Road Trip, Part 1...

(Ed. Note: I have been working on these articles for a few weeks, but haven't been smart enough to figure out how to do the pictures correctly. Oh, well, persistence pays off.)

Imagine pulling up to a golf course like this, knowing that ahead of you lay two splendid days of golf and time spent with good friends -- it doesn't get much better than that.

Last Wednesday (June 18th), I violated one of the sacred retiree rules and got up before the sun was anywhere in sight. My old Army buddie, Dave (a.k.a. Poolpatcher) and I took off into the sun and ended up at the Longaberger Golf Club in Nashport, Ohio. What a beautiful place. Even the waaaaaaay overly-zealous county sheriff deputy who pulled me over and gave me a warning for not using my turn signal when I pulled onto an exit ramp from Rt. 16 (no other cars within sight of us) couldn't spoil this morning.

When you pull into Longaberger, you immediately know why it is rated in the top 100 courses in the country by Golf Digest. What a place. The first hole is a tough, dog-leg right, par 4, spread out over the top of a high, windy hill, with a fairway that slopes downhill from left to right, playing to a somewhat elevated, fast green. This is your welcome call!! It also proves the old golf adage: fairways repel, roughs attract. I don't think I learned that in any science class I ever took, but it is obviously a law of nature.

I had a 100 for this course, 6 lost balls (that's 12 strokes - excuses), no broken or thrown clubs, and a pretty good ham sandwich at the club house for lunch. Not too bad for a hack such as me. Dave did pretty well too, but you'll have to talk to him about his score and lost golf balls. Remember, this is only his second year playing golf. I don't think he shot double his age, so that's good.

One other thing that I have to say about this course -- the people in the pro shop, restaurant, starter, bag guys -- they all know how to treat people. They gave even a commoner like myself a taste of how high class this game really is.

Oh, by the way -- did I say the greens were fast? They were so fast, it brought to mind Sam Snead's old saying: “These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow.”

We made a spit-palm pact that we would do another road trip next year too. This course will be hard to top. Now we're off to Eagle Sticks in Zanesville.

“It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me many years to realize it.” (Bobby Jones)

Hooah

Bailey is doing better...

You may recall that I mentioned on May 2 that our chocolate lab, Bailey, who is almost 12-years old, wasn't doing very well. In the span of a little over a month, she had lost over 10 pounds and was really looking thin. She was also hobbled by her arthritis and had lost some of her appetite. Her eyes were also getting cloudy. She was one sick dog. She was also urinating about every two hours and was having some accidents in the house when she would sleep.

We took her to the Vet who said she probably had some sort of kidney or bladder infection and either had a cancer or diabetes, but he wouldn't know for sure until he could run some tests. Whichever it was though, he said it wouldn't be cheap. He kept her overnight and it wasn't a good night's sleep for us. The next day he called and said Bailey had the bladder infection and diabetes which was common for dogs. We could treat her condition or put her down.

Well, those last words smacked like a hammer. This was the dog who licked my face while I lay on the floor waiting for the paramedics while I was having a heart attack. This was Pam's companion for about two years while I was deployed for military. Bailey is more than a dog to us, she is one of the family. I guess you have to have dogs like this to understand. Anyway, short of mortgaging the house, we were going to take care of this good friend. We committed to taking care of her, giving her her medication and insulin shots, taking her to the vet more frequently, and changing our lifestyle if necessary to ensure she had a good quality of life for her remaining time.

Well, after a week of TLC and insulin shots, I am happy to report that she is doing much better. She has put a couple of pounds back on and is able to get around much easier. Her bladder infection is gone and she is back to more of her old self. I think the key is in her eyes--they are clear and her old sparkle is back. Her walks with Pam are still pretty short, but she's making progress.

I haven't added any of my dog wisdom to this space for a while, so this might be a good place to get back to it. Dave Berry once said "You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right!! I never would've thought of that!'"

And finally, even though I am repeating myself on this one, "My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am."

Hooah

These Guys are Good !!!

I would bet that when asked, a lot of people would say that maybe Ohio State University or the University of Michigan or maybe the University of Texas is the biggest educational institution in this country. The trouble is, they all would be wrong. And I bet they would be shocked to learn that the educational system in the U.S. Army, which consists of basic training, MOS schools, and no less than five additional levels of advanced schooling for enlisted and four for officers (one of which leads to a Masters Degree) is one of, if not the largest, educational institutions in the world. I only hedge my bet because school numbers fluctuate depending on budgets and conflicts being waged.

But aside from the formal schools, the Army constantly trains and utilizes numerous situational training events called "Rock Drills" (I have no idea how they got that name). These exercises usually consist of several months of classroom instruction, followed by such things as CPXs (Command Post Exercises) and TEWTs (Tactical Exercises without Troops). In my career, I was able to participate in several of these. Two, however, come to mind -- both for different reasons.

The first one was when I was a battalion XO. It seems that we were having an ongoing doctrinal war with the school house experts at the MP school. They wanted us to continue to conduct EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) operations the way they did in Korea or WWII. We, on the other hand, said future wars would be fought differently and MP EPW OPS would have to adjust to the terrain and be able to function in urban settings. In the picture top/right, we are doing a sand table exercise and I am showing the staff, commanders and compound teams how we would operate in this kind of environment.

The second exercise took place when I was the Brigade G-3. This Rock Drill was the culmination of a year's preparation, and served as the inter-
mediary exercise prior to the actual field exercise. The class-
room prep, the Rock Drill and the Field Exercise were all monitored and evaluated by senior retired General Officers (called Grey Beards). In this case, our Grey Beard was the former commander of the 18th ABN CORPS. There were about six "advisors" (usually senior field grade officers [O-5s & O-6s] and senior level NCOs [E-9s] from other war- affiliated units) per exercised unit. Needless to say, the pucker factor was pretty high and the lessons learned were pretty valuable. The Grey Beards were very serious about these exercises as they had to report back to the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff. These exercises involved LOTS of troops from various parts of the country, and substantial amounts of tax-payer funds were spent.

I guess the point of all of this is Soldiers never stop learning their craft.They might be the only people I know who practice so hard to learn their job, hoping to never have to use it. I would also say that judging from the quality of operations I have personally seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of which involved units who took part in several of these exercises, the tax payers got their money's worth. It's kinda like that commercial for PGA golfers -- "These guys are good!!!"

"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a Soldier." (Samuel Johnson)

HOOAH

A man of many talents (?)...

My wife had the women from her Bible study group over the other night and I was cooking chicken on the grill for them.

Somehow, that took me back to one of those many times when we finished a training exercise and had a cook-out the night before we got on the road back home. The troops were loading trucks, cleaning and packing weapons (old soldiers know you have to clean weapons 3 times after exercising them so they'll pass the 1SG's inspection), washing vehicles and tents, and doing all sorts of other maintenance-related activities. So what were the officers doing?

No, the officers in my outfit were not sitting in the club drinking cold ones. We were manning the grills and cooking steaks and chicken so everyone could chow down when the work was done. Usually the XO would be in charge of cooking the baked potatoes and the S-4 would do the shopping for all the condiments (if you know what I mean). Being of such an exalted leadership position, I naturally assumed the position of first cook.

I remember one time we were having this "decompression" time and a visitor from a higher headquarters tried to tell me that, first of all officers shouldn't be doing this kind of work, and secondly that only a qualified, school-trained cook was allowed to cook for Soldiers. Since I figured I would have to do the explaining as to how 135 members of the U.S. Army's finest got poisoned , I might as well cook. Besides, I had already logged a lot of hours/summer cookouts on my home grill, so I declared myself qualified and duly trained. As for the part about officers not doing that kind of work, well, I just reminded him he was a guest and should mind his manners or I would have the MPs (which were all my guys anyway) escort him from the area. Later, I did notice him with a full face of Bar-B-Q sauce and a nice thick steak.

Another Army tradition I used to have fun with was having a big Christmas meal, with all the Soldiers dressed up in their Class A uniforms and the Brigade or Battalion Commander and Staff in Blues. I'll never forget the look on one of my Brigade Commander's (a one-star) face when I gave him and his wife aprons and a big long-handled fork to dish up the meat at the serving line as the enlisted soldiers and their families came through. The cooks fixed the meal the night before, but our serving and bussing gave the cooks and their families a chance to be with the other troops for this celebration. I was the Operations Officer at the time. The Deputy knew what was happening and jumped right in, so did the CSM and the rest of the staff. A couple of them served as busboys. The BG and his wife were good people and jumped in, having a great time doing so. His successor, however, frowned on this kind of celebrating, thinking it was degrading to him and beneath his rank, so he did away with all of these activities during his tenure. Bleak times. He didn't know that tradition is about Soldiers and not about him. Too bad.

There must be within our Army a sense of purpose. Do not begrudge the time you spend developing, coaching and helping your people to grow in military traditions. This is how and why they will carry on when you are gone.


Hooah