Happenings and Natterings

Well, post-deployment leave is over and I've been back in North Carolina for about a week. I did a good job this time of not worrying about leaving Louisiana until right before I had to leave. On past times I've come home the last few days were clouded because I was dreading having to come back here. Most of the dread is about having to make the drive. But three weeks of leave is the perfect amount of time: It's not so short that you don't have time to enjoy yourself and it's long enough to do everything you want to do while still having days to slug around and do nothing.

But there have been some fun things going on here. Early last week my team and another team were selected to attend a course on helicopter ditching. The purpose of the course was to teach the best way to get out of a helicopter that's crashed at sea and is completely submerged in water. The classroom portion of the course showed videos of helicopter crashes at sea and interviews with survivors who described their experiences. A common statement was that they couldn't believe how fast the helicopter filled with water.

Usually these courses are taught with a "helo dunker," a machine that simulates the space and layout of a helicopter. It will shake around as if it's crashing, hit the pool, and flip over as it's filling up with water (since helicopters are so top-heavy, as soon as they hit the water, they're going to flip over). The helo dunker for Camp Lejeune is still being built, so we used special cages instead. We were taught how to get out of the seat while you're upside down under water, how to use the small oxygen tanks, and other techniques to get out and then survive until help comes.

The civilian version of the helo dunker

That was about the only thing of note that happened last week. We got lucky in the timing of our leave block, because it ended right before the Marine Corps took off for the Memorial Day holiday. Thursday was spent getting safety briefs that insulted our intelligence and continued with the filling out of paperwork where we promised we won't die, then Friday we were released at noon. The company doesn't have to be back until formation on Tuesday evening. That doesn't include me and a few other guys, because Corporals Course starts for us on Tuesday morning. So I decided to stay here to prepare my uniforms and such.

Speaking of which, whether or not we're even going anymore is suddenly up in the air. We gave our paperwork to our S1 (admin) shop, and they said that they'd give it to the sergeant major and CO for their signatures and then get it back to us. Well, that never happened. Additionally, the S1 chief never even approved our PTAD requests. So we don't have the paperwork for check-in, and we don't have our orders to temporarily detach from the unit. And since the company isn't coming back until Tuesday evening, no one is around to get our paperwork for us to have for Tuesday morning.

I still haven't talked to the other guys who are going to the course with me, but I think what will probably happen is that we're going to show up for the formation, explain what's going on, and get put in a later course. I'm not stressing about this, because it's not our fault, but I am worried that we're going to get in trouble for whatever reason. That kind of thing just seems to happen around here. Even though it's out of our hands, I can totally see us getting yelled at for this -- probably something about being NCOs and taking initiative. Maybe I should reach deep down and find the initiative to break into the headquarters building, forge the command's signatures, and print out my own orders to go to this course. But you'd think the motivation would already be there for S1 to do this themselves: they'd probably get a NAM for it.