The last three months have been crazy for me. I have had four different boards that I have competed in AND one more board to be eligible for a promotion. To get promoted you have to have a certain amount of points. One of the areas that you get points is awards. There are a couple different things you can do to get awards. One of the ways is to go to the “Soldier of the Month, Quarter, and Year” boards. When you win each level you get different awards. This is the fastest way to raise your point total. So when we got back to the United States, I started to compete in the boards so that I can earn promotion points. The month and quarter board is an oral board where you are drilled with questions about different military subjects and regulations. The year board is a weeklong event. We took a written test, a physical test (push-ups sit-ups, and two mile run), an oral board and a range (weapons). I won each of those boards. So I was able to compete in the WRDC (Western Regional Dental Command) SOY (Soldier of the Year) board. I won that one by a pretty large margin. I did very well on the range and land navigation events. The other two soldiers that I competed against didn’t do so good in those events. So I had that one won by the third day. By winning that board, I was able to go to the DENCOM board. They take the top soldier and NCO (noncommissioned officer, Sergeant) from the different regions. There are seven regions through out the world. And we compete to see who will continue on to the MEDCOM Board. Which are all the different soldiers in the Medical fields.
This last week was the DENCOM board in Fort Hood, Texas. I flew down there on Sunday. We took a written test and picked a topic for an essay that we had to write. The second day we did the PT test. I ran my two miles in 13 mins and 14 secs. I was the fastest person by 30 seconds. Everybody was surprised that I was able to run so fast. They said that they would have never thought that I was a runner. I guess that is a compliment. We went back to the hotel and did our oral board. We wore our Class A uniform, which is our formal suit uniform. It was a stressful environment. They judge us on how we looked, talked, carried ourselves, and our answers. I did okay. No one really did outstanding on the board. On Tuesday we went to the range and qualified with an M-16 rifle. This is where we shot at targets at different distances. The targets pop up for a certain amount of time depending on their distance. The closer they are, the shorter time they are up. In the afternoon we did land navigation. We had to find three points in an area of about two square miles. And then find two at night. I did ok. It is really a hard course because of the terrain. The next day we did our warrior task. First aid, NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) put on a gas mask, calling a 9 line medical evacuation, directing movement under different types of fire. On Thursday we did urban orienteering. We had a map of Ft. Hood that every building and it number on it. We had three buildings that we had to run to and get some info from. In the afternoon we had our last event, Combatives. It is pretty much Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Except we can’t do any striking (hitting). Of course my first match was against the big guy who competes at the annual army wide combatives tournament each year. Needless to say I lost, I won the next fight and lost my next fight. So I was done. On Friday we had the awards ceremony. Combatives was the deciding event. I knew that I was not going to win or place in that event so I knew I was not going to win. It was a lot of fun though. I got to see a lot of people from Germany that are now stationed at Ft Hood, and a few that were in the competition with me. That was really the highlight for me.
So with all of the boards that I won it gave me enough points to go for my E-6 promotion board. I did that a couple of weeks ago. So I am now promotable. All I need to do is max my PT test in a couple of weeks and I will be promoted. I also reenlisted for two years. It only extended my contract by four months. But next fall I will go to school fulltime for six months. I won’t have to go to work, but I will still get a salary. So that will be nice to concentrate on that full time. So that has been my life for the last couple of months. I’m so glad that it is over and I can spend more time with my wonderful family. I just want to thank Kailey for all that she has done and continues to do. I love you.
