My plan to go for an extra run this morning (I could stand to lose a few pounds, and all the yummy food down here isn’t helping any) was completely foiled by doing laundry late last night. At least that’s my internal excuse. A lamer – but still true – excuse is that my old body is still hurting from the combatives training we did the other day.
We got to the band hall a bit late this morning, but soon found out there were some minor changes to the schedule. The first hour was dedicated to concert band sectional time, which was a bit difficult with so many of the rehearsal spaces locked up. My “section” ended up being just myself and another player, so we literally set up in the middle of a hallway and honked away. I do think we got a few things improved.
The rest of the morning we got to rehearse our brass quintet. The two trumpet players had played through quite a few of the marches yesterday, and had a list of those they thought would be reasonable to get ready for our ceremony and concerts next week. We even had a bit of time to read through some stuff that had been found in our library, but never opened. We might get a bit more unscheduled time tomorrow, now that I’m looking at the details on the schedule.
As happens in many organizations, we have fallen victim to a number of negative “issues” that were resulting in rumors, backbiting, lack of respect, and other negative things that while not major on their own, when looked at collectively are becoming more and more significant. So the First Sergeant called an NCO meeting for all E5’s and above, without the commander. He mentioned that he hoped it would be a relatively quick meeting, where things could be discussed and then we could get back to the schedule of the day. I suspect he really knew better, and it did end up taking ALL of the afternoon rehearsal slot until it was time to leave the building. There were quite a few issues discussed, everyone who wanted to had their say, and I hope some new perspective and maybe even a breakthrough or two were attained. Time will tell.
Our combatives training continued this afternoon in the oven / gymnasium. After a quick warmup we moved immediately into drills designed to get from a position of weakness (ie having the opponent sitting on top of you) to one of strength. Our instructor went through the technical steps of how to grasp the arms, positioning your legs, rolling so you are now on top, and then how to break what is expected to be a leg lock around your body. It was a lot of steps, but a real eye-opener for those of us who haven’t been exposed to wrestling or martial arts training. Once again, everyone who was there did a great job participating and working and trying to practice the techniques.
After cleaning up, the 1SG and commander met with the senior staff to discuss one of the issues brought up during the NCO meeting. Oregon state policy is that E7’s and higher (to include the commander) lodge in their own room when traveling. Typically all other Soldiers pair up two to a room. For this trip, however, there was an oversight somewhere that resulted in the State not allocating any money at all for our Annual Training. So part of carving out the money for these two weeks also involved a VERY small budget for lodging. The command staff traveled to San Antonio weeks ago to meet with the MEDCOM band, work out many of the details and issues (ie what equipment we could use, keys to the building, vehicles, etc) and also to check out potential lodging options. They found quite a few really BAD options that would fit within our budget and meet the State’s standard room allocations. There was one option that was MUCH better than the rest: free breakfast every day, free dinner 3 nights a week, free laundry service, within easy walking distance of the Riverwalk, full kitchenettes, and much more. The only problem was the total cost. However the hotel did suggest that they had several 2-room suites with two beds in one room and a hide-a-bed in a second room, as well as two separate bathrooms. Thus we could put three people in a single room and come in under budget. That was agreed upon … and then the State decided they were going to contract with the hotel directly instead of letting us make the arrangements. Somewhere along the line a change was made, and when we got here we found that the 3-Soldier rooms were actually standard rooms, and when the hide-a-bed is pulled out there is very little extra room at all. Plus getting three people through the shower in a timely fashion has become a problem. At the same time that many Soldiers were lodged in this way, others (myself included, as an E-7, as well as people who had family travel with them) were in single rooms.
During our meeting the commander decided that we would re-distribute the room assignments, to include him sharing his room with the 1SG and the E-7’s will also share with other Soldiers. Unfortunately all of this will likely also result in the exclusion of families when we travel out-of-state in the future, unless they are willing to completely pay their own hotel costs. It also means that the Soldier who did not comply with any of the time-sensitive directives about bringing family members ended up in his own room anyway, while the Commander is ending up sharing a room. I hope that irony (mockery, really) isn’t lost on this or any other Soldier in the unit.
The night finished off well with dinner on the Riverwalk. A few of us went to an Italian place where I ordered the house special: spinach-stuffed chicken with mushroom sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. The Riverwalk is a set of canals running around downtown with sidewalks, restaurants, art, and more. Tour boats travel around the loop; sometimes they carry live musicians, others had dinner guests, but most were just packed with tourists going along for the ride. Next time I’m down there (while in civvies) I really need to take my camera …
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