Day 73

Today was an Army kind of day. There is a Transfer of Authority, TOA, ceremony soon and I was chosen to be one of the 20 soldiers from the 287th to stand in formation, representing the 309 soldiers of the brigade. We had a rehearsal for the ceremony. So far, we’ve had 6 rehearsals. Mainly we’re working on saluting, present arms, and ending the salute, order arms. Oh, we weren’t good enough for the active Army Sergeant Major, so in addition to the 6 full rehearsals, we got to have a unit specific rehearsal. Present arms; order arms. Repeat as necessary. My oh my, what a fun time. I haven’t had to do this since basic training, a little over 20 years ago, but what’s up with the people who went to basic in the last 5 years or so. It’s like trying to herd cats. The unit we’re replacing, the 7th STB, finally handed over the office to us yesterday afternoon. They inherited the job 15 months ago from the 82nd Airborne. When they moved in, they left everything as they found it. Today when I was cleaning up, I found a newspaper that was 15 months old. Remind me again why the active duty always gives the Guard grief? There is a 61 year old Warrant Officer with us who people say looks much like me, and that I look like him. (I’m not sure if I am being insulted) Yesterday one of the NCO’s saluted me, thinking I was the Chief. Two steps later he was close enough to me to see his mistake and apologized. One of these days I’ll get a picture of us together and you can decide for yourselves.