Week 8 Weekend

Nice long weekend is over and we are beginning Week 9 tomorrow! That feeling we all had last week, that we are almost out of here, is stalling! We want out now!

Saturday we did the Pentagon tour. Thanks goes to our classmate Brian, who works there! He was a rockstar and got us a tour. I guess they don’t do public tours there anymore, that makes sense. The Pentagon was very cool. It’s huge! 17.5 miles of corridors and over 2.5 million square feet! The Pentagon Force Protection (their police department) came in on their day off to give us a tour, that’s incredibly nice of them. They told us there are parts of the building they have never even been to, that blows my mind away. There are several areas in the building they aren’t even allowed to go to. The layout and design were very impressive and not something I am going to talk about here. I was impressed though!

We also got to spend some time in the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon. It’s a very neat idea. It’s a crushed rock garden (so you can leave your impression) and 184 benches. If the benches face the building they were on the airplane, if they face away, they were inside. Each year of birth for the victims has the benches lined up so you can see the age of all of the victims. We learned that the plane that struck the building only penetrated one loop of the building and people on the othe side had no idea a plane had struck at all. It’s a great design and very sobering.

After the Pentagon, we went into DC for lunch. Any chance to eat off the reservation and we take it! We went to Bud and Pop’s for a sandwich, they were once featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It was legit, I had the Philly cheesesteak! After lunch we took in some sights around the national mall area including the Jefferson memorial. Neat place. Even saw a couple get engaged on the steps! I didn’t even yell anything smart at them, even though I was tempted! It would have just flown in the face of my wife post a couple of days ago ;-). We also walked around old town Alexandria for a bit.

Saturday night we watched Deadpool in the auditorium, felt like I was in a movie theater. Very cool. Sunday was pretty exciting around here, a ton of new baby agents showed up to begin their academy tomorrow! They all look so young! So this place is packed to the gills at the moment and I’m guessing lines for lunch/dinner will be long.

Another surprise is that our local FBINAA chapter president and treasurer are here for meetings. My good friend Jeff is Iowa’s president, so I got to have dinner with him and tomorrow night the whole Iowa contingent will go out to eat together, that should be fun!

So have a good night! We are moving on to week 9 and we are almost done!

Steps 11,672 = 5.52 miles
Saturday steps 18,753 = 8.9 miles

Some new swag in the hallway of our dorm, just hung up. It’s pretty big!


9/11 memorial at the Pentagon. One bench for every person who died.

Pentagon

One of Saddam Huessein’s golden AK-47s.


Jefferson Memorial

Watching a movie in the auditorium. Good fun

Code Red! 3 Day Weekeend!

Last night was the FBI combine! A fun event, but humbling to say the least. I escaped without any injuries, except for my pride.

Today a Code Red was issued for Marine Base Quantico, which means the base is closed! No classes!!! High winds were the reason and below you will some pictures from a classmate on why! This place is like high school, we are all ready to cut loose with a 3 day weekend and no real responsibilities coming up! Many guys who live within 6 hours or so are gone, they went home. Must be nice. The rest of us are trying to figure out what to do today. Looks like a movie is in our future.

Tomorrow several of us are heading to the Pentagon for a tour, that should be interesting. Other then that, a pretty quiet weekend is planned for around here.

Went and saw Game Night with a group of guys, it was worth it, very funny. After that we did a workout and finished with some hard core games of PIG!

People are really starting to count down the days and we are all wanting to go home. At the same time, we are starting to realize that we have to go back to work soon! It’s both a blessing and a curse haha. 14 days we are done and out of here. 11 days till my family rolls in here!

Steps 11,100 = 5.25 miles

Combine group!

The 300 meter shuttle run-was tough!

Med ball throw! Being flexible helps!

Code Red Damage


Thanks Jessie for taking these pics

Texas shaped tortilla chips! I was impressed!

Combine shirt, the few, the proud!

Week 8 Almost Over!

I am starting to become blown away by the number of people who are reading this...I should probably  concentrate on sending some better messages out! Every day it seems someone comes up to me and tells me they saw my blog or their wife saw it. I hope it is helping some of you understand what your significant other is doing out here and I try to get pictures of people for their loved ones to see them in here also. So if you read this and you haven’t seen a picture of your loved one yet, let them know and have them reach out to me, we will make them famous!

Ok, time to get semi serious for a minute. Enough isn’t said for how important your family life is while you are here. To be married to LEO is tough enough, we aren’t the best at this stuff and stats will back that up. To be married to one and then have young kids while you are basically gone for 10 weeks is even harder. If you are coming here, start having these conversations. It is hard for me to be missing everything back home and I feel guilty that my wife is basically a single parent.

My wife is rockstar. Hardest worker I have ever met by far. She has never backed down from anything and pretty much handles her business at all times. Me being gone for this long though, that was a test of her sanity! Luckily we have great friends and family who have helped us a ton with grabbing kids, taking them here or there when needed etc. I am fortunate and blessed to know these great people who have helped us out so much. I am also grateful for my wife, she is a legit bada$$ (Sadie skip this word! ;-))

I’m not sure how people did this without FaceTime? Ok, so make sure your home life can handle this before you come. If you have young kids, you need to go home or have them come here at some point. It’s worth it trust me.

Today was an easy day, I only had 2 classes. After class I participated in the FBI Combine! I only did it because they give you a shirt haha! I competed in the events and I felt good, but I was humbled! I finished in the middle of the pack. The hardest event was the pull ups at 115% of your body weight, I only got 1 of those. Like I said, the shirt was cool!

How hard is this note on a guy? This was in my cookie box yesterday, makes me choke up!


Nestor and Steve! They saw the blog, so I put them in it!


Lounge area in the Jefferson dorm. The FBI trainees use this mostly.


Post office doors. This is under the cafeteria. Bank and store are to the right, out of the picture.


Not sure this picture does it justice, but the halls are long here!


What I look at everyday at my desk!

Journey to Oz!

Wednesdays are by far my favorite days at the NA! Today was no exception. We started off the day with our last challenge, the Journey to Oz! This is a timed 1 mile run to qualify to run the Yellow Brick Road in week 10. Guys have to be under 10 minutes and I think the girls have to make it under 11:30, not sure about the girls time. It was intense, there was a lot of energy and support felt the entire morning. Our whole session and a bunch of the FBI employees lined both sides of the track and cheered and yelled each heat. For the most part I think everyone here improved their time from the first mile we ran in week 1. In fact, I’d be willing to guess the average time drop was :30 seconds or more. I heard multiple people dropped over 1 minute, including myself.

I had a great coach, EJ! I was trying to catch Nick, my suite mate at the end, but he got me. I’m still happy with my 6:14 mile though, not bad for an old man. The best time of the day was 5:25 though! Marco, who I have a selfie with earlier in this blog, crushed it!

After the challenge we listened to the SAC of the Las Vegas Division give us the insights in the Las Vegas shooting from October. Well done and very insightful. When these sort of things happen, you are going to need all the help you can get, form those relationships now!

My awesome wife sent me a box of cookies today too! I love her cookies, it was a nice surprise. Less then 2 weeks from now and they will all be here!

To cap off a great day we had Texas night! Our Texas representatives did a great job with the whole event. They had the best food I have had here at the NA, by far! Everyone loved it and had a great time.

Sorry for the pictures below being out of order, this blog isn’t the best for uploading and managing the layout.

Steps 13,072 = 6.2 miles

Carl does these every week for our challenges,  he does a great job!

Live music at Texas night!

View of the crowd

Nick and I running the mile. He got me at the end!

Texas plate of food-they don’t mess around!

Section 3 at the tree after the mile!

The FBI Store. You buy your uniforms here and other stuff. They have snacks, souvenirs, FBI logo clothes etc...and some NA stuff as well.

Week 8 Like a Boss!

It is like spring fever around here, people have that spring in their step as we are counting down the days till we are done!

Today was more presentations in all of my classes. Some good debates about accreditation, transparency in LE, and some other stuff about transformational leaders. You name it, we’ve covered it. I got my last paper grade today and we are starting to get our online grades coming back as well, all is good! I have a presentation Friday morning and a press conference on Monday and I am basically done with school work. I am glad that I got most of my work done earlier.

Tomorrow is our mile run to qualify for the Yellow Brick Road. Guys need to be done under 10 mins, no expections. I am rooting for a few guys to get that and baring any weird injuries, I should be ok. I’d actually like to get way under that, but we will see how it turns out.

Texas night is tomorrow also! We are way jacked up for some brisket, sausage, coleslaw, and other stuff! I will take plenty of pics.

Today we got our tickets to graduation. What a hot topic around here! You only get 3 and people are begging for extras. I was lucky and got the tickets I need to get my family and boss in for mine. Others not so much. Make friends with the International students and those from far away who won’t have guests...they are valuable!

We got our 271 patch, coin, and pin tonight. Not bad.



Hallways at the NA



Outside lounging area-there are a bunch of these around.






Lunch

Monday Week 8!!

Week 8 is going well. People are excited to be wrapping up their school work and getting back home soon. Time is flying by and they make you busy here, so you don’t realize it.

I had media class today, we are getting ready for our press conferences next week. I also had Violent crime and I listened to my classmates tell about murders in their area. Very interesting and entertaining, we have some good investigators in this class. I also had PT and EJ enlightened us with some good info as always and then kicked our butts in a work out. He is getting us ready for this weeks challenge, the final mile run!

If you can arrange your schedule correctly, you should seek out EJ for PT. He is teaching our Section 3 group, not sure if he will continue or not, but keep that in mind for future sessions and classes. He is worth the price of admission.

Steps = 10,462 = 4.66 miles. My daughter had more steps then me today!! Ha

Omar from Morrocco and Boobie (nickname because we have problems pronouncing his real name) from Nepal.
Not sure who wrote this. Funny part was trying to explain that it’s a compliment to Omar (Morrocco)

Monday envelope! Only 2 left!!!!

Our Mall run brick, pretty cool I must say.