Pinpoint Orders - (Korea) Day 2

My new home while in-processing

Today I woke up in the hotel at 5:00AM before my alarm went off (which I had set for 5:30). That was an awesome night's sleep since I went to bed a little after 8:30 last night. I took a shower and checked my Facebook and email. I got ready at a leisurely pace and then headed down stairs. We had the option of getting on a bus to the DFAC or just eating in the hotel. Me and a few others that I went to AIT with decided to just eat at the hotel. Even though it cost us a bit of money, it was nice to have the extra time and the food was good. I had a breakfast burrito and some Starbucks coffee….nice.

We then all walked to the briefing room and started a long day of brief after brief. A lot of power points with different presenters. Some were on the rules here in Korea, CID did a report, Military Intelligence did a report (lots of spies around so be careful who we talk to and what we say), finance (filled out a bunch of forms to make sure we get all our pay), and health. I ended up having to get my second anthrax shot, but that was it. Some folks who didn't get their smallpox shots back in AIT had to get them at this time.

We were told today we would get our "Pinpoint Orders". Basically everyone's orders to Korea are pretty general, but the pinpoint orders show where exactly we will be stationed. There are times when the pinpoint orders show something different than the original orders people received. A number of people were called up and told they are going to "area 1" which is up by the DMZ. These people left shortly after the briefing started. A number of other people got their pinpoint orders throughout the day, but mine never came up until the very end. When I got mine I checked them out and was pretty disappointed. Without going into specifics, my orders said basically I'm going to Korea and that is about it. They were about as generic as it gets. I had been waiting and waiting to get my pinpoint orders so I could finally see where I would be going and what unit I would be in. To my surprise my pinpoint orders said the exact same thing as my original orders. They don't even say what area I'll be in. What gives? I'm the only one who doesn't know where exactly I'll be going. I guess I'll find out when they put me on a bus and send me there.

We also found out some more unfortunate news. We were all told that we would be staying in the barracks from this point on until we are through in-processing. We were all hoping we would be staying in the hotel again, what a bummer. When we arrived we found out the barracks are really old and crappy. What a difference from the hotel we just came from. Our room can fit 8 people, but there are only four assigned to it right now which I am grateful for. Unfortunately there is no internet available, so there will be no updating the blog or any other internet surfing while in the barracks.

We ate dinner at the food court by the PX which is only a short walk away. The food court has all kinds of American food establishments (I had some volcano tacos from taco bell). The food court also has free wireless internet available (I know where I'll be going this weekend!). I was able to take advantage of it from my iPhone and check out some the internet. My iPhone with it's service suspended has now basically become an iPod touch that I can use for everything except calling which is nice.

A few side notes about being here so far. The base itself is not quite what I expected. I had pictured a remote location, but this base seems like it's right in the middle of the city. There are walls all around it, but there are city streets all around it. Everywhere you look there are city buildings. Another thing I've noticed is that so far the cadre here are very different than any that I've experienced so far in the army. They are actually nice and treat us like normal people. I'm so used to being treated like crap in all the training I've been in, this is such a nice change. Hopefully it stays this way!

Tomorrow we have a formation at 5:20AM and the uniform is civilian clothes again. They said it's a no paperwork day, all we are doing is learning about the Korean culture. Sounds like it could be a pretty cool day.

The postal box outside the PX...LOL

UFC 117 (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 52

A couple of battle buddies out with us at Hooters enjoying a drink
while watching UFC 117

Ahhh...the weekend, it’s so nice to sleep in and not have a morning formation until 8:30AM. The day was pretty laid back, did my laundry and a little SkillPorts (this is the online learning that we have to have all completed before week 12). I had my Pop Tarts for breakfast and later on in the day went to the PX with the young hawaiian for lunch at Taco Bell. Volcano Tacos are a gift from the gods. I love those things, add a little fire sauce to them and they kick butt.

The big plans for this evening were watching the UFC 117 fight Silva vs. Sonnen. PFC Metal’s wife came to town so we didn’t have to rent a taxi to get off base which was nice. We made a quick stop by the tattoo parlor to check out their shop. I think I’m going to get another tattoo, unlike a lot of the guys here I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I have the artwork already of what I want. I chatted with the artist there and he is their shading specialist, so I’m excited about getting it done. Now I just have to schedule a good time to do it since it will take about 3 and a half hours.

Next stop...Hooters. We arrived almost three hours early so we could secure a seat for us and three other soldiers that were going to meet us there. To go with my theme of hot freakin’ food I ordered the boneless buffalo wings - level of hotness = 911! I think my entire face heated up, but they were so darn good. Add to that a few beers and it was a good night. We ran into some guys from our platoon back at basic (Lurch and Skeletor) who were there to watch the fight as well. They seem to be doing well and it was good to catch up with them.

The fight card was pretty good and watching with a big crowd is something that every UFC fan should try to do. It’s awesome to have all the cheering and jeering going on while the fighters attack each other. 

We left after the second round of the main event because we had to be back in our bunks before bed check at 1AM and we were cutting it close. I thought Silva was going to kick Sonnen’s ass, but it turned out Sonnen was the one doing the ass kicking. We didn’t want to miss the fight, but it was a little more important to not get into trouble either. We jumped in the car and headed back to base cursing at every red light we had to stop at. Finally we made it back and came running in with 2 minutes and change to spare. Once we arrived the sergeant on duty informed us that Silva came back and won the fight with a submission. Wow, I wish we could have seen it. I guess I’ll watch it when the DVD comes out on Netflix.

Now I get to sleep for a bit before my weekend hall guard shift starts at 6AM. The weekend shifts don’t happen too often because they are 6 hours long. So I guess that’s the good and the bad. At least I’m getting it out of the way now so I won’t have to do another one for a while.


C.Lyons

I'm loving the blog. I wanted to give you guys a free UFC ppv secret. You can go tohttp://www.squabbles.com and watch them streaming for free. It's a no BS, no spyware website. Just free violence.

Monday, September 20, 2010 - 02:27 PM


Brandon

Cool...I'll have to check that out.

Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 07:53 PM

RBK (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 31

A photo of our room in RBK. My bed is the first to the right. The rooms are nice

and clean, just like the rest of RBK. I wish I had a picture of our old rooms in

Charlie, then one can see why this is so much better!

Today we woke up and had formation at 8:30 AM. We did a little detail (cleaning) around the barracks and then we were done for the rest of the day. A nice thing about being phase V now is that we can show up on weekend formations in our PT uniforms (shorts and a shirt) and then when our duties are finished we can change into civilian clothes, which is much nicer than putting on our entire ACUs for the whole day. 

PFC Metal showed me his secret this morning to making a super tight bed. His method includes using bungee cords underneath the bed to pull the sheets tight. With PFC Metals help my bed is tight and will stay that way. (Let’s hope that I made it to their standards). This will be perfect because I plan on sleeping on top of everything like before.

PFC Metal and I then went to the PX (which is much closer now) and bought some needed items and had brunch (volcano tacos for me). We then came back to our barracks and washed clothes.

RBK barracks...let me tell you a little more about this place. The entire place is very clean and seems new. The bathrooms are huge and they seem to even sparkle, plus the toilets have automatic flushing, no worries about finding a surprise when you open the stall door. The day rooms (which they have multiple of) are spacious and have big LCD screens on the wall. They look like mini movie theatre rooms. The laundry rooms as you can see below actually have plenty of new (and working) washers and dryers. I can actually do laundry now...imagine that! The Showers are individual showers with curtains, so no more sausage fests will be going on. I hear that hall guard shifts on the weekdays are one hour long, but the weekends are 6 hours long. There are also no women allowed here, that will get rid of all the flirting, drama and everything else that seems to go on at Charlie company. I really think this place will turn out to be a much better place to live once we get the hang of how everything works.

A photo of our laundry room in RBK. One may not think much of this, but compared to
our old laundry room, this place is heaven!!!

Anonymous

Just wanted to share that I fully enjoyed reading ALL of your journal entries thus far and will continue to read them as they are posted. I'm 33 and a father of 2 who actually has lived here in Georgia my entire life. I know exactly what you mean by the heat and humidity. I go Tuesday the 20th the take the ASVAB and look to enlist soon after. I appreciate the unedited version of what the expect and tips on how to make the experience better. I wish you the best of luck in AIT and hope it is over soon. Once again, thank you for creating this site and keep up the great work.

Korey Mitchell

Sunday, July 18, 2010 - 10:11 AM


Brandon

Thanks, this has been a pretty crazy experience. Good luck with the ASVAB and with any future military career afterwards. We were just told today by our platoon sergeant to remember that this is not the real army, we are only in a training environment. The real army is way different. I look forward to that. I also look forward to keeping up with the journal. It's been a great way to release and get everything off my chest. It will also be interesting to look back on later. I also read a number of other's journals when getting ready to join myself, so I want to be able to let others know what it's really like...as far as my experience.

Sunday, July 18, 2010 - 08:45 PM

Volcano Tacos (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 25

Today was pretty uneventful. I did get to sleep in until about 7:45 this morning which was great! We had breakfast, then went down to formation and did our landscaping for a couple hours as usual. It was already hot at 9AM so I knew it was going to be a hot day. I then video chatted with my wife and kids, did homework and then took off to the PX with PFC Metal. I got my head totally shaved (the no maintenance hair cut) and also bought some extra socks and underwear (I seem to go through those quickly). We ate at Taco Bell and I had Volcano Tacos. I love those things, I haven’t had them since before basic.

I had hall guard duty when we got back for a 4 hour shift. What a boring shift. The sergeants have also said that nobody can use electronic devices during guard duty...bummer. I shaved right before formation. Recall formation included a close inspection of everyone’s haircuts and shaves, so I’m glad I did both (even though the shave was the second one today just for this formation).

I tried to video chat with my wife again, but the internet is so bad here it just kept dropping the connection....very frustrating!

Overheard Quote: “You look like you just came out of American History X” (One of my roommates when I came in after my haircut.)

the wife

 
I do like Edward Norton, you know. (wink wink)
 

Monday, July 12, 2010 - 01:47 AM