Still waiting.....

Now my paperwork has cleared the first process and we are waiting for the final decision and discharge papers. Nothing happens fast in the military. I am considering culinary school, specifically New England Culinary Institute.

Still waiting....

Hurry up and wait that's me right now. I've completed my medical appointments and now I'm just waiting for my paperwork to go up in the Army and come back with the results.

Soon to be out of the strange land.

Well it's been an interesting few months after my return from deployment. In December we welcomed our 3rd child into the world, Leland Rhys Wesley Beun. I missed his arrival but my mother-in-law was there and I got to see him when he was a week old and then had to fly back to finish the deployment. I'll put in a couple pics below. I got back in May and after I got settled back in with my family I started to seek some medical treatment for my skin and my back.

Turns out I have psoriasis on my hands and feet and since I cook for the government I was told I need to request a transfer into another MOS(Army job). Now I qualify, both medically, physically and mentally for nearly every job the Army has and picked 5 that I would like to have. I chose Public Affairs, Pharmacy Tech, Respiratory Tech, Geospatial Engineer and some signal one I can't remember now. "Big Army" (Pentagon) came back with a denial of my re-class and told me to process into the physical disability system for separation.

So it looks like my military career will end in the next 5 months or so. At first I was pretty pissed but that gave way to relief that they had made up my mind for me. You see my whole time in the Army has been a battle between what they wanted me to be and who I am. It never really fit me I think. I'd never leave it voluntarily though as I would always think of the pat, insurance and retirement and would convince myself that being miserable was OK because the end would justify the means. I came into the Army to find my place in the world but this isn't it for me. I have no regrets for enlisting or anything I've done since, it's made me who I am today.

I've struggled since day one with what I thought the military to be from talking to vets and from the media and what it really is. The media portrays us as the best the nation has to offer but in my experience it's not that simple. The Army is a slice of the American pie, although a bigger slice seems to come from the South and the minorities. It seems a majority of people in it have nothing better to do and nowhere else to go. This is no surprise to me but what does surprise me is that it seems people cannot shed their old habits from before they joined. I get the impression that we are just civilians in uniform. I came out of basic "different". I felt the awesome sense of duty, honor and history that came with wearing the uniform. Every day I think of those men that came before me and what I can do today to do my best and honor their sacrifices. Instead I encounter with cynicism, racism, ignorance, laziness, selfishness and a sense of entitlement. Too idealistic you say? Perhaps. My problem has always been I build something up in my head and how I was it to be and when that thing does not meet the expectations I have set for it I have trouble dealing with the disappointment.

So know what do we do?

I was planning on continuing in the food service industry but with my skin condition that is no longer suitable for me. With the GI Bill I can go to school anywhere and study anything I'd like. I thought about going home for school or perhaps finding a job in the Detroit area. But I've already seen Michigan and my wanderlust has still not been satisfied. Besides, they are enjoy a nearly 20% unemployment rate back home so that's probably not the best place to start another career. I've decided to study Mining Engineering. Why? Well, it's a growing industry, our society always needs minerals, there are a small amount of graduates nationwide every year and there are opportunities for work worldwide. I've decided to attend South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. So more moving for us. Hopefully this will be the last career change for me. Perhaps it will be but if not we'll stay flexible and it'll turn out fine.

Almost Done.....

Here we are still deployed. Life is OK here, just day by day dealing with deployment. Can't wait to be home. The end is near however and I'll be back in Oklahoma soon. I look back on this deployment and I have to say that I was not very productive. Sure I did my job here and whatever but any other improvement was limited. I lost some weight and shaved time off my run until I hurt my back in December. Then my weight loss leveled off and I'm ending the deployment around 205, which is around 20 lbs lighter than when I started so I guess that's better than nothing. Because of the awful internet access here I only took one class so not much on the school front either. I tried to get a new Army job but found it difficult to get anything done in the austere environment I'm deployed to. Oh well at least I'm in one piece and I'll be home soon.

Back on the diet.

OK after being a lazy-pile since R&R leave for Christmas I've decided to get back on the horse and lose the last 15 pounds to get down to my goal weight of 185 lbs. Unfortunately stepping on the scale gave me the ugly result of 211 lbs. Great I gained 11 pounds since December 19th? In one month? I think I need a second opinion. Oh well if it's true I lost it once and I'll loose it again.

It's incredibly windy here today. The DFAC is a tent and it's threatening to blow away. The dust is covering every surface, including the lappy. My keyboard is not fairing too well and as of right now the 'c' key is refusing to work most of the time. This results in massive spell checking. (I was 1 for 2 on that word)Had to go outside and secure the stakes again getting my skin exfoliated by blowing dust. What a wonderful place to live. Oh and the wind blew my favorite shitter over and of course as usual it was very full.

Still Deployed

Here I sit in the dark, dank MWR tent sucking up free WiFi. Hey deployment could be much worse, right? The weather was beautiful today for a foobit like me and I had to whole day to myself. Great except I'm going to another sandy country for the remaining months of deployment and I've already shipped everything but the lappy, my nook and a uniform. So basically it's been me and my thoughts all day, which is dangerous on deployment. I have not had a day off in a long time and all I did was wander around camp looking lost. I did my errands this morning (haircut, laundry etc) and was done bu 1000. Great, now what? I'm taking a course and so far so good. It's a history course, US History to be precise so I'm hoping for a good grade, my GPA is suckin' pretty hard right now.

The MWR tent also doubles as the gym so I get to watch people work out which is very entertaining. During the day it's usually Navy guys as the Army is at work right now. The Navy guys like to do "smart" stuff while working out. Calisthenics, crossfit, watching a P90X video, stuff like that. The Army guys like lifting things, push-ups and wrestling for exercise. the Navy guys are doing refined gentlemanly exercising while the Army guys basically break rocks for fun and exercise. The Air Force? Well they don't exercise, have you seen most of them? Mostly the Navy guys are all officers, I don't think they have much of a PT standard. At night this place becomes a Navy officer hang out with textbooks and thick manuals laid out. Very impressive until you take a peek at the computer screen and it's Facebook, it's always Facebook.

Well I leave soon for the other sandy place mentioned above, hopefully I'll be able to sneak some pics.