Category: Rats!

Click on the thumbnail above to view the full-sized image!

For those of you non-cadet types, BRC stands for Breakfast Role Call. This is the first formation of the day for the VTCC, and all the companies are supposed to head out onto the VT on the upper quad for formation before marching over to Shultz dining hall for breakfast. Or at least that was how it worked when I was a cadet. Now Shultz dining hall is becoming a bit of history, and I don’t know what the requirements are for who forms up when.  Back in my day… (Jeeze, don’t I sound old!)

Anyway, back in my day, I believe the battalions alternated days for early morning formation, unless there was a special event.  And depending on what you had going on in your personal calendar, you could get excused from formation. I missed plenty of morning formations due to the Army ROTC physical training schedule. We were usually finishing up a 2 mile run just as formation was ending, so we had an automatic out for that day. And if I had a test I really needed to get up early for, or a project I had to work on late the night before, I could get an excuse for those, most times.

But there were the occasional mornings when I got out to the VT and I was only one of a handful of cadets present. Nothing seems more ridiculous than having only 20 cadets out of an entire battalion forming up at the crack of dawn for first formation, but we did it anyway.

Click on the thumbnail above to view the full-sized image!

Yes, I was one of those cheap people who refused to take their uniforms to the cleaners. I did everything at the laundromat down the street from Rasche Hall. And yes, over time my uniforms did shrink. At least that’s my story, and you can’t prove otherwise!

Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized comic!

Yes, it’s schmaltz, but keep in mind, Ivan (and before him, Irwin) was always the under-dog. I thought it would be nice to see him have one nice evening, complete with a bit of light romance.

Click on the image above to see the full-sized cartoon!

Sorry for posting this late today. I am swamped right now with Girl Scout cookie stuff. Princess’ troop has done very well, selling over 2000 boxes. I told them if they reached that goal, they could pick my next hair color. They voted for all purple, and on Sunday they got it!

I know I look like hell in this photo. I’m at a Girl Scout leader’s meeting. I’ve had at least one Girl Scout event a week, many times two or more, since the first week of January. I’m a little tired by this point…

As for today’s cartoon, I don’t even know if Shultz Dining Hall exists anymore, but that was were a lot of freshman found dates when I was a cadet. It was the closest dining hall to our dorms, and the only one we were authorized to use without getting special permission. I had to get permission to eat at another dining hall my senior year because I had a late evening class on the other side of the campus, so the only way I could get to eat was if I went to another hall. I think I ate at Dietrick that year, but I can’t really recall. It was weird being the only cadet in the dining hall, I do remember that.

Anyway, I’ve got to rush back to work now. I’ve got client commissions waiting to be done and more cookie stuff to handle. Busy day! See you all later

Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized image!

Military Ball. No two words rouse more ire or stress than Military Ball. My freshman year, it was optional to attend. If you could find a date (and some how miraculously I did), you put on your best dress (or dress uniform if you were a guy), and you showed up to have fun. If you didn’t, you stayed home and watched “Star Trek: Next Generation” reruns in the dorm lounge.

A year or two after that, however, Military Ball became mandatory, and boy did that piss people off.  Honestly, I can only recall going to Mil Ball twice –  my freshman year and my senior year. Each of those times I had a date (and I married the guy who I took my senior year to the Ball). I don’t recall pulling on the uniform during those two dateless years. Did I somehow manage to get out of it? If so, I wonder what miracle occurred that exempted me from sweating for hours in an ugly uniform? (The dress uniform never looked good on women, believe me.)

Oh well, whatever happened those two years must not have been important to me. I only remember the angst so many freshman suffered over trying to find a date the year the Ball became mandatory to attend.

Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized image!< ?xml:namespace prefix ="" o />

Back in my day (waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the dawn of time), Spring Rats didn’t always last very long. We’d get a dozen or so in our battalion and within a month we’d be down to one or two. But those that stayed were pretty dedicated.

There was a big push to recruit new cadets back in my day (waaaaaaaaaaay, waaaaaaaay back in the dawn of time), and I’m sure there’s still a big push to recruit these days. To those of you considering joining the VTCC, let me say that while I never would have voluntarily joined (my dad made me do it!), I never regretted the four years I spent as a cadet at Virginia Tech. They were tough years, but I got a lot out of them.

I will be at Farpoint this weekend with copies of the second issue of Mustachequerade! And for those of you who still want to get the first issue, I’ll have a few of those as well. Stop by and see me! I should have a table in the main dealers room, plus I’ll be doing panels on podcasting, writing, new media and webcomics.

Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized image!

Ah, spring rats. Nothing says “miserable weather in Blacksburg has hit once again” like a fresh batch of new cadets in gray bag. We always got in a group of 4 or 5 new cadets every January, just as the weather was really starting to turn miserable. Thus I always associate spring with cheap wool uniforms, freezing days of rain, and yet even more cadets calling me, “Sir!”

Back in my day, spring rats had it a bit easier and a bit tougher than the rats who started out in August. They had it easier because they didn’t go through all the harassment and hassle that the other rats went through months earlier (honestly, I think the upper classmen were too damned tired to go through all that nonsense twice in one year). At the same time though, there were only 4–5 of them as opposed to a group of 10–15 rats or more. Lower numbers made it easier for the upper classmen to see when a spring rat screwed up.

The spring rat in the cartoon above was based on one Ms. Tina Paulson. I liked Tina. She was a hard worker and had the best attitude of any rat I ever saw come along. I think she actually enjoyed being a rat, which I never did. I bet she went on to become a great officer. Tina, wherever you are, I hope you’re doing well.

Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized comic!

Still testing out BlogJet to see if it will be viable for all my blogging needs. Hopefully, this post came out okay.

Anyway, I always hated early morning PT. I had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn so many times, and often even before dawn to get out to Lane Stadium to run stadium steps. Running flights of stadium steps SUCKS! Although at least I could see my toes. I never ate so much that I had problems fitting into my uniform, you see.

And in fact, I’m still in pretty good shape today. My weight hasn’t gone up too much in the last 20 years, and except for a couple of bum knees, I’m pretty fit. Although those bum knees would certainly prevent me from running any flights of stadium steps today.

Can you hear me crying over that? No? Me neither.

I believe I actually sat down with a course schedule catalog and found all these courses listed in it. I couldn’t believe there was a wine tasting class, but then Virginia Tech does offer majors in the Hospitality and Restaurant business. I never took any of these classes. My one easy A class turned out to be Japanese, which I only took because somehow, inspite of the Professional Military Requirements classes I had added on top of the requirements for my major, I hit my senior year with only 9 credit hours per semester of requirements to fill. Since I was a member of the Virginia Tech Animation Society (VTAS), I decided to take Japanese on the off chance I might someday be able to understand what the hell was going on in all those animated movies I was watching every Thursday night.

Ah, I miss those days when my biggest worry was whether or not I made it to my weekly movie night on time to get a good seat…

Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized cartoon!

I always hated having to go to drop-add to get my class schedule fixed. I have no idea what it’s like today, but it absolutely boggled my mind the hoops I had to jump through to get the classes I wanted. By what process did the university decide that I needed Underwater Basket Weaving in lieu of Public Speaking or First Amendment Law and History (required courses for someone in my major!)? To make matters even worse, my sophomore year, the Army ROTC department introduce the Professional Military Education requirements, additional classes we needed to take in order to become commissioned officers. I cannot tell you how many cadets went from 4-year degrees to 5-year degrees when that came out.

It was always a mess. So many hours wasted tracking back and forth across the campus to find a professor who would let you into the class you needed even though it was full. To this day, I have nightmares about trying to get into a class I desperately need, only to discover the professor has left for his Hawaiian vacation, and will not be back before I graduate.

Hope all you current cadets have settled into the new semester without too many problems! Now quit reading webcomics and get back to studying!!