATRIOT, a mission that involves people going all over the place to test the new upgrades to the system as well as their interaction with existing systems. The biggest change for me however came on the 28th when our 3rd child was born. Gabby is an absolute cutie, and came out much smaller than Darrell, who well deserves his nick name of Pig.
November: Back on paternity leave we again adjusted to the lifestyle of having an infant in the house. I'd forgotten how much sleep would be lost between my wife and I, mostly her though. Maverick had a lot of anxiety with so much attention on the baby, but he has adjusted and loves her now. The boys have been super cute with her since day one and just love her to death. Mandy is the most ridiculous with her though, finally having another girl in the house the pink is flowing freely.
December: The holidays brought about another block leave. My parents came down with Steph and Joey and were here or about a week. Maverick ran Joey so ragged that he napped almost every day at 9 years old. Everyone was absolutely gaga over the baby, as was expected. Natty had his school Christmas program, where for the first time ever, they had a kindergarten master of ceremonies. It was Natty, of course. He did an amazing job, and Mandy and I were gleaming. After the program we drove out to where our house is being built (oh yeah, were having a house built, it's amazing), just to show our parents where it would be, only to find that they had already started construction and had the frame up.
January (2013): The new year, and first day of work would bring an oddity to the El Paso/Ft Bliss area. We had a snow day. The city shut down for 2 days, over less than 6 inches of snow. God bless Texas. By the end of the month they have nearly gotten our house finished. Another NCO has joined our shop, only to leave for ALC. I spent a week in school to learn how to handle re-enlistment duties for my unit. I'm not sure why they sent me knowing that I plan on getting out, and the class only confirmed for me that the military doesn't have options good enough to keep me in.
So that was my last 13 months in a nutshell. I'm sure there are plenty of good times that were forgotten, but the high points all got hit, and that's what counts.
January (2012): The year started off for me at a Buckcherry concert in the Middle East. They played for New Years Eve and then just hung around talking to soldiers and airmen until the ball dropped (we had our own). Our relief was in country and working on taking over and we got to roll out exactly 367 days after we got there.
Coming home was glorious. It seemed like we were waiting in lines forever to handle the paperwork of getting back into the country, but once we marched into the reception room it didn't matter any more. We worked half days during our reintegration with no PT. Then I had to take a PT test the day before I started leave. I failed.
February: My corrective training was to run a trail that we call "The Canyon" at least 3 times a week, during 3 weeks of block leave. The trail is about 2.25 miles from bottom to top, you start pretty high up the Franklin Mountains, and go up even higher. By the time leave was over I had gotten my time down to about 45 minutes. Not super spectacular for 4.5 miles, but given the hills I'd call that pretty good. January/February saw a lot of traffic though our appartment. Aunt Cheryl came down, Steph came in, my parents came down with Joey. My friend Mike had his mother come out, and lots of friends from Ft Bliss came by to hang out. It was a good time.
March: My birth month was an interesting time for my Army career as it was spent at the Warrior Leader Course (WLC). WLC is the first school we attend to learn to lead soldiers as Noncommishioned Officers (NCOs). I had a blast in school and made a lot of good friends. My accademic performance put me in the top 20% getting me a spot on the Commandants List. I got sick as hell for the weekend of my birthday so that became a total wash, but Mass Effect 3 came out and was just as amazing as I expected it to be (Game of the Year from Gamestop).
April: This month was really the first "normal" month since returning from deployment. Our unit had a total leadership change with our commander leaving to go to training in Virginia, and our senior NCO taking over the headquarters unit. Our new leadership is interesting to say the least, but life goes on. We moved out of our appartment into a 4 bed/2 bath house.
May: Our lives would forever be changed this month. Mother's Day weekend while Mike took Natty (our oldest) to the movies, Mandy and I went and got a puppy. Maverick is a German Shepard/Border Collie. He is a beautiful dog and an absolute goofus, so of course he fits right in. Work would continue to be stressful and annoying, but May marked the first departure from our shop. Between May and August everyone that was in the shop before Mike and I got there would leave, signaling a passing of the guard from the old to the new.
June: This month would start another block leave, as well as the arrival of Tom (my brother-in-law) for the summer. Tom is a good kid at heart (though a bit lazy) and he really loves hanging out with the boys. All in all this was a really uneventful month.
July: Back to work after the 4th, my primary focus was taking care of the admin stuff necessary for me to head to Virginia for the Advanced Leaders Course (ALC). Luckily my partner in crime J left the beginning of July for ALC, so he was able to get me pointed in all the right directions for the paperwork. J being gone shifted a lot of the focus in our shop onto me as a leader, hopefully I did as well as I think I did.
August: The drive to Virginia was long and boring, but I arrived early enough that I was able to continue up to DC to spend a weekend with Cheryl. I've been to DC before, but this was my first time since I turned 21, so we spent a good part of a day walking around trying to find a good bar to hang out. After about 6 miles of walking, we stopped for a drink at a bar right across the street from her place. ALC was even more intense than WLC. ALC is school to teach senior leadership in the Army, as well as management and administration of a maintenance shop. I, again, made some good friends and really learned a lot. This time though I learned less from the actual instruction as I did from discussion with the other NCOs from different parts of the Army. There was a guy I knew from my initial training in my class, as well as another NCO from my unit. I also took a day and went skydiving. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life. My performance this time around was better than WLC, I was given Distinguished Graduate honors for being number 1 in my class. As the youngest one in the class, and 1 of only a few NCOs that had been NCOs for less than 2 years, this did nothing to diminish my ego. Plus my battle J had only been able to finish number 2. Bragging rights are a mother fucker. I also learned that the only way I gain real weight is to do next to no PT, and drink an average of 6 Guinness a day.
September: I returned home to find that my puppy was now the size of a full grown Border Collie, and he was still growing. My wife could now be accused of trying to steal a basketball anywhere we went, and Baby Gabby was rolling around like crazy in there. Tom had returned home, and Natty started school. While I was gone the old guard had passed, J and I were joined by my former soldier Will as the Sergeants in our shop, and we now had a whole crop of new guys fresh out of training.
October: With the start of the new fiscal year for the Army brings about many changes in operation tempo at work. We began our new mission as the testing unit for PATRIOT, a mission that involves people going all over the place to test the new upgrades to the system as well as their interaction with existing systems. The biggest change for me however came on the 28th when our 3rd child was born. Gabby is an absolute cutie, and came out much smaller than Darrell, who well deserves his nick name of Pig.
November: Back on paternity leave we again adjusted to the lifestyle of having an infant in the house. I'd forgotten how much sleep would be lost between my wife and I, mostly her though. Maverick had a lot of anxiety with so much attention on the baby, but he has adjusted and loves her now. The boys have been super cute with her since day one and just love her to death. Mandy is the most ridiculous with her though, finally having another girl in the house the pink is flowing freely.
December: The holidays brought about another block leave. My parents came down with Steph and Joey and were here or about a week. Maverick ran Joey so ragged that he napped almost every day at 9 years old. Everyone was absolutely gaga over the baby, as was expected. Natty had his school Christmas program, where for the first time ever, they had a kindergarten master of ceremonies. It was Natty, of course. He did an amazing job, and Mandy and I were gleaming. After the program we drove out to where our house is being built (oh yeah, were having a house built, it's amazing), just to show our parents where it would be, only to find that they had already started construction and had the frame up.
January (2013): The new year, and first day of work would bring an oddity to the El Paso/Ft Bliss area. We had a snow day. The city shut down for 2 days, over less than 6 inches of snow. God bless Texas. By the end of the month they have nearly gotten our house finished. Another NCO has joined our shop, only to leave for ALC. I spent a week in school to learn how to handle re-enlistment duties for my unit. I'm not sure why they sent me knowing that I plan on getting out, and the class only confirmed for me that the military doesn't have options good enough to keep me in.
So that was my last 13 months in a nutshell. I'm sure there are plenty of good times that were forgotten, but the high points all got hit, and that's what counts.
Mine was shorter, and had more pictures.
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