Break Out the Cigars!

Today I had to go before the Military Medical Review Board (MMRB) for my hearing. The MMRB is a board comprising of 5 officers with the president of the board being a Colonel. They review a Soldiers medical paperwork to see if based on the existing medical condition that Soldier is able to 1) remain in his or her current military occupation skill (MOS), 2) remain in the military but will have to change occupations, or 3) requires followup medical care to resolve medical issue, or will be required to go before a Medical Evaluation Board which can medically discharge the Soldier depending on his/her condition. I had to go before the board due to my hearing loss which in the past 11 months has gotten worse. I went in, they asked me a couple of questions and I told them that as of last March I had been seeing a hearing specialist due to my hearing loss and the ringing (tinitus) in my ears, but that I was capable of doing my job here and over in the box. Additionally I was getting hearing aides for both ears sometime this month or early April. I was told to leave and about 2 minutes later was told to report back and they told me that I was fit for duty in my current MOS, and with that good news was still deployable! So tonite myself and one of the other Battalion Commanders will be sitting outside by the basketball court enjoying a nice cigar from the Dominican Republic and a beverage of our choice.
I am finishing up on some internet Microsoft Courses that we are required to take, I am having a hard time since I do Star Office at Sun and though very similar some of the key strokes and locations of certain items is different. There are 3 courses for Word, 3 for Excel, 2 for Powerpoint and 4 for Access.

Last night I had to give the bad news to three of the officers that have been serving under me for the past 3-5 months that they had been transferred to another staff position and although they would continue to train with the current teams in our battalion, once they arrived in theater they will fall under another group. I guess that the folks in theater are still reviewing the positions and the Soldiers resumes and military training and making changes up to the last minute.

Well that's it for now, as I am heading off to the gym to lift some weights and do some cardio workout, since this morning at PT we did lots of muscle failure drills with pushups and situps.