TRACY and DAVE

Heading back to WOCS

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:50:00 +0000

So my leg is all better now, apparently. I haven't used a cane since December and I started running again in January. Up to 2 miles already, but still fairly slow. The weather isn't helping; it's been raining and snowing for the past two weeks.

Tracy and I are both still in school; her two classes are about halfway done and I have one more paper and a final. We both have A's right now.

Jordan turned two and supposedly if we double his current height we'll see how tall he'll grow. If it's true he'll be 5'9, just a little taller than his daddy. Can't wait to see it. He talks about everything and sang Happy Birthday to his cousin the other day, too.

Next week I'm TDY to DC, assuming the snow has melted enough, and then next month I go back to Mother Rucker for two weeks to finish Warrant Officer Candidate School. Get promoted to WO1, then come back here and schedule my 10-week Basic Course on post. At least I'll be home at night.

I think I'm giving up FaceBook. Google Buzz does the same stuff, and I already have all my email, contacts, and pictures on Google's servers, plus I have an Android phone. Seems like I've drunk the Google kool-ade... Besides, I'm tired of seeing all the Farmville and Mafia Wars posts.

Sunday's V-Day and officially Date Night. Between work, school, school, the Army, MOMS Club, and a terrific little two-year-old terror, Tracy and I both really need the break.

Back early from WOCS

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Well, I was supposed to graduate from WOCS (Warrant Officer Candidate School) on Tuesday the 10th. Unfortunately, I had to leave a little early. Saturday, October 31st, about six hours after finishing the 10k ruck march, a vein collapsed in my left leg. I was walking back to my room after lunch and noticed some pain, felt my leg and found a HUGE lump. The vein on top of my lower leg (right on top of the bone) had filled with blood and blown up like a sausage. Never having seen anything like this, I just screamed "MEDIC!" Luckily, my class had several medics, an EMT, and a nurse. Within a minute my boots & socks were off, my leg was elevated, and had an ice pack. The post hospital was closed for the weekend so I went to the Enterprise AL emergency room. The doc just looked at my leg, said stay off it for a couple of days, and gave me steroids. On Tuesday I went to sick call for a follow-up, and the flight surgeon gave me a profile, meaning I can't run for three months. He said if I did, it might happen again and would be worse. That meant I couldn't complete the graduation PT test (no alternate events are allowed with permission from the Army G3, which takes way too long), so I'd have to leave the course. The good news is that when I've recovered, I can come back to the same day I left and only do the final week to graduate; I don't have to redo the entire course. I would if needed, though. This course was really great.

Now, more info about the training itself. First, when I was heading to WOCS I had a very low opinion of the course. I didn't see the need for most of it, and figured most of the things they did were worthless, basically done to mess with you. I've noticed that lots of WOCS graduates feel the same. Now, however, I completely disagree. Everything they do actually has a purpose. Once in week two we got dressed in one uniform, marched across the street for a briefing, but a TAC (Training, Advising, and Couseling) officer (kinda like a drill sergeant, but better - and worse) gave us 10 minutes to get back across, change uniforms, and get back. This lesson was about proper communication, since the correct uniform had been put out to leadership, but not to the class.

I won't give certain details about the course because a lot of it is more effective if you find out for yourself, but the biggest clue I can give doesn't sound like a clue at all: work together. It's simple, but the entire course becomes ridiculously easy if your class works together as a single team. We repeatedly were punished (smoked with PT) for not working together, and rewarded anytime we teamed up to accomplish things or took responsibility and led.

The schedule was, uh, somewhat intense. Here's an example:

0530 - Wake-up. You couldn't get up earlier, no alarm clocks (TACs wake you), and you can't cheat by doing certain stuff the previous night, like prepping your uniform, etc. You have seven minutes to make your bed, prep your room for inspection, get dressed in whatever uniform they put out when they wake you, use the latrine, brush your teeth, and get downstairs. 85 of us were able to do this from day one of training because we practiced over the long weekend prior to it. We were very lucky.

0537 - First formation. Designated leaders took accountability and reported it up. Leadership changed about every 3-5 days. I got to be a squad leader for over a week, thanks to the field exercise.

0540 - Morning PT. Everything from formation runs in flak vest to rifle drills to muscle failure.

0700 - Personal hygiene. Shower and change uniforms. Four bathrooms with 10 shower stalls each for 85 people. We had to learn the car wash method of showering to meet this time. Once 35 of us didn't shower after PT because we only had 8 minutes, and we almost got put on TAC probation.

0710 - Common Area Clean-Up. We do this mostly at night, but in the mornings we also touch up and re-do the bathrooms and hallways.

0720 - Formation. March to the DFAC (Dining FACility), eat breakfast (silently, but at least we didn't have to do "square meals" like in the past), then march to AB (Academic Branch) for class.

0800 - Classes. LOTS of military history, Army Staffs, Cultural Awareness, etc.

1230 - March to the DFAC for lunch, then back to the Grove, a wooded picnic-type area where our class could "relax" between assignments.

1345 - March back to AB.

1400 - More classes.

1830 - March to DFAC for dinner, then personal time. On Wednesdays and Sundays (after week two) we could use our cell phones for half-an-hour only. Going upstairs, we could see how the TACs had trashed our rooms and common areas following their inspections, so we had this time to fix things.

2000 - Common Area Clean-Up.

2045 - Mandatory study time. You can do it alone or with your roommates, but it's encouraged to study in groups, which helps a lot. Every day. Period.

2145 - Personal time, prep for bed, turn down your bunk (they check this).

2230 - Group together as a class for "lights out" activities. Recite the Soldiers' Creed and sing the Army Song, and usually practice whatever class song that's due (see below).

2245 - Lights out. Sleep until 0530 unless you have duty, which usually happens about every three days.

During the course (mainly during personal time) we had to do things like design a class coin, t-shirt and sign, and create, practice, and perform two class songs. This is mainly to take up our personal time and make us cooperate. We had some great songs, and our sign/t-shirt featured Bugs Bunny, which was one of the more, uh, unique mascots at WOCS, which usually focuses on knights, tough animals, etc.

We had to pass one PT test on arrival and a second just prior to graduation (this is why I left). We also had to do a 5-mile Victory Run the day before graduation, and almost every Saturday compete in the WOC Olympics against other classes. We lost the first one, but won the other two. We spent a week in the field doing tactical exercises, ambushes, patrols, and an assault in the mockup town of "Woccistan" just down the road from our countdown. Lots of blank rounds and pyro. Fun! Finish with the 10k ruck march at 0500.

After the ruck march, the following Monday we were pinned as Seniors. That meant the TACs and other Candidates referred to us as Mr/Ms, Sir/Ma'am instead of Candidate, and Junior Candidates had to salute us as if we were officers. The hardest part is remembering that YOU drop your salute first now, since you're the one being saluted. Old habits are hard to break.

The smartest part of the course was the laundry. We paid $100 for unlimited laundry facilities. Drop off a full bag each morning, and uniforms would be back the next day, while smaller stuff, including PTs, towels, t-shirts & socks would be back that night. Best part: they clean your TA-50 (equipment) after the field exercise.

All our clothes get marked with our names; yes, we ARE issued a coffee mug; we have to ask for everything we want in a memo; and every day is ridiculously structured, as you can see from the schedule. After each week of classes we had a test (three total), and if you messed up at anything you got a "Spot Report" (usually resulting in an essay or other punishment), reported on TAC Alley (usually not good), or had some other punishment. I never reported on TAC Alley until the day I left, which is rare. I also had no Spot Reports and had a 94 academic average. The best part is, when I get back I'll already be a Senior (so I'll get saluted), and I already finished the first two tests and the field exercise. Just a week of classes, outprocessing, the final PT test, Victory Run, and Graduation. This'll prob happen in late February, if I'm lucky. Can't wait, but it's great to be home.

Overall, the class is designed to stress you out, but as I pointed out, I don't have to attend the Northrop Grumman Tuesday meeting each week, prep slides, or meet any deadlines. There's nothing WOCS can do to stress ME out... Like I said, I'd re-do the entire course if I had to. I had a great time, and my classmates were awesome.

Warrant vs Commission?

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:31:00 +0000

For those of you who've been following (with some amusement) my trials and travails in the Army Reserve, I have some updates.

To catch you up, I was an E6 for 12 years, then joined the Reserves and they dropped me to an E5. I put in a promotion packet, passed the board, and instead of giving me my E6 back, they gave me E7 because I'd never really "lost" my rank. Realizing their mistake, the Reserves revoked the E7, and now I'm an E5 again, though I'm still getting paid as an E7.

Confusing enough? You have no idea. So, last month I put in ANOTHER promotion packet, plus I got the recruiting command to review my original contract to see if they can cancel the part where I lost my E6 to begin with. In either case, I should get my E6 back.

At the same time, I put in a Warrant officer packet. It was reviewed last week, and Friday I found out I'd been selected. No school date yet, but once that school's completed, I get promoted to WO1.

A Warrant Officer is above NCOs but below commissioned officers. It basically goes through all the Sergeants to the Sergeant Major, to the Warrants, to 2nd Lieutenant. Enlisted (Soldiers and Sergeants) salute Warrants, and Warrants salute officers.

What makes Warrants special is that they are the best of the NCO corps. They are technicians and specialists, as opposed to commissioned officers who are generalists. Out of the million-plus soldiers in the Army, there are only about 24,000 Warrants. Nobody messes with them, and even few officers challenge them.

Their school is the most difficult school outside of Ranger and Special Forces selection, with a pass rate of about 60%, and that only counts the ones who actually make it there. Of the 81 applicants this board, only 40 of us were selected, and I plan to track and see how many of us make it through. In general, when you hit E7, you've got two choices: continue through the enlisted ranks and become a First Sergeant or Sergeant Major, or become a Warrant and continue doing the job. I love my job, so you see which I picked.

Finally, an old trivia joke for lieutenants: What's the difference between a Warrant Officer and a Commissioned Officer? When a company thinks something will work, they commission it. When they know it will work, they warrant it.

School, work, and home

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:21:00 +0000

Ok, in order:

School: Tracy finished her first semester back in school with near-100 averages in Spanish and Algebra. She's now taking the next Algebra class online, and she starts the next Spanish class next month. I'm away from work for the next two 1/2 weeks attending the Army Basic Instructor Course, where I'm learning how to write lesson plans and give classes the Army way. When I graduate I'll be certified to teach my job to new soldiers. It'll come in handy when I start teaching the new report writing software (below).

Work: Tracy is now the Treasurer of the city's Mom's Club. Guess that accounting background is finally coming in handy. She still works out with the Baby Boot Camp and is planning to start working out on post, too. When I finish school I head back to the DC area for a week to show the newly-released report writing software I've been working on for the past year and a half. Then I'm back at work on the next update. As for the Army job, my rank has changed a few times. On April 26th, I was an E6; the next day I was an E7; three days later I'm an E5 again. Long story, but I'm working on getting it fixed. The rumored deployment to Boston got delayed from October to either mid-November or early December. We're waiting to see.

Home: Tracy's been moving plants outside in anticipation of the monsoon season (starting around the 4th of July). We have lots of planters on the back porch, both urns and hanging baskets. We've moved about 5 tons of rock from the back yard to the front and side, then this weekend I used a jackhammer to dig a trench for the sprinkler system. Next we plan to add topsoil and sod. Jordan can't wait to walk around the back yard without hurting his feet!

Still planning on taking vacations, but not sure when. Missing so much time at work makes it hard to ask for time off. Again, we'll have to see!

Latest happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:25:00 +0000

Tracy's back in school, taking classes four nights a week at Cochise College. She likes Spanish and is actually doing well at Algebra, even though she hates it. Dave is traveling lately for work (Ft Bragg & Tampa), so Jordan's been staying with Maria & Mike, who Tracy knows from Baby Boot Camp, for a few hours those nights. This kinda throws off his sleep schedule, but hopefully that'll fix itself soon.

Dave's a SSG again, due to a clerical error by the Phoenix MEPS. };-) He's now putting in for E7 and possibly Warrant Officer, and just signed up for six more years in the Reserves, though he might be eligible to retire in a couple of years. (hmm)

Dave will likely join Tracy in school again, so he can finally get his Master's degree. Time is the only problem, though.

Otherwise we're all doing well and are planning on visiting soon. Tracy & Jordan will be swinging through California this month and we'll all try to get to Alabama this summer. Remember, we have plenty of room for family & friends!

Back in the U.S.A.R.

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:41:00 +0000

With apologies to the Beatles...

Yes, I'm putting it on, the last suit I'll ever wear... again. (bad MiB2 joke, I know, but I can never resist).

As most of you know, I left the Army in 1999 after 10 1/2 years. Clinton was in office and I was tired of being a "peacekeeper" so I decided to finish my degree and do something - anything - else. I got my B.A., and briefly considered going back in when Tracy decided to join to pay off student loans (among other reasons), but the Army said no, they didn't need me. Then the US Army Reserve called me back up. They refer to it as "being mobilized" but it really meant I was back on the job. I went to CENTCOM in Tampa while Tracy did Basic & AIT, then she moved to Fort Gordon GA. When I was finally de-mobilized (after Bush declared victory), I moved there, too. I've been happily working as a government contractor ever since, first for Dr Ron Moody (still the best boss I've ever had), and now for Northrop Grumman (where I was hired by my first platoon sergeant from 19 years ago in Germany).

But what about retirement? Eight & 1/2 more years and I can retire, and while that would be nice, getting deployed again... not so much. I'm enjoying being home every night and watching Jordan grow up (and seeing Tracy isn't bad, either). Then I found this Reserve unit here on Fort Huachuca that is made up entirely of instructors. I'm not saying they DON'T deploy, but they haven't since the war began, and when they do send someone away from here, it's to another base in the US where they teach for a month at a time. Not bad... Plus, they're looking for someone who can teach this new Army intel reporting software. I think it's called CHARCS. I guess I can teach that since I designed most of it over the past year.

Two of the guys I work with will be joining me at this new unit, and I start Saturday morning. Last week I rode up to Phoenix with a recruiter to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), which is where new soldiers go to enlist. Spent the entire day doing medical reviews, then had to come back yesterday for follow up because I'm over 40. Apparently, I'm one of the few over-40 soldiers EVER to not need any medical waivers. Guess I'm in pretty good shape.

Of course, it wouldn't be a MEPS if they didn't try to screw me over. They told me three things yesterday: I'm losing rank (back to Sergeant), not getting a signing bonus, and have to do a month of Basic Training again. I made a few calls and the Basic won't happen, the rank'll be back within a couple months (and possibly more), and the bonus will be right around the same time.

So, I'm back in the Army, or at least, the Army Reserve. I guess it's true: some old soldiers don't even fade away...

SGT (again!) Dave Freeman

New website design

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:08:00 +0000

Ok, everyone, by popular demand I'm experimenting with a new design for the site. I've removed all the family tree information and will (someday) have it posted somewhere else. All the birthdays & anniversaries are already moved to my Google calendar (marked private, but ask and I'll share it with you). All the photos are migrating to Google's Picasa site, where the facial recognition software will allow you to find every photo for a specific person, and more efficiently that my old photo albums did (and automatically!)

Also, I've limited the display to the last two posts by me or Tracy, and the last two posts by Jordan (below). You can stop by and see the latest, and you can also subscribe to the RSS feeds if you use news readers like Google Reader (if you don't, try it!).

Finally, because of the new format, no usernames and passwords will be required. I'm sure this will make Aunt Jean and Kim very happy.

Let us know what you think of the new format, and remember, you can still add to the site using comments on each specific post. If we decide to keep this format, I'll start moving a lot of the older content over for historical purposes, but all the photos will eventually move to Picasa.

Stay in touch!

-Dave & Tracy

It all started on America Online...

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy and Dave) — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 04:44:00 +0000

Dave: In October of 98 I was stationed at Ft Hood, TX waiting to be released from the Army. I started looking through the AOL online profiles for people (ok, women) in Mobile, AL who listed movies under their interests. I saw Tracy (tbeach222) online and noticed that her personal quote was the same as mine (dance like there's no tomorrow, love like it'll never hurt) and that we both liked reading Laurell K. Hamilton, but by the time I finished reading the profile, she was offline.

Fast forward to January 99. I was in Mobile when Tracy saw me online, liked my profile, and sent an instant message. We started chatting, then talked on the phone, and finally made a date to see a movie (John Travolta in "A Civil Action" at the Carmike 14) on January 10th.

We've been together ever since, and have been living together since September of 1999, prompting her father to ask her when we'd get married. Not satisfied with the answer "soon," he commented that I was apparently on "the eternal test drive" and would just trade her in when I was tired of her. I immediately renamed my website and the following year registered our common web domain, EternalTestDrive.com.

The Proposal:

Right after her birthday, while seeing "Insomnia" (again at the Carmike 14) with several friends, I slipped the following slide into the pre-movie slideshow. The Calagaz tech who made the slide cut off the IM box around it, almost spoiling Randy Hance's excellent graphics work, but the message was still clear:

Tracy: It's a good thing he asked. If Dave hadn't asked me, I was going to wait until the ceremony, and when the minister asked if I would take him as my husband, I was going to look at him & say, "I don't know, he hasn't asked me yet," where he would, of course, drop to one knee and propose. };-)

The Ceremony:

Now, the eternal test drive is over. On Monday, June 10, 2002, our three-year five-month anniversary (the celebration of which our friends love to laugh about), we were married at Memorial Park in Mobile. About 35 friends and family (and recruiters) were there. Accordingly, the website was rechristened TracyAndDave.com.

It was a small wedding. We were married by a Protestant minister who's a pediatric doctor during the day. The minister performs all types of weddings from our University regardless of the religion of either the husband or wife, so that was right up our alley. We all arrived around 6:30-7:00. People from all periods of our lives in Mobile showed up - old friends and new, family, bosses, fellow students, co-workers, recruiters, and even parents of friends. What a turnout! (About 35 people) Good thing we didn't do it at our furniture-less house.

One wonderful thing that happened was that the minister gave us a small glass container with dirt. Dirt, you say?? Yes, dirt - from the park where we were married! He explained it like this. He said, "As your marriage progresses you will go through good times and bad. During the bad times I want you to have this reminder of today to look at so you will remember how you both felt at this moment.... Happy, healthy and so very much in love." It was the best present by far, and brought tears to our eyes. How very thoughtful he was...

And here are our rings! They're titanium, and Tracy's has braided bands of gold and platinum.