2007-2008: Micah Ward

counting the days....

so... less than two weeks till thanksgiving break...

i honestly cant wait....

Regi ball was last weekend.

it was a great time. just danced and hung out.

Halloween was funny...

we weren't able to dress up, but upperclassmen did.. it was quite entertaining...

we had a banana that held the door open for us... it was quite interesting to say banana thank you banana... lol

our rookie skit for Halloween really was bad... but there were some cool ones.. like kilo who did thriller. and several other companies did 300.

this past weekend i was able to get off campus and go to NH for a Christian retreat. that was alot of fun! Norwich Christian Fellowship is a great group on campus i enjoy it alot...

MCW is going good. the past week we have had classes to help us with the ice track at the beginning of next semester.

well

thats about all...

as usual if you have any questions feel free to ask,

have a great week

RCT Ward

they say that in the Army....

so this past weekend was our mid-semester break....

BUT!

because i am in Army ROTC

i had the great privilege to stay on campus and go to land navigation..... fun....

honestly it wasn't that bad, but i so much would have rather been off campus hanging out with friends then going to land navigation on my mid-semester break...

land nav was fun though, going out and getting lost in the woods is always fun.

so there are 23 days till thanksgiving break, i honestly cant wait....

thats 23 three days till i get to be a "human" again. i get to wear civilian cloths, drive my car, walk, not march, sleep later than 0530. and to top it all off, i get to eat home cooked meals....mom i am letting you know right now.... it would be great to have a home cooked meal every night....lol love you.....it will be a very nice week.

question and answer time....

yes.... i was singing "forever and ever" in the rook video..... thank you for reminding me of that....lol

so Halloween is next week....

that should prove to be quit funny....

and regimental ball is this weekend, that should be alot of fun as well... i will be sure and post about it after the fact...

well

another Norwich blogger post has come to an end....

have a great week

RCT Ward

WHY!?!?!?!?

hello all again.....

yeah, so it is the first day of mid semester break, and i cant go anywhere.... why you ask? well there are a couple of reasons.

1 my family is all the way in Missouri... so me going there isn't going to happen....

2 ARMY!!!! the army department made the decision for us as MS1s to have our land Nav FTX this weekend.... I'm not to happy but its only one day it wont be too bad....

so there are 29 days until thanksgiving break. so less than a month until i get to see my family again.

classes are going great. German is a cool language.

OK now for answer time...

i realized that apparently my commenter's want me to answer them in my post so here you go....

yes if you did see the rook video that was me that had to say "hi mom" as we went through "The Dog." apparently everyone found that to be funny. and yes i was in the rookie skits as well. and yes i did sing a song....

No, there was no recording of me ripping the head off of the chicken (if you are lost at this point see my last post) though it would have been awesome....

yes it seems alot of people remember ether themselves or their grandparent going out and "ringing a chickens neck" i have been told many stories... and i think ours was the most humane thing.... going out and grabbing the chicken by the neck and flinging it around your head just sound.... like too much fun (just kidding).

well, lets see, what else is going on at Norwich....

oh

MCW

MCW is going great, i love it. they weren't ling when they said that they will throw a lot of stuff at you the first semester. i think the very first day we went and repelled off of "Ram Tower" and then started learning knots. and now we are going off of the quarry and using the rock walls, and starting land navigation. its crazy, but i love it.

band

band is going OK, we haven't had to many practices since parents weekend.

bugle squad

i love being in bugle squad, we learn alot. its nice to be able to enjoy playing bugle calls. three of the 5 of us have qualified and are currently playing, reveille, mess call, call to quarters, tattoo and taps. right now we are working on church call, then we will start retreat (lowering of the flag) and to the colors.

well

as usual

if you have any comments or questions

just post it and i will try and respond as quickly as i can.

have a great week

Rct Ward

...like a chicken with it head cut off

i am sure that by the title you would be assuming that it was me that was "like a chicken with its head cut off"....well that is a yes and no answer...

this past weekend we (the Army ROTC) had our first overnight FTX (Field training exercises). it was all about squad attack and movement formations as well as planning and executing an ambush. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!

i don't remember exactly how the story went but i do remember that we were going in to stop these terrorist who were committing genocide and all sorts of really bad things.

we set out on Friday night to "frosty gold,"  about a mile and a half, maybe, from the campus.  on the way up we took fire from the "bad guys" it was kinda fun. by the time we got to the camp site it was already dark, so we had to build our hutches, basically a small tent, and get everything out and ready to go in the dark... it was to say the least a pain.

once again we got attacked in the middle of the night, the only exception this time was that we had ammo this time (blanks). it was interesting, there is nothing like being woken up to the sound of M16 gun fire...

we got up around 5 that morning and started our day off with breaking down the hutches and some MRE's for breakfast...

sorry i have to put this side note in. just from reading what i have written, it doesn't sound at all like fun.... being shot at, having to do alot of difficult stuff in the dark, being attacked in the middle of the night... i know it doesn't sound fun... but it was!

continuing...

then through out the day we had several classes/stations on how to successfully execute a ambush, how to plan and do recon for an ambush and how to search dead bodies for information or weapons.

we sent out and set up our attack point on the side of a hill and waited for the truck and soldiers, that would becoming by, to ambush, it went off with out a hitch, attacked the truck, "killed" everyone, searched the bodies for information or whatever we could find. then collected the stolen supplies, which just happened to be.... can you guess... CHICKENS!!! live, breathing chickens...

disclaimer: this part may include words such as blood and phrases that would put images in your head of things moving after they should be dead...

we found sticks about 2-3 inches in diameter, placed one foot on one end, put the chickens neck under the middle, and placed the other foot on the other end... and pulled UP from the chickens legs... there in by, ripping the chicken's head off.... it was quite interesting... i wont get into extreme detail, but that thing did not stop moving or breathing for at least a minute after we did that... it was crazy...

we then cooked and ate it, it wasn't that bad, you just had to be careful to make sure it was fully cooked. (it was alot better than MREs)

after that we were basically done, we were just going to stay one more night, that was until the rain came...

it wasn't just a little bit of rain...

it was ALOT of rain....

some of the hutches that we had made were flooding, some were collapsing, thats just what happens when you don't plan or spend more time on them. so our MS4 were told to pack up that, that we could finish the night off in Shapiro field house. because there were worse storms headed this way and it was supposed to get really cold.

neither of which happened. but better safe than sorry, right?

well there you go...

i will say this the Army ROTC definitely has the most and in my opinion the best FTX its a great department and they do a good job.

as usual if you have any questions, comments, concerns.

i always am willing to help in any way i can.

RCT Ward

parents weekend

i had an awesome time this weekend....

it was really great to see my parents. i missed them so much..... it kinda sucks that it was only one weekend.... but i guess you take what you can get.... i already miss them

i really hope that this 47 days until thanksgiving break goes by fast....

today isn't going to hot... but i guess its just because rev isn't in, my parents are gone and i am back here....

our banner was... to say the least interesting... as our cadre said.... it did look like we painted it with our feet, it was interesting.... Jodie comp went, "OK" we had a couple of screw ups but other than that it was OK... we didn't place though, the thing that went great this weekend was our half time show... from what i have heard from everyone they really enjoyed it, we played Beethoven's 9th symphony, and at a certain point the cannons were fired, and drill team through a triple it was pretty awesome.... i hope all that got to see enjoyed it.

yeah this weekend was over all good... except for the 7 am fire alarm at our hotel, that was fun... not!

my parents were happy to see me, and i missed them more than they missed me... i was so happy when the word "dismissed" came out of our cadre's mouth... but now i am back... ugh...

i guess its not that bad it could be alot worse.

my parents are on there plane right now but when they read this i want them to know that i love them and i miss them already, and cant wait to see them on the 18th of November.

to the rest of my family it was nice to talk to some of you and i am sorry that i couldn't get to call you all....

as usual if you have any questions just ask. i would be happy to help....

i hope you all have a great day

god bless

RCT Ward

i have a song stuck in my head...

man, don't you hate it when you get a song stuck in your head for no reason?

right now i have, honestly i don't even know the name of the song.... lol

but it goes like

"no body gonna breaka my stride, no body gonna slow me down, oh no, Ive got to keep on movin" lol

i don't even know why its in my head... but it kinda fits.

this rookdom experience is Tough. and it is meant to be that way... you come to Norwich, expecting a challenge, and that is what you get, no false advertising there.

i am really excited, tomorrow my parents are coming up for parents weekend, it is going to be a great weekend. i have really missed my family and i know my family has missed me. so we are going to have a good time this weekend, i believe my mom is planning on cooking for me, which would be GREAT. don't get me wrong, the food here is good, but you get tiered of it after 6 weeks and nothing ever compares to home cooked meals...

so i have met alot of people up here from my neck of the woods... San Antonio that is,

OK before this starts, i know it says that i am from Springfield, MO, yes that is where my house is, my HOME is in San Antonio. thats where i consider my home town to be.

a couple of my rook brothers and sisters i actually competed against in JROTC, kinda crazy, cause when i was in San Antonio i had never heard of Norwich, My German Tutor is from there as well, i love to just rag on him about how our football team stomps them every year... if you want to look them up, you may have even heard of them, but its Judson High School. They have won state, i don't know how many times... its nice to see people here that know what i am going through when i say i miss REAL Mexican food lol

well. i will be sure to post next week and let you know how parents weekend went.

as usual if you have any questions, comments, concerns... i am here to help, just post it and i will get back to you

RCT Ward

this to shall pass....

i got an email from my uncle not to long ago... that really helped me out this week...

he told me a quite amusing story,

what did the father say to his daughter when she swallowed the dime....this to shall pass...

i found it quite funny...

its kinda like what did the fish say when it hit a brick wall? .....dam.... good clean jokes....

well this week has been rough for me. but you know just like the father said to his daughter... this to shall pass.... if i continue to look at things with at least a little optimism i should be fine....given, it will be tough! but its only 9 days until parents weekend so i think i can make it.

thank you all for your amazing response to my last post!  i really appreciate it! as i am sure the corp does as well.

oh i forgot!

we had the Abare farm picnic this past weekend.... that was alot of fun! we got to eat really good food! listen to music, play football, shoot shot guns...it was just an all around good time.

band is going good... we had practice last night and the piece that we are playing for parents weekend is shipping up very nicely! it should be a great weekend! i honestly cant wait to see my parents again!

this weekend is my first FTX (Field training exercise) i don't really think it is a FTX cause we are just going to the rifle range but hey,  it will be fun... 

its hard to believe that today, we have been here one month.... this month has gone by really fast... but it is so jammed packed with early mornings and late nights that its crazy!

as usual i am open to any questions that you have about the school or about me.

i hope that for me and my rook buddies this is all worth it in the end... which i am sure it will be... the end result is getting those rings, commissioning, and graduating, and taking my first command. it is going to be a long and very narrow road.... but with God and my family i can make it through.

its crazy, you really don't realize until you set back and look... at how much you need your friends/rook buddies, family and a spiritual being. they are kinda like the U.S. approach to Nuclear weapons.... the "Triangle", if you have never heard of it you should look it up... but the basic idea of it is, if one gets attacked or cut off.... the other two can do a response attack... and this week i have been under constant attack....

but as i said before...

this too shall pass....

Rct Ward 

those 24 notes....

yesterday was 9/11 as everyone knows...

and the corp does an amazing thing when they honor fallen heroes...

last night we had a formation, that was OPTIONAL (key word) at 2200 (10 pm). it was a silent formation, which basically means that there is no talking as you fall in and give commands.

it had rained all day off and on so it was chilly and wet, band company, every single one of us, in our gray dress jackets marched in the gutter as we made our way to the company area. As we marched i noticed that it seemed like every single person in the corp was there, and i am almost positive they were, like i said before this was an optional formation, lights out is at 2200 so they could have stayed in there dorms and gone to sleep, but no, everyone was there. we stood in silence for about five min until the Regimental commander called us all to attention and present arms.

shortly there after, the buglers began echo taps, after each fade of the first bugle you could hear the echo of the other as it proceeded off in the distance, the sound of those 24 notes brought back those memories of six years ago, setting in my science class in seventh grade, watching in horror as the video footage of the World Trade Center as it burned and and smoke came boiling out of it, and then the next aircraft came crashing into the WTC, then the collapse of the towers, the pentagon, and the Pennsylvania Field, and the following weeks of confusion, aggravation and unity that we all experienced.

it is amazing how those 24 notes can bring tears to your eyes, or light a fire in you. how they can inspire you to not let those who died, die in vain. how it is just one instrument. a trumpet/bugle, just playing 24 notes. most of which are repeated, but yet it is such an amazing call, and it is so haunting that once you hear it, you know exactly what it is for.   

as taps came to a close, my mind was refreshed with the exact reason i came here; to serve my country, to give my life if need be for this great nation, to honor those brave men and women that died that day, and all the days since, in protection of our right to live as free people, with out fear of attack or persecution.

once we were given the command of order arms, the bagpipes began amazing grace, and then we were dismissed the exact way we came, silently.

eyes...must...stay....open....

do you know how hard it is to stay awake in classes....

if it wasn't for the coffee i would be in trouble.

well this past week hasn't been a bad one...

all my classes are going good... i enjoy most of them. so far i would have to say my favorite is German, it is an AWESOME (and easy) language.

As most of you know. I am an Army ROTC scholarship recipient. How does that impact my school life you ask.... well... ITS A BUNCH OF PAPER WORK!!!!!

it is really a pain.... But ROTC its self is nice. We had lab yesterday, and they basically just laid out what we would be doing and how everything would work, no big deal.

This morning was the first PT with our ROTC's and that was pretty cool.... the way that the army ROTC is doing it is, have you ever heard of BLITZ or even Curves? well its kinda like that, different stations for about a min then you run a lap around the football field. its pretty cool. It gets your heart rate up thats for sure.

OH I FORGOT!!!!

i didn't tell you about the parade!

Parade was nice. It wasn't extremely hot, it was actually kinda nice. It didn't seem as long as other people were making it out to be. The best part of it was afterwords. We went into Northfield and got to hang out at the "carnival" type thing they had. it was cool. "shock platoon," preformed that was really cool. I also got some Mexican food.... one thing about that... bad choice... Vermont Mexican food... is... for lack of a better word... NASTY!!!! it could be just me, i am originally from San Antonio, so i think i know how Mexican food should taste, and it shouldn't taste like that.

We (band Co) had practice last night, it went well i like the stand music that we are playing (songs for football games), and we had our first jazz band meeting, that seems like it will be fun, kinda crazy instrumentation, but it should be fun, and if it wasn't enough for me to be doing band, and Jazz band, i am also doing Bugle Squad. which last night was also our first meeting.

Tomorrow is the MCW (mountain cold weather) meeting, i cant wait for that.... I'm sure that the first year will be kinda boring, from what the upperclassmen tell me, its just a bunch of knots. BUT you have to craw before you can walk right?

In my own view, I feel that i am getting used to this "being away from my family" thing, it still sucks, because i miss them alot, but i haven't found myself breaking down everytime i talk to them or get an email from them so it seems to be getting easier in that aspect.

The physical part of it seems to be an up hill battle. I am sure that my ankle and the soreness of my muscles has something to do with it. But it is still a pain. BUT GOD KNOWS, i need to get in shape, so for now i will keep my mouth shut and drive on.

I guess Norwich is growing on me. i have found myself sleeping better, getting used to the routine and coming to love this place... it really isn't that bad once you get past the first couple of weeks, I still need alot of work but it seems be be coming easier to me now, the routine that is.

well i have to go do some home work and finish getting my room SOP.

So until next time

RCT Ward

ROOK WEEK....

ok... sorry that i couldn't post this past week... I was doing alot of different stuff...

lets see... i guess i should tell you how rook week went...

compared to what alot of my other rook buddies say... i enjoyed it.. kinda...lol

it was very physically, mentally and emotionally challenging... but that its job! and it does it well.... i would definitely have to say that our cadre staff are some hard core people... two of them are in Simper fi society (marine corp training and PT) and one is an athlete,and the other the chair of the Jr Honor committee and the last is a senior in the corp... so if anyone up here knows what they are doing its them...

this week was really tough on me, emotionally... i am very attached to my family and its really hard not to see them and to not think about them... i miss them so much... but, in the words of one of my roommates..."suck that up through a straw, and press on!" lol...

it was amazing how close we (as rook buddies) came together in a short amount of time... we still aren't anywhere near to how close we need to become to make it through this though!... we have a long road ahead of us and the only way that we will make it, is together...

Then "dog river run"

everything i expected and more....

just the good old getting dirty, team building, cold water, PT, fun, that i was expecting.... lol

(sorry that I'm doing this out of order of what happened I'm writing down what comes to my mind...)

Mill. skills day... that was really really fun!!! grenade throws, rappelling, MCW/Ranger demo (even better in person) the O course, land nav, rock wall, MRE lunch (Mexican style macaroni= bad choice)... rope climb, rifle disassembly and reassembly... it was just an all around fun time...

the rest of the week was the worst part...

everything happened as i predicted... all of the upper-class men were really nice... up until the hand off.... then... well lets just say it was a bad day... the yelling, the sounding off, the PT, the waking up at 0600 in the morning... the lightning fast showers.. and the cutting yourself shaving and trying to stop the bleeding while finishing other things... yeah... it wasn't that enjoyable.... and to top it all of... we have to wear this hat.. that I'm sure all of you have seen... which might as well be a big target setting on top of your head... because once you have that on... thats what you are... a target... it was so bad that i was actually looking forward to starting school... lol!

something that was funny that happened during the week... every night our cadre would put us to bed (and wake is up) with a song... well one night they called us into the hall at attention... then played this song... it took me a min to realize what it was, but once i did... it took everything in me to not laugh... it was the Soviet Union National anthem... it was Hilarious! they even had us present arms... one of them came up to me and said, "Rct Ward, Mother Russia thanks you for your service...." it was so funny..

the rest of the week kinda followed that same plan... wake up early, hygiene, PT, hygiene, Chow (food), classes (on different rules and regs of Norwich), chow, classes/drill/uniform issue, chow, yelling, class on uniform and rooms, SOP (standard operating procedure), hygiene, lights out... and it would start all over again....

that was basically it for my week... classes started on Monday, and they are pretty good... i cant complain yet... my German class so far is my favorite, i like German and its really easy... just hard to remember...

well i guess that is all for now...

remember if you have any questions just leave a comment and i will get back to you on them....

even if i don't know the answer i will find someone who does....

RCT Ward