The Board, II

So everything going rather smoothly. Yes, I made a few mistakes but I was still thinking they were minor enough. I was nervous, my voice was shaky. That bothered me a little bit because I wanted to be Army Strong --loud and thunderous --not squeaky mousey little girl. But I did the best I could, I think. Well no, I think I could have been stronger and more uh well - Army. But you see, this is what I always struggled with in the Army; that balancing act between being a a soldier and being a girl. When you wear men's clothing (they claim BDU's are unisex but let's face it, its men's clothing) and people call you "Shoeshine Boy" --its pretty hard to be cute. And then when you're feeling cute its pretty hard to be tough. But overall I was pleased how things were going and since I could tell we were wrapping things up, I was even happier it would soon be over.

And then . . . .

I knew Mess Sergeant just couldn't keep her mouth shut. I knew she couldn't and I knew she didn't like my Bears reply.

So I was done with the questioning part and all that was left was for me to stand up, face the board, salute and be on my way. I stood at Attention before the board, getting ready to salute and then Mess Sergeant opened her mouth.

"Specialist Dodge, who is your NCOIC? Is it SSG W?"

"Yes Sergeant, SSG W is my NCOIC."

"Well then, did SSG W inspect your uniform this morning?"

"Yes Sergeant, he did."

"Well then, you might want to tell SSG W to brush up on his 670-1 because you're uniform isn't quite right, your awards aren't straight. He should have corrected that for you!"

FIRST OF ALL (yes, caps do indicate I'm yelling) -- MY UNIFORM WAS PERFECT! Connie helped me get it straight, our training NCOIC and 1SG inspected us --so many people helped me and inspected me before the board AND I myself measured and labored over my uniform for days and days. There's no possible way it was crooked.

SECONDLY, why did she have to say that out loud because now what she's done is draw attention to the matter and now every board member is going to take points off instead of just her. I know by the manner in which she was talking, sassy and uppity like, and the look on her face, she knew exactly what she was doing by saying that out loud. And the other board members, being males, even if they didn't see the imperfection they'd probably assume her being female knew more about it and took her word for it. She knew that, she knew that, she knew that.

After our little chit chat about my uniform, I rendered my salute and exited the room. As soon as you get back into the hallway, all the other soldiers waiting to go in run up to you and ask you how it was, how you did, what questions they asked you, etc. So when I came out and everyone asked me how it went I said, "Mess Sergeant told the entire board my awards were crooked." Well then everyone wanted to see and not one person --NO ONE --was able to see what she was talking about.

So the best possible score is a 200 and I knew I wasn't going to get that but I was still hoping for something 190's. So far, the lowest score we heard was I think --160 or low 170-ish and no one wanted to get a score that low. After a few minutes the Runner, a soldier that was assigned to help the board, comes out with my score. It was 189. I was so disappointed, I really was. Connie kept telling me it was a really good score but you know, I wanted a 190 at the min. To make matters worse, I'm sure I would have reached that had Mess Sergeant not FALSELY accused me of having crooked awards on my uniform.

But I passed the board. I PASSED! You know what that means? I could get promoted any day now -- as long as my overall points hit the minimum for JAG. Getting promoted to E5 is BIG! Its' your first big promotion --and you're no longer lower enlisted but an Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) and with that, rank does have its privileges.

So now its just a waiting game. Yes, its exciting but its also not uncommon for soldiers to be on the E5 list for years and years. I wasn't sure when I'd be promoted or if I'd get promoted before my time was up.