It wasn't really my milestone, per se, but it was a milestone. Since it is a milestone that would inevitably occur before I go home due to Army scheduling and the linearity of time, maybe it is my milestone. One of my battalion's six companies is going home in about ten days, so the training for the guys replacing them started. I have a 45 minute part to play in that drama, and so I did today.
The Army's way of doing RIP training (so named because it is training done for the new unit while the old unit Remains In Place) is wholly appropriate for a large bureaucratic organization. Nothing was learned but a requirement was fulfilled. These poor guys arrived last night at about 11:30 which means that they got rooms assigned and to sleep no earlier than 1:00. Training started at 8:00 although I'm sure they had a standard Army formation at 6:00 and consisted of back to back hours of lecture and the bane of all teaching, Power Point. Oh, there was a break for lunch in case hunger was keeping anyone awake and alert. It also probably didn't help that it was 115F today and inside the Chapel it was in the 90's (guesstimate). (N.B. Training is held in the chapel because it is the only room large enough for company training. Nevertheless, if RIP training had been the first time I'd seen the Chapel, I doubt I'd go back. Miserable memories and flashbacks and such.) So at 3:00 when I started my lecture, most people had heart rates that would classify them as legally dead to any competent medical authority in the states. My training was not the most boring - which is faint praise indeed.
The training came, and it went. All revived. Now there are only five companies that I have to train before I go home. Milestone passed.
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