Welcome Home

it has been suggested that i continue this site, at least with an "i'm home" post to close it out. so, ah, yeah, i'm back at hood. i'm pretty sure you all knew that already, so i'll just talk a little bit about the welcome home ceremonies.

the first thing i'll say is that there are signs everywhere. you can't go a block without seeing a new sign. "welcome home 1st cav," "welcome home greywolf,"welcome home heroes" etc. etc. etc. big hundred foot banners stretching the walls of III corp to pictures little kids drew on a piece of paper, the signs are everywhere. FRGs (family readiness group) even made welcome home signs by sticking red plastic cups thru the chain link fences around the motor pools we're operating out of.

anyways, about the ceremonies. family gather at the parade field in front of the 1st cav division headquarters. there are bleachers set up in a U shape for people to sit, a DJ to play music, and the USO handing out free drinks and snacks while everyone waits. updates come over the loud speakers about the soldiers progress. "you're soldiers have landed at the airport," "you're loved ones have boarded the busses and are leaving the airport now," "they're five blocks away" with a few others in-between.

the last couple of blocks the busses take are lined on either side with American flags about every 10 feet. the busses pull up complete with a police escort (which is good since they go the wrong way down a one way street) and stop in front of the parade field with barely a foot or two between them to block the view of everyone waiting in the bleachers. while the newly arriving soldiers pile out to form up on the other side of the busses, the DJ plays a special music set complete with the famous "let's get ready to rumble" know from every boxing match and a fair amount of austin powers sprinkled in for good measure.

the DJ pumps up the crowd with a "they can't hear you" known to anyone who's attended summer camp until everyone's formed up and the busses pull away as family members strain their necks looking for a specific person in a sea of indiscernible army combat uniforms.

this is where the army gets smart. after they all march onto the field the color guard is dismissed, the division chaplain says a prayer, some brass gives a 30 sec job well done speech then releases them to their families. from the time they march onto the parade field to the time they're dismissed is about 3 mins. from there the families rush the formation trying to find waldo where everyone wears a red and white striped shirt. it's pure chaos, but it's fun chaos.

Reverse SRP

about a month ago ft hood made national news when a "man" undeserving of the association with the U.S. Army using his rank would imply or the association with humanity using his name would imply murdered 13 soldiers. the building where he carried out his attack was mentioned in the news as where soldiers go for medical checks and legal issues before deploying overseas. it is also where we go when we return from deployment to complete the same tasks, which is why i went to that building a few days after returning to hood.

the actual part of the building where the shooting took place has been closed off while the investigation is being conducted. what i found interesting tho, is that fort hood adopted a firm policy of fool me once, shame on me. fool me twice, you'll deal with several MPs.

SRP (soldier readiness processing) is now done in 2 different buildings and both buildings have exactly one accessible entrance/exit and both are guarded by military police with metal detector wands to check for weapons. it's probably more for psychological and CYA reasons than anything else, but fort hood is taking security very seriously.