That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
William Shakespeare – Henry V

I know I've been AWOL...

OK... i swear I will post something new soon. I've been pretty busy lately training up the new turds. I did come home early today but had a softball game and just got home. We lost ... again. But it is good fun and more about fellowship than winning.

Of course if we had won I might be jumping up and down on the couch with one finger in the air like "yeeeeaaarrgh!!!!" ...howling like Howard Dean after a Robitussin cocktail.

But since we lost... it's not about winning lol

Most of the soldiers are doing well. They are getting better every day, and although I had my doubts at first (as always) they will turn out to be some of the best (as always).

They had their final unarmed combat session today and we had the Company Champion for the female soldiers. She put her final opponent out with a bent arm bar pretty quickly.

I had a soldier in formation the other day who was late arriving, and I yelled at hime for showing up late. He is the type of soldier who can always be counted on to say the wrong thing, and his excuse was "I was still pushing out turds, Drill Sergeant" I couldn't help yelling back at him "I've been doing that for a year and a half and I made it to formation!" Of course the formation fell apart laughing... it's hard to stay mad when you have such a good audience lol.

Anyway... I will write something worthwhile soon... bear with me. Red Phase will be over next week and things will be a little more normal.

...out