Fishead Training and Run-offs

It doesn't feel like much has happened since last week, but in reality, we've reached the last stage of being a fish. On Tuesday morning, we went on a run to earn the guidon. I wish it had been some hard task or other, but because everyone had to stay in on the run, it was probably the easiest PT I've done since last semester. I'm not even kidding. We ran the normal course of a Corps Run (about 2-2 1/2 miles) in about 25-30 minutes. In comparison, when we did the Bloody Cross (a 5k or 3 miles) we came in at about nineteen minutes. I know that it sounds wierd that I would want to do harder stuff, but getting the guidon is a big thing. After the run was over, the three "guidon brothers" were announced. Of those three, one will be the actual guidon bearer, and the other two will be his backups. Whenever we go to formation or on a rn, one of them is carrying the actual outfit guidon. The rest of us are back to normal PT now.

The other major thing that started this week is fishead (pronounced fish head) training. Essentially, at each chow, and when we're at formation, several fish are selected to be sophomores for that training event. The purpose of this is to train us in training people. The objective is to be more familiar with training procedures when it's time to train our fish (scary thought, that).

In other news, last Friday we caught a squirrel. The tradition is that if the fish catch a squirrel and deliver it to the commanding officer, they get senior privileges for a week. The reason we didn't is because we only caught it because it came up to our floor for some reason. We were back from Friday morning PT and all of a sudden, a squirrel jumps out of the trash can. We did, however, get priviliges for Monday and Tuesday (which got taken away Monday night because of smart people doing really stupid things).

In other news, today is run-off elections for Student Body President and the junior yell leaders. The three senior yell leaders are Weston Wilcox, Casey Schaeffer, and Reagan Thompson. Reagan is a bit of a stand-out, since he's not a member of the Corps. There's a lot of cadets who are just as mad as they can be, especially among the fish, since a non-reg now gets to wear things that a normal cadet could only wear after two years of Corps life. Since he's a senior yell leader, he also doesn't have to go through many of the things Casey and Weston went through. The general opinion among the Corps is that Reagan hasn't earned his position as yell leader and is going to have a hard time proving that he deserves it. The good news, however, is that the write-in candidate for junior yell, John Busch, reached the run-off election with 39% of the vote as compared to about 18% for his nearest competitor (who, incedentally, is no longer campaigning because his twin, who also was running, didn't make it). Most of us figure that the Corps will easily take the junior yell positions.