Long Weekend

So, last week was spent herding cats.  Yep.  A group of 16 majors is the equivalent of a herd of cats, but not just housecats... no, imagine that herd contains everything from tabby cats to lynxes and mountain lions. And it was my job to try and put them all to use to create a staff briefing.

The briefing was a pseudo fictional strategic estimate on what the Army calls the GAAT region (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey), but the rest of the world calls the Caucasus.  A strategic estimate is basically just an information brief that describes the region as it relates to US national strategic and military goals, and gives the same info for the region as a whole as well as each individual nation involved.  It is supposed to (according to US joint doctrine) also give recommendations for strategic options, but because of budget cuts, we've taken that part out (J/k).

So, Monday we got about 4 hours to work on this, and then run an IPR (in progress review).  Well, let's just say that as the group leader, I got plenty of constructive feedback out of the IPR.  Biggest lesson learned is that yes, we're a bunch of majors, but when working together as a staff, you have to issue guidance the same way as you do to your junior soldiers.  The reasons are different, though.  For the junior soldiers it's to make sure they actually get the info you need.  For majors it's to reign them in and keep them from going above and beyond.

Well, I adjusted fire over the next two days and on Thursday, after about 2 hrs of review and finalization, we actually briefed the estimate.  Gotta love the Judge, our instructor, who took on the personality of the "I just got here yesterday" boss... but we apparently did a good job of answering his oddball questions and demonstrated an actual knowledge of the area, and the briefing was a success.

So, I rewarded myself with a trip home for Presidents' Day weekend.

It was awesome to see the family again after about 6 weeks, and we had a ton of fun.  We went "hiking" at Mount Bunnell, put together a puzzle, ate some good food, and pretty much hung out.  By the way, if you're looking for some awesome breakfast in Round Rock, go to Cafe Java in the Randall's complex on AW Grimes and Gattis.  Excellent and inexpensive.

Fortunately the only one to really take my leaving hard was Mila, who called me about 15 min after I got to the airport bawling about how she was just going to cry every day until I came home for Easter.  She's a sweetheart, and has always been a Daddy's girl.

Unfortunately the weekend is gone, and I've got 6 more weeks till I get to come home again.  Sigh...