| Thursday, June
15th, 2000
1826 soundtrack Singles
Todaywas THE day. At 1645 today Captain Lacy and Staff Sergeant Davis pinned Specialist insignia on my BDU collar. The moment I dreamed about for over twenty months finally happened. I despaired that it would ever happen at times. I was beginning to think I would never get a time in service waiver...but today all my hard work, all the late hours, all the pride I put into my ethics, my morals, and my appearance, my constant display of motivation, and my desire to "be all I can be" paid off. I'm happy as hell. I feel I earned it in a big way. I feel elevated. But I also feel a little torn. My unit fought hard for those waivers. I owe a lot to my unit, my First Sergeant, my Commander, and my NCOs. I feel like I'd be betraying them if I put in for the corporal recruting program. I don't mean to sound righteous, but they NEED me now. I play a crucial role for my battalion. Of course, they'd get a replacement legal specialist were I to leave, but that might take some time. I just got to 519th MI Bn in March. I wouldn't feel right just packing up and leaving so soon. SGT Phelps is leaving 319th MI Bn in October, and Smith will be moving there to fill her slot. SFC Wade and he would be left to pick up the slack my jumping would leave. In addition to all that, six months from now, I can go before the E5 promotion board and PLDC and get promoted to Sergeant. I already have enough promotion points to make the promotion list and to make it to sergeant. The question is whether or not I will have the experience necessary six months from now...that's a hard question to answer. But I would much rather make it to the NCO ranks in the "real" army as opposed to under recruiting command, and I still have nagging doubts about whether recruiting is really right for me or not... Of course, all this may be a moot point in that letter of reprimand I got for buying alcohol for the underage soldier qualifies as an "alcohol offense". SFC Delong assured me that it did not...but SFC Delong is gone now. He followed SFC Krause's lead and is on his way to become an officer in the infantry branch. But now I go--Dan and Randy are here,
we're going to Fat Daddy's for drinks, pool, and dinner...
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