A Focus on Masonic Research, News, and other Tidbits

Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A Birthday

Four days ago, my company of citizen-soldiers sang Happy Birthday to ourselves. As of 13 December 2008, my military organization was three hundred and seventy-two years old - the oldest in the United States and one of the oldest military bodies that are still active in the world.

2 comments:

Masonic Traveler said...

Congrats to you and your fellow compatriots. Needless to say, but I am grateful for your service.

The Palmetto Bug said...

Traveler;

Thanks for your kind words.

In the video you will notice a fellow running around with a musket. According to my young troops, that was me in Basic Training. I had a young recruit ask me one time what Basic Training was like when I went through it. One of my Corporals - also rather young - spoke up for me and said that I "was trained on how to circle the wagons." All of the recruits got a big laugh out of that - up until the point that I placed them in the front lean and rest position. That'll teach them to laugh at an old Senior NCO!

All humor aside and though I'm starting to wear down a bit, I enjoy my current assignment. I serve as the Noncommissioned Officer-in-Charge (NCOIC) of a company of pre-Initial Active Duty Training (IADT) Warriors that have yet to complete Basic Combat Training (BCT) and/or Advanced Individual Training (AIT). As of this morning, the company is about 141 strong - if I remember the report I submitted correctly. It is great feeling to watch these young folks go from long-haired, droopy drawers civilians to becoming trained Citizen-Soldiers. Anyone that gets to spend time around these young Warriors normally feels better about our young people. For the most part, they are some great young adults and they are normally more up to speed with their education, knowledge about the country, more informed about politics, etc than the average kid. Despite what the popular myth says, they are not all poor and they certainly aren't dumb.