Double Punishment Day

We are back from a three-and-a-half day weekend.  It was a four-day weekend for the Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines in our class, but a three-day weekend for the Army.

We had Army Values training on Friday.

Now we are back and I have two punishment sessions today.

On Wednesday last week, I got a 63 on a news release.  Anything below a 70 means remedial training.  I made an error in fact which is an automatic 20 points off, plus enough other copy errors to drop my score below the passing line. 

All we had to do is come in one hour before class officially starts and write another news release.  I passed this one with no errors.  It was not difficult, but it was another hour that I could not be doing my other work--which would allow me to get more sleep. 

And that's the difficulty with our schedule.  Because the Army (and no other service) has Physical Training at 5 a.m., which means formation at 4:45 a.m., which means getting up at 4 a.m., we are chronically tired.  At least the older guys (me and the 30 year olds) are tired. 

And at 4:30 p.m. today we will have remedial PT or drill and ceremonies because that's what we do on Tuesdays after classes from last week until we graduate. 

So the morning was an individual punishment for a mistake I made.  The afternoon is a mass punishment because some of us do not use proper form on some of the warm-up and cool-down exercises we do.  We are collectively good at the actual exercises, but because a few of us did the bend and reach or windmill with imperfect form at 5 a.m., we will practice it every other week from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Catching Up on Sleep--Then back to the trenches

The Labor Day holiday weekend  began earlier than I had hoped.  I expected to spend most of Friday in Army values classes, but we were released from the class at noon Chow and I got a text before 1 PM that said we could sign out.

So I rode to company headquarters and signed out just after 1 PM. Wow!   I was on pass until Monday. So I went back to my room and put the laundry basket in the car and put all my papers in my backpack and thought I would just rest for a few minutes I was so tired.

At 5:15 PM I woke up. At that point the traffic in Baltimore was beyond terrible. This weekend the Indy cars were racing on the streets of Baltimore. Many downtown streets were closed and fenced so traffic on this holiday weekend was even worse than usual. So I went to chow and went for a ride and waited for some of the red lines in Google maps to turn to yellow before I drove home.

By the time I left the traffic it subsided and I made it home in a couple of hours. And I was still tired.

On Saturday I rode 22 miles so I did change my recent habit of the Saturday exercise Sabbath.   In the afternoon the boys and I went to Philadelphia to my office. I worked for a couple of hours while they played on computers.   Then we went to dinner with one of the visiting scholars from where I work and her daughter who is at Cornell University this year getting a Masters degree in chemical engineering.  We went out for Chinese food and as usually happens when the boys are at dinner people who do not know them are surprised at how much they eat. Jacari ordered two entrées  and did not have a lot of leftovers. Nigel ordered a large appetizer and entrée again not a lot left over. We did bring all the leftovers home and the boys ate Chinese food for breakfast on Sunday.

On the Thursday before this weekend my wife had an event on campus with pizza. She brought home for leftover pizzas. She and Kiersten each had two slices. The boys ate the other 28 slices. They had 10 each for dinner and three each for breakfast and to others just in between.

On Sunday I tried to catch up on exercise. I rode 36 miles:  29 with my wife in the morning and seven in the afternoon Nigel. I swam a mile at the F&M Pool  while Nigel ran and hid a tennis ball into Jacari was off at church event.   I tried to run after that and did an extremely slow 2 miles quit.

Now I'm going to go  back to Fort Meade and get ready for tomorrow's public affairs test. Long day tomorrow!!!!

Current and Future News People. . .NOT!!!

Each day we have public affairs class, Mr. A starts the class off with a news quiz.  In every class he encourages us to have news feeds on the computers at our desks.  (The other two instructors DO NOT want us to be multi-tasking when they are talking.)  Mr. A says we should know what is going on at our base, in our community and in the world at large.

He is right.

But what news do students, faculty and other folks here at DINFOS care about?  Today I was eating lunch at the end of chow hours, about 12:40 p.m.  Since I was sitting alone, I sat near the CNN TV.  Each of the five dining areas in the dining facility has a TV up high on the wall at each side of the room:  one on CNN, one on ESPN.  I was watching a speech by John Kerry about Syria.  I had to leave, so I got up in the middle of the speech.  As I walked toward the back to drop my tray, I went into the next room where about 20 DINFOS people, civilians and soldiers, were standing looking up at the TV.

For a millisecond, I thought they were watching CNN.  Nope.  ESPN was re-running bloopers from a NY Jets press conference.

Part of the reason I chose this career field was my obsession with the news, a Gussman family tradition.  This is a career field for those obsessed with the news.  It will be tough out in the fleet and field for folks who really don't care about local, national and world events.

High in the Morning: Low in the Afternoon

Today was the best and the worst day so far here at DINFOS. 

At 4:45 a.m. this morning we lined up to take our first fitness test.  The test started worse than usual for me.  I have gotten the maximum score on the fitness test for the last two years.  The first event is the pushup.  I needed to do 53 pushups in two minutes to score the maximum.  I could only do 50.

So I knew I was not going to score 300 again.  But I did enough situps to score 100 on that event.  I have not actually run since 2010.  Soldiers over 55 years old have the option of walking or riding the bike for the aerobic event.  I took the bike.  This time I decided to run since we will take two more fitness tests before we leave.  I did the two-mile run in 15 minutes, 10 seconds.  That is 12 seconds faster than I needed for a maximum score.

So I got a 297 out of 300.  Not max, but it felt good to get a top score while doing the run with everyone else.

Then in the afternoon we got our grades back from three days of Public Affairs training.  We have to score at least 70 in all graded exercises.  In the initial news release, I made an error in fact and a few small errors.  Together that dropped my score to 63 on that assignment. 

So Tuesday morning when school resumes, I have to do a remedial session before class. 

It is a relief that if I blew an assignment that it was a single large error.  In this case, I said all of the victims were transported to the post medical facility when two went directly to the hospital. 

Oh well.

On Air Test Today

Today's class ended with a mock on-air interview.  I did well at this with the huge assumption that it would be edited.  I was sincere, got my facts correct, but I was hesitant.

My classmates thought it was weird that I would be nervous on camera. 

Actually, the job of a spokesperson is a very special skill which I do not have.  I do not memorize well.  And a spokesperson has to be in full control of the facts before getting on camera.  A great memory is an important part of being on-camera talent.  And I have a spotty memory.

4 a.m. Just Sucks

After a fun and restful weekend, I had a little trouble going to sleep which led to a very sad 4 a.m. wake up.

Getting up at 4 a.m. leads me to do all kinds of things to be able to stay awake through eight hours of classes and sometimes two or three hours of homework. 

Here is our daily schedule:

Up at 4:10 a.m.
Shave, brush my teeth, put on PT uniform, ride one mile to the PT field.

4:45 a.m. fall in for morning accountability formation. 

5 a.m.  One hour of PT.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we warm up for about 20 minutes, run for 25 minutes and cool down for 10 minutes.

6 a.m. ride back to my room.  On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday the pool opens at 6 a.m.  So I can swim on those days.  For the first week and Wednesdays and Fridays I take a shower and sleep till 7:10 a.m.  Then I dress and go to brakfast.  On swim days, I swim to 6:55 a.m. then change and go to brakfast.

7:55 a.m. class begins.

11:30 a.m. we get released for lunch.  I jump on the bike, ride to my room and take a nap till Noon.  Then dress, ride to chow and get back to class by 12:30 p.m.

12:30 p.m. afternoon class.  We get released between 3:45 p.m. and 4 p.m.  Then we go back to the PT field for an end-of-the-day formation at 4:30 p.m.

On Tuesdays, this formation is followed by another hour of PT.  On Thursdays instead of formation we have an hour of professional development. 

Then dinner, my chance to go for a long-ish bike ride, homework, maybe swim. 

Then bed.

Another National Guard Weekend

Just like last weekend, this weekend was civilian job on Saturday, bicycling with my wife on Sunday, but less of both.

Last weekend I got a lot of work done on Saturday and rode 76 miles on Sunday.  This weekend, I rode 45 miles and got less work done.

It is good to go home, get all the laundry done and remind the boys they have a Dad.

The Student Parking Lot

Every morning at 4:35 a.m., I roll out of the parking lot in student housing on my $800 single-speed bike.  As I ride the mile to the field where we do fitness training, I get passed by some really nice cars and trucks.  The are the cars of my fellow students. 

Rolling past me are a champagne Escalade,

A $29,000, 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid with heated leather seats, even the rear seats,

an immense, black crew cab pickup truck, an Audi, a new VW Beetle, and several other cars and SUVs three years old or less.

Then there is my car:  a 2002 Chevy Malibu with 172,000 miles.  All of my classmates are enlisted soldiers around the same pay grade as me.  There cars are new, shiny and represent about a year's pay. 

I suppose this is normal in America, but living with my frugal Ninja wife and working with young people who live in Philadelphia and mostly drive old cars or no cars, it is strange to be with young people who live in middle America and own new, expensive cars.  Just another bit of culture difference when I go on active duty.

We Really Are PR Guys

The course I am taking at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) used to be the basic journalism course.  It is now the basic public affairs course.  During the first two weeks we spend half of each day learning how to write as journalists do and the other half learning public affairs.

In the 70s when I did this job, we really thought of ourselves as journalists, but now it is very clear we learn to write as journalists do, but our job is public relations. 

Yesterday during the PR class, we had guest observers, an Air Force husband and wife team who were assigned together as public relations sergeants.  When asked to say a few words, they told several stories, finishing stories the other started and full of enthusiasm.  The longest story they told was about how they handled the security shut-down at their base after Osama Bin Laden was killed. 

Their job was to be sure none of the journalists swarming the gate connected the vastly increased base security with the death of the Al Qaeda leader.  The two sergeants were gleeful explaining how they managed to speak to the press about the increased security while giving them no quote that would link the increased security with the recent demise of Bin Laden.

In the class itself, the instructor said we should never lie to the media:  our credibility is everything.  He reminded us that the DINFOS motto is:  Strength though Truth.  But in the real world, media relations is a game in which the journalists need access and the public affairs staff controls access.  So in awkward situations the public affairs pro is tying herself in knots trying to tell as much truth as possible while the journalist is staying with the rules of his profession and attributing all facts.

The Air Force team won the Bin Laden round of the game and were very happy.  Thirty-five years ago, military journalists were sometimes confused about their role--thinking they were journalists first and public affairs second. 

The message is very clear now.  We are learning to be public affairs professionals who can write in journalistic style.

Up Even Earlier!

Today I got up earlier than usual.  Not by much.  I got up at 3:48 a.m. instead of 4:07 a.m.  But in the sad world of Zero-Dark-30, every minute counts. Today I was on the duty desk for 4:30 to 6:30 a.m.  Some of my classmates were jealous.  Being on duty on weekday mornings means you are not doing fitness training. 

So while they did pushups, situps, pullups and the other morning exercises, I was checking my email and checking ID cards of everyone who went in and out of the building. 

I am way behind on email so the time was kind of nice.  We are not allowed to have any personal items on the desk, especially personal electronics, but I can check email on the Army computer. 

At 6:30 a.m. I was released to go to class--which starts at 7:55 a.m.  I went straight to the chow hall.  Although the food here is not as lavish as the food in Iraq, breakfast is by far the best meal.  Every morning the cook who makes the eggs, Anna, sees me and makes an omelet with ham, cheese and green peppers.  Depending on the day, I  get either a biscuit and bacon or a biscuit and sausage gravy.  Sometimes home fries, sometimes grits, French toast when they have it, juice and coffee.

And for the environmental folks who read this, like my wife, we eat with metal silverware on plates and trays with cups and mugs.  Everything gets washed, not tossed.