Drill Weekend

Another exciting Drill Weekend! Well, I may be over exaggerating a little bit...Thought I would fill in those followers who have no clue what could go on during a national guard weekend. After a long month of our annual training in August, followed by the week of the Republican National Convention, there is actually many things for recovery we have to get completed in just two days. Soldiers on active duty get a week to do what we have to do in just two days.

Weapons maintenance is one of our first and main priorities. Of course, because without a functioning weapon how could you be a soldier...right? Along with the maintenance and cleaning of our weapons, we have to make sure they are still working properly an annotate any new deficiencies that may have aroused. To accomplish this task and other key equipment, It could possibly take up a whole day.

Another set of task, when we are not out in the field training, we have mandatory administrative stuff to complete. This is what we usually called "death by powerpoint." This month was mandatory sexual harrasment prevention training. I know you are wondering why we have to do this. Well, to be honest with you, every soldier does need sexual harrassment prevention training. It happens more than you would think in the military and not just guy assaulting girls either. It is a simple online course that you can complete on your own time but unfortunately some soldiers like to wait until the last minute.  I was personally task to walk soldiers through this tedious tutorial to help them enroll and complete the course. Sometimes the adminstrative stuff can be a hassle but still a very important key task that, even though are monotonous, are very beneficial and well needed.

To conclude this past weekend training, it definately was not one of my favorite drill weekends but overall a lot was accomplished. Sometimes people do wonder and ask me what we really do on drill weekends. Well, your taxes are not being wasted, we actually train hard and accomplish many tasks as you can see from above. Included from above but not limited too, field training, hurricane support, and overseas deployments, despite to popular belief, the national guard does work. Until next drill weekend...

Getting the Word out

I was told to help get the word out! This is what I am going to do because it's the right thing to do. It's for the VFW's Voice of Democracy Scholarship competition. This scholarship is for young patriotic American students grades 9-12th and the first prize would be $30,000. I do need help to get this out to our high school students, teachers, youth groups, parent-teacher assoc., and school boards. The deadline to send an audio-essay to VFW post is November 1st, 2012. So don't Delay.

The topic, "Is Our Constitution still Relevant?" Let's get the word spread and get some scholarships out to these patriotic kids! To download the entry form click here.Thank you for helping out.

Workout of the week

Head to your gym now! This workout routine will hold you over for a couple of days.

1. Power cleans, reps -21,15,9,6. I just used 95lbs but use the weight you are able to for the complete workout.
2. Dips, reps 21,15,9,6. You will do a set of power cleans then go directly to the dips right after and so on.

That's it for this portion of the workout. Next:

1. Paddleboard for one hour. You can pretty much go out to any water source with a paddleboard.

It's fun but will work your core out as well as your stabilizers. Nevermind that, it's a total body workout! My buddy is starting his own paddleboard company and if your interested in test rides or workouts on them let me know.


Last but not to add too much fun:

1. Carry a 60lb bag overhead and walk 40 meters.
2. Rope undulation approx. 35 ft rope wrapped around base of a tree.
3. Modified mountain climbers.

The last 3 exercises you can set a time you want to do all 3 in and continue to rotate through each exercise. It works well with 2 other partners also. Or, you can just do 5 rounds of it for example. I did it for 20 mins and that was good enough...lol. I was feeling great after but not sure about tomorrow!, Ask me later...ENJOY!

Veterans Entrepreneur Expo

To all military members and veterans out there! Are you tired of losing the employment war? Wanting to make a change in your life...Do you have some ideas of possibly starting up your own business? Well, I was sent an email from my unit with the National Guard about a Veteran Entrepreneurs' Expo. It will give you all the information and professional guidance for free! Yes, F-R-E-E. Sounds good doesn't it. Well here's the scoop:

• WHO: Current and Veteran military members and their family.

• WHERE: St. Petersburg Marriot Clearwater, 12600 Roosevelt Blvd., St. Petersburg, FL 33716

• WHEN: October 6th, 2012. 9am-4pm

• WHY: Well one, because its free! Two, it provides valuable information and guidance on how to start a business. Also, you will get connected with SCORE, it's a non-profit organization that holds free workshops and mentoring service to entrepreneurs.

For more information go to www.scorepinellas.org and click veterans page.

U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans review

Suspend our joint training which helps out the Afghan National Army! What?! This is crazy...I was reading this disturbing information from an article on CBS news this past evening. The article states,"they are suspending most of the joint training with the Afghan National Army and police due to insider attacks." That is the Afghans we are training, our allies, turning their guns on NATO forces and killing them. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey stated, "the surge in insider attacks a very serious threat to the campaign."

I'd have to agree 100% with General Dempsey especially since we have been training their soldiers for the past ten years but need to weed out these infiltrators. However, our main existence there is to train and mentor their Army so they can take over. If this is suspended that would mean our soldiers can all come home...Right? No. We already lose enough soldiers to accidents, IEDs and fighting off the Taliban so we especially don't need to deal with "insider attacks." It almost feels as if we have to go in reverse to fix this issue. Furthermore, I do not want to say for the last ten years what my fellow comrades and I have done was a waste of time and did not make a difference...because it did.

I feel if we back out all our troops now and leave then the Taliban would have won this war on terrorism. Let's take a step back from this serious threat, re cock and go back to what we originally planned on doing...Mentoring and training their Army so our soldiers can finish their job, fight terrorism in their home not ours and get home safely.

I hope our Commanding Officers will resolve this very tragic issue ASAP and get back to business as we cannot lose anymore soldiers to "insider attacks." I pray for all the soldiers who put their heart and soul in the support for Operation Enduring Freedom as well as the families of soldiers who never made it home...

You can read this full article at  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57514546/u.s-military-suspends-joint-patrols-with-afghans/

Don't be "That Guy"

I had the opportunity to work the RNC (Republican National Convention) with the FL National Guard during the first week of classes which was a little bit frustrating having to play catch up. I feel we were a little over strength but hey, nothing bad happened. If we were not there, I bet there would have been many more incarcerations. National Guard soldiers were strategically placed within the perimeter and at checkpoints surrounding the Tampa Convention Center. I believe we worked well with the secret service and local law enforcement, looked professional and did our job.
All in all, everything went well except for a major incident at our hotel the night before we were leaving to head home. Our mission was complete for the RNC; however, the time still ticks and the mission is not over until we reach our homes. A couple soldiers thought it would be a great idea to bring their personal weapons to the hotel we were staying at. Anybody knows that has been on active duty orders, we fall under general order number one. This is our military code of conduct we must follow. In there it states, we shall not purchase, possess, use or sell privately owned firearms, ammunition or explosives.
To make the long story short, one soldier was showing another soldier his personal firearm, a .357 revolver. The soldier did not clear his weapon properly and while the other was checking the grip, he shot the owner of the pistol. Although this is a tragedy, these two guys are idiots! The soldier was shot through two fingers and in his lower abdomen. He was very fortunate to still be alive and making a full recovery.
In the military, we have a saying that goes,"Don't be that guy." In this instance, we had two soldiers being, "that guy." These guys have proper military training with weapons and know to treat every weapon as if it is loaded. The soldier's actions not only make their first line leaders look bad but they make our unit and FL National Guard look bad as well. No matter how well we are doing as a whole, there is always "that guy" to make the rest of us look bad.
Moral of the story is, "Don't be that guy."

"Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve" -Napoleon Hill

Intro to my Blog

First of all, I'd like to say God Bless America! I was in the Active Army for 3 years and 2 years later I joined the FL Guard to become what I am today, a citizen soldier-weekend warrior! I have been a citizen soldier for 9 years now. During this time, I was deployed twice with the FL Guard, once to Afghanistan,2005-06 and once to Kuwait/Iraq, 2010. I still serve one weekend a month and go to school full-time at USF.
I am starting a military friendly blog as class assignment. This blog/web writing course will contain many aspects pertaining to the National Guard-citizen soldier, veterans, benefits, miltary news, military geared workouts, and much more. I have never written a blog before so this will be a learning experience for me; however, I am excited for the challenge. I plan on sharing my knowledge and also gaining new information on the web-writing world. I thank everyone in advance for taking this journey with me and following my blog. This should be an eventful semester and cannot wait to get started. God Bless America and our Troops overseas fighting for our FREEDOM!

Hello Everybody!