14 April 2011

            Today marked a transition in airborne PT.  The beginning of the end of our time here has opened up a few opportunities for students to lead our PT (which means both designing a PT plan, and then actually leading the group through it).  Today’s session was a kettle bell circuit workout similar to one we’ve done before, with running in between each full rotation.

            A direct commissionee classmate designed and led the entire thing, and I was really impressed.  It went off without a hitch, and was a good workout overall.  Most importantly, she maintained a great presence as leader the entire time, and did a great job overall.

            The family law exam came up fast at 0810, and was a bit different than our previous exams.  It was an essay exam, rather than a multiple choice one, and had 8 total questions of varying lengths and point values.  It took me about an hour and 40 minutes (out of 2 possible hours) to finish, and overall it wasn’t terrible.

(While 90% of law school exams seem like this, the family law exam fortunately didn't make it into that category.)

            I found myself consulting my notes a lot more than in other exams, but I never felt like the ball was being hidden.  The professor limits the space available for answers on each questions, so there’s not much room for BSing.  Even though it took most of us a solid chunk of time to finish, it was a fair exam that hit just about everything the focus slides mentioned.

            As usual, class resumed right after the exam (how wonderful).  We began with two hours on claims, which included foreign & deployment claims, as well as the Foreign Claims Act.  I didn’t realize there was a potential way for a deployed soldier to recover for their lost 50” tv destroyed while in Afghanistan (as in the TV was with him/her in Afghanistan and was destroyed there), but I’m comforted to now know that they have a possible means to recover.

(If this is your set up in the FOB, not to worry.  You'll not only have a 100% good reputation, but you'll also definitely be reimbursed when it all gets destroyed.  And by definitely I mean definitely probably not.)

            Our rebuttal letter for the original letter of reprimand was due today, and I’m hoping I managed to do it correctly.  The formatting of military correspondence is the biggest difference between anything on the civilian side of things, and it’s what consumes the most time.  It’s also unfortunately the easiest type of mistake to spot, and a reader will pick up on it much more quickly than any substantive error (just like you guys have probably noted plenty of those types of errors in reading my blog).  It took me about an hour and a half in all, and will be a pass/fail assignment.

(What my rebuttal letter will likely come back looking like.)

            Our afternoon was again stretched beyond the traditional end time.  The first hour dealt with transferring assets out of estates and into trusts.  Yes, it’s exactly as exciting as it sounds.  It actually is fairly important, as a large chunk of our graded wills exercise deals with setting up a trust for the client. 

      The second hour centered on income tax issues.  We learned that the largest chunk of military clients statistically come for tax assistance, which meant that the importance of the session was ratcheted up.  Unfortunately, the 50 minutes allotted to this topic couldn’t do it justice.  It felt like more of a mach speed flyby, which didn’t necessarily do the best job at teaching anything in particular.  This type of thing is reasonably common, and has more to do with the total amount of information that needs to be taught, and nothing to do with skills of the professor.

The day wound up with a class on wounded warrior protections, and the end of it brought an end to one of the busiest 2-day periods we’ve had in C-Ville.