A Day of Reflection (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 64

Wow...today is day 64 of AIT. Day 64 of basic training was graduation day. It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ve now been in AIT as long as basic training. Time at AIT definitely seems to be moving faster than basic. There are definitely benefits of AIT over basic. It’s nice to be able to enjoy my food at a decent pace and talk to people at the table we’re eating at. It’s also very nice to be able to talk to people on the phone and have internet access. I don’t feel so cut off from the world like I did in basic. We don’t have the drill sergeants yelling at everyone all the time. 

AIT is still no picnic. AIT is still a training environment and as SGT Kent stated appropriately enough today “training is supposed to suck, that way when you get to your unit you’ll appreciate the liberties you get”. We have sergeants who like to yell at times, but more often just make up stupid rules. It seems that most of the sergeants here don’t give a damn about the soldiers. Don’t get me wrong there are a few who care for the soldiers, but most seem to just look for things to pick on the soldiers about. It can get pretty annoying at times. I still can’t believe I have to be escorted to the bathroom when in school. We also have to have an NCO anytime we have a formation crossing a road because they don’t trust us to cross by ourselves (I’ve made it 36 years so far without getting hit by a car). We can’t go anywhere without a battle buddy and we need a little permission slip anytime we go away from the barracks. It also sucks living in barracks because you are at the mercy of the sergeant’s whims. If they are having a bad day, they can make you come out for formations at anytime for any reason. Another reason I can’t wait to live with my wife in a house far away from barracks once I get a normal post.

Speaking of stupid formations...today everyone had to come out at 19:30 from the barracks for a formation. We had to listen to how 4 people got caught away from the company area without a pass. When an NCO starts talking it just goes on and on stating the same thing over and over. 

At times this place can get me down. I wouldn’t go so far as saying I get depressed, but without having anytime to go home and “recharge” with my wife and family can be draining. There is a lot of negativity here and it can wear on you. 

Today also happens to be my birthday. Usually a day of fun and happiness for me. I always look forward to hanging out with family and friends and at least going out for a drink or having a special dinner. Here it was just me and I felt pretty alone. I am 37 now and I’m usually the oldest in all the classes, sometimes older than the instructors. I can feel the aches and pains in my body from all the intense workouts that we have been doing. This is the first time in my life that I’ve felt old. Strange.

We tested out of Exchange Server 2007 today. I got a 95 on the test. It showed that I missed one part of the exam which I know I did. I had to show the instructor on the virtual machine that it was indeed done correctly, then he changed my score to a 100%. Next up is Sun Solaris CLI (Command Line Interface).

mom

Sorry you had to be so far away on your birthday. We will have to celebrate even harder on you next one to make up for it. Happy Birthday, miss you, mom

Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 06:38 PM

Run Sucka Run (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 63

This morning we had a heck of a run. We actually ran around Barton Field. The track is a bit over 3 miles plus we ran to and from the field. It was a tough long run, but this has actually been something I’ve been wanting to do since I first saw the track around the field. It looked like a good challenge, I just never got around to doing it yet. This just made it happen a little earlier than I planned. We got back late and ended up needing to rush to get ready and eat.

We formed up at Charlie company once again to do duties around the area. I picked up trash around the area and then helped take stuff up stairs. Everyone from RBK ended up taking a break in the middle and going to the IET center to eat because there were a few of us that didn’t get a chance to eat this morning. I just grabbed a coffee, which hit the spot. I really do hate doing the duties at Charlie, we keep our barracks at RBK clean and we have to clean up all their crap as well. I just don’t have it in me to give 100% during these morning duties.

We had our last day of Exchange 2007 today, it seems like we are a bit behind schedule. The instructor is just having us do the exercises, but is not really explaining anything. I get it since I’ve actually used an earlier version of Exchange in one of my previous jobs. I’ve been trying to help out everyone who is having a tough time. We test out tomorrow!

When we got back to our barracks we got another speech from Sergeant Pineapple. He went on about how we have to be a team no matter race or beliefs, because if we don’t when we ship down range it will get us killed. Every time he sits us down for a talk it is always you better do this or else you will get killed down range. I swear he’s going to say if you don’t put hospital corners on your bed it will get you killed down range. It started raining on everyone during this little speech of his, so we all had to sit there and get wet....fun.

The rest of the night is going to involve relaxing and some video chatting with my family.

Surprise - Pee Day! (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 62

Today turned out to be a pretty crappy day. The first crappy day since I’ve moved to RBK I think. The day started out pretty normal just like any other day here. I got up shaved and prepared for PT. When we got down in formation they called off a number of names including mine and said to make another formation. Turns out we have to do a pee test instead of PT this morning. Great...what is the first thing you normally do in the morning...you go pee! So I quickly drank my bottle of water. I thought this pee test may be a good thing since the sergeants seem to be trying to kill us during the PT sessions.

I had to grab my ID card and then we rode in the duty van over to Charlie company where a whole number of other Charlie people in the day room drinking water. That was the situation for a while, drink water, drink water and drink more water. There were a few who tried to go and either got a little nervous or they could produce enough. The problem is that we don’t have to go and we drink and drink, then all of a sudden we all have to go...and it’s a bit of an emergency.

Once I felt the need to go I got in the line which seemed to take forever. Everyone around me was doing the pee pee dance. When I got to the front I had to hand my ID card and in return I got a little cup with a sticker on it that contained my info. Then I had to stand in another line that seemed to take forever. From this line a sergeant would take 3 or 4 people at a time into the bathroom and watch them pee in the cup. I think I had enough pee to fill about 20 of the cups by the time I got in there. After we were done we filed back into the day room and stood in a short line to return our cups and sign a paper. The sergeant then singed next to us verifying he witnessed us doing the deed.

When I got back into the room there was a guy mopping up the floor. I guess one of the soldiers stated “I think I drank too much” and then proceeded to throw up all over the floor. LOL

I headed back to RBK to quickly change and eat, then had to go back to Charlie company for a new formation they are going to have every morning for everyone in software classes. Oh goody, I get to do detail at Charlie company now even though I don’t even live there anymore. I do detail all the time at RBK, we keep our place looking good. We ended up doing all sorts of detail from 8:00 to 10:45. Lots of mowing lawns, changing lights, pressure washing floors, picking up trash...you name it we were doing it. What really sucked is that it was getting hot and everyone was sweating pretty bad. This is fine for the folks who live at Charlie and can change before school, but for those of us that live at RBK...we can’t change. I was a little pissed, nobody from Charlie company comes over and helps us clean up RBK.

So it is looking like my perfect mornings with the included nap time at the IET center may be coming to an end. I’m not too happy about that either.

School today was full of software taking forever and not working quite right. The class didn’t make it through too much. This current class (Exchange 2007) is only two days long I believe so that is not a good sign. Because of this the teacher offered us the chance to come in early tomorrow only to be shot down by the command sergeant major who said PT is too important to miss.

After class and dinner today we had to go to some mandatory training which was held in the church. The sergeant went over how to call in a medivac in case of an emergency, pretty much a refresher of some of the stuff we learned in basic. I think they have to do a certain amount of mandatory training for the company each month and this just seemed thrown together at the last minute so they could check a box marked that yes indeed...we did the training.