The Nursing Assistant class moved rapidly toward completion in the fall of 1995. It would conclude on a normal semester rubric in mid-December. The Emergency Medical Class in the three evening per week schedule would linger through winter college break, and into early January for testing. Go figure - it was a preview of that time-crazy profession. They always marched to the beat of a different drummer. It was just another example of the differences in the two medical fields. 

    The Nursing Assistant (CNA) world fell to a more ordered schedule - at least in college. The CNA class went all day Monday through Friday for several several weeks. That got four college credits tallied up pretty fast. 

    I remember the CNA class was all women except myself and a young fellow - I think his name was Neal. The class was held down in the old downtown tech school building right down from the State Capital. That would be my first glimpse of the old building. It sits like a European or Chicago granite building. It's right around the corner from State Street with all its culture and food eateries. The main tech campus on the other hand, is out at the airfield. That newish main campus building is huge and rather bland and utilitarian. The old building still holds some charm. Some instructors covet a teaching position at the old building. 

    Anyway, my lone male companion Neal was in some sort of charter high school class that was affiliated with the tech college. His class rooms were down a floor or two. He always asked me to trek down there and take a peek at his latest art project. The projects mostly had a Goth timbre - paintings and the like. I think he was 18 years old. He always wore goth hair, rings, piercings, and cloths. I quietly referred to him as "Road Warrior" to Heide. 

    Road Warrior called our lead instructor "Dude." She would say, "Neal, quit calling me Dude, I am a female." 

    Road Warrior would always respond with a incredulous look, "Sorry Dude." 

    There is more intimate cares that have to be done in the CNA field and you would train on real people - usually your class mates. There was bathing techniques and general care techniques where the patient would be in the buff. The instructors were always cognizant that it might be uncomfortable for the students. Hence, Neal and I would be partnered up for most training. We also spent a good deal of time training in an actual nursing home. 

    At the end of our training, we were sat down as a group and recruited by said nursing home. It was a few blocks from our campus building. I would come to find out it was notorious for lack of help, employee turn over, and low pay. This place also took on patients other places would not. Two or three of us took them up on their job offer. But the place was even too rough around the edges for Ol'' Road Warrior. 

    I started work for them at nights at the beginning of 1996. I had decided to continue on with tech college part-time for at least another semester that spring and choose, believe it or not...a two-credit lifeguard class. The kicker, believe it or not again, was the other class...The Firefighter Academy; it was a seven credit compilation of field and book training in the art of fighting fires and the like. 

    I would be turning 40 years old that spring semester. My friends and family politely would nod and say guarded encouraging things like, "Wow, good luck, how altruistic of you Bob." 

    Privately to Heide, they were saying, "Is Bob fuck'n nuts?...I knew he would finally go off the deep end!...He almost died in Texas...He can't even walk that good anymore can he?"
 
    Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job.  Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page  for an ordered chronology.

                   Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
    (each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan

    Army Private First Class Anthony Alexander "Alex" Gaunky, 19, of Sparta, Wisconsin died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, on Friday, November 18, 2005, of injuries he sustained when his Humvee was involved in an accident during convoy operations in Bayji, Iraq, on November 17, 2005. He was injured when the Humvee he was riding in was struck by a vehicle that came across a road and crashed into his convoy. Wisconsin 2005 Joint Resolution 66 indicated the convoy had been under attack from enemy fire. PFC Gaunky was a combat engineer with the Army's 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Alex Gaunky had enlisted in the Army after graduation from high school and had been in Iraq for about two and a half months. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel indicated Gaunky's family requested that any viable organs be harvested for donation. According to Joint Resolution 66 his heart was donated to an 11−year−old girl in Germany. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention Alex was a 2004 graduate of Sparta High School, where he played French horn in the school band, managed the Spartans football team, and was voted the best dancer in his graduating class. He was known for his infectious smile, enjoyed bicycling, fishing, horseback riding, chess, and acting. He was known for being a Monty Python aficionado. Everyone called him "Alex." The Journal Sentinel also said Alex had three brothers with military background. Brother Adam choose the Navy; brother Don also served in the Army in Iraq; and, brother Bob served in the Navy in Iraq. At the time of his death Alex Gaunky was survived by his mother, Lori Friske, father, David Gaunky, and brothers Adam, Don, and Bob. Private First Class Alex Gaunky was the 50th member of the Armed Forces from Wisconsin to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003. 

                        As of this blog entry's posting date:

    96,050 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
    
    9,458 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    4,402 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    1048 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    689 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    31,809 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    5,730 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    18 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.