He's Home!

This past week has been a crazy combination of hurry-up-and-wait, anticipation, anxiety, and finally, relief.  I left on Wednesday for Lawton, and arrived in plenty of time to freshen up for my dinner date with other 1-31 FA BN Foxtrot BTRY family members.  We met at Olive Garden and I had a wonderful visit with people who had shared my summer experience and whose family members knew my own - it was amazing.

Wednesday night, D called at 9:43.  "I have seven minutes," he said, "So we can't talk long."  He continued, saying that they had recently learned that the Family Run would basically consist of the battery running in formation, and the family running in a formation behind them - meaning we wouldn't get to visit or run together, so I opted to sleep in instead - which D totally understood.  I returned to my hotel room after visiting for four hours with the family members I'd had dinner with and went to sleep.  Or tried to go to sleep, anyway.  Seems like as soon as I laid my head down, I'd think of something else I needed to look at on the map or google.

I slept fitfully, at best, and woke up at 6:30, fifteen minutes before my alarm went off.  I had a little breakfast from the lobby of the hotel and then began to get ready - after my shower I got a text message:  "Wish you would have been there this morning - wasn't like we thought."  Turns out that the soldiers got a good 20 minutes to visit during the run time and I missed it!  Nothing I could do about it at that point, though, so I continued getting ready and arrived at Ft. Sill 30 minutes early for the day's activities.

The first part was a short family orientation - basically talking about what the soldiers had been doing, and some jokes about how now they could all do their own laundry - and a citizenship ceremony, where 8 soldiers became citizens of our great nation.  This all ended about 9:15, 45 minutes ahead of schedule!  The second part of the on-base portion was a demonstration - select groups of soldiers demonstrated different skills they had fostered this summer, like physical fitness and battle buddy/taking an enemy drills - and then several soldiers were promoted.  This all ended about 9:50, and had been scheduled to end at 11:00, so as the soldiers marched back to the battery area to change from ACUs to ASUs (the camos to the dress uniforms) the family members were all abuzz with the likelihood of getting our soldiers early.  Oh, but wait - this is the Army we're talking about here.

So, we waited until 11:15 for our soldiers to march back to us, where they were released for Family Day.  That first embrace - I can't even describe my feelings.  I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.  I wanted to jump for joy and never let D go again.  Then I remembered that I had on makeup - and had been standing in the Oklahoma sun and wind for an hour - and he was wearing a white shirt... oops!  We met one of D's battle buddies and his wife and brother for lunch at Red Lobster, then headed back to the hotel to hang out.

End of Family Day, before he reported back to the Battery Area for formation.

When it was time for dinner, D had requested fast food so we had Whataburger and then I took him back to Ft. Sill and dropped him off for the night.  My mom and step-dad arrived and luckily I had them to visit with or I'd have been a mess Thursday night.  As it was, I barely slept, waking up much earlier than my 9:00 alarm.  We checked out of the hotel about 10:45 and went to have lunch with the D fan club - his parents and some close family friends.  

Graduation was scheduled to begin at 1:00, so we arrived at about 12:30 and got seats in the balcony.  The entire class was seated in the lower level, so I went down to take a picture of D, even though he couldn't look at me or react, calling "I love you," in Korean as I walked away. 

Before the ceremony.  See how they're all staring straight ahead?

Specialist D, stating his name and hometown!

The ceremony was emotionally charged and awesome, but my favorite part was obviously the end, where, after standing in the heat for a bit, I got to load my D in the car and drive him home with me!

Let's go home!

Now, we're at home, luxuriating in each others' presence.  Forgive me if I don't update again for a while!  :-)

Five More Days

The days are finally dwindling down!  I will be headed to Lawton on Wednesday, with Family Day on Thursday and then Graduation on Friday.  Finally, I can just say, "Oh yeah, it's Friday."  Not next Friday, or in ten nine ... two weeks.  I am so, so ready.

This past week, the soldiers executed their 16 km march, but the bivouacking that was planned had to be canceled because of the heat.  D said in a letter that five soldiers had fallen out within two hours due to heat injuries, so they "simulated" their training in the Battery Area.  NIC-at-Night was re-cancelled and so was Night Navigation.  Their march was rescheduled from 2200 to 0300 - D said it took until 0830 or so to finish.  I can't even imagine, especially in this heat.  The soldiers also began returning their equipment - like their M16s.

We had rain at our residence yesterday, which kept the temperature down in the 90s, but no such luck for Lawton.  When I talked to D yesterday, he said it was 108F.  He also mentioned that for the last 8 days, it had been between 108 and 111F every day.  So glad he's coming home to rest in the AC!

This coming week is all about preparing for graduation.  More equipment must be turned in and then the battery must meet for inspection.  D is supposed to retrieve his ACUs and Dress Uniform from the cleaners today.  Wednesday is graduation practice. And then our reunion!

Last night was definitely the most difficult phone call to date.  We've spent all the time away from each other, and here it is, the resulting simultaneous stress and relief culminating in a single phone call.  We didn't want to hang up - only being able to hear your significant others' voice once a week is not easy and not something I would wish on anyone - but we also wanted it to end simply because the end of that day brings our reunion another one closer.  So close.

And here we are.  BCT is drawing to a close, and then we only have drill to look forward to once a month for the next several months to come.  It will be relief beyond words to have my D at home with me again.  I've been resisting the urge to pack, but you better believe that my packing list is at the ready!

Pffffft, PFT

If you've been keeping up with us on Becoming an ARNG Wife, you know that this past weekend was the dreaded Physical Fitness Test.  Up to this point, D has only participated in PFAs (Physical Fitness Assessments) - and I definitely won't use this venue to talk about how test and assessment mean the same thing and that the Army should really be calling one a formative assessment and the other a summative assessment because I doubt that anyone reading this wants to hear about educational assessment theories (if you do, you know how to get in touch with me!).  Anyway, a PFA is basically a practice test used to gauge your improvement and show you where you stand for the REAL thing.

The REAL thing took place on 30 July.  D had taken a practice test during each drill weekend previous to BCT and then a couple of times during BCT.  Each time, he had shown improvement, but his biggest challenge was always the run.  For civilian folks (like me), here's a breakdown.  The PFT consists of 3 parts:  situps, pushups, and the run.  You get two minutes for each of the first two - the idea is to do as many situps or pushups as you can in those two minutes.  The run is for two miles.  To pass, you need at least 150 points with a minimum of 50 in each category.  I know that seems like a useless qualifier, but without it a soldier could potentially pass if they ran really slow but could max out pushups; so really, it's to make sure everyone can perform reasonably well in each category.

To get 50 points for pushups, males in D's age category (22-26) have to do at least 31 pushups (women have different standards).  Fifty points in the situp portion requires 43 situps.  The two mile run has to be completed in 17:30 or less.  Since his arrival at BCT, D had pretty consistently gotten enough points in the pushup and situp categories - which was a feat in its own right, since during drill he hadn't been able to do that.  His progress has been astounding to watch.  His first run time at BCT was just under 20 minutes - 19:57.  A ten minute mile is pretty impressive to me since the last time I ran a mile (in the air-conditioned gym on a treadmill) it took me close to twelve and a half minutes.  In his second PFA, he ran an 18:17.  So, coming into the PFT - the one that matters and could make or break graduation - he needed to shave 47 seconds from his run time.

I had been thinking about it all week.  And worrying about it all week.  I avoided writing anything about it in my letters, though, because I didn't want D to think I didn't think he could do it.  Or put any more pressure on him about it.  I did think he could do it and I knew I'd be upset if he didn't pass, since that had the potential for delaying his return home.  On Saturday morning, I woke up about 5:30 am and said a little prayer for him; for the rest of the day - especially after his Battery Commander posted a God-awful note on Facebook about how most of the battery had done well, but there were a "few families and soldiers" that were going to be "disappointed in the next couple of weeks" - I worried and fretted and was anxious.  I texted him late in the afternoon just to say that I couldn't wait to talk to him and imagine my surprise when my phone dinged a few minutes later with a reply!

I texted back almost immediately - "How did it go this morning?"  Then, my lovely husband almost gave me a heart attack when he didn't respond for a few minutes.  "Do you have time to talk?" he finally answered.  I was keeping our nephew, T,  this weekend (he's 11) and so D didn't know if we were busy.  Of course, T was busy playing video games on the computer so I replied affirmatively and within a few seconds, my phone rang.

After our exchange of hellos and how-are-yous, I asked again.  "How'd it go today, honey?"  Here's about how our conversation went (my inner dialog is italicized):
M:  "Did it go okay?"
D:  "What do you want to hear about first?"
M:  "I don't care - I want to know about all of it!"  (You're killing me, D - just tell me!)
D:  "Well...  let's start with pushups.  I did 45.  And I quit doing situps before time was called."
M:  "But you did enough, right?"  (Why would you stop before doing enough?)
D:  "Oh yeah, I did 45 situps, too.  I only needed 43.  I wanted to save my abs for the run."
M:  "How was the run?" (Spontaneously combusting, here, D!)
D:  "You want to guess my time?"
M:  "No!  Just tell me!"  (Guessing too fast would be mean and so would guessing too slow.  Better to not guess!)
D:  "Well, you know I needed 17:30, right?"  
M:  "Yes."  (Seriously, D.  Me == dying)
D:  "Well my time was in the 17s."
M:  "Okay..."  (the upper 17s or lower 17s?)
D:  "It was 17......... thirty-............."  (Meanwhile, I'm dying on the inside) "exactly.  17:30 on the nose"
M:  *passes out from waiting*
D:  "I did it."
M:  "I knew you could!  I'm so proud of you!!"

So, other than my husband trying to kill me with anticipation, everything turned out great!  He got the score he needed - actually, let's see:  45 pushups gives 66 points, 45 situps gives 53 points, and his time of 17:30 gives exactly 50, so he scored:  169!  *much celebratory dancing and squealing and screaming*

On Sunday, he got his phone practically all day, which was so nice.  He had time to call his parents, too, which I'm sure they appreciated.  I tell D all the time I feel bad for monopolizing all of his talk-time, but I only sort of feel bad for it.  I really like that he calls me!  We had a great conversation about Family Day and Graduation (which I have still not gotten any information about!), but it was cut short because he had to help load the truck for their 16 k march.

The soldiers are spending half of this week bivouacking, during which - at some point - they will complete their last requirement for graduation.  They will also get to participate in a watered-down version of NIC-at-Night, which I've mentioned in previous posts.  D was glad for it, since they had thought they wouldn't get to do it at all.  Then, it will be time to turn in gear and wait for Family Day to roll around.  In EIGHT MORE DAYS!

Is it too early to pack?