Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 74 & 75

A photo from the back seat of the taxi I was riding in. Most cars have a big
screen GPS unit that can also be switched to watch TV here in Korea, but this
guy had two units. One on the right had the GPS and the one on the left had
a TV show playing the entire time. Not sure if that is very safe!

Saturday: I have been looking forward to this day all week, why…cause I got to sleep in and it felt so right! I did my normal Saturday ritual of laundry and cleaning up the room a bit. I then proceeded to download and watch a bunch of TV Shows. I then watched a documentary my wife told me about. It's called Restrepo. A very sobering documentary that shows what life is really like at OP Restrepo, an outpost in Afghanistan. I really feel for those guys that are out there doing what their doing. I joined as a 25B to serve and support the troops, so I shouldn't be anywhere near that kind of situation. Watching the entire film I just felt sad for all the guys there. Personally I don't care for even doing an FTX. I'm not all Hooah Hooah and I don't care to gear up and play soldier. I would rather do the job I'm trained for and fix computers for the army. Maybe if I was a bit younger I may think differently, but I have no desire to be out there in the field. It just sucks big time all around. During the time of the filming the folks out there were deployed for a 15 month tour. I can't imagine being away from my family for longer than I already am. At least now I get to video chat, these guys in the film are very limited in how they can contact their loved ones. They suffer losses and you can see the raw emotion that comes out. It just really sucks. The documentary was awesome, a lot of it was just raw footage of everything going on over there. Just seeing real life of these soldiers doing their jobs. I couldn't stop watching it and I would recommend anyone who is curious what life is like for soldiers serving on the front lines of Afghanistan.

SPC Roy called and asked if I wanted to do a little recon. It's his birthday today and after spending the day with his family, he wanted to check out the casino. He'd never been to one here in Korea and wanted to check them out for a future time when we can go out and gamble. The first one was not our style. Many tables had a 50,000 Won minimum bet (around $50) which is just too much for me. There were also basically only blackjack, roulette, & baccarat. We ended up heading south for a bit to another casino which turned out to be a lot better. It had more tables and some with much lower limits. These casinos are for foreigners only which I thought was a little strange, but no worries…I'm a foreigner!

On the way to the casino we ran into a DUI checkpoint. I've heard about these in the past, but never actually seen them in progress. They just setup a cop car on the street and start checking cars at random. They didn't stop us most likely because we were riding in a taxi. After the casino we headed to Itaewon so I could buy SPC Roy a drink for his birthday before heading back for the night.

My roommate took me out for some Korean BBQ.

This is him cooking our food and getting it ready for us to eat at our table.

Sunday: The morning was pretty slow, just slept in and then cleaned the room a bit more. I did some school work, then headed over to the other barracks to watch the Strikeforce fights. It was a pretty good card and surprisingly Fedor "The Last Emperor" got the crap beat out of him. After that it was video chatting with my wife and then some more shows and school.

My roommate came back and offered to take me out to a Korean barbecue restaurant. It was right outside of the post and was absolutely delicious. They serve some side dishes and then some raw meat which you cook yourself in the middle of the table. There were small dishes with seasoning that you could dip it into and then eat it. One other thing I've noticed about Koreans and eating out is that they eat "family style". I've gone out a few times with SPC Roy and such and he said it's normal here, but it freaks out some Americans at times. When I say family style I mean a lot of times there are dishes that are in the middle of the table and multiple people will use their spoon or chopsticks to grab the food. They will then eat with those chopsticks or spoon and repeat the process. (kind of like double dipping your chip in the dipping sauce). It doesn't bother me, but I can imagine some folks getting grossed out with that.

Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Korea) Days 30-33

The young hawaiian at the theatre with a
cut-out of the CSM telling us to be good :)

Thursday: The first day of the four day weekend started off with me sleeping in of course. I then had a nice video chat with my wife for a while. I met up with PVT Pickle and the young hawaiian for dinner at the food court and then we headed off to the theatre to see a free movie. The movie of the night was "Hereafter" which none of us had herd of. I checked it out and saw that Clint Eastwood directed it and Matt Damon was the lead actor. That is as far as I read. I figured with those stars it would be a pretty good flick. Turns out the movie was OK, but it was so slow that it ended up hard to get through the whole thing. It took so long to develop and the ending was anti-climatic. So we all left a little disappointed.

We all went to my barracks and hung out. We ended up watching a number of Tosh.O shows that I had on my computer. During this point the young hawaiian said he had to "blow up" my toilet. I said go for it and didn't think much of it at the time…that would come back to haunt me later on.

Friday: I slept in again (of course) and when I woke the first thing I did as usual was go to the bathroom and go pee. When I flushed the toilet it didn't flush…it just started to fill up. Oh Crap!!! (Literally). Luckily it didn't overflow, but I had an issue because of the young hawaiian the night before. I went down the hall to the supply closet and found that they did not have plungers down there. I planned on getting one after I ate and talked to my wife a bit. I brewed some coffee and video chatted with my wife. Now for those of you who don't know coffee is a natural diuretic. All of a sudden the urge to go poop hit me like a freight train. I had to quickly say goodbye to my wife and make my way to the PX to get the plunger and use their bathroom because my toilet was out of order. Once out of the barracks I figured I would start to run to get there quickly and found out real quickly that was a bad idea. I almost had an accident right then and there. I walked as quickly as possible from that point on. I felt like I was in a teenage comedy…you know the guy who has to go to the bathroom and is walking/running to the bathroom while holding his butt with one hand. I wasn't holding my butt at the time, but I thought about it. It felt like my butt was the end of a garden hose when you stick your thumb on the end of it…the pressure was building and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it or not to the PX. As luck would have it, I did make it just in time. I was able to use their bathroom and then purchase a plunger to take back to my room and fix my toilet. Fun times indeed.

Later on in the afternoon I played some basketball with the young hawaiian. We played two on two against a couple of Koreans that were there and beat them. We then played some three on three when a couple others came. We won all the games and got some good exercise at the same time!

We then met up with PVT Pickle and headed out to the theatre once again to watch a double feature of Gulliver's Travels and Little Fockers. Both were comedies and I would say that Little Fockers was the funnier of the two. We all had a good time and on the way back to the barracks I stopped at the store and picked up a little beer. PVT Pickle headed back to his barracks and the young hawaiian and I hung out in the room and had a few drinks. We watched some Tosh.O and then the movie "The Taking of Pelham 123". This was an action film staring John Travolta where he hijacks a subway car. It was pretty good! By the end of the movie it was almost midnight…almost the new year. We went outside and at midnight we could see some fireworks in the distance. A few people came out of the barracks and we all said "Happy New Years" and went back inside. Then I went to bed…lol (I'm getting old)

Saturday (New Year's Day): Another day of sleeping in naturally. Didn't do much at all really, just a normal Saturday…did some laundry, got my haircut. I did take the post shuttle to the commissary only to find out that it was closed. I thought it might be, but I had never taken the post shuttle before so I thought I'd give it a try. Basically the post shuttle is a bus that just makes it's way around the entire base over and over again. You can ride it for free and they arrive at each of the stops about every 20 minutes or so. It's a nice way to get around if you don't have a car or a bike.

Finished out the day video chatting with my family to celebrate the new year with them. It's so weird being a day ahead of everyone in the states. I then watched the movie "Kick Ass". What I thought was a kid's movie turned out to be nothing of the sort. It was pretty awesome though. I really enjoyed it. It's about a kid who doesn't have any special powers, but wants to be a super hero. He ends up getting his butt kicked most of the movie, but it is funny and action packed as some other super heroes end up giving him a hand.

Sunday: Woke up a little sad today realizing that this was the last day of my four day weekend. Not only that, but I have to work full days all week…no more half days. I was able to video chat again with my family, then I watched UFC 125 streaming over the internet. I learned my lesson last time trying to go around post finding a place that was showing it. This time I was able to view the entire thing from the comfort of my barracks via the internet and my laptop. The fights were awesome!!

SPC Short then texted me asking if I wanted to go bowling. I said sure and ended up bringing the young hawaiian with me since he showed up at my room shortly before leaving. We bowled four games and I got better as the night went on. I think it was the "aiming fluid" I was drinking. My scores increased every game. None of us are very good because I beat everyone with scores of 150, 152 & 154. I was pretty consistent though…lol

We were then invited to play poker in SPC Short's barracks with some of his buddies. Using no money…just chips and for fun (and bragging rights). It was fun, I came in second after we were forced to go all in for the last hand (the last two of us were taking too long, so this was a quick way to end the game). The other guy got the better hand and that was the end of the night. A fun day to cap off a nice relaxing four day weekend. Now it's time to rest and get ready for normal days and normal weeks for a while at least.

Ahhhh....Rest!! (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 135

Our new room at Charlie Company. It's an eight man room after the big remodel
that went on earlier - new beds and wall lockers. You can't see my bed from
this photo, but it's the third on the right.

Usually I do a weekend wrap-up, but this Sunday is basically going to be a work day for me…so here it goes:

This morning I woke up a little after 9:00 AM. I was the only one in the room that was awake because we had all just moved in from RBK last night. I wasn't even fully awake yet, when all of a sudden the door of our room opens up and there is a man in civilian clothes standing there staring at me. I looked at him a little confused, I wasn't sure why he was standing there or why he was even in our room. Finally he said can't you see the rank on the lady's chest behind me. To tell you the truth I didn't even see that there was a woman behind him in the doorway, I was still confused why there was a man in civilian clothes that just came in our room. After he spoke though I realized who he was…he is our company 1st sergeant! I just was not quite awake yet and didn't recognize him out of context in his civilian clothes. I stood up at parade rest and then squinted my eyes, but without my glasses I had no clue what her rank was. I told the 1st sergeant that I couldn't see it. He then said "she's a sergeant…what are you supposed to do when a sergeant comes in?" (By this time most of the others are starting to wake up to the commotion). I say "At Ease"

The 1st Sergeant then looks around the room and starts going off. He is pissed that our beds aren't made (after moving in we all just slept on top of the mattresses). He is also pissed that we were not in our proper sleeping uniform (summer or winter PTs). So he starts going on and on about how he has to deal with this every time he comes to Charlie. Then he says we have a room inspection at 11:00 AM today.

We all cleaned up from the move before and made our beds. By 11:00 AM the lady sergeant came up and did a "drive-by" inspection. Our room commander went down and explained to her earlier that we had just moved in late last night and we were planning to get everything squared away today. She came up and looked in our room, then asked "Don't you know the 1st Sergeant comes by on the weekends?". We said "ummmm….no". We were good to go after that.

One nice thing about being back at Charlie company is that on the weekends, it's close to the DFAC and we can have free food once again. It's not as good as delivery that we would order at RBK, but it's free so I'm not complaining.

Tonight PFC Metal invited a few friends to celebrate the end of school with him. He had a hotel room with his wife and had a few people over to hang out and chill away from the base. It turned out to be a good time that we all enjoyed. There was a huge party that I think every private on the entire base was going to this weekend as well. I had heard about it, but it wasn't my scene…I was looking for something a lot more relaxed. When we got back we heard that the MPs were at the gate checking IDs of all Phase IV and Phase V privates coming back in Taxis after hours. Not sure what kind of trouble people were getting in, but they caught a lot of people.

When we got back to the company it was after 2:00 AM and we saw the command sergeant major in the front door chewing out some phase IV soldiers that were on hall guard. I'm not sure what it was about or anything…we were all a little scared to go in after seeing this. There was another sergeant there and when he saw we were all phase V+ he just waived us past. An exciting fun filled night…a great way to celebrate the end of school and to let loose a little before our upcoming weeklong FTX that finishes off our AIT experience.

A photo of us in PFC Metal's hotel room kicking back.
From left to right: PFC Metal, the young Hawaiian, Me,
the old floor commander, and PVT Celtic.

FS SPC Miller

Is it common for people in the Army to wear dark t-shirts with dragons and jeans?

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - 12:26 PM


PFC McGuire

LOL...we're pretty limited with the civilian clothes we have in AIT. I only had a few shirts myself. With limited space you fit what you can in it.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - 09:49 PM

Weekend Wrap-Up (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 122

The weekends are always so nice, but they always end so quickly. I slept in until 9:00 or a little after both days...nice! Saturday was laundry day for me, then PFC Metal and his wife picked me up to watch Jackass 3D. Not sure why they made the movie in 3D, it didn’t really add anything to the experience. I’m thinking it is just a way to make more money from everyone. The movie was what I expected...stupid funny pranks and some very gross stuff added in. All in all it was a nice escape from the base.

After the movie me and the young Hawaiian went to the PX. I was starving by this time because I hadn’t eaten anything except some very expensive movie theatre popcorn all day. So we split a pizza and then I picked up some of the basics I need (deodorant, body wash etc.) I also picked up some gels for my boots so I would have a pair for each of my boots. My old gels were getting pretty worn.

We ended the night by watching UFC 120 in the day room. It was free on Spike TV which turned out nice. The day room has a nice LCD TV and it gets Spike in HD so the picture was awesome. 

Sunday was pretty laid back, I didn’t do much of anything all day. I tried to log into some required training I’m supposed to do before I head over to Korea, but I couldn’t get logged in. The highlight of the day was when the young Hawaiin and I ordered Chinese food delivery for lunch. That was some good stuff! Other than that we just had recall formation. I had to shave my full on beard that I’ve been growing since Friday and we had to wear our winter PT uniform to it. The winter PT uniform is very nice in the morning when it’s cold, but in the evening when the sun has been out all day long it is pretty warm.

Overheard Quote: "I think they put something in the water...I didn't have a boner the entire time I was in basic" (The young Hawaiian talking to me about the days in basic. He went to Fort Benning as well and was in 3rd Platoon - Terminators)

Ahhh...Saturday (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 38

A photo of Barton Field from the RBK side. We cross this field heading

to Charlie company or the DFAC. The field is huge! There is a dirt running

track around it that is 3.2 miles long.

Today started off great. I must say that I like staying at RBK. Our morning formation only took a few minutes and our duties were to do a quick police call around the outside of the barracks which took a whole 5 to 10 minutes, then the rest of the day was ours. I did a little homework and then went shopping for some supplies. Another nice thing about RBK is that we are much closer to the main PX, commissary, the clothing store, and the bowling alley. I was able to get all my laundry done and put away after shopping.

I walked to the Charlie Company DFAC for dinner (our RFAC is closed on the weekends unfortunately) with the young Hawaiian (a young private from Hawaii) and as we were eating, we talked to some of the people still back at the Charlie barracks. They said all the ones that were phased back have been doing duties all day long with a formation about every 2 hours. I’m so glad I’m outta there! They all have to be in ACUs too when doing duty. What a bummer for them.

Night time came and I went and had a couple of beers with PFC Metal and his wife who was down visiting. As phase V and being of drinking age, we are allowed to drink at only one place on base which happens to be the bar in the bowling alley. The bowling alley is conveniently located right across the street from the RBK barracks.

All in all a very laid back and relaxing Saturday. A much needed change of pace after being busy all week long.

Phase Back Friday (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 37

This morning as promised, I had my EOC PT test. I woke up at 3:30 to shave and get ready for our special formation at 4:00 where the duty van picked us up and drove us to Charlie Company. We then formed up with the rest of Charlie who had to take the test. We marched over to the testing field and after stretching and getting the same set of instructions we get for every PT test we started. I did 57 push-ups, 47 sit-ups, & ran the 2-mile in 16:17. This gave me a total score of: 221. The 2-mile seemed so much harder than usual. I am really starting to think it may have to do with all the crappy food I’m eating here. In basic we were not allowed to eat anything except the healthy DFAC food. Here at AIT we have Krispy Kreme donuts every morning and my weakness...a soft serve ice cream machine that I abuse on a daily basis at lunch and dinner. I also found a new treat that it can be used for, I grab a cake and then put ice cream all over it. I think I’m going to stop the donuts all together and cut back on my ice cream intake. 

Our first day of CCNA2 started today. The first day didn’t start off too well. We went into our room and waited for our instructor. We ended up waiting for about two hours before they gave us a substitute. I guess our new instructor was already teaching a class and we would get her next week. So our substitute took over and we started our new class. The room was warm and everyone was having trouble staying awake. I stood myself up twice because I was close to falling asleep.

I heard that a number of Charlie Company people are getting phased back to IV today because their barracks were dirty and who knows what else. What a bummer for them. Others think it’s because they need more phase IV people to do the duties this weekend. Either way I’m glad I’m over at RBK now. Not only for this but because during our weekend safety briefing (don’t get in trouble or be stupid) they said everyone on the third floor of Charlie has to move down to the second floor for a couple of weeks. Bravo company is going to move into the third floor while their barracks are getting remodeled. Then they will move back into their barracks and Charlie will move into Bravo barracks while Charlie gets remodeled. The whole time I’ll be staying put in RBK! What a mess, the place will be crowded and half the stuff doesn’t work.

I decided to use Runkeeper on my iPhone to see how long the march is from Charlie company to RBK and it’s .93 miles. Not too bad to stay away from all the drama. (Check out the image below)

A view of the walk (via RunKeeper) that we have to take from the RBK barracks to Charlie Company

It’s Friday now and everyone’s been released. There will be a lot of drinking going on and a lot of “hotel parties” for all these young bucks. I think I’ll stay in and watch a movie on the laptop tonight since PFC Metal’s wife is in town he’s going to be MIA all weekend.

Overheard Quote: “Remember no means no and yes means wear a condom” (Our lead sergeant giving out advice during the safety briefing today)