Almost Through...

This week I start my 7th block in AMMO school. Tomorrow I will have been here at Sheppard for 2 months. Time has definitely flown by, much much faster than time seemed to go by at Lackland. My class has already started to outprocess from the base. Outprocessing is a good thing because it means we're almost done and going onto our next base and becoming "operational" but at the same time its a pain in the butt because of all the briefings and things we have to do. My outprocessing form has about 15 different things I have to get done, its a lot, but its well worth the time and effort. As of right now I do not have my orders to get out of here and to my next base. I knew my assignment awhile back, which is Minot AFB in North Dakota, but that is an "unofficial" notification I guess. Anyways, I found out on friday while trying to sort out my leave schedule that if I do not have my orders by next Friday more than likely I will be a hold over. Meaning I'll be stuck at good ol' Sheppard for a few more weeks after I graduate school. The reason behind my orders being so late is because I need to have a PRP certification in order to do my job at Minot. To sum up PRP in a nutshell, its basically a security program that checks the background of personnel to ensure reliability, things as small as traffic violations or medical conditions can cause a person to not get a PRP certification. My records have to be approved by officers at Sheppard, then forwarded up to Minot to get the final approval or denial by the commander there. From what I've heard, more than a few people going to Minot have been denied PRP and relocated to a different base. Minot has gotten a lot stricter in who they choose to have there because of the incident that happened a few years ago with nukes being flown across the country from Minot. It caused a lot of change. As of right now I still feel like I'm going to Minot, but I know there is a chance I could be relocated, which I definitely wouldn't mind. I know I haven't been there and it could be a really nice base, but I'm crossing my fingers I do get relocated and sent...east coast. I wish haha. It's just that it costs a lot to fly out there and I really want to be somewhere warm. I might just have to suck it up and be in Minot though.

Anyways, block 6 which I did last week was some pretty interesting stuff. It was all about guided munitions, smartbombs basically. The different combinations they can be in, how they are guided and what purpose each one serves. Block 7 is still guided munitions, but it is all about missiles. I'll be working in the conventional shop in Minot, which has nothing to do with missiles but it'll still be interesting to learn what they are all about. I know we'll be going over most of the same stuff, plus a lot of test sets used on the missiles. This is the last "hard" block I believe. From what I've heard block 8 is just learning how to drive forklifts and bobtails (short trucks that haul around trailers) so I don't think I have far to go. This past week was pretty easy, we actually finished on Tuesday and could have taken our block test on Wednesday but instead we used that day to study and blocked out on Thursday, I got a 98 on the test and missed out on a 100 because I accidentally clicked on "Finish" instead of the back button to review. The answer I got wrong I would have changed if I had seen it again. Oh well, attention to detail. My GPA is up to a 96 again so I'm pretty pleased with that. As long as its above a 90 when it's all over I will be happy. Friday we did absolutely nothing, I finished my homework in the morning and then our instructor told us we were having an AMMO BBQ outside so we all went outside in the sun and enjoyed some free burgers. Good stuff. I had my final (hopefully) PT evaluation on Thursday. PT here is kind of a joke, I feel like I really have gotten out of shape. We did our 1 minute timed pushups and situps and I maxed out on both (62+ pushups in a minute gets a full 10 points and 55+ gets the same 10). 63 and 56 is what I did. The run was a little different however, I got an 11:47 which is better than my first run by a good 10 seconds but I still felt really winded. Once I get to Minot I'll start working out a lot more and get back into better shape, I will also be going to the pool to swim a lot more. I miss swimming a lot. I don't think I've explained this, but for PT evaluations they take your age, waist size, weight, pushups, situps and 1.5 mile run time to combine it all into a score. Anything above a 70 is passing. The system is kind of screwed up because having a bigger waist size gets you less points for that category. So someone who is just naturally big gets less points, even if they are a marathon runner or perfectly healthy. Same with the weight, they could just have a lot of muscle and that gets less points on the scale. I think the whole evaluation system is going to be changed soon though. I scored a 86.5. 

All in all, besides being a little bored on the weekends, it isn't so bad here. I've hung out with my friend Lisi from basic a lot and we usually go to Sonic (I get the breakfast burrito and blue coconut creamslush. so good.) or just go around base. Its been pretty hot here as well. The past few days have been in the 90's and humid. With the addition of it being windy, it just makes the whole place feel like you're in an oven with a blowdryer in your face. We've been getting some pretty cool thunderstorms at night though. 

I miss Maine a lot. Hopefully I'll be home in a few weeks. We'll see...