Hallo ihr alle da draussen...can you believe it? Yet another bloody week has passed. And i'm still alive, come to think of it...after...
1. doubling my blood pressure
2. shouting myself hoarse
3. incurring bad karma with a too-liberal use of vulgarities
4. TPQ-36 deployment drill
5. sleeping in the office
Well i guess that's about all i can recall for now...but it's been a really, really long week. Ever since Monday...goodness...what did i do on Monday? Ahh!
6. that stupid screwed-up display
Okay. So let's start the week with...
The Display.
I can't believe i went back to the office just for that display. Ended up that ryan was in the house as well (BDS) so we caught some telly and watched Whose Line is it Anyway? until maybe 0030 before we got into bed and turned out the lights...only to wake up at 0600, feeling a bit tensed up regarding the display. Got up early, rinsed, shaved, brushed my teeth and then hustled down to the Xenon garage...luckily for me all the stuff i published in the RO was actually followed...0700 and the garage was open! And by 0730, most of the locators were downstairs ready to help me with the action-front. Sigh. These locators (the ORD batch) are still really great folks...i mean...they actually bothered to come down...sigh.
So everything was up by 0900 waiting for the first JWOC (Joint Warrant Officers' Course) visit. And it was waiting, indeed. What a waste of time...waiting in the parade square for 2 hours! Luckily the ARTHUR was there too...which meant that we could duck inside and enjoy the air-conditioning! But they came at 1030...and so there we were sweating like pigs, introducing the radar to the uninitiated masses, while the hot sun beat down upon us and the asphalt. And i discovered something interesting.
Most are simply interested people who will ask you questions. But Commandoes (those with the maroon beret are more interested in asking questions like...
'Sir, what are the weak spots of this radar?'
It's kinda freaky. But oh well...it is a fact that a weapon-locating radar IS a very fragile thing.
On to the SCSC (SAFTI Command and Staff College) visit! To be perfectly honest with you, Monday was quite the eye-opener because i myself have never seen such a large gaggle of Master Sergeants (JWOC) and Majors (SCSC) together! Okay besides that...the SCSC batch is a group of senior officers which call from differing arms, services, nationalities even. I found that out when i was introducing my radars that explaining to an Indian major or something like that would be very, very challenging indeed.
I thought he was asking about the radar broadcasting over mountains when he only wanted to know the METHOD the radar operated on. And what's more, his tone was arrogant, demanding and that little intimidating. Not very good at all. Luckily someone came to my rescue.
To you, Sir, I salute you.
Hardly was the first group gone that the leaden skies above us decided to release its load of water upon us...so me and ryan were there getting drenched and getting generally quite pissed off...especially when adrian zipped away in his ARTHUR and sven & co. ceasefired their stuff in a flash. I mean, come on. We really could use some help there...we ceasefired the 36 first...threw on the weather shield...and then called poh and yoga frantically, hoping that the DGU would come. But yoga, the driver, was eating (maggot!) and so he wouldn't be down in a zip exactly...We did as much as we could already...with a little assistance from mongster, but when the DGU was still MIA after 10 minutes, ryan and i reached a consensus.
We would crank the bloody TPQ-37 antenna down.
Dammit, i wish mel was there. He was only calling me almost every other 2 minutes asking me if everything was alright. Wow...he's a brother man...but oh wells...i guess anyone'd be worried if you saw someone standing out exposed with lightning and thunder all around, furiously doing something which seems like cranking or pumping but you can't really be sure of. Anyway, i wish mel was there because he is going for TPQ-37 FATEP, not me. Anyway...it took the two of us 20 minutes, including switching, to crank the entire antenna down. With the DGU...it's way faster...i donno...several minutes? And you don't have to crank, too. Hmmf.
Interesting (or is it ironically?) enough, yoga appeared just as the antenna was fully coming down, towing the DGU. Sorry, babe. You're too late, maggot! He came so late that it was not worth connecting the cables and powering up just so that we would be able to cease-fire.
Maggot!
After that, i went for some dumb meeting in my wet smart 4. It's a wonder i haven't caught pneumonia yet. More to come!
posted by quatscherei @ 17:28
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