june...the only month between us and july!

once again, june was a pretty normal month...i really don't remember much about june except that i spent a lot of time it. since i'm in a hurry to get to july, i'm only going to show one particular memory. 

arlington national cemetery 

as part of "work" we took a trip to arlington to visit the cemetery, see the tomb of the unknown soldier, and check out the changing of the guard. i've seen it once but going this time was much different...and cooler. being in uniform we decided to try and get an inside tour and asked the SGT of the guard who took us into their little room under the tomb plaza and acted as our personal tour guide for over an hour. here's a few fun facts for you on the
"sentinels" of the old guard.
*it takes between 6 months and a year to earn your badge as a sentinel
*there have been fewer than 550 sentinels since WW1 (fewest awarded second only to the u.s. army astronaut badge)
becoming a sentinel requires you to
*memorize and recite 18 pages of written cemetery knowlege (without missing a word)
*memorize and write 19 pages of knowledge (without missing a work, punctuation mark, or capital letter, etc...)
*a near impossible uniform inspection
*countless flawless walks at night and in horrible weather before you can walk a day shift
*memorize where hundreds of important people and tombs are within the cemetery
*the scabbards start as plastic olive drab and the pistol holsters start brown leather...both are shined with, on average, 10 cans of spray paint and buffed out until they are like metallic car paint that shows your reflection. same with the shoes, which are also buffed between each walk. 

a 3rd army sentinel. the number 21 dates back to old wars (revolutionary maybe?) where
each army would agree to cease combat to clear the battlefield of the dead and wounded.
after they were done, one side would signal with a 21 gun volley. the opposing army
would signal back with a second 21 gun volley and both sides would get back to it...
21 became the number known as the highest honor to the dead soldiers.


the soldier will walk the strip in 21 steps, pauses are 21 seconds... its pretty cool

i just really like this shot. 

if you've never even heard of this whole thing, here's a little video of what happens. 

 

and here's a video of what happens when you do something wrong. 

i just thought these were interesting.

this is a tomb of the unknown for a british soldier in india

this is the tomb of the unknown for a soldier from the
revolutionary war up in philly

may. the 5th month of christmas

i have to say, may was pretty slow considering the past few months. but fun none the less. the short story of the month was work and play.

"the reed"

work. i started work at walter reed army medical center on a
general medicine/ortho ward. no real big story here. 

some quick army news.

out with the old, in with the older!

i know what you're all thinking. "i love those things!"
yeah well try wearing one. they give you weird tan lines. they're hot
they don't block the sun. they fly off in the wind. and worst
of all, people who don't take the time to wear them in properly
make them look horrible.

so the they finally ditched them for this! 

back to the PC!

the patrol cap. practical. fits in a pocket. comfortable. bullet proof.
light weight. invisible to radar.
liked by everybody in the army....

and that was your army modern happenings lesson for the day

in other news, i've been continuing to make my way around the area... 

another miranda lambert show. always fun,

the beach!

on the east coast. 

i made my way out to ocean city and for the
first time in my life set foot into atlantic ocean.
pretty cool

but not as cool as the ferris wheel, the airplane
flying adds by on a streamer, 

or the boardwalk full of awesome fair food

and lastly, i caught a crab. 

i like doing stuff like this. i'm not sure what it is, but when i
got here i decided i needed to catch and eat a crab. so nate
and i set out on a youtube/google adventure and found out
all we needed. so we got it. fishing/crab licenses. a crab pot.
some string. chicken wings. the K-bar...obviously.

a beer. a book.
so we set out for the bay, found a little pier, and went to work.
it took forever. we had barely anything to show, but finally, when
we pulled up one of our lines, this little guy popped out.
and thats a wrap. some old bay, a pot full of water,
 and dinner is served!
served  

april. the end of texas. the road trip east. and the 4th month of christmas.

lets start by wrapping up texas. i like to take full advantage of wherever i am and there were quite a few things in texas to do. here's a picture tour of some of the other things i did while i was down there...in no real particular order. 

SEA WORLD

saw flipper. shamu. flamingos...all the typical sea world stuff.
the best part, one free military pass for you and your family per year!

AUSTIN

i decided to be a good texas tourist and go see where all this
tx pride comes from. austin is totally worth your time, i think i made 3
trips up, but one this particular one, i hit up the capital for a tour of
some good ol' texan history. 

SIX FLAGS FIESTA TX

this picture shows 2 things. first, as you can see, we went to 6 flags and
rode the most hardcore insane terrifying rides they had
to offer.
second, this is the guy is now my roommate. it went pretty
much like this. "hey man, you're getting stationed up in DC right?"
"yeah" "sweet. want to room together? save a buck?"
"sure"
there you have it. nate. 

BOLC...THE END

above is my platoon picture.
below is my nurse track platoon picture

so that was the end of texas. i packed up, and with 2 other friends headed east...
first stop. new orleans

NEW ORLEANS

horse cops. cause they're cool

i don't even know...thats why i had to take this picture

the infamous hand grenade from new orleans. i guess its
not that famous cause i've never heard of it, but when in rome...
can't say i'd ever get one again. it was like drinking pure alcohol
mixed with the most grossly sweet, nickelodeon green, fruit punch
you're 4 year old sugar addict nephew could dream up.
i've never liked fruit punch, and i don't really care for most
hard liquors. but now i've been there and done that. check please.

now this on the other hand...i can get into. cajun food. we did it.
gator, crawdads, po' boys, gumbo, jambalaya...
i'd do it again just to eat my way through that city.

FORT CAMPBELL KY

next stop, fort campbell ky. home of the historic 101st airborne.
now air assault.
also home of my good friends matt and claire. mat was one of my
good friends from my combat engineer days and also a great friend
through school. at the time i was passing through, matt was back in
afghanistan doing what he does. but i was able to enjoy a nice dinner
with claire and catch up. so thanks for the evening! and thanks matt
and all our other troops for serving.

on my way out i drove through this. nashville.
this picture shows about as much as i got to
see of nashville. its one place
i was not able to stop and enjoy...but its coming down
the hopper soon 

A-town! A-ville! Ash-vegas!

ASHEVILLE

after leaving ft campbell, i headed east once again where i finally left

the company of my 2 travel buddies who split south for ft bragg nc. 

(we'll get to ft bragg in the near future months)

but asheville. i made a quick stop to say hi, see the fam, and pick up 

my sister and kids who kept me company up to my final destination. DC.

here's a pic of my gangster nephew. 

and my niece

and i'm sorry leah, andrew, ryan, mers....now that there are kids,
they get all the photo attention.

it was a quick trip in and out of asheville and back on the road to

WASHINGTON DC

we spent some time with leah's old school friends and then headed into dc 

to catch the tail end of the cherry bloom fest. 

little na na and her cherry bloom. 

ben and his all american popsicle 

ben dripping his all american popsicle all over
andrew's hair. 

kite day on the mall

and last but not least. 

ROCKVILLE MD

home sweet home. until further notice

mom, dad, and grandpa came out to see the new place and we
caught up with some of dad's friends (ramji)

there's no good transition into this so here it is. 

my trusty steed. 

thats if folks. april. 

MARCH!!...

march was pretty much a continuation of february. so i picked a few highlights for you.

 1st. MACP. the modern army combatives program. 

30 of us from my class had the opportunity to certify in MACP lvl 1 while we were at bolc. it was a lot of work but worth it for sure. i enjoyed the PT which started about 5 every day. it wasn't your normal stuff either, it was all these horrible basic training style drills that just sucked the life out of you. being a gluten for punishment, i rather enjoyed it. but for those who aren't really into that, here's some of the more fun stuff we did. 

choking. cause its fun.
i enjoyed challenging our instructor...for a few reasons. first, being the little
punk i am, i just really wanted to choke him out.
it sounded like a good idea at the time. second, the more rational
reason, he always used level 2 and 3 moves that i picked up on and could use
on other people.
needless to say, after getting stuck in a triangle choke, my throat
got bruised so bad it hurt for 2 weeks. and no, i never beat him.
but it was totally worth it and i was a lot better for it in the end.

all that said and done, i didn't get it  nearly as bad as some people got it in the clinch drill.

.

punching. in this case, we were the punchees not the punchers.
the "clinch drill" is where you have to move in, take control of your
opponent, and take them to the ground. to make it fun, they find
a bunch of really big guys, give them boxing gloves, and tell them to hit
you in the face. this is pretty much how it happens.

i specifically remember watching one of the smaller females in the group
get matched up with this 6 foot 3 inch massive tower of a man.
im not sure but i think he knocked her head straight off once or twice. 

now this was some fun. a shock knife. its kinda like a mini taser.
i've provided a short video for you. 

 this little guy will make a pretend knife fight a lot more interesting.

next up, blauer suits. 

(high tech suits designed to allow people

to beat the living daylights out of each other and walk away

mostly unhurt)

and there you have it. MACP. level one. check. 

level 2...someday

on a different note...

so one of my good friend's friend knew a guy...and yes that's the way i'm starting this story. anyway, this guy

owned a pecan farm out on the guadalupe river. this old guy happened to love army guys and told us

any time we wanted, we could come out and use his old farm house on the river, burn whatever we wanted, use the grill, and of course, the farm truck. gotta love those old army lovin texans!

also gotta love those ex ranger reg / contractor / crazies who bring 

assault rifles outfitted with night vision scopes out to the farm.

the friend of my friend made his way through all of PA school by 

hunting boars on this old guys farm and we made it a point to get one or two.

here are a few pictures from the weekend trip to the guadalupe

what would you give for a 2 mile long driveway like this??

bonfire, football, jumping out of trees into the water, a 40lb catfish
on the trotline. it all happened here.  

gotta love a good old fashion farm truck!

the hunt...just had to be careful not to mistake the cows for boars. 

dinner. 

a final note to close out march.

the end of march marks 1 year since the end of my cancer treatment! 

my new friends made it a great night...mexican food, live music, and good company.

my old friends who lived the gospel for me through that year made sure to check in.

you all know who you are and i want to say thanks   

feb...the second month of christmas.

TEXAS!

and fort sam houston. home sweet home away from home.

the majority of feb was consumed by the best vacation of my life... army medical department basic officer leadership course. this is pretty much exactly my month of february. 

"good morning. you are now officers. i will be spending the next 10 weeks destroying your will to live with power point." 

"weekend! lets go see the alamo!"

there were tons of missions and of course, the alamo! i have to say, the alamo was a little...built up. i mean after hearing the war stories of how they held up in this place against all odds, i imagined it to be a little more castle like. but it was cool all the same. 

"no worries. there's tons of cool stuff to check out
after work...like this old mission"

there was a running trail that passed by all these old missions. if it wasn't 98 degrees and humid by the middle of feb, we probably would have made it past the first one.

"he wasn't kidding. i'm starting to die a little inside"

legit mexican food.

legit pina coladas.

army food

i spent a lot of time eating food. mexican. american. bbq. southern. army. tex-mex. thai. and a few good fashioned MREs. 

Rudy's. Awesome

probably the best bbq i had

chuy's. the best tex mex in tx. 

"today we  will be doing MRT training. since you are the first class,
we are going to try and squeeze this in because it is not scheduled
and you need it. we're going to do it in a 10 hour block of ppt..."

**MRT (master resilience training) is designed to train
officers in dealing with the stresses of deployment,
work, life, etc...**

that 10 hour block didn't include bathroom breaks or lunch.

i think the thought was if the training didn't break you, nothing will

the rodeo! and miranda lambert!? and all that for just $14!

i made it to the rodeo and had a blast. i also walked into a country dance hall to find they
were doing pro bull riding. bonus! 

"bla. bla. bla. bla. bla....bla, take a ten minute break.
don't be back late because we have a 4 hour block of ppt
to get through before your next 10 minute break"

made my way to the capital of tx. austin.
it was pretty cool. lots of texas propaganda.
it works. 

"wait a sec, i thought only the grunts
had to do this kinda stuff"

and i quote, "Boom!"

"southern drawl...southern drawl...fast talking...America is awesome...bla bla...
more southern drawl...have a safe weekend!"


and after those words, we all got up, ran back to 1384 (aka home), threw on some civies, and headed out to soak up some more texas. and that, was february.