OK so I'll start by finishing day 1. Much of the afternoon was taken up in getting folks login and password information for the computers. Those who had not completed the Information Assurance had the "opportunity" to sit through those lovely flash videos as a group while the rest of us were taken to another room to print out our certificates. (Thanks Terry for "encouraging" us to take care of this previously - it was nice to have that already done.) Then their IT guy spent quite a bit of time setting and resetting passwords, tracking down lost video cables, etc.
Next came the refresher on conducting the National Anthem, which we will be tested on this Friday. Our current instructor is emphasizing different aspects than did my BNCOC instructor. I was unable to sleep last night because I kept “conducting” it over and over in my mind … The end of the day was devoted to initial counseling with the SGL (instructor).
That evening I assisted one of our classmates (SSG Balback, from the 133rd) whose luggage finally arrived. She got the call from United that they would be dropping off her bags “sometime between 6:30 and 10:30.” A bit vague, but at least we wouldn’t have to drive back to the airport, just the front gate. She got the call about 8:00 that it was on the way, and we were to meet the driver at the pass office outside of gate 5. I thought I remembered the pass office being outside of gate 3, but we went ahead to gate 5 anyway. Sure enough, no office and the gate attendant said we should go back to gate 3. The only problem was, I had left my rental agreement in the room so I had to use my sheepish, “oops, sorry” look to get us back onto the base. Strike 1.
After retrieving the agreement we went back to gate 5, and looked for a way to get to the little out building without going out through the main gate. In my attempt to perform this non-standard maneuver I managed to go out through the one-way IN lane of the commercial gate area. Seeing we weren’t going to make it to the pass office from there either I turned around and got flagged down by the gate guard – luckily his weapon was not yet drawn. “You’re not supposed to go out this way” was followed by “Oops, sorry.” Strike two.
By the time we made it to the pass office parking lot we were about 10 minutes later than had been agreed to meet the delivery guy, but there was no sign of a blue civic. So we sat and waited. Eventually SSG Balback called the phone number she had, and the delivery guy said he was waiting at the pass office at gate 5. Huh? We offered to meet him at gate 5 (not sure where), but he said he would come to us instead. During this time a police officer pulled into the parking lot and walked up to the car. I thought for sure this was Strike 3. Instead he simply asked what we were doing there, and seemed to believe our story. He then went to the other vehicles in the lot and got them all to leave. OK, only Strike 2.5.
A few minutes later, a blue sedan pulled into the lot and parked about 10 spots away. “Is he really going to make us lug your bags from that far away?” I asked. Anyway we got out, and so did the driver. SSG Balback pronounced, “Wow, am I ever glad to see you!” “Uh, OK.” Then I noticed that the car was a CAMRY, not a CIVIC. Probably scared that guy good, having to strangers walk up to him in a dark parking lot being overly friendly. (We found out this morning that he’s actually a BNCOC student!) Strike 2.75?
Enough time passed that SSG Balback called that number AGAIN, and he said he was looking for us at gate 3A. Um, we had just talked to the only other person in the parking lot there at gate 3. Eventually she asked, “Are you at Little Creek?” Turns out the guy was driving around the wrong base looking for us. Another 20 minutes and we were FINALLY headed back to Shields with her bags. So much for getting to bed early.
So last night I could not sleep. Not sure why, especially considering how tired I felt. I just kept rolling over, conducting the Anthem in my head, looking at the clock. They had moved up our APFT time from 0600 to 0515, so I was getting worried when it was after 1am and I was still not asleep. I guess I eventually did get a few hours.
The weather was actually quite cold, but at least there wasn’t much wind. And of course it was still dark. Onward! I was able to muster 50!69!15:42, which is actually very good for me. Not sure what the final scores were, but the deputy commandant made a point to commend our entire class on the effort during the APFT, and especially on the FORM of the pushups and situps. Nice.
This is the first RCANCOC / BNCOC that is being broken into specialized training tracks, such as sound reinforcement, instrument repair, voice, arranging and drum majoring and we were asked several times to prioritize which one(s) we would like to attend. Yesterday they mentioned the instrument repair track had been canceled, and they “encouraged” all ANCOC students to not choose the drum major track since it would be a repeat of the BNCOC training. So I had selected sound reinforcement, drum major, arranging and voice (in that order). This morning the sound reinforcement track had been dropped due to lack of availability of an instructor. Since the arranging track required some background in music theory and passing a pretest, I talked my way back into the drum majoring.
Drum Majoring is, as we were told, a repeat of the BNCOC training. But it probably doesn’t hurt to have another round of the training material, especially if we find ourselves down to only one euphonium player eventually and we might not want him to be our second drum major. (Hint, hint?) We’ll see how that goes. A couple of the ANCOC students are their unit’s primary drum majors, and it will be interesting to learn some of the flourishes and techniques from them.
This afternoon was supposed to start with Individual Practice (IP) but all the rooms were full by the time I got there. So I’ll for sure be back to the school after dinner. I was able to get a locker checked out so I can leave my horn in the other building. The afternoon classroom sessions started with some MST indoctrination and discussion. (They were very happy to hear that the 234th is planning some concurrent missions this year!) Later we practiced some more with baton technique, and finished off the training day by setting up an outdoor review area. I’m assuming there will be much more of that last exercise to come.
That was about it … I’ll leave out some of the other, much more mundane items each day. Just trying to give everyone a flavor, not a play-by-play. :+)
CIVILIAN UPDATE:
Terry = Terry Tuggy, one of our full-time staff at the band and pretty much always on top of everything
BNCOC = Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Course (the one I did several years ago)
ANCOC = Advanced Non-Commissioned Officer Course (the one I'm currently doing)
RCBNCOC or ACBNCOC = Reserve Component courses, as opposed to Active Duty courses
SGL = Small Group Leader, or our main instructor
SSG = Staff Seargeant
APFT = Army Physical Fitness Test (don't pass and they send you home!)
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