16Aug09

Alfa’s struggle with commitment continued today. While earning our colors should have inspired us to keep up the hard work, we have instead chose a different course. To rekindle our enthusiasm, our CC’s directed us through some very physical urgency exercises for the majority of the afternoon. As a result, we marched to chow sopping wet and not at all looking like we were a company headed into week 06. Our company is experiencing internal discord as it becomes more and more obvious where our weaknesses continually lie. We are still so wrapped up in our own issues that we often deny ourselves the opportunity to experience how much true teamwork can accomplish. After evening chow, we headed out on an uplifting company run with bravo. Again, we always seem to put our best foot forward when others are watching. We have the raw material of integrity within us, but we are exhausting every way to find and keep it.

17Aug09

Alfa reached deep within today and provided a good effort at making progress in our teamwork. It may have been a switch turned on or merely the soreness from yesterday’s drills that served as our catalyst, but one thing was for certain. It was a genuine effort. Maybe we’re tired of bickering, maybe we’re scared of losing Saturday’s much anticipated on-base liberty. Whatever the circumstance, we worked hard to stay quiet, move more quickly, and help our shipmates. That’s not to say we succeeded at every task, but our mood was certainly different. It did not feel like our usual motivational bursts, but more like a very small step towards understanding. None of us want our graduation to be to the relief of the regiment. We have a little over 02 weeks to change everyone’s minds, including our own. We were afforded a rare and exciting opportunity today to join the base for a country music concert put on by the “Spirit of America” tour. Featuring major recording artist mark wills, we were able to enjoy an intimate and inspiring show for a few hours. Afterwards, we did our best to lock back onto business as usual. As always, tomorrow is a new training day and a new opportunity to continue to progress.

18Aug09

Another day brought our new opportunity, and Alfa was again up for the challenge. We managed to continue our progress from yesterday, and maybe even grew a little. Alfa had an adventure-packed day that demanded our total focus, since we began our fire-fighting classes this week. Today we got to wear and operate our masks, respirators, and helmets and practice hose handling and positioning. We also each extinguished a small fire in the shipboard simulator. The class was fun and more difficult than you would think. Later this week we will be putting out fires in full suit with the hoses in a training area designed like a ship’s hatch. It is a mandatory class, but most of us have been looking very forward to it. Maybe it’s what has inspired us to start putting out our own fires.

19Aug09

Alfa was back to separate groups today to complete 02 missions- our fire fighting exercise and to complete career counseling and ID card issue. We were able to ask many questions about our first duty stations, to YN1 Pascucci, who patiently answered them all. Then we were issued our common access cards (CAC). They are much more than identification- they are practically mini computer for all the functions they perform. Alfa has many preparations to make before our departure, and tonight we began making our first contacts to our units to ask questions about our arrival. All of the steps we’re taking make us feel so close to the end, but so far we’ve managed to maintain our bearing through the excitement. There is so much to look forward to in the next few weeks that staying locked on will be a challenge for Alfa, but each day we are coming closer.

20Aug09

Days like today are what recruits look forward to from day one. Alfa was split again today between ID cards and firefighting, followed by another round of pugil sticks, and generous time allotted to uniform maintenance. Our CC’s have been rewarding our (mostly) good behavior with more time to produce higher quality work. The firefighting proved to be an intense experience for most of the company. Besides being physically demanding, it was challenging to remain levelheaded under layers of clothing, very low visibility, and claustrophobic masks and respirators. Many of us recognized that we may need to fight a major onboard fire at some point in our careers, and swallowed that fact with some difficulty. Others of us loved the experience and were excited to go again. To release some tension afterwards, we went head to head in another round of pugil stick fighting. Our training schedule today kept us fully engaged, and we’re hoping that momentum carries into tomorrow.

21Aug09

Alfa’s day today consisted of many new and non-routine tasks that veered steeply away from our normal schedule. We provided set-up and watch duties for Yankee-181’s graduation, had our smallpox injection sites reviewed, and performed several other “odd jobs” around the regiment. BM2 crews is helping us build our signature cadences, now that we have developed an identity. Our last big event of the day was our weekend inter-company kick-off. As mentioned before, large blocks of unscheduled time can put us doing just about anything, and our CC’s plan some very tactical exercises between companies to foster camaraderie and teamwork. While we don’t socialize with our junior companies, these exercises are realistic so that when we arrive at our new units, we will need to work with new people and new ideas to accomplish a mission. Our variation in schedule and impromptu activities kept us occupied and our minds off of our long awaited shot at on base liberty tomorrow.

22Aug09

Alfa’s day started out sweaty in the non-traditional way as we piled on our gortex rain gear to fend off hurricane bill’s spittle. With our close order drill test looming near, we took to the parade field to practice. Maybe we had too much breakfast, or maybe the rain was distracting, because our practice runs were definitely below our capability. When Alfa is locked on, our c.o.d. generally looks pretty good and is one of our strengths. At least we all seemed to be disappointed with ourselves and committed to fixing it, which shows we may have grown beyond our “lecture, awesome, not so awesome, lecture” routine. Our CC’s were still kind enough to grant our liberty, and Alfa swarmed cape may with radars on for food and pay phones. Of course a good time was had by all, and we returned promptly to our squad bays. Tomorrow we’ll begin earning next week’s off base liberty, so it will be interesting to see if a little R&R refreshed Alfa’s focus for another week of training.

23Aug09

Alfa rode the hamster wheel back to the bottom again today after our cc’s discovered that our heads, squad bays and gear lockers were not only not to USCG standard, they were not clean by any standard. Our liberty yesterday seemed so hard earned, but Alfa has learned how to put on a good show, then our efforts often are revealed to be superficial. Bm2 crews led us through a strong briefing that will hopefully penetrate our thoughts and percolate down into our actions. In about 10 days, we will need to pass final inspections and act as a graduating company. We should each leave Cape May prepared to answer a plea for help. We discussed the expectations that civilians develop for you as soon as they see your uniform. People generally expect us to be prepared for emergency as soon as we walk off this base. Right now not many of us feel ready or confident in our shipmates’ readiness. Anais nin said, “one’s life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” We are on the threshold of amazing opportunity. Each one of us must find the courage to seize that opportunity and all of the responsibility and sacrifice that comes with it. Not one mentor we have met on this base has ever regretted their decision to take that chance, and they rely on us to do the same.

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