Boards and a lil sunbeam

As most of you know from Mom's email, I won the soldier of the month board for Janurary. I have to clear up a few things from her email that may be a little false. The way the board works, at least in my company, you can either volunteer or get volentold to go to the board. I volunteered to go because some people, mostly my platoon sgt and my 1st sgt, think that I am a slacker and just trying to skate by. They have told me before that I was unmotivated, which is a blanket term that the amry uses to say multiple things. So anyways, every since I have been trying to change that perception and going to the board is a great way to get out there and show them that I aint full of bs and that I want to inprove and grow as a soldier.

Here is now the board works. There is a collection of NCO's (Non Commisioned Officers) that sit on the board. For mine, there was the other platoon's plt sgt, 1st sgt and basically her right hand sgt. My plt sgt was susposed to be on there but he couldnt make it for some reason or another. So just to make it clear, there are no officers in the board. Thank God too because I would of been 20 times more nervous. You go in and report to the board, do some facing movements while they inspect your uniform and ask you about what you have on your uniform like medals, ribbons and various insignia. Then you sit down, in a military manner (you would be amazed at how any steps there are to sit down), and the board takes turns asking you questions. Every person going to the board gets a list of topics and you should expect at least 2 questions from each. Mom was right when she said I had 90 pages of study material. That was the most brutal part. Question after question about stuff that I had no clue about. The only good thing is that they dont really care all that much about getting the question correct as long as you are confident about your answer. Half the time I was making up numbers and answers and saying them with a straight face and a confident voice. See, Mom? At that lying and making things up I did when I was a kid did actually come in useful. And you said I would never get anywhere lying my way thru life HA! Little did you know. NAh you guys know I'm joking. After the questions, You have to give 3 local, 3 nation and 3 worldwide news events for the current week, recite the Soldiers Creed and give 3 short term goals and 3 long term goals. Thats it really.

Like Mom said, I was the only junior enlisted to go to the board so I kinda won by default. However, the 1st sgt told me that ust because I was the only one didnt mean I automatically got SOM, but that I earned it. While that is true, I told her that I wasnt satisfied my preformance at this board and that I wanted to attend the next one. This time I will have some competition and a little bit more time to study. The next board is on Feb 6 so wish me luck.

On an even happier note, I put in for a pass to go down to Texas over the upcoming 4 day weekend over Valentines Day to go see Solita for the first time. Its weird that we have never seen each other, as we say, in 3D because i know so much about her already. I am really looking foward to seeing her and taking her out to dinner and a movie like a normal couple.

Completely random thing that happened a few days ago that brought my childhood rushing back to me. Gma Walker called me up a few nights ago to tell me that school had been cancelled for the next day. Now I know what you are thinking, especially Dad, that she has finally gone senile and had forgotten that I had graduated high school 6 years ago (wow as it really been that long???) but no. How dare you people think that of Gma? You should all be ashamed of yourself. Ill take a quick break so you can offer a prayer of forgivness.

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Gma just called because she remembered how she used to call us up the night before and let us know that school was cancelled for the next day and it always was her thing. I loved hearing the phone ring late at night when a blizzard was raging outside. So thank you Gma for reminding me of simplier times and it was great to hear your voice and it was great to know that you were no longer afraid of calling my phone after repeatedly telling you that it was a local number and wouldnt cost you long distance charges. haha sorry I had to say it. Ok its my turn to pause for forgivness.

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Hope everyone is enjoying their day and enjoyed this procrastination from their work.

Your Soldier of the Month
Frank