Yet Another Pee Test (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 90

We woke up at 3:30 in the morning and found out that the reason was for another pee test. Unlike previous pee tests, this one was being “randomly” performed on 90% of the entire battalion. My guess is that they have reason to believe that someone in the battalion has been doing drugs of some sort and this is the best way they can still call it a "random" test and still catch the people. We marched over to Charlie company and did the test. It took longer than usual because of the number of people. Those of us at RBK were allowed to walk back with a battle buddy once we were finished. This turned out to work out pretty well because we arrived back at RBK with plenty of time to eat a leisurely breakfast and get our room squared away as well as perform our normal morning duties.

During class today after the morning break we heard our sister class getting a shakedown. They had to all empty their pockets onto their desks. The instructor was looking for people with cell phones. Later on I talked to our platoon PG who is in that class and found out that two people got caught. 

During our class a guy who keeps falling asleep constantly got punished...well the instructor is not allowed to punish people, so he gave him some “corrective action”. The guy had to do some push-ups, some sit-ups and a modified v-up. Afterward the instructor said “hey...you mopped a bit of the floor!” referring to the wet spot he left on the floor when he was finished.

I spoke with our platoon PG that is in our sister class and he said he got a negative counseling statement for falling asleep in class. He was trying to graduate with honors, but this will eliminate that opportunity. We would go back and forth in test grades with him beating me by a few points in one class and me beating him by a few in the next. Our current class (Security+) is the hardest class we’ve had so far. It has a whole new vocabulary that needs to be learned. There is also a lot of information that we have to process down to the last detail. There are a number of people that fail this class at least once. If you score an 80% or better on the final you will be allowed to take the CompTia Security+ certification exam for free. Right now I don’t feel comfortable at all in the class. I’ve been taking notes every day and studying every night. I am hoping it will all start coming together before the test.

Overheard Quote: “I heard you talking, but I didn’t understand anything you said” (One of the students in the class responding to the instructor when asked if he was “getting it”)

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.