or "Burns, to the Third Degree"

To all that have been following along, this is how the morning workout with the general went down. We met outside at the track, then a call was received "The general wants to meet over in the parking lot." So we jog over, and link up with him.  Decent sized guy, very much looks like a football player from the 80's (apparently he was signed by the Washington Redskins, back in the day). We circle up, and stretch out a little, while he describes how it is going to go happen.  We are going to run out, in the dark, on some type of dirt roads or trails he remembered running on when he was first here (at FOB McGregor) back in the day. We head out shuffling at a medium pace.  I'm right behind him, because I don't know what to expect, so if he takes off like a rocket, I have a better chance of keeping up and avoiding the Slinky-effect in the rear. It's a comfortable pace, so I'm golden. We run along the fence line, across the little sand dunes, through the shrubbery, out of the gate of the main cantonment area, and into the darkness. Once out there, we find a little opening at a turn around spot and circle up again. "Alright, everyone pair up, count off, 1's and 2's.  We're doing 100 Push ups, in chunks, and I'll call the switch. One exercises, while the other counts for them." Cool, I can hang with this. We knock that out, then go into a "V" sit hold and once everyone has hit the 100 count, we mount up. "Fireman's Carry". Which was really a piggyback ride, every red-blooded 'Merican loves a good piggyback. A little bit of that, a little more adventure through the dunes in the dark, then back to our original release point.  A cool down stretch, a few pictures for the old FB page (making sure to get the mountains in the background "I love them mountains"), then we huddle up.  MG Wells has a program he calls "The General's 100" and we are all going to get individual certificates for our participation.  Apparently, he travels around and does this program with different groups. Each certificate is individually numbered, so we ARE special snowflakes.  But, they don't have enough to give them to us right now, so they'll mail them out later.  The general is a little bummed out by this, so he hits us with the consolation prize, "since I wasn't able to get your certificates for you, here is what I'll do, when we send these out I'll include my 75th (the unit he commands) belt buckle". Woot woot. How you like that for some Texas Southern Hospitality? Refreshing to see a high-ranking leader making fitness a priority PLUS creating his own personal belt buckles. We asked "I wonder what budget that falls under?" The 2-star tchotchke fund, sweetness.

Wow, that was more than I anticipated. Back to current events.

Yesterday morning was the After Action Review (AAR) for our Culminating Training Event (CTE). Donesky, over. Now I am set to leave as part of the Advance Party (ADVON) to Afghanistan, so I am technically on my 4-day "pass".  I wanted to make a showing for this event though, because I am one of the central players (I know, get over myself, eat it). Big mistake, ugh.

"So, 6 days ago, this event happened, then you sent the info forward...which finger did you use to click send?" Second by second recount of a training inject that happened almost a week ago (a week of 24-hour operations, mind you) with no heads up that we would be asked to break it down. Real awkward.

Detective: "Imma ask you some real simple questions, and I want some real simple answers. Let me get this right, you bought the bottle of beer about 11:15?"
Kain: "I bought the beer, and I accidently dropped it."
Detective: "You bought the bottle of beer at 11:15?"
Kain: "Ah, yeah, at 11:15. Yeah, at 11:15."
Detective: "Then why was it still there, spilled on the floor, after the shooting?"
Kain: "When I was, when we was leaving, after I left, other people was coming in, when we was leaving."
Detective: "But you don't remember what they..."
Kain: "What they looked like..."
Detective: "But you bought the bottle of beer, definitely, at 12:15?"
Kain: "Yeah, it was 12:15, exact, if I'm not mistaken, it was 12:15."
Detective: "Now you see somethin'. Now you see now, you done f'ed up. You know that don't you?"

Pretty much what it felt like.

If you just remain silent long enough, they become anxious and continue to ramble. "Wow, what is that?-I mean, that's a dog, right?-Is that your dog?-Very interesting breed, interesting looking dog." Whoa, what just happened? I blacked out.

My brain has started to lose focus. Time for bed. I'll post a good one tomorrow, promise.

Also, as a follow up, S, another satisfying event was being able to "pin" Sergeant rank on one of the Soldiers that deployed to Iraq with me, back in 2005. He was Private/E-2 and now he is a Sergeant/E-5, which is a big deal (and very long overdue for him). He requested that I do it specifically, and that is pretty powerful. Congrats SGT Cervantes, keep doing good things.

Out.