After IET in a Nutshell Since Initial Entry Training (last updated June 2005) I entered Basic Training January of 2000, finished AIT in July of the same year, and came home. I joined the Reserves, and have often pondered why I didn't go active duty. I still think about it. Since at this present time, I have decided that I will likely put in my twenty years, unless circumstances do not allow such a thing to happen, I have decided that some time in the next few years, I need to put in some more active duty time. I'm up for Reenlistment November of 2005. Maybe that will take me Active. I'm still deciding. This website is my hobby. Upon leaving AIT in 2000, I immediately went back to school and utilized my monetary benefits that the army had provided. Winter Quarter I enrolled into ROTC. Just because I wanted to play army even more. My first real experience outside of training was FTX with the ROTC in Fort Lewis the following February. When I get a chance, I'll write about that experience in more detailed scope. It was rather fun, I played OPFOR with a bunch of Cadets that didn't know what in the hell they were doing. And I kicked their ass. Go me! My first Annual Training Experience happened in June 2001 in Devens Massachussetts. The excercise was called Pollex, and it was a patrolium excercise. Basically for two weeks I got to play Field sanitation team and inspect water all the time. I got really sick of water by the end of it all. I was also Advanced Party, I was issued my own Hummer (way cool!) and myself and a fellow soldier, an E5, were there supporting a unit full of strangers we had never met before this excercise. We got our butts reemed many times. THis was not a fun AT. We vented anger by going off roading in the forementioned vehicle. This excercise needs its own page. This excercise earned me an Army Achievement Medal. Two months later, ROTC sent me to Fort Benning for Airborne Training in August. I will not discuss anything further about this experience. Read into that as you will. I stayed with ROTC through the middle of Winter Quarter 2002 and under circumstances partly out of my control, I had to drop the course. I was very sad by this. I am no longer in ROTC and still debate about getting a commission. I have thought about going to Officer Candidate School to do it, it's a much more gung ho way of getting your butter bar. March 2002 I went to Trailblazers, an NCO development course done through my Regional Support Command, which was in Fort Lewis. For a weekend I got to sit down and participate in a lot of class room excercises taught by Command Sergeant Majors. Don't even think about falling asleep in the class room of a CSM! This was actually an interesting excercise, I learned a lot. June 2002 sent my entire unit to Camp Parks California for Golden Medic. I camped on ground that was up for sale, $1.2 million an acre. Prime Real Estate. That's the bay area for you. Most of my unit was here, and I learned many benefits of small units. Small Units have abilities of getting out of BS Details. Like Guard Duty. This excercise also produced an Army Achievement Medal. August 2002 sent me to Suriname, South America for a Medrette. What is a Medrette? It stands for Medical Readiness Training Excercise. I am working on a page holding all of these experiences of mine. This was an awesome opportunity to see a foreign country, however the experience overall wasn't entirely positive. I will not go into details. I am very frustrated at myself however for my personal performance during the exercise. Regardless, somehow I had managed to earn another Army Achievement Medal for this excercise as well. I don't feel like I deserve it. December of 2002 brought me back to Fort Lewis for Primary Leadership Development Course, or Sergeant School for you civilians out there. It basically consisted of bringing all of my military issue and sitting in a classroom for a week and a half and learning how to be a sergeant. I also got to conduct PT and march my squad around. I also found myself in a leadership position several times, to include that of Platoon Sergeant for the last four days. I sincerely enjoyed PLDC, except was slightly disappointed by the FTX at the end. I kicked butt during Land Nav, go Me! I did very well in PLDC and made commandant's list. I also got a renewed surge of going active duty. Summer 2003 I was originally set to attend AT at Fort Bragg. The current state of the military had canceled this event. Instead, I got been diverted back to Fort Sam for a Basic Industrial Hygiene course for Two Weeks. San Antonio! Woohoo! Shortly afterward I found myself looking for a job. I was put on ADSW (Active Duty, Special Work) orders doing whatever mundane details needed to be done. Very fun. Ok, not really. But the important thing was, it was a JOB. In November 2003, my unit got orders to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Orders were revoked a week before I was to Mobilize. That was not cool. In April 2004, my unit was alerted for activation for another deployment to Afgahnistan or Iraq. The deployments we were slotted for were eventually given to other units. We sat around wondering what was to become of us. In July 2004, myself and two other soldiers in my unit attended a Pesticide Recertification course in Fort Lewis. I drove my own car and was holed up in a hotel room. My first AT where I was completely mobile. That was fun. We also learned during this AT that the deployment we were slotted for that August had been given to another unit. We were getting a little annoyed by the Army's indecision to send us somewhere. We wanted to go, so send us already! October 2004 I got a call from a sister unit who was deploying to Kosovo and asked if I wanted to go. After seeing the luck of me going to Iraq, I said count me in. December 2004, I actually mobilized. Bliss! We were in Fort Lewis for a month. In January 2005, we packed our bags, got on a plane, and found ourselves flying halfway across the world to settle into a little place called Hohenfels Germany for three weeks. Hohenfels was not fun. In fact, it sucked. I was grateful to only be there for three weeks, which was three weeks to long. I have a thing against a place where I have to walk a block in the snow to use a shower. End of January, I found myself in Kosovo, sitting on my ass and doing a lot of nothing. Which is the way with Military Deployments or so I hear. The deployment overall was not fun, but I do not regret going because I learned a lot about the army and myself while deployed. In September of 2005, I found myself TDY in Landstuhl Germany, for a 91S recert class. I was there for a week, with somebody I now despise. Still, good times. While in Kosovo, I got to do a Danish Contingency Road March and have qualified for my German Marksmanship Badge. I left Kosovo in January 2006. Took a month off and since I had been killed on my job as a 91S while deployed, I went job hunting and found my current unit. I wasn't sure if I was going to or not before coming to the unit, but I reenlisted September 2006 for another six years. My current rank is Sergeant. The process of getting my E5 has produced headaches. However, I have gotten my E5 with a little over three years in the service. That's not bad! I'm working on putting together my E6 Promotion Packet and will likely make Staff Sergeant by this summer. My current plans are still retirement, as of writing this (February 2007) I have just over seven years in the service. Currently, I'm a Drill Sergeant Candidate. I leave for School in May. I have wanted to be a Drill Sergeant since AIT. Took me long enough to do it. -Risawn: # 5:24 PM 5:24 PM