Promotion to Sergeant

[Snake_Eyes]

I figured I'd share this with you all

"The Secretary of the Army has reposed special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and professional excellence of PATRICK MICHAEL WEBER. In view of these qualities and his demonstrated leadership potential and dedicated service to the U.S. Army, he is, therefore, promoted from SPC to SGT. MOS 38B2O is awarded as his primary MOS on effective date of promotion. Promotion is effective 1 March 2012 with date of rank of 1 March 2012."

Ceremony is tomorrow in front of the flag pole at RC(S) HQ. Whoop Whoop!

Here is a picture of my shaven babyface. The guys have dubbed me "Buzz" as in "Buzz Lightyear" from Toy Story since my chin resembled his. Atleast its not Fluffy like another guy. The dude to the left is Pavel, our token Russian, hes from Siberia and has encountered a Siberian Tiger crossing the road. The dude is insane. Him and I in New York went shot for shot in some Czech restaurant, the secret is eating beat soup and you can literally shoot the stuff for hours. He did eventually win.....bastard. These were a few days ago at the range on KAF.......which is the nicest range I have ever seen. I'll post pictures of it soon. The little Asian guy is "NO-GO" his real name is Ngo but its more fun to call him the latter. He was recently promoted as well so I'm "pinning" him.

[Matt]

Right on, dude!

[MillerSA15]

*like*

Awesome snakey!

[LiquidSnak]

Congrats! And Lol, pinning with a velcro pin

[dos_Santos]

Congratulations!! Huzzah!

[Darius137]

I'm still butt hurt that in CA you get rank so quick, but congrats.

Now I have to gain more rank to beat you.

[Russkie]

Congrats man!

[Icepick]

Keep up the good work!

[MitchD]

Grats Snake!

I see they took away your sword, do you get that thing back when you make Lt.?

[SleepyDave]

Am I the only one who can't see the pictures?

Also, badass.

[Steve]

Congrats, dude.

I got some advice from an E-7 that had been just about everywhere and done just about everything when I first got pinned. He pulled me to the side and said:

"Get you a coffee cup. Empty, full, it don't matter. Carry that cup everywhere you go. Now, anything that you can do without setting down that coffee cup, you go on ahead and make it happen. Anything where you gotta put that cup down, you should be finding some new private and teaching them how to do whatever it was that you were about to do, because that's a big part of being an NCO. When you die or retire, somebody else gots to be able to do all the random shit you do. If you can't find no private, find you a squared-away specialist and delegate that shit. They need to get used to seeing you tell them what to do now, when it don't matter so much, so that if you have to do it when there's guns goin' off, they're already used to you bossin' 'em around. And that's another big part of bein' an NCO, is bein' the guy folks look to when bad shit happens and they need somebody as what tells 'em where to go and who to shoot."

I pass this on to you, with the endorsement that it actually works pretty well. I use a can of Red Bull instead of a coffee cup, but the principle is the same. It serves as a reminder to me that, as an NCO, I'm a teacher as well as a leader. I'd add that, if the task is big enough for more than one guy to handle, I'm usually down in the middle of things rather than standing off to the side with a clipboard, but that's mostly because the NCOs that never got dirty usually pissed me off when I was a SPC.

[110]

At-Fucking-EASE!

[Cloudyrains]

Congratulations man!

[Raging Hormann]

Hooah! Way to go!

[Snake_Eyes]

Amen to that Steve! There is definitely a difference between a Stripe "Wearer" and a Stripe "Bearer". Its in the NCO creed even which I think everyone should learn to be honest, it applies to all jobs. Also Dan, you chose to be your MOS brother, not my fault I had the ISAF CSM stop by my work station to see what I'm doing! Civil Integration Team is the new hawtness!

As for the Sword not being with me, I have a CRKT Hisshou by James Williams, essentially a machete on cocaine and acid. It hasn't seen use yet but its strapped to my go bag.

The true race is who gets through Selection first Danny boy!