Mike

I had an amazing day.

I felt like Mike was all around me. I think about him a lot during the POI. I think "Mike was here." "Mike ran here." "Mike did this too."

We went to R7 and R4 today to conduct Call for Fire (Failure) and EPW search training and to watch a CAS demo. I had a feeling today wouldn't suck nearly as bad as SWM FEX did. Last night:

Me: (looking over the schedule) Hey tomorrow seems like it'll be decent.
Erin: Yeah it looks really fun.
Me: I said DECENT!

Baby steps.

Anyway, even though I didn't get my stuff together last night as I usually do, I didn't feel rushed this morning, I enjoyed my breakfast and Shannon and I said a prayer again together as we waited for the 7 Tons to pick us up. I usually lead the prayer since she likes when I do it and I'm glad I remembered what Sandy told me about putting on the armor of Christ. My back was already killing me from wearing my FLC and Sapis, especially after the upper body haze-fest Brittney and I put ourselves through last night, and I said, "God, please turn our hearts so that when we put on our gear, we put on the armor of Christ and help us remember that as heavy as it feels, our burden is light compared to what You take for us." Something along those lines at least. Shannon prayed that she was grateful to have me as a friend and I was really touched. I'm glad to have her too and I pray that too.

My platoon's first event was firing the Howitzer. I didn't have a good stance the first time but I got it the second time - kinda embarrassing! But it was awesome and I refused to bite down on the primer fast enough so that when I did try it already cooled off and didn't budge. The arty Marines made up this tradition to screw with lieutenants that we'd have to bite the primer closed and if we didn't we had to fill it with the CLP/dirt water and drink it. So we all did - Shannon, Brittney, and I went first and it was AWFUL! Tasted like rotten eggs. If my mother found out I drank that she'd die. We almost yacked all over each other.

That's when I first thought of Mike since he was an Artillery Officer.

I really enjoyed the CAS demo even though I had to pee the whole dang time. I'm now much better at telling apart the Huey and the Cobra from a distance and I thought it was neat to watch them shoot rockets and the like. I had "The Flight of the Valkyries" stuck in my head the whole time. I thought about Mike too since he wanted to be a pilot but couldn't because of his vision.

EPW handling was awesome! I really like the Intel Officer who taught it and my squad had a lot of fun prac-apping. At the end one of the guys who speaks Tagalog and one of the guys who speaks whatever Asian language that was played the Searcher and Coverman for an unsuspecting lieutenant whom they made do crazy stuff like dance around. So impressed that Tai kept a straight face the whole time. It really cracked me up. Before though, during the training, I thought about Mike since this was some of the stuff he was doing when he died. Even though the training got fun and funny, it was sobering.

Shannon and I were partners for Call for Failure. R7 was covered in dirt and dust when it was our turn to go so it was basically pointless since we couldn't see our target, but that's okay. I feel pretty confident about CFF. During the down time, my SPC talked to us about MOS's and even came up to me and said I should talk to one of the officers who was there since she's a SIGINT. I couldn't believe it - I felt like he was taking me seriously. My heart has been split between HUMINT and SIGINT lately and I was trying to determine whether I should put SIGINT first.

Shannon and I went up to the officer to talk to her once we were done with our CFF. She was awesome - I mean, AWESOME. She was excited to talk to us about SIGINT. I told her what I know about it (from what my friend Mike H. told me from his enlisted experience) and she said I was dead-on. She said the command opportunities in SIGINT are great and went on about leadership and I got that feeling in my heart that I did two years ago when LtGen Allen talked to my class about HUMINT and FAO. This is for me. I know it. I'm putting SIGINT first. I feel so good about this. I really hope I get it.

I felt like Mike was a part of my day and guided me here. I'm going to visit his grave again before I leave TBS. I've been there twice (the only two times I've been to Arlington - last time over two years ago) and I'd sit or stand before his grave and think about him and what he means to me and has meant to me for almost nine years now. I still have those articles about him on my desk at TBS. He's meant so much to me that I put him into my class ring - there are two small rubies that represent Passion and Sacrifice and inside is inscribed my full name with the phrase "A Dreamer With No Fear" directly underneath.

Still holding onto the dream, Mike. I promise.