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thedrifter
02-08-06, 06:23 AM
The Day They Called Me Sgt. Grey Eagle

As a young girl growing up in rural Texas my older brothers served in the military, and later when I married, my husband was former military, my father-in-law a distinguished career officer, so it seemed as if all the road signs of my destiny were there, just in my life there was a lot of road construction and detours.

All my life I wanted to be in the Army. Unfortunately, as with everyone, there are life events that sometimes prevent you from doing the things you want or dream about doing. As I was standing in front of the formation at the ICC (Ivory Combat Clinic), I knew then that I had finally made it. I was where I wanted to be. Sure, I am in Iraq and I am away from my family right now; but, I am where I want to be. I know that seems difficult to understand when Iraq is such a political issue, but you have to separate the politics from the personal goals. I am serving my country and I see this as my greatest achieve in life, something to be proud of, something to be a part of greater than myself, so yes, in the sunshine of Iraq, brokenhearted from missing my family, I am where I want to be.

I don’t know if I told anyone this story before, but when I first came to Ft. Campbell we had a Divisional run. Now, of course most of the soldiers were trying to find ways to get out of the run, you know sick call, profiles, hell even coming late to formation due to the car breaking down, that one is always an original classic. Anyway, I can’t say that I was excited about the run but was anxious to be a part of something that I felt was so great. My body was not as excited as for me, of course. It knew it was fixing to get the crap ran out of it. I have found that there are times in the Army, my body can’t cash the checks my Hooha mind writes. But as I stood there watching the first Brigade go by and then the second, my heart started to pound in excitement. This was the same feeling I got today when I stood in front of the formation. Today I was pinned my sergeant’s stripes. That’s right. I am officially Sgt “Grey Eagle” Wilkinson as of February 01, 2006

Now, here is where the humor starts in this story. Within three hours of being a sergeant, I was already receiving corrective training for not putting a chock block down on a parked vehicle. That’s right everyone, I think that I managed to pull off a first ever “blooper” in history of being pinned and was receiving corrective training within hours. Now my actual corrective training was to go outside the clinic and hold a sign that stated the Army regulation on chock block safety along the side of the road. What were they thinking when they decide to put me and my female friend (the driver) on the side of the road with a sign and permission to wave and yell out at vehicles going by. This is like telling strippers to guard tables and chairs, use your imagination here. So now I have been given a stage and an audience. So, I am sure most of my readers could already picture what was going to happen next. I forgot to tell you that we took our camera out there too, to make sure we had evidence of completing our training….lol

When we first got out there we took pictures of us each holding the sign. Then I decided to do a chock block safety cheer for the vehicles passing, she waved at vehicles to pull over for us. We were able to stop almost all forms of transportation on the FOB. Here is list of the vehicles we stopped (some right out in the road and others pulled over for us): Humvee, a car, a bicycle, a bus, a golf cart type vehicle, and a convoy. We got all of the vehicles to honk their horns and wave at us as they went by. We even had spectators watching us from the parking lot of the ICC because of the excitement that was going on. Oh, and I don’t want to forget our good friends the guys walking by, who we decide they could hold the sign for a few minutes for us to. We got there pictures also. We then decided that we should not forget the bird’s (Medevac). They too, have chock blocks on their wheels, but by the time we got over there our camera had died. I was able to go over there the next day but without my friend, boy was she upset about that….but I still got the pictures though for the training video we plan to put together some day. I think we will call it ‘Corrective Training Gone Wrong’.

Well, I can tell you that we learned our lesson and will not forget to put the chock block down from now on, it is true that it is a safety issue. But I cant tell you first hand that I will NEVER forget the actually corrective training that I did. Not because I learned the lesson but because, for the first time since I set foot here in Iraq, I had laughed so hard that my sides hurt. And no matter what anyone says, if you can learn a lesson and laugh at the same time……then you have accomplished something that no one can take from you. A wonderful memory in the worst of places……I wished every day in Iraq could be like today.

posted by: Grey Eagle | 06 Feb 06 | 10:15 pm

Wyoming
02-08-06, 07:32 AM
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Don't want to start any bashing here and I congratulate the promotion, BUT, methinks a bunch of this wouldn't happen in the Marine Corps.

The 'Run' - Be late, or whatever? I think not! It'd be better to just be there. Jeez, an excuse? Maybe an unset compound fracture or blood flowing freely, but being late?

Corrective training - OK, but it appeared cheapened by the public demonstration. Where was a SNCO or Occifer during all of this?

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