Outdoor Voices

Remember when you were little and your mother said, "Don't use your outdoor voices in the house!"  So when we got outside we could yell our little hearts out, and it felt good!

The other night when we arrived at our building for FHE as I got out of the car, I could hear a company shouting and marching down the road.  I grabbed my small camera and started filming.  It is dark, so you can't see much but you will see them march by in the middle of the video. 

Turn the sound up so you can hear the soldiers marching and chanting.

As I have observed companies of soldiers standing in formation - when they aren't at attention, I get a real kick out of watching and listening.  If somebody walks out of the building, they get yelled at, called names, and the person yells back -- all in good fun.  They will even do it to an instructor, if that instructor is a good guy that they admire and know that he will have fun with the situation.  Yesterday while waiting for a graduation to start an instructor walked in, gave a loud whoop and all of the soldiers whooped back.  I could tell they had learned from and worked hard for this leader.

They remind me of a pack of little boys running and playing outside, yelling loud and getting good and dirty.  They LOVE it!  Even the girl soldiers.  It is something I will miss hearing.

On Sundays during our services we often leave the door open (when the weather is nice) so late soldiers know that they are welcome.  In the middle of a lesson or talk we sometimes hear soldiers marching by - and have to close the door.  Soldiers don't march silently. Any time we are driving on the base and a company marches by, I roll the window down to hear them chanting their cadence.  Most of the time I don't understand the words but I love the sound anyway.  The soldiers tell me that some of the cadences are not really worth repeating, but some are fun.  There is one about how "My grandma can march better than you....."  I'd like to hear it all the way through.

I was trying to film some soldiers marching one day and stood there with my camera ready for about 20 minutes till they were finally ready to march. Then they finally started out and my camera battery died!!!Ahhhh!!! That is why this second video is so short.

 

A couple more fun pictures.  Here's today's inprocessing group.  I guess some were not paying attention well enough so they all got to do this.  Not push-ups.  Just get down and hold this position till I'm finished telling you how to behave......

Next is a company of soldiers in full FTX (Field Training Exercises) gear.  There was a cold fog in the air and they had probably been out on exercises for hours.  They look cold and tired.  Yes, those are real guns.

And finally, one of our soldiers who is lucky enough to have his family here.  They live off base and he lives on base, but he does get to spend some time with them.  This is right after church on Sunday.  They attend church in town when they can, so the kids can attend Primary, but we were lucky enough to have them in our group this week.  We don't get many babies, so it is fun when they are with us. He will be graduating and moving on in just a couple weeks.