i love being an nco...

i absolutely love being an nco. which is weird and difficult. alot of the people i was a lowly specialist with on active duty and who loved the army and stuck with it have gone on to pursue a commission. and of course they want to pressure me to join them. they all jumped shipped before they hit the serious non commissioned officer mark and got to have fun with it. there are TONS of headaches and hassles. it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. and i don't want to go too much further with it, because i'm going to start getting pulled away from the troops and put more into staff functions. but for the moment it is awesome. it is great to see immediate effects from your actions.

i got put in charge of the p.t. and some additional training programs for the joes here. p.t. scores are steadily improving and now some of the very same people who fought me tooth and nail about having to do the extra p.t. are now starting to come to me with ideas to push themselves harder. today i dropped mandatory crew drills on the section. we'll be doing them for 2 hrs at a time, twice a week, longer if necessary. at first they were REALLY unhappy with me. yesterday they were shooting me glares when i mentioned it in the evening meeting. today, they admitted they had fun with it and could definately see the value. that's actually one of the biggest downsides of the job. dealing with the ncos who don't take their responsibilities seriously. i shouldn't have to argue with these guys as much as i have to to get them to do the right thing. they KNOW they are an example to the younger troops. a couple of them are retiring shortly after we return stateside, and as much as i like them as individuals, i'll be cheering them on their way. there is hope though. the folks next door reduced someone 2 pay grades for bad stuff.

i'll finish my degree soon (hopefully). i'll probably seek a commission shortly there after. but until it happens, i'm going to enjoy the hell out of this!
anyways, i'm just rambling to ramble.