Really?

So, my day started off with a bang.  LJ2 who is a Medic, like me, has been in the Army for 17 years.  The man has experience, I think.  He taught a class today on trauma patient assessment.  It was me, Blasian, Dirty D, SGT Ginger, Doc Fresh and a guest, SSG Hungover.

I know how to do an assessment on a trauma patient.  I've done it while deployed, done it in garrison, done it in training.  I've done it a few times.  He decides to do it by EFMB* standards and even hands out a gradesheet from EFMB for us to go by.  I get it, he wants to teach the book standard.  Everyone knows, when you do things repetitively, you tend to develop your own way to do it but the general structure stays the same.

LJ2 begins the assessment by starting on the second page, saying fuck the information on the front page.  Doc Fresh has been in the Army for 3-4 years.  Doc Fresh didn't have to join the Army to pay off med school loans.  Doc Fresh has been a doctor for a long time.  Doc Fresh has done this a few times but he doesn't know how the Army has taught us lowly medics how to assess a patient.  Doc Fresh can't comprehend that the Army would have different acronyms for the same things he knows.  He thinks it's stupid.  Well Doc, guess what, you're gonna find that in charts all over the place from us lowly medics.  Doc Fresh is lost in the class because he doesn't know the Army way.  LJ2 can't explain because LJ2 is using a gradesheet from a course he has failed 4 times.  SSG Hungover, myself and SGT Ginger decide to step in.  SGT Ginger has his EFMB, SSG Hungover has been deployed, as have I.  We know what we're doing.  (That is not to say that people who deploy automatically gain ultimate enlightenment.  LJ2 has deployed a couple times.  Get my drift?)

Doc Fresh gets frustrated because no matter how well the three of us explain the clusterfuck unfolding before our eyes, Doc Fresh can't seem to grasp the Army does things different from the civvie world.  Granted, Army way may not be the best but it works and we save lives.  LJ2 goes on to complete the class while I give SSG Hungover an IV.

At noon we have a formation to hold a moment of silence for Sept. 11 since we won't be at work on Sunday.

First Sergeant tells the NCOs afterwards that the barracks our unit is in charge of is completely dirty.  I don't see how they can let their building get dirty.  I don't live in that building.  That building's only common areas are hallways, stairwells, kitchens and a day room.  They have their own bathrooms in their room.  How the hell can they let it get dirty?  Beer pong tournaments on the weekends where no one cleans up afterwards, that's how.

Because our unit is supposed to be in charge of that building (even though people from all over this post live there.  And the majority of barracks personnel from my company live in the same building as I do) we get told to go clean it.  Like finding out who lives there and hold a 1900 formation on a Friday night for GI party would way too easy.  Make people who are married and live in Married Soldier quarters and people from a different barracks cleans makes perfect sense.  That being said, we cleaned the damn building, all the while doing what soldiers do best...complain while we work.

Afterwards I went to the gym and worked out for two hours to get rid of my frustrations and because that's my normal routine.  And this weekend will mark my first completely sober weekend.  I foresee lots of boredom between playing guitar and trying to ignore my roommate having sex with his girlfriend.  She's a screamer.  When I say roommate, we live in the same room.  A row of wall lockers separates us.  I hear everything.  This whole has really just made think "Fuckin' really?" all damn day.  From LJ2 fucking up our basic task of being able to assess a patient for injuries to having to clean a building I never go to and definitely don't live in to coming back from the gym to hear "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah!"  Fuckin' really?  She has her own place, I'm sure they could go over there.

*EFMB-Expert Field Medical Badge.  A two week long course consisting of everything a medic should know plus a couple other things.  It ends with a 12 mile ruckmarch that must be completed in 3 hours or less with a 40 pound rucksack.  Don't quote me on the weight, I can't remember right now.  It's a coveted badge (read: I don't want it but I'll try for it.)  Most people in the Army use this badge or the CMB (Combat Medic Badge) as a gauge of how great a medic you are.  If you don't have either one, you're a shitty medic or brand new.  If you're like me and have been in 4 years and deployed and I don't have either, I'm apparently a shitty medic and everyone seems to need to question me as to whether or not I know my job.  I think they can all go suck a dick or two.