Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Micromanagement
Holy cow, this place is driving me crazy. Every two weeks, the student company and platoon staffs change and we are in upheval for several days to a week while they figure out how to do their job. This contributes to bad gouge (gouge = information pertinent to our job/daily life), constantly changing messages, general indecision, and overall chaos. Everyone is worried about screwing up, so they micromanage things, call meeting after meeting, generally annoy the hell out of us. I went to three meetings tonight which told me the same thing I already knew. Hopefully, this will get better with time.
It wouldn't be so bad if I was just one of the students, but my collateral duty is Alternate Platoon Ordnance Representative. Everything issued to our platoon that is serialized (has a serial number) is my and Lt. Healy's responsibility. Rifles, pistols, machine guns, night vision goggles, it's all our responsibility to ensure that it is not lost/damaged/stolen. And the Marine Corps is serious about this shit too. An entire base will lock down, nobody in and nobody out, if an M16 comes up missing.
Last night I was issued all the pistol belts, holsters, etc for the platoon and told I had to get it issued to the platoon sometime today. No sweat. Well then the platoon staff gets some bad gouge and decides that I need to issue it immediately. So Healy and I spring into action, get the shit done in super fast fashion and all is good. No sweat, but my squad leader (new to the Marine Corps, no prior experience) is breathing down my neck about this freakin paperwork which he didn't tell me was due in the next hour and just generally adding stress to the environment. Good training for the future, but frustrating nonetheless.
Range starts tomorrow. We'll learn to fire the rifle and pistol, and qualify on them in the next week and a half. Lots of time in the out in the cold. I love shooting, no stress there, but I'm not digging the cold. It's also early mornings and late nights. On deck times of 0445 and 0430, end of day at 1800 to 1900. Fourteen hour days make me grumpy.
Time for bed, any comments on the new journal? Katie's not happy about it, but I think this one will work out better.
It wouldn't be so bad if I was just one of the students, but my collateral duty is Alternate Platoon Ordnance Representative. Everything issued to our platoon that is serialized (has a serial number) is my and Lt. Healy's responsibility. Rifles, pistols, machine guns, night vision goggles, it's all our responsibility to ensure that it is not lost/damaged/stolen. And the Marine Corps is serious about this shit too. An entire base will lock down, nobody in and nobody out, if an M16 comes up missing.
Last night I was issued all the pistol belts, holsters, etc for the platoon and told I had to get it issued to the platoon sometime today. No sweat. Well then the platoon staff gets some bad gouge and decides that I need to issue it immediately. So Healy and I spring into action, get the shit done in super fast fashion and all is good. No sweat, but my squad leader (new to the Marine Corps, no prior experience) is breathing down my neck about this freakin paperwork which he didn't tell me was due in the next hour and just generally adding stress to the environment. Good training for the future, but frustrating nonetheless.
Range starts tomorrow. We'll learn to fire the rifle and pistol, and qualify on them in the next week and a half. Lots of time in the out in the cold. I love shooting, no stress there, but I'm not digging the cold. It's also early mornings and late nights. On deck times of 0445 and 0430, end of day at 1800 to 1900. Fourteen hour days make me grumpy.
Time for bed, any comments on the new journal? Katie's not happy about it, but I think this one will work out better.
// posted by Josh @ 1/05/2005 08:31:00 PM 
