Busy Weekend

I have a promotion board tomorrow. For those of you who know what that means, you'll understand why I haven't posted much.

For those who don't, I go sit down in front of multiple Senior NCO's, who fire questions at me that they try to ensure I can't answer.

Gah. I'm stressing. Anyways, I'll see you Monday.

UPDATE: I think I did OK. I missed two questions, one of them because I completely vapor-locked. I knew the answers, I just couldn't get them out. But other than a few minor glitches, I did alright.

I tried to listen around to see what the board members were saying afterwards, but didn't get much of a chance. One of the board members was late, and another board member didn't show up at all, so they had to find a replacement for them.

All of this caused the Sergeant Major to damn near explode.

So after the board, I walked back to the office where my bag was, and the Sergeant Major went into the next office and promptly exploded. "I WANT THAT MOTHERFUCKER CALLED RIGHT DAMN NOW, AND UNLESS HE'S MISSING A FUCKING LIMB HE'S GOING TO REGRET THE DAY HE SIGNED UP! SOMEBODY BETTER FIND ME HIS WORTHLESS ASS BEFORE I......"

At that point the office door was closed, and all you could hear was muffled screaming. I made my exit as quickly as possible at that point.

For those non-military folks who are wondering just why the Sergeant Major blew his top, let me give you a little overview. The Promotion Board, which I went to, is a major part in getting selected for promotion. You have to have everything in order. My files have to be in order; if they're all screwed up, that shows that I don't care enough about either getting promoted or my files in order to correct them. My uniform has to be perfect. I have to project a military demeanor and stay calm under pressure. And I have to know my stuff, know the answers to all the questions that they're going to ask me. And I had over ten different topics that I needed to know.

So to get to the point, the board members, the senior NCO's who will be asking me questions and judging my uniform, my performance, my files, these are the people who determine whether or not I get recommended for promotion. That's why they all have to be senior NCO's. They're supposed to be responsible, knowledgeable, top rate NCO's. And yet one of them was late, and one of them didn't even bother to show up. The people who needed to judge if I were responsible and professional enough to get promoted couldn't be responsible and professional enough to even show up on time.

Now, I'm not knocking the entire board. I personally knew two of the board members, and they're some of the best soldiers I've ever seen, and the only people who screwed up were these two. So don't think that I'm disparaging the board as a whole. But those two NCO's? Whoooooooooo boy, I do NOT want to know what the Sergeant Major is going to do to them tomorrow. Hell, I don't even want to be in the same building. That's going to be an ugly, ugly ass chewing. Blood on the ceiling kind of ass chewing. If they still have their jobs next month, I'd be surprised.

When the Sergeant Major requests your presence as a Board Member, and you tell him yes, you do not proceed to blow it off, forget it, or ignore it. Hell, you don't ignore a Sergeant Major at all if you know what's good for you.

Anyways, I need to go cook dinner. Toodles!