This was why Luke was too busy to talk or email

Luke sent me a couple pictures that I thought I would share.  The first one is his SCWS pinning ceremony. I don't think he actually got the pin yet, but maybe a certificate?  But he did get a patch for his uniform.  So now everyone knows to watch out:  he's warfare qualified.  :)  He sent me an email explaining better what exactly was involved in this.  For the sake of the family record, I'm going to try to summarize it here because I find it fascinating.  I love studying and project planning and test taking and I am sort of jealous.  :)  It consisted of several parts.

Non-Resident Courses:  This is four self-study books that he had to read and then answer questions online. I actually skimmed through some of these books and they covered a ton of subjects:  construction, camp set-up, first aid, what to do if you become a prisoner.  It was really interesting.

PQS Books: Three qualification books.  With this he had to study the material, and then find a subject-matter expert (the Chiefs in the battalion) and pass off his knowledge with them.  This part actually ended up being pretty difficult because they had recently updated the material, but the study books were geared towards the old stuff, so he sort of had to figure out what was current.  Also, he was on a det and so didn't have as many experts that he could go to.  But the Chief and Senior Chief there with him really did their best to help him along.  He said this was the most time-consuming and he spent a couple hundred hours on it.

Preboard:  This is where you stand in front of a board of your peers and they throw questions at you from the PQS material.  It is also known as the "murder board."  They had actually been waiving this portion of the SCWS during the deployment and he wasn't expecting to do it.  But they sort of sprung it on him and the Skipper grilled him for an hour before his final board.  It sounds like it wasn't as bad as it could have been, especially if he had done it during homeport.  So phew.

Final Board:  He said that this was one of the craziest things he had ever had to do.  It was sort of a real-life application of everything he had learned over the past few months.  They gave him a package full of information for a Seabee assignment.  Basically, it was a scenario where he had to plan everything for a group of between 25 and 150 guys to go off and accomplish a project.  He had to plan for the security, the physical needs, the materials and equipment, and the scheduling of everything.  There were so many elements to it: the convoy, the camp, the personnel, communications with higher command.  It was a lot more complicated than my explanation here.  And he only had 48 hours to have this whole thing planned  and ready to go as if it was real.  He only got 4 hours of sleep during that time period, but really shouldn't even have slept that much.  Then while he was all brain dead from lack of sleep, he had to do his murder board and then present the project to the final board which was the Skipper and two other officers who were SCWS qualified.  But he did great.  There were a couple of things that he had to fix, but they give them a day or two to do that and he was able to get it all done and turned in and it was over.

Wahoo!  He's been looking forward to getting this done since he joined the CEC what, 6 years ago?  You can't do it until you do a battalion tour so it is pretty exciting to be able to get it done.  And he had been really looking forward to getting the chance to be a Seabee.  You know, even though it kind of stunk that he had to go to Afghanistan instead of Japan, it has been a really good experience for him to be able to go out and really do what they were made to do.  Or, at least stand there in the shade and watch while they do what they do.  Hahaha.  Just teasing.  He works hard.  :)  It is really nice for me too that this is over because I get to hear from him a little more often.