As I stated in another post, the past couple of weeks have been extremely busy. My class recently took their final tests, the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) and the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). I also posted recently about how nervous and excited I was for them and their results. The class did very well. Of the 21 students in my class, only two did not make the 2/2 standard on the DLPT and two others did not meet the 1+ standard for the OPI. The two that didn't get the...

I've been very busy the past two weeks. I was actually up in the rotation to do a funeral the week prior, but had a number of things that took me out of the loop. So, I had a couple weeks without any funerals. I finished our last week on funeral detail by doing the last two. One on Friday and another on Saturday. I got the word on Wednesday that I'd have a funeral on Friday. It was just a two man detail in Monterey. On Thursday I went to practice and got the rest of the details. It ...

Someone recently posted a link to an English quiz. I can't even remember who it was now. I took the quiz and because of a computer hiccup, I lost my cut and paste job of my results and the window closed. Didn't feel like taking a 40 question quiz again (yeah, I'm that lazy) so, I never replied there... Sorry to the OP of that thread. But here's a link to a new quiz that tells you "What kind of American English do you speak?" Your Linguistic Profile: 80% General American ...

In just about 20 minutes, my students will be filing into a classroom to take the first part of their Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT). Today will be a listening form. Tomorrow, they will take another listening form and one Wednesday they will take the reading form. We'll have the results on Thursday. I'm a bit nervous for them. Students test every few weeks as classes near completion, but this is different because these are my students (really Uncle Sam's students, right? But,...

Between my current assignment (TRADOC) and my last assignment (SUSLAK), I've been out of the normal rotation of assignments. Not quite out of the "green" Army, but outside of what is common for the "green" Army. And it shows. Today, I saw a warrant officer in the barbarshop. Or at least I though he was a warrant, but when I saw him sit down, I could clearly see MI branch insignia on his left collar. From across the room, I couldn't tell if his right collar bar had dots or not, so I tho...

In no particular order - Calvin and Hobbes In Cadence Left, Face Marathon Candy Bars Being able to run a five minute mile (also, a six minute mile and a seven minute mile) Living overseas (ten consecutive years living in Hawaii and Korea makes living in the Continental US still seem strange at times) My Ecosystem Details

I went home a bit early on Friday, so I missed the email that warned me that there might be a funeral on Tuesday. It wouldn't have mattered if I had gotten the email, there was no information other than there might be a funeral on Tuesday. When I got in on Monday morning, the NCOIC didn't have any more information but told me he'd get it and contact me later. Around 1000 he emailed me the information and instructions to contact the funeral home and confirm everything. He also told me that...

Have you ever noticed that the people who usually say, "I call 'em like I see 'em" to defend their opinions/comments (very often rude or trolly opinions/comments) often need glasses? My Ecosystem Details

When we started this rotation, one of the three SSG's volunteered to do all the two-man details if the other two of us were willing to handle all the full honors details. We accepted and it worked well for a bit, but last week, the overall NCOIC assigned me to a two-man detail when he saw we had two on back to back days. Since I did three full honors funerals over the previous two Saturdays, he gave me the detail on Friday and gave the Saturday detail to the SSG that has been working the tw...

Was cruising a forum board earlier today (not JU, but there are some here that I'd like to ask this question sometimes) and I saw a post that generated a lot of responses and interest. As I read it, it was obvious that the OP was just trolling the board with an idiot story and he kept defending it out of (what I presumed to be) boredom. Best line was "Did you guys eat stupid sandwiches this morning?" Absolute comic gold. Thanks, Chops! My Ecosystem Details

We had another full honors funeral on Saturday. This one was also for a retired Navy officer. We had practice on Thursday and we cleaned the rifles thouroughly in hopes that they would fire better. We also had a number of new service members at practice, so I told them that some of them could come along to see the military honors firsthand. I made contact with the funeral home on Friday and found out that this ceremony would be short. There would be a church service prior to the ceremo...

Just a bit ago, I wrote about the two funerals I attended over the weekend. At the second one, something happened before the ceremony and I felt the need to write about it. I didn't want to tuck it into that post, though, as I thought it deserved its own space. After the casket was removed from the carriage, but before the Lt arrived, I was standing near the head of the casket trying my best to look as if I was some special military presence there to honor the deceased. I was approa...

After leaving the first funeral, we drove up to Castroville and stopped for lunch at a shopping center about one mile from the church. I told the team to get their food to go so we could and they could eat in the van while we waited for the second ceremony. We had plenty of time but I wanted to get there early so I could prepare. We were initially told that there would be a service inside the church and when it came time to perform miltary honors, the firing would take place outside the ch...

We had two full honors funerals for retired Navy service members on Saturday. I went to base at 0930 to pick up the van and get our rifles. A friend of mine wanted to come along and watch a detail. He knows that sooner or later he'll have to be on the detail, probably as the overall NCOIC since he made the list for SFC this year, so he wanted to at least see one with no pressure of being involved. He met me at the van and helped get the rifles and ammunition, along with my firing team lea...