A Coy 2 Platoon 3 Section

Was at Stand To all morning, which was basically sitting around. Grabbed my echelon bag from Hanslow's hoochie. It had ice on it - it was already wet when they'd taken it out of the rain, and the night was so cold that there was also frost on the hoochies.
Someone had separated my hoochie from Dunkling's and left it (folded up -_-;) in the sun, but it didn't dry too well, so I put it up with the wet on the outside and left my stuff in there.
Four illegal immigrants came in. Being the Knox cadets that they were, didn't really speak any german, but it was amusing to hear them calling Ma'am Frau Hitler. Come to think of it, they didn't speak any foreign languages fluently. We told them the State of Origin scores.
Escorted them to Battalion HQ in a box. Aerial view:

    ^

*       *         ^ CUO

  #   #           # Illegal immigrant

*       *         * Cadet (mostly Cpl, LCpl)

  #   #

*       *

    ^

Asked Zugai random things about frat, experience, etc.
Blew up cheese.
Put on cam paint because they made us.
Practised formations and field signals, with much sitting around. It was practise for a large battalion sized attack on the IIs. (We saw them leaving in a white vehicle during practise, at around 11 - 1200 hrs.) This was the planned formation for A Coy:

    1 Platoon                            2 Platoon

______      ______                   ______      ______

1 sect      2 sect                   1 sect      2 sect

      ______                               ______

      3 sect                               3 sect

                                    

                      3 Platoon      

                  ______      ______

                  1 sect      2 sect

                        ______

                        3 sect

And the structure with the other companies would be the same, with A Coy being the left. I would have loved to take an aerial picture. It must have been huge.

Ate lunch across the paddock. Got Zugai's email address. Headed back to Nightloc and was ordered back on Stand to.
Heard some yelling, so we went out on a patrol with Craddock and some other people. Turned out it was 3RAR doing contact drills as they moved to the gate. Saw them doing formations and stuff too.
Got bitten by an ant on the neck. Discovered I was bleeding.
Sat around and waited to go at 1500. Didn't actually move until 1630. Something about HQ being inept and couldn't make their minds up. Quarter of the way there, just as we'd crossed the road, Cpt Brereton drove up and asked who we were. Someone couldn't decide which company to tell her (or they didn't know what Coy they were in), so she ended up getting told Alpha and Bravo Coys. Her remark was, "Oh, you're the company that set off half an hour ago and still haven't gotten there yet."

Had a fair way to go. It ended up getting too dark again. Biele rolled down a dry creek bank while talking about falling down holes and creek beds. He was crowing about the commando roll he did - fair enough!
He's a veteran, pretty old, missing some teeth; fought in Vietnam. I'm amazed he was still out in the field with us. Most guys his age are sitting at home, nursing homes, or in mental hospitals... *shudders* War does such horrible things to people. I reckon he was one of the lucky ones; he came out of it with relatively few scars.
Navigated four dry creeks - with torches on. Biele said that it was too dangerous to cross obstacles without them, and put himself as the perfect example. XD
Ended up at a large shed. Ate dinner, was cold, took two Ponstan and it didn't hurt so much.
Skits and jokes. Most of them sick jokes. There was an imitation of Slogett (a rather low volume one), and one where some of the guys danced around Slogett (no one but A Coy got that one).
It's very hard to quiet down an entire battalion.

The walk back was cold. I don't know if I was acting insane, or if I really was on the verge of insanity. My arm stung.