Nauty by nature
Sunday I packed the Escape (much to Bailey's chagrin and Griffin's nonchalance) and drove to the SE corner of Virginia to start my ten-week course at Joint Forces Staff College. It was a little less than three hours getting here, driving the speed limit, so a much easier jaunt for driving back home on the weekends.
The school is attached to a Navy base, and as I stopped at the gate to ask the young Navy guard where "Normandy Hall" was, he pointed me in the right direction, snapped a sharp salute, and said, "Welcome Aboard." That's so cute. I checked into my VOQ, which is an odd set-up; three of us share half a duplex, with two of the rooms upstairs, and one room and the kitchen/laundry downstairs (I unfortunately had to drag all my crap up the stairs). But there's a bedroom and a living room with my own bathroom, so it'll do.
Monday was mostly orientation, first with just Air Force folks, then with everyone in the big auditorium getting addressed by the Commandant, Army Major General Quinlan, then the Joint and Combined Warfare School's Dean, a Navy Captain whose name I forget but it has "boat" somewhere in it.
We got a briefing from everyone and his brother, to include the education lady, who informed us that at the end of our course, we would have 15 credit hours that we could apply to a Master's Degree! My wife will be thrilled!
In the afternoon we were assigned to 18/20-man "seminars" where we'll hang out for the rest of the course (our room is on the third "deck" of the building). Around a U-shaped configuration of tables designed for lectures and discussion, we have one marine, a handful of each of the other services (though I'm the only space guy in our group), one Bulgarian Naval officer, and one Japanese airman. Seem a pretty good group. We had an icebreaker at the Club after class, and one Army guy showed up in a turtleneck, sportscoat with a flower in his lapel, and a brandy snifter.
He sits next to me.
But he's probably writing in his blog, "I'm sitting next to some freak with seven pets."
They're giving us Monday off for the July 4th holiday, so I'll get a good long weekend home.
The school is attached to a Navy base, and as I stopped at the gate to ask the young Navy guard where "Normandy Hall" was, he pointed me in the right direction, snapped a sharp salute, and said, "Welcome Aboard." That's so cute. I checked into my VOQ, which is an odd set-up; three of us share half a duplex, with two of the rooms upstairs, and one room and the kitchen/laundry downstairs (I unfortunately had to drag all my crap up the stairs). But there's a bedroom and a living room with my own bathroom, so it'll do.
Monday was mostly orientation, first with just Air Force folks, then with everyone in the big auditorium getting addressed by the Commandant, Army Major General Quinlan, then the Joint and Combined Warfare School's Dean, a Navy Captain whose name I forget but it has "boat" somewhere in it.
We got a briefing from everyone and his brother, to include the education lady, who informed us that at the end of our course, we would have 15 credit hours that we could apply to a Master's Degree! My wife will be thrilled!
In the afternoon we were assigned to 18/20-man "seminars" where we'll hang out for the rest of the course (our room is on the third "deck" of the building). Around a U-shaped configuration of tables designed for lectures and discussion, we have one marine, a handful of each of the other services (though I'm the only space guy in our group), one Bulgarian Naval officer, and one Japanese airman. Seem a pretty good group. We had an icebreaker at the Club after class, and one Army guy showed up in a turtleneck, sportscoat with a flower in his lapel, and a brandy snifter.
He sits next to me.
But he's probably writing in his blog, "I'm sitting next to some freak with seven pets."
They're giving us Monday off for the July 4th holiday, so I'll get a good long weekend home.
posted by Dan at 6:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home