Hallo ihr alle da draussen...Es ist endlich Wochenende, nicht? An especially good weekend too because we spent all of yesterday slacking in bunk (really! in Arty!) doing area cleaning and listen to tons of good music. Even finished reading Helen Stevenson's Instructions for Visitors, an enchanting tale about rural French life...THIS, friends, should be what life is about! Sehn ich mich danach aber das schaff ich wohl nie...Can we urbanites really find peace in this idyllic little village? We simply have to do the tourist thing. Take lots of photos...So that you can brag about them to your friends when you go back. Isn't it true? But even though the tale is enchanting and a beautiful memoir about life there, it shows that nothing really is perfect. Wie ihr Liebesleben wieder schiefgeht...if only her lover could have woken up, it would have been a perfect love story. Go read it...you won't regret it!
Anyway, the second part of the topic is grösse Kanone...which means big shots or something like that in German but then i don't know anymore because my German has been degenerating so bad...i shall have to go for Nachhilfe soon...But what with me being posted to Artillery, i thought i should use this topic literally...as in big guns? My 155mm FH-88 field howitzer. Not exactly mine. I mean, my detachment's. Last week we were trained in gun drills...how an 8-man crew is supposed to work together to make this big momma this weapon which throws 45-kilogramm HE shells 30 kilometers. Gun drills are simple. So simple that it's excuse brain haha...means you don't really have to use your brain just follow what your DETCOMD tells you to do.
But everyone has their roles. Seeing the detachment in action during for example an Action Front is like watching poetry in motion. If they're good. IF is the operative word here.
Anyway...we learnt a lot...Driving, Breech Assembly, Action Front, Cease Fire, Hooking and Un-hooking from a tonner, Laying to COA, camouflaging et cetera...don't have to say more right? Driving's been fun. Everyone wants to sit in the driver's seat, me included, but i am so totally insecure when it comes to embedding the gun. The first time i did it i didn't set the gears to neutral, nor did i let up on revving the engine, sending me and John in the layer's seat on a wild bucking ride. Sigh...Since then i have been avoiding the driver's seat during Action Front. The rest? Should be okay. Just tend to let stress rule my head when i handle the equipment. Maybe it's all the horror stories we've been told by Uncle Mo and his team.
The best part is that the horror stories are true.
Coming back to topic, our detachment has also had great instructors in the form of Sergeants Robin and James. They're good in that they mixed in really well in us and taught us patiently, instead of just picking on all our mistakes only. Stattdessen versuchten sie, uns alles beizubringen, und gleichzeitig Spass zu haben! I really learned a lot under them...too bad that they've posted out to 23 SA...haha. If i get posted there i'll meet them again...lolx. Mal schauen, was das Schicksal für uns geplant hat... Inzwischen muss ich noch meine Probleme bekämpfen... ob ich das irgendwann schaffen, dann sag ich euch Bescheid...i only hope i don't kill myself and my friends in between. The name of this blog says Coeur de Lion - Lionheart. Sadly, my will to fight has seemed to be ever-diminishing and my insecurities whenever i handle weapon systems just take control.
What we need is more practice. You can't expect me to go and deal with every piece of equipment with that same cocksuredness like i handle my M16. Only 3 more days before gun phase ends. After that we'll be handling the guns again during SAFARI and BATTLE KING. I only hope that nothing goes wrong then. Die Zeit ist sozusagen um!
This post also deals with the phrase above...the root is Je suis plein d'amour...which means that one is full of love (for someone or simply for life)...you could say it for someone or say it at a particularly magical place where everything seems so beautiful that the boundary between reality and dreamtime becomes blurred...Too bad that i'm not that at all. Life has been a bumpy ride, what with me getting scared sh*tless because of my screwed-up embedding, as well as buring myself out between gun drills, life runs, and all that whatnot. Friday was a much-needed rest cure, if you must say so...But i still find myself in a conflict.
I can't explain it...maybe i'm simply still hurting too much from her abscence. It's like whenever she's online i can't find the words to tell her...I'll explain later tonight. Mir fehlen die Wörter sogar jetzt! Sigh.
posted by quatscherei @ 11:27
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