Getting Anxious

Things are going well. Our team has jelled, and we are getting it done. This past Saturday we had a series of hands on tasks to complete, and the fellas did good. One particular area we seem to be doing well with is our Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO), or Sergeants for the old school.

Sergeants make the Army do what its supposed to do. They 'make shit happen.' They are the trainers of both soldiers and officers, and they are the backbone of any unit. I have fond memories of my NCOs growing up in the Army, from my first squad leader (Staff Sergeant Darren Bohn, AKA: Jesus) as an Infantryman, through my first Platoon Sergeant (SFC Harris) when I was a Tank Platoon Leader, to my gunner (SGT Pettibone) and First Sergeants (Carlin, Grott, Hess, and Sturgell) as a Troop Commander. This trend continues here on the team... The NCOs are no-nonsense and they want to get it done, and they don't want to fail. It makes it easy to build a good unit when you have good building materials.

On another note, I'm feeling a bit anxious this week. We really have only three major training events left. One is urban operations, which we will do Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, another is a mounted live fire combat patrol and all of the prep work that goes before it, and the last event is a Capstone, where we will put it all together. It would of course be ideal to jsut ping from one event to the next, but due to the amount of people here vs. available resources, we have to phase the training so everyone gets a chance to do it, and therefore drag it out over two weeks. So we pace ourselves and use the time to improve as best we can.

Back to feeling anxious... It's not an anxious feeling like I am running out of time, like when I am on leave and I know the good time will come to a close and it will be time to get on with it. It is a feeling of anticipation; not quite dread like going to the dentist, but not quite like an excited kid waiting for Christmas morning, either. Maybe more like a date where you have no idea what the outcome will be... You hope for the best, but at the same time, try to not be unrealistic about your expectations.

We all also realize the faster we get there, the faster we can come home.

Maybe it's anxious like the Razorbacks playing Texas this weekend: They know it's going to hurt a lot, but they want to get it over with. That one is gonna be ugly...
Woo Pig Sooie....

Ron