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Twenty-ninth Job of Bob - College Student Part IV - Total retool; kid in a candy store; not a typewriter to be found; prevailing myths; god bless "cut and past"
This entry was posted on 1/26/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
Once I started regular college classes, an almost overwhelming realization became evident. I was like a kid in an academic candy store. Madison Area Technical College is the flagship campus for the Wisconsin tech school system. And with the robust economy of the 1990s, the giant campus was a bottomless pit of available programs. I had enough sense to try to focus so I zeroed in on a handful of themes and hoped something would float to the surface: Business software; sociology; medical secretary; and, journalism. Later I would poke away at their paralegal program. So much for the conventional and prevailing wisdom that older students know what they want to do when they grow up. I had actually taken typing in high school and it was a good thing. By the mid 1990s, everything in college had gone "key board" and word processing. "I will except no hand-written essay papers," my English teacher proclaimed. The tone was set in granite for the rest of my college endeavors. To bolster my writing production I took a couple "keyboarding classes." It is what we used to call "typing class." Of course the computer keyboard has a whole gamut of extra keys and commands unfamiliar to a typewriter. It would turn out to be one of my better side tracks. As it turned out, not a typewriter could be found in the joint. And, I remember back in the 1970s how I struggled with hand writing assignments or typing them - having to re-write or re-type entire papers to add one god damned paragraph or sentence to a paper. "Cut and past," was a miracle and it arrived with perfect timing for a quasi-dyslexic old fool like myself. I found myself pounding out paper after paper - results being "A" graded after "A" graded project. One of the prevailing myths that current self proclaimed pop culture hacks like Rush Limbaugh and others (usually people who only went to a couple semesters of college and dropped out) lay claim to is that college is nowadays easy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Avalanches of information available in today's culture create an almost in-take overload to some students. I continually had to shift down and focus on the task at hand. References to assigned projects were often infinite and at one's fingertips - literally by just right-clicking. Internet and email was in its infancy in the mid-1990s and I was on the cutting edge of seeing it installed on campus. I transcended the era in academia where at first, instructors forbade us from sourcing projects with the "unreliable" Internet. Later at the University, if you did not have Internet based Web sites and data bases referenced on a project you risked being pulled aside and accused of being a neo-Luddite. 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 Sergeant Joshua Charles Brennan, 22, Ontario, Oregon, and McFarland, Wisconsin died on Friday, October 26, 2007 in Asadabad, Afghanistan. He was wounded the day before in Korengal Valley, Kunar province while in combat with Taliban fighters. Brennan was assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team out of Vicenza, Italy. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted the military mission was called Operation Rock Avalanche. The paper went on to say Joshua was the oldest child of Mike Brennan, a Madison, Wisconsin police officer who was in an Army military police unit in the first war with Iraq. Josh's mother lived in the state of Oregon at the time of his death. Josh Brennan grew up in Oregon with his mother; he would spend summers with his father in Wisconsin; and, he attended school in McFarland, Wisconsin between the ages of 8 and 10. While in Wisconsin he was said to have enjoyed water skiing, tubing, and wake-boarding on Lake Monona. While at Ontario High School in Oregon he ran hurdles in track and played football. Sergeant Brennan was in his second tour in Afghanistan when he was killed. He earned three Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.
The Web site afghansitan.pigstye.net a data base for military casualties mentioned Brennan was due to end his military service in September 2007 but he was extended another year under the military's stop-loss policy to retain troops. Joshua had hoped to go to college in Madison after his military obligation was up and perhaps join the Madison Police Department, like his father.
The Web site militarytimes.com noted via information from the Associated Press that Army Specialist Hugo V. Mendoza was also killed in the same battle. The site also mentioned Sergeant Brennan was shot in the leg in August of 2007 and returned to duty after his recovery. Josh was remembered as a dedicated, dependable man. He was a 2003 graduate of Ontario High School in Oregon. He was known to hunt elk with his grandfather. The Web site corroborated Brennan intended to attend college and pursue a career in forensic science or criminology after his service. Brennan worked a part-time job at a print shop as a young man in Oregon. In Wisconsin forty Madison police officers served as honor guards for Sergeant Brennan's funeral services and he received full military honors.
The Web site legacy.com posted an obituary from the Idaho Statesmen which notes Joshua Brennan was born May 30, 1985 in El Paso, Texas. Joshua is survived by his mother, Janice (Jason) Gates; father Michael (Michelle) Brennan; brother Robert; sisters Jessica, Brooke, and Courtney of Oregon; sisters Christina and Brittany of Wisconsin; and, grandparents Chuck and MaraLee Stoffers, Victor Baker, Mary Ellen Brennan, Diane Richel, and Jim (Ann) Richel.
It is important to note the significant event connected to Sergeant Brennan's death: On the day of the battle, then Army Specialist Salvatore Giunta while pushing forward to repel the enemy assault, saw two Taliban fighters dragging the wounded Brennan away. Giunta killed one fighter and wounded the other. Giunta immediately moved Brennan to cover and began first aid. Brennan was evacuated to Asadabad, Afghanistan, where he died of his wounds the next day. For his actions, Giunta became the first living United States military service person serving in an ongoing conflict to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Now a Staff Sergeant, Giunta was presented the Medal of Honor by President Obama at the White House on November 16, 2010 for his actions on the battlefield.
Sergeant Joshua Brennan was the 10th Wisconsin military service person to die in Afghanistan since October 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
99,383 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,828 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,436 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1462 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
841 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,127 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,140 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
27 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
145 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; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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