If everything goes to plan, I'll start my terminal leave in 100 days. I've got 85 days of leave saved up, so pretty much gonna collect US Army pay for that time without really being in the Army anymore. I'm not sure if it feels like it's already been 5 years, but I can't wait to get the fuck out.

Along those lines, been going to the mandatory ACAP classes for people getting ready to finish their contracts or retire. It's legitimately sad to see how some of these people have become so dependent on the military lifestyle that they need a whole reeducation in real life. I'm not really worried about it considering that I have a lot of NY state certifications from my time at Ft Drum and 3 of my 5 years were spent in traffic collision investigations using the same NHTSA standards as the rest of the country, so pretty much translates directly to a non-military job skill. Again, I really just can't wait to get out.

In other interesting news, kinda got myself a little bruised the other day. Back at Ft Drum between OC spray, tasers, and competent back-up any fights I got into on duty usually happened on the ground and were short lived. For law enforcement in Korea, it's like you took the dial and went back two decades to where your only tools in subduing a person are your baton and handgun. Pretty much some big gorilla elbowed me a few times in the head when I went to put cuffs on him, another MP hit him several times with the baton to no avail, and when we finally got him on the ground he managed to fuck up another MP's knee pretty bad and kick me in the ear. On the bright side, the bruise looks pretty cool and one of his idiot friends who thought he was helping his buddy by videotaping it actually gave us some damn excellent evidence.

Tying my frustration in the military which had lead to me getting out with this story: The guy who assaulted me was a staff sergeant, as was one of his friends who got arrested right after that for disorderly conduct. The US Army has this gigantic boner for the NCO corps where they insist that sergeants aren't merely experienced supervisors, like in the rest of the world, but standard setting supermen who must in all aspects of their lives be a beacon of excellence and leadership. It's more than a little frustrating when in spite of this huge pedestal, a lot of these guys are blatantly scumbags. Both of these guys had prior DUI convictions. One of them had 3 counts of driving while his license was suspended for that. The other had an aggravated larceny conviction. These are people who would be considered shitheads and probably duds in the civilian world, but in the world of the US Army they've still managed to rise to leadership positions where they have considerable authority over the entire lives of their subordinates.

Not a new revelation for me, and this is far from my first experience which has demonstrated this to me. It's just amusing that every day I get a new example to reaffirm my dissatisfaction with the military. I think I kinda hate soldiers. lol