July 7, 2008
The Prince Family
Herald
July 7, 2008 Volume 1 Issue 15
A Bear in the Mailbox?
As you see, This is no ordinary bear that delivered herself to our gate. Well, more or less delivered herself. While the troops have been taking a whole new course, the Lord had a new course for Barbara Alice too. She was shown by the Lord that she should prepare to be a teacher of English as a second language. Barbara Alice helped home school the 4 young men and Adeline from the time they were of an age to learn, and in the process, she studied and taught beginning Japanese and learned much about the country and its culture. When this direction to become certified as a teacher of English to foreign students was given, she researched and applied for an international teacher training course and found several avenues and courses open to her. She chose a highly accredited online course in Teaching English as a second language. When the course books arrived it was clear that there was much to be learned; the material was very comprehensive and the lesson plans were very well organized and creatively presented.
Barbara Alice set to work diligently devoting as much time and late nights as possible to finishing the 20 section course. As she mastered each section she took the online test and as each was graded and returned she went on to the next. When the final exam was graded, it was about 3 weeks before her certificate came and with it a letter of recommenda-tion from the school stating: “Having performed significantly higher than the required level in all course assignments, Barbara has been graded a pass at grade A.”
Meanwhile, the little Teacher Bear was on display at the Bedias Post Office waiting to be sold.
From time to time BA noticed how cute she was and was surprised that every time they went to mail, Teacher bear was still there, unsold. Then right after BA’s certification came, the bear, still unsold to anyone else, was sitting on the counter where she might be more easily seen and sold. When that was learned, it was determined that the #1 teacher bear belonged here to celebrate the completion of the course. The Post Office was called and the Postmistress gave the bear to the mailman to deliver to our box along with the mail. And there she sat waiting to come in to her new home! Thank You, Father, for the very good grades on the course and for the sweetness of the bear to celebrate it.
FOR ORS MEMBERS AT HOME AND ‘ABROAD’
‘THIS IS A DAY THE LORD MADE!’
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY.
ENJOY ITS EVERY HOUR
The above greeting came for all of us on July 3rd from Diana in Vermont. We know it is a little past the date now but it was such a patriotic picture and appropriate message for EVERY day, that we wanted you all to see it.
Adeline is finishing BCT this coming week and begins AIT on July 11. They make the transition to AIT pretty much like any other day, but there will be differences and she is looking forward to having a bit more freedom and time to help her unit work together and become more motivated to do things well rather than “just get by”. You know she will lead by example in the Lord’s authority. In a call earlier in the week, she had several adventures to recount. Like so many of the central States, Missouri has had some very rough weather and tornados can be a truly valid concern. Twice, when her unit went on overnight camping, thunderstorms with a tornado alert caused them to have to “abort the mission”! The last time when serious storms hit the area the 2 Drill Sergeants with the company called everyone out of their tents telling them to just leave everything behind and pile into the two trucks they had there to be hurried back to base. They were packed in like sardines, cold and dripping wet, and there was much commotion about it. But Pv2 A. Prince, was not daunted, she said she was having a good time. As they were preparing to leave, one of the DS reminded the other that he wasn’t licensed to drive that Medium Tactical Vehicle, (see picture in June 23 Newsletter) and the other DS replied, “Well I’m not just going leave my troops here!” End of discussion, and off they drove!
As part of their “Confidence Course”, the recruits are required to get a running start, leap up to grab a bar at the top of a pole and swing themselves over a log on the other side. This does not appear to be an exercise designed for short people! Many of them run up to the pole, make the leap, arms up stretched to grab the bar only to slip ignominiously to a hard landing at the bottom! Adeline found herself among those that didn’t quite reach the top. She was, of course very concerned not to have accomplished this part of training. When it was obvious to her DS that it troubled her to have failed this exercise, he told her not to take it so seriously, but to just have fun while learning these skills. She knew that was the Lord speaking to her and that she would do better with that understanding.
Andrew is having fun with the trucks! Last week he had his test on the second vehicle he has learned to operate.
This is referred to as the LHS or Load handling System. The truck is designed so that the operator can load and unload palletized cargo without ever leaving the cab!
Andrew scored a 96 on the pallet handling test, loading his cargo in 6minutes and 40 seconds. We read in the Course manual that there are 29 steps to driving the vehicle, 19 steps to driving it in reverse, 18 steps to operate it off road and still other steps for slippery roads, or up or down steep grades. In other words there is a lot to learn in a short amount of time.
His 3rd vehicle is the M915 Truck, with the 872 trailer. The truck is a 14 ton 6×4 wheel drive vehicle and the trailer will haul 34 tons of cargo.
M915 truck with 872 trailer.
This truck and trailer is used primarily in active and reserve component transportation units for the rapid, efficient transport of bulk supplies from ocean ports to division support areas within a theater of operation. It looks like this will be Andrew’s last vehicle at Fort Leonard Wood, as he will be home this coming weekend! He flies from St. Louis, MO on Saturday directly to Houston International Airport and takes a shuttle bus to Bryan/College Station where we will pick him up at Sam’s Club! We are so thankful for such a good way not to have to drive into Houston’s traffic.
Fred has coming home on his mind too as his graduation date from AIT is July 25th. But before that happens, the last 3 weeks of AIT will keep him on the run (or march!)! This coming week is FTX (Field Training Exercise), similar to the FOB or Victory Forge weeks you all experienced. This exercise includes a12-15 mile “Ruck March,” fully weighted! Fred says he also gets to carry the unit radio. We can only hope they are a little smaller and lighter now than the ones portrayed in WW2 movies! Once FTX is over, the next two weeks are spent cleaning all the equipment and tents they have used, as well as making their quarters spotless for the next influx of recruits. The Officers tell them to expect little or no sleep during this time, (3 hours if you are lucky!) in order to get it all done. Then, at the very last night there DON’T sleep on the beds that have been made up without wrinkle for the newcomers! The idea is to “get out of Dodge” as immediately after graduation as possible! Fred does hope to spend some of those last weeks making up the parts of basic that he missed
when he was in the hospital or on light duty. Live Fire Convoy was one. He has been doing well in PT and expects to do well on the final PT test. He is running faster than he ever has and feeling much stronger and more confident which, he says is definitely the strength of the Lord being manifest. Thank You, Father, for this witness of Your power!
Adeline and Andrew did get to see each other on the 4th of July. Knowing that Adeline had lost her watch he had purchased a very nice watch for her at the PX a couple weeks ago as a surprise gift and wanted so much to be able to deliver it to her in person.
On the 4th he dressed nicely in his civilian clothes and the Lord had told him to wear a hat so he purchased an appropriate Indiana Jones type and looked very “spiffy” He went to the CQ at Adeline’s Company. He was knocking politely at the door when 2 recruits came up behind him and told him he just needed to go in, no one was going to come answer the door for him! (There is a sign at the bottom of the door stating that you had better enter properly or it is 20 push-ups!) Andrew went in and stood at “parade rest.” When asked his purpose there he said he had a gift for Adeline Prince. The female sergeant at the desk told him to put it on the desk and she would see that Adeline got it. However, the same DS he saw the first time he had gone looking for her, weeks ago was also there and asked his name and if he was her husband. When Andrew replied he was her brother the DS asked if he had ever gotten to see her. Then he said that he thought that Andrew ought to get to visit with her now. So the woman sent the 2 recruits, who had followed Andrew in, to find her and Andrew and Adeline wound up spending several hours together at the Base fair and fireworks! He had an off-base pass so at one point he took a cab to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart to purchase several items that Adeline needed and brought them back to her. He even bought a basket of strawberries at Wal-Mart and they shared them with their dinner at the fair. Thank You, Father for this great blessing!
To make this all even better, Andrew was able to send pictures taken on a slightly used 8MP camera one of his battle buddies sold to him for $80 after Andrew tested it and saw that it did take good quality photos. So from that we have the following pictures! It is so nice to see their smiling faces!
George had his first inside view of the Apache, Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters as he toured them at the 4th of July fair. No rides that day, but he said being in them was very educational and he enjoyed it very much.
George’s roommate, Pvt Gentry, will be leaving at the end of the week, having completed his training. He didn’t pass the sit-ups part of his final PT test and will be taking it over before he leaves. George is working on his sit-ups too, so every night before they go to bed each one holds the other’s feet down while he does the sit-ups. This is real “Battle Buddy” team work!
Joshu’s latest letter mailed July 1st, had an interesting incident to relate. He said, “Last Friday, (June 27th) represented the end of Red Phase – the Total Control Phase. Only it didn’t work out that way for third platoon because someone was found to be selling Dip in our bay that he smuggled in from the PX. This happened on Thursday night (26th) and Platoon “smokings” (corrective PT training) became the norm for the next couple of days. After Red Phase, “smokings” are given on an individual basis instead of the whole platoon or even company. This discovery, along with people bringing food into the bay, put a bad mark on 3rd Platoon which I happen to be in. The DSs were embarrassed, and the First Sergeant is not happy with 3rd – understandably. I, of course, had no idea this was going on and so it was with many of the privates here. In fact, I was taken aback. The end of Phase One also is the opportunity to get rid of the trouble makers or quitters. So the offender is getting discharged. There are about 7 that are either being sent home or recycled to start over again. There is a sense that the rest will do better and we can move on with training.” We do remember that George had a similar experience in his first 3 weeks of Basic, and once the bad apples were taken out things did improve greatly for the rest. Right is right and wrong is wrong and there is no room for breaking the rules. That is a good thing. The army has a motto “Army Strong”. An army can only be strong if it is in the right.
Li’l Twuk has a Riveting Experience!
Adeline wasn’t the only one who got a very nice gift on Independence Day; the Lord has provided a wonderful new tool for the shops that enables independence from hours of manual riveting!
So much of the work on Li’l Twuk is in the “riveting stage” right now as the pictures will show and C. says this pneumatic rivet gun makes the riveting take 1/8th of the time it took with the manual guns. He is very pleased with it and we are SO thankful! Will provide more specs and details and brand name when we get that information together.
We do thank the Father very much for providing this marvelous tool that is so helpful
and will be much used.
Riveted Aluminum angles to support the rocker panels that will be fabricated for the truck
and attached to the angles.
The DS wheel well seen from the outside fabricated from aluminum and attached with rivets.
The same wheel well seen from inside the truck. Note the careful bending and riveting of the curve.
The Home Front.
A very major undertaking has been embarked upon this week. Taking advantage of the dry season we are having, it is time to repaint the reservoir floor the bright blue that helps make it the beautiful as well as purposeful addition to our property that it is. With the old paint already removed last spring, it will only take a week or so to be able to have water again once it has been painted. Of course this meant draining the 4 feet of water that was in it and delivering that water through the large “fire fighter type” hoses we have to EVERY Area of the property they would reach. The heavy, often water filled hoses were moved by hand from place to place as each bed, tree, or shrub was watered. Everything from the vegetable and herb gardens, driveway beds, the fence line beds, over to the orchard, down to the Courtyard jasmine. The reservoir has never been drained when it was still so full, and it is a miracle that it was all completed in less than 3 days! Pictures tell it best!
Empty at last! Sunday, July 6. Thank You, Father.
