Like a Boss - (Germany) Day 8

A photo of the unit we chose. This picture is from the living room looking

into the dining area and the kitchen off to the right.

This morning my sponsor called about 0645. I was already up, but just not out of bed yet. Since we didn't meet up yesterday as planned, we never made any time for him to pick me up today. He said he'd be here to pick me up at 0820. I got up and prepared myself for the day.

Once my sponsor picked me up, we headed to the main in-processing place for the post. I've said before that USAG Baden-Württemberg is broken up into several pieces. I live on PHV, work at Campbell Barracks, and the shopping area also has the in-processing center for the post. My sponsor dropped me off and planned to meet back up with me at noon when my briefings were over.

I headed to a classroom type setting and ended up sitting in the front row. Then came the "Death By PowerPoint" in-processing briefings. Today we had the commissary, customs, tax relief, USO, AAFES, Environmental, Community Bank, TKS, BOSS, and TARP. A couple such as Red Cross and Claims didn't show up. The most interesting one was TARP which had to do with spies and such. Similar to the ones we had in Korea, this briefing gave us a few examples of what has happened not only around the world but close to this area as well. We went over what to look out for and how to report it. It turns out that most of the traitors and people working on the inside give a number of signs that should be reported.

Another brief that I enjoyed was the BOSS brief. The briefer was a pretty entertaining guy who was unlike most briefers who just stand up at the front and read what's on the slide in front of you. This sergeant was genuinely excited about being with BOSS. For those of you who don't know BOSS stands for "Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers" When I was in Korea, they threw in unaccompanied soldiers as well. The briefer here said that he wants everyone including families to get involved. BOSS has a number of volunteer activities, stuff and activities to enhance the lives of soldiers and boost morale, and they do tours and trips as well. The tours part interested me the most. I want to make the most of my time while stationed in Germany. I doubt I'll have another opportunity in my life where I'm getting paid to live in Europe. I want to visit as many places as possible and soak in every experience I can while I'm here.

After the briefings I met up with my sponsor and we headed to the food court for lunch. We then went to TKS which is the local Internet, TV and phone provider here on post. I signed up for an Internet and phone package. I haven't had a normal land line in years, but this one comes with their cheapest package and it turns out that all calls to the US are free. What's funny is that even though calls to the US are free, calls around Germany cost extra per minute. We get the basic AFN channels for free, so I didn't bother getting anything extra.

My sponsor and I then went to "The Power Zone" which is basically the electronics store on post and I bought a pre-paid cell phone. We'll use this and once our household goods arrive I'll jailbreak my iPhone and use the pre-paid SIM card in my iPhone. I want to wait until I get my desktop computer though, so I can transfer all my crap to it from my phone. We'll do the same with my wife's as well. The contract phone's here are pretty expensive and I've heard that it's hard to get out of the contracts and there can be surprises if you're not careful.

We headed back to our room and picked up some of our luggage along with my wife and took it over to our new unit. We then headed to the recycling station on post where they also have a place that lends out items. We picked up some of the very basics such as pots and pans with a few dishes to get us by until our household goods arrive. We are scheduled for the pre-inspection tomorrow and our loaner furniture is scheduled to arrive shortly after. We have to check out of our temporary room by 1100 tomorrow.

My sponsor dropped us back off at our room and we watched a couple "Sons of Anarchy" while eating dinner and hanging out. I received an email that said my shipment of my stuff from Korea arrived today. I gave them a call to schedule delivery. They said it would be this coming Monday between 0800 and 1600. Really? That is worse than the cable repair guy!

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

Surprise!! Extra Training (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 104

Everyone at RBK that is in Charlie company had a wake up this morning at 4:00 AM (30-45 minutes earlier than normal depending on who is on hall guard). We were told to get in ACUs and be in formation in 15 minutes. Great...this day is already starting off pretty crappy. I hurried up and got dressed and shaved. The shave took longer than normal because of the number of people trying to cram in the bathroom all at once. Precisely the reason I set my alarm to go off 15 minutes before wake-up, so I can get everything I need done in the bathroom before the rush.

We get out to formation and march over to the chapel, which is where a lot of our training is at (it has a big projector and screen with a lot of seats). The training consisted of a number of “death by PowerPoint” shows. Each one had a different sergeant who usually had soldiers read the slides out loud. It consisted of Cold Weather Injuries, Ethics, UCMJ, and LOW (Laws of War). FYI: we are not allowed to do any mercy killings as a soldier.

As we were marching to class I remembered an incident that happened yesterday, but forgot to put in the journal. For the second time since I’ve been here we have had a person actually run into a sign while marching. It is funny every time too! It’s always very loud, so there is no playing it off.

I learned in class today that a girl in Charlie tried to commit suicide last night. Turns out she was actually at our table at Hooters this last Saturday. I guess her fiance broke up with her and she took it kind of hard.

At this new school house we do things a little different than at Dixon Hall. Every morning before class the entire formation sings “The Army Song”, “The Signal Corps March”, and then we say “The Soldiers Creed”. We then do it all over again after lunch before we head in. Speaking of after lunch, our small detachment of 447 soldiers all got smoked before going in to the school. The leader of our formation told us to fall out, but the rest of the 551 formation wasn’t ready yet. So we all did a number of push-ups. I think all the sergeants there hate 447. 

During the afternoon break a sergeant saw someone with a cell phone in the break area which is against the rules. So they ended up having an impromptu shakedown of everyone in the break area searching for cell phones. I happened to be using the facilities at the time, so I was not part of this shakedown, but I heard they caught a few people with phones. They will be taken away for a week.

After class today we hung out at the IET center for a while, then ate dinner at the DFAC before all the people from Dixon Hall were let out. We then had formation for more training at 17:45. We marched all the way to the end of Barton Field into the garrison building. Here we learned we were going to have ACEP training...and not just tonight, but for a few weeks. ACEP stands for Army Center for Enhanced Performance. Their goal is to make better soldiers. What I got out of tonight’s training was that we should not think negative thoughts, focus on the positive things, talk to yourself (positively), and set goals. It was hard to get motivated or even pay attention though. I’d been up since 4:00AM attending class pretty much the entire time. When class is over it’s really hard to be motivated to do even more training.

Overheard Quote: “We Piss Excellence!” (When asked what positive phrase did Charlie company come up when they had this same training about 5 months ago)

Classroom Orientation Overload! (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 4

I finally have access to my computer for a few days, so I thought I would give my wife a break and add some updates myself. Until she gets back home and receives some of my previous posts there may be a few days missing

Today we woke up and got ready for formation at 4:00 AM. The formations here are a joke compared to Ft. Benning. Everyone is moving around and even sitting down. The formations also just drag on and on....everyone just kind of hangs out until finally a sergeant comes out. We ended up in the one this morning for about an hour and a half. During this time someone pulled the 3rd floor fire alarm in our building, so the NCOs were trying to investigate to see why that happened.

All the new people headed out to breakfast finally. I tell you it is strange having women in our formation. At Ft. Benning there were no women. You can tell a lot of the guys change their behaviors and both the men and women flirt...even the sergeants are softer with women in the mix.

After breakfast we headed to a big classroom where all the new people met up from all the companies for an orientation. I ran into a lot of the guys from Bravo company at Ft. Benning. We then had a marathon of different people going over all kinds of stuff. We had people talk to us about health, dental, not being stupid (aka drinking and partying...especially if under age), staying focused, security (secret clearance stuff), finance and everyone's favorite...STDs. I guess they have a problem with that here LOL. They used the same scare tactics I remember having back in driver's ed to teach about the dangers of STDs. Lots of gross pictures to give everyone the shock and awe of what could happen if you get one. Like in driver's ed when they show all the photos of car wrecks and messed up people, but this was all pictures of penis and vaginas...all looking very disgusting (right before lunch...thanks a lot) After lunch we headed back for more...oh so much fun.

We went to dinner and then back to our company area where we were released for the night. Still not too excited about Ft. Gordon so far, but at least we can use our phones and a number of other privileges we never had such as eating and drinking whatever we want :)

Random Quote: "That used to be an anus" (The instructor for STDs after showing everyone a pretty gross picture of genital warts gone wild on a person's anus)

FTX Cancelled (Basic Training) Day 27

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. His writing at times can be a bit difficult to determine his words... bare with me, I do my best, especially with army terms.

Today was a pretty crappy day. It started off with the senior DS yelling at and then firing “the cop” (He is the one who locks and unlocks the rifles each day). Evidently a lock got put on backwards and had to be cut off. The DS was screaming just a few inches from the guys face. The poor guy had to stand there very still at parade rest the whole time while the DS is screaming inches from his face with spit flying and everything. Started the day off wrong and it went down hill from there.

We were all prepared to go camping army style. A “Field Training Exercise”. We were supposed to grab our rucksacks full of all our gear and go for a 5K march to the site. Problem is that a big storm rolled in. Thunder, lightning, and a ton of rain. So the FTX was cancelled. Instead we ended up just attending a bunch of classes... “death by power point”.

We came back to our bay and it was tossed. One of the Junior DS (I think I’ll start calling him DS A-Hole from now on, he’s always just an ass).  DS A-Hole tossed all the bunks and also all our shoes and boots from the lockers. There were one or two that had their lockers tossed as well because they didn’t lock them.

We then had MREs for lunch. We are not suppose to eat any commercial candy (aka skittles, m&ms and such) but we are allowed to eat anything that comes in the generic army baggies. PFC Metal got some chocolate nuggets and shared a few with me. Closest thing to candy I’ve had in a long time. Cool guy!

Back in class we had to go over evaluating a casualty again. (We do this almost daily so it become second nature). The DS called a few guys from different platoons up on stage. One guy was a “ casualty” the other was suppose to evaluate. The guy knelt down to him and just froze. He didn’t say anything… he didn’t move. If he was bronze we would have thought he was a statue! After a long silence the DS finally asked him what he was doing. The guy said he forgot. So he had to stand there and watch about 3 or 4 other people go through the process. As a class we did it too.  It got to be so boring that a few people started writing letters and were caught. Let me tell you that in those classrooms, the DSs are just circling like vultures waiting for someone to do something wrong. Keep your heels together, hands on your lap, don’t fall asleep…and so on. Lots of people end up doing push-ups. 

We had another guy get pink eye yesterday. They are now quarantining them for 24 hours. So he got to come back and enjoy this day of hell with us. 

My battle buddy is getting very home sick and depressed. He wants to go home really bad. We’ve all had that feeling at some point I think. He saw the Chaplin a few days ago and saw him again today. The Chaplin isn’t going to help him get out, but he tries to help him out spiritually and emotionally. I just hope he doesn’t do anything drastic. I talked to him a bit, let him know we all feel the same and we’re all here for him. When we got back to our bay it was really messed up. About 6 people didn’t lock their lockers. How hard is it that? There was a message on our door that read “Doo Doo” all in shaving cream. Once we came in there were clothes everywhere, beds tossed again, shoes tossed again, a couple of people's drawers were out, and another message (in shaving cream) on the floor “Good Job Guys!” Oh yeah, the garbage was dumped and the bathroom…excuse me the "latrine" was trashed. Fun times!

We then had to do the “Gladiator 500”, some call it “iron mikes”. We had to do a forward lunge one step after another bringing our knees 4-6” off the floor. We ended up doing 7 laps. I was sweating all over like crazy. To top it off they said no showers tonight. I got to try out my new field cleansing kits (aka big baby wipes).

Now with fire guard duties we have to wear our helmets and our body armor as well as our full ACU uniforms…that sucks!

Random 1^st Sergeant Quote: “Bravo Company you sound like a bag of dicks” (Made after sounding off in the morning. We all ended up doing push-ups as a company)