My Billet and the Ball

Motivation

A response from John Glenn when asked by Howard Metzenbaum, "How can you run for Senate when you never held a job?"

Quoted by GySgt. Wallgreen

My Path

There's been a lot going on, as usual. This last week we finished up FEX II. FEX II consists of a week long evolution in the field were we conduct platoon size operations in the offense and defense. It gave us a small glimpse of what we can expect to do as provisional rifle platoon commanders. It ranged from a platoon attacking a squad, a platoon attacking a platoon (during the day and during the night), and a platoon defending against a platoon. In my opinion, it's been one of the best FEXs we've had so far. It was cold, it was long, and it brought the platoon together as a cohesive unit. We attempted to finish the FEX with a live fire range, but unfortunately some pyrotechniques set the range on fire during rehearsals. Regardless, we spent a lot of time working together and will have the opportunity to make up the live fire range at the end of MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain).

The last week I have held the billet of Platoon Sergeant. Basically I'm responsible for carrying out the plan of the day, ensuring that my platoon is where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there, and maintaining accountability of gear and personnel. It was a rough transition of the billet holders as we received our billets as we rolled directly into FEX II, but it should get smoothed out throughout the next week and a half in garrison. This is my first garrison billet and the first real opportunity for the platoon to make an accurate assessment of who I am as a leader, which will be reflected in my peer evaluations. It's pretty exciting for me and couldn't be happier with having this billet.

Yesterday was the 237th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps. As a tradition, we hold a Birthday Ceremony and, for most units, a Birthday Ball. TBS held a ball for the entire training command and students. It was a pretty motivating experience. I estimated more than 2000 in attendance. The speaker, Capt. Jack Hoban, gave an amazing speech about warrior ethos and the ethical warrior. While some may not agree with everything he said, I would say that it made me proud to be fighting for our country. I hope that Americans see our service men and women the way that Capt. Hoban described us and the direction in which our armed forces are heading. The ball was another opportunity for our platoon to come together as a unit, both during and after. There aren't a lot of opportunities built into the POI for unit interaction beyond the squad level and our schedule makes it difficult to make time outside of it. 6th Platoon is definitely growing closer and will hopefully be the most study platoon in our company by graduation.

2012 Marine Corps Birthday Message: "For Honor, For Country"

WODs

Max Outs on Lifts (All PRs in the last couple of weeks)

Bench Press: 280#

Back Squat: 335#

Deadlift: 425#