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16-20 May 2011 In restarting my blog, it wasn’t my intention to revisit DCC. I have nothing against the course, but I was content to leave it as a blank, uncovered 6-week period. One of the primary unexplained reasons I didn’t post extensively about the training was that I simply didn’t take much of any notes during the course. I kept a semi-journal of days with bullet pointed lists of tasks and events during OBC. That made...read more
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2 October 2011 As a huge fan of the long gone Comedy Central hit, Chappelle’s Show, I’ll never forget the wonky way it ended. Dave Chappelle, sketch comedy genius, was at all time popularity high after the second season of the show ended. Then the unbelievable happened. He up and flew off to Africa in the middle of filming the third season, and that was all she wrote. In many ways, I pulled a Dave...read more
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And so we have finished the substantive, and more importantly the testable, portion of our instruction for the 185thJAOBC. It’s been 12 weeks since we reported to Fort Lee – and we are now down to 3 days of administrative wrap-up, equipment turn-in, the dining-in and graduation. The Air Assault group started their week on Sunday night with a 12 mile ruck march. The standard is 3 hours, but most were done in 2 and ½. The whole class did PT every other...read more
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Today is a good day for the Army. The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in place for the last 18 years - which kept honest, loyal (gay) Soldiers from serving with with full dignity and respect - has been repealed. (You can read the announcement from the Army's leadership at www.army.mil - look for the "Hot Topic link at the top.) I've written here about DADT before and we've had a few short-lived discussions about whether repeal would be the...read more
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The 185thJAOBC class finished Admin Law – Client Services this week and began our last block of instruction – International and Operational Law. The class started off the week with a PT test. As I have written before, passing the PT test (and the accompanying height/weight/tape testing) is a requirement to meet course standards. Failure to do so causes the class member to have their Academic Evaluation Report noted with “marginally achieved course...read more
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The 185thJAOBC returned after our first long weekend to continue our Admin Law – Client Services instruction this week. This block of instruction makes up the second half of our Admin Law grade. The instruction is divided between Tax, Estate Planning, Family Law and Consumer Law. There is a ton on information. There are also quite a few assignments that must be completed. As busy as this week was in the classroom, it was equally slow in PT. The weather...read more
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The 185thJAOBC class finished its Fiscal Law block this week. We followed it up by jumping back into Admin Law – this time in Legal Assistance. Legal Assistance is probably the most direct way that Judge Advocates help soldiers and officers. This is where JAs help our service members solve problems. Sometimes it is with family law, sometimes with claims, while other times it is creditors or property issues. Most JAs start in Legal Assistance and regardless of...read more
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The 185thJAOBC class finished its Military Justice block this week. We followed it up by jumping into Fiscal Law with both feet. Fiscal Law is a field of practice unique in many ways. Some class members really like it, and others are not the biggest fans. However, if mastered, the knowledge and skill can be a real asset to the Army and to the service member should he/she decide on a second career in the public sector. Every day after class there was work to do for...read more
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Anyone who has been around the Army a little while has seen this - the old guy in the guy in the guy or out at the PT track lifting more weight than is reasonable, doing more push-ups than you and me, running faster than his stumpy legs and beer belly should allow. For a few years now I've been living in that stage between young-man endurance and 'old-man strength,' waiting to be able to accomplish ridiculous feats of physical prowess with no connection to the actual work put...read more
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I like to think that my recent call out for thoughts on the role/respect of Soldiers in the general public was the catalyst behind last week's article in the New York Times. (Thanks to my friend Jen for posting it on Fb.) Among other things, the author says we need to take Soldiers down off a pedestal and start treating them like human beings. We're not perfect, and even though many of us (myself excluded) do hard or heroic things, most of us don't....read more
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