Snoopy Dance

There is one thing in a person’s military career that over shadows everything else। While it’s nice to be presented awards and recognition, what really makes a difference is getting more money.

This morning, I was doing coverage for my Marines physical readiness test and started to get calls from different people in my command asking if I had seen my Chief yet। Um, no, is there something I need to know? No, he’ll tell you when he see’s you.

Hmm? I wonder what I did? Did someone read a post that they didn’t agree with? Did those evals I just wrote look like garbage? Was one of my guys in trouble? I got to the office and one of my junior guys was asked the same thing। Ahh, I logged on to my BUPERS online and checked my advancement status and found out that I had been selected for Petty Officer First Class. Yay!

My Chief was a little miffed not being able to put his production of yelling at us, trying to get us to confess whatever we did and scaring us to death then saying congrats, you guys are getting promoted. Sorry Chief, I would have would have gone along with the ruse and might have even had the lower lip quiver and a tear in my eye but I knew something was up when all of those guys called me. I’m sure our newly promoted HM3 would have put on a good show.
Our HN (E-3) guy had picked up Petty Officer Third Class। Then I got to thinking, all of the 1st Classes at my Flight Line Aid Station were leaving in the next few months and I might be the one taking over their jobs. Sheesh.

I admit, it’s a little scary being thrust into this leadership role because I really did not expect this promotion; when I found out, the surprise in my face was total। There was a 15 dental questions that I totally eni-meni-mini-mo’ed. I had spaced studying dental supply and those questions were at the beginning of the test and that sense of failure affected my feelings about the rest of the 170 odd questions I had to go. When every question counts, I was a little worried about even passing.

Luckily, my worries were unfounded, the test was worth 80 points, I got 66 of those points which is a very respectable score in any book and I beat the total cutting score by 6 points.
Now I just have to get used to being called HM1 Dustman and seeing if I can put all I’ve learned over the years into practice.