Conversations

Conversations

Just to give you an idea of how things are going here, let me replay a conversation I had with on of the instructors here:

Me: “So, what am I here to learn today?”
Instructor: “What do you want to learn?”
Me: “Well, this is your class, isn’t it? What do you teach?”
Instructor: “I teach a lot of things. What do you want to know?”
Me: “I’m not sure. The unit I’m going to said that I had to come here for engineer refresher training.”
Instructor: “What do you want to be refreshed on?”
Me: “Hmm. Not sure on that one. Since I’m an engineer captain, I guess engineering stuff. Can you give me any updates of changes in the military engineering system since I got out a few years back? You know, new computer programs or techniques that they are using now that they didn’t use 6 years ago?”
Instructor: “What kind of changes are you referring to?”
Me: “I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me of anything that I need to know in order to do my job.”
Instructor: “What will you be doing?”
Me: “I don’t know that one either. They haven’t told me yet.”
Instructor: “Well, I’m not sure what to teach you. What do you want to be taught?”
Me: “Maybe anything that I need to know in theater that will help me do my job better.”
Instructor: “What will you be doing?”
Me: “I told you already, I don’t know.”
Instructor: “Then why are you here?”
Me: “Because they told me to come here.”
Instructor: “Why?”
Me: “I don’t know. Something about supporting the war effort and stuff like that. Look, they called me back into active duty and I’m just following orders. I just need to know what I’m doing here.”
Instructor: “I’m not sure. Who sent you here?”
Me: “The Army did.”
Instructor: “Who is this ‘Army’ that you speak of?”
Me: “I’m going back to my room. Please call me if you can find something to teach me.”

Okay, maybe I embellished the last bit a little, but for the most part, it’s a reflection of how things have been here for the past week. I think today we made some headway towards some specialized training which was a big boost in morale. See, I’m not completely cynical! I found the positive in this situation, although it DID take some digging.