Ivygirl is now deployed to Japan! She’s discovered boba tea, gyoza, and usagi cake. She’s getting ready to go on a mission…no, I don’t know where or for how long. She’s seen Mount Fuji too!
Unless things have changed since I was in the army, Private can be E-1 (recruit) or Private E-2 (just out of basic). E-3 is Private First Class, which is the lowest rank of most active duty troops. You gotta start somewhere, and most soldiers who “keep their noses clean” rapidly advance to Specialist 4th Class (Spec 4), E-4, equivalent to Corporal (also E-4). Other services than US Army have other designations. NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) start at E-5 (Sergeant or Spec 5).
If you have demonstrable and appropriate skills or training upon enlistment, you can be given a boost in rank immediately, or quickly after basic.
Unless things have changed since 1996 (in my case), both corporals and specialists are E-4’s, but corporals are NCO’s, and are not exactly equivalent to specialists. Part of the requirements for becoming a corporal was an NCO training course; IIRC this was a four week course, TDY if not offered on your base.
Heck, I actually knew at least one SFC that was only an SFC having advanced as a higher order specialist back in the day. They were eliminated only a few years before I went into the Army.
Good for her! I’d love to go to Japan someday. Hope she has fun and finds her service to the republic very fulfilling.
That is so cool. You make that girl send you some cool mementos, both for you to keep and for you to keep for her return. (saves room in her baggage when returning)
She has left on her mission. I know the name of the boat she’s on (she’s asked me not to share that, so I won’t) and I found a site called Marinetraffic.com where I can track it.
I don’t know how that works with classified missions, so I am assuming when necessary, her location will not be updated in real time.
Can you tell us the class of the boat (or ship) she’s aboard?
I think I’m going to err on the side of caution here. It’s easy to tell stuff, not so easy to untell it. 
She was able to call us from Okinawa back on Jan 23, when they were taking on more cargo. She said she’d be out of pocket for about ten days. Last night she managed to send an e-mail from the ship:
*Hey, y’all! (Yes, Momma, you can put this on my facebook group)
Okay, I don’t have Internet access, I hijacked the vessel’s computer for this (I though dial-up was bad, it took 20 minutes just to load the compose email box). I’ll make this short, as someone is waiting to send an email after me, but I just wanted to get in contact with you so you don’t worry. I know I said 10 days, but there’s been some form of a delay, so we’ll be porting in our next destination on 08Feb. It’s no fault of anyone on the vessel, but shit happens.
Not much has been going on for me. Seasickness pills to hand out is about all I’ve done. The elliptical is an evil machine that should be lit on fire, and working out in the engine room adds a whole new level of hell. Daddy, sit-ups aren’t really an option, as all the surfaces are hard, do you know any good ab exercises I could do without laying down? We’re slated for a PT test next month sometime (maybe).
As we’ve slowed our speed for the delay, there’s been a lot of fishing. Someone caught a mahi. Freaked us out, the cooks and I were hanging out in the mess, and all of a sudden the engines just died. We all kinda looked at each other like “uhhh…we did not just deadline.” I went to the engine room to check and nope, just slowed so they could reel the thing in. Apparently, it was delicious.
I’ll try to hijack the computer tomorrow to check my email (I’ve got invoices that need to be paid anyway, Mate’s tracking it), so feel free to respond. Tell me what’s going on stateside, please, the inability to check my newsources is killing me.*
I told her to do planks for ab exercises.
She’s not on the USS Antietam, is she?
Glad things are going well for her.
You hit planks that I always liked.
You can look all smart and point out that those Conditioning Drills that were part of the PRTs her Drill Sergeants taught her work the core. Almost every drill works some of the core stabilizer muscles. She might pay special attention to the V-Up and Supine Bicycle. 
They are performed on the floor but at the proper pace with proper form they aren’t as uncomfortable on the tail bone as sit-ups.
The flutter kick was one of the ab exercises in the pre-PRT days. Back in my day we did them on uneven pavement..uphill…in the rain and snow… Well not uphill but don’t screw with my grumpy old man vibe.
Slow paced situps add their own kind of challenge even in smaller numbers. They aren’t as painful on hard surfaces. She could even hold some extra weight to her chest. It’s not like she joined the Air Force
She got off another quick note. I’m glad they’re including her in the training drills by throwing casualties at her. Before, she was told to just wait in the mess because that’s where they would bring casualties. Now she gets practice in treating them.
We ran two drills today, and I had a “casualty” in one. I messed up a bit on the splint (I forgot to secure the splint to the arm BEFORE securing it to the body), and I messed up because I treated the casualty where he was (main deck, which would be a problem in rougher seas, if the waves came up), but overall chief said I did pretty well, just needed to tweak. I did another splint on one of the cooks immediately afterward, and when chief came down, he asked her to move her arm. When she couldn’t, he said good job and that’s the way to do it. I’m glad they’re giving me casualties on these drills, it keeps my skills up and shows me weak spots. In addition, they said they would keep adding more casualties and I wouldn’t be the one treating them all the time, so I may be able to teach a skill or two. As for treating him on the main deck, I wasn’t trained for a vessel, so the thought didn’t cross my mind, but now I know. If he can walk, get him in the crews mess. If he can’t walk, drag him into the crews mess.
Max, fortunately not.