Hangman - (Korea) Day 98

I took a pic of this guy because I was amazed at how many smart phones he had on his
scooter. There were at least 4 that I could see. Motorcycles and scooters like this are seen
quite a bit in Korea. You will see packages and all kinds of things on the backs. Sometimes
they carry so much it makes you laugh because the load is bigger than the bike itself...this
particular guy's load isn't too bad.

Work call this morning was at 0500 as usual for the exercise. I left in the first van like always, but Seaman was coming in place of the admin master sergeant. He didn't get in the first van, so when we arrived at CP Tango I was unable to get all the laptops out of the safe and setup. So I setup the conference room for the first meeting. When I was done Seaman had arrived and had the laptops out and setup. SPC Roy arrived a bit later and was surprised to find out he didn't have to do anything because the conference room was already setup.

It turned out to be a pretty easy going day. Our sergeant major was in the IMO room working on the secret computer all day, so I stayed out (not enough room for me and Seaman to be in there with her). I read the newspaper for a while and then spent most of the day playing hangman with SPC Roy. We cleaned up the conference room after the meetings were over and then ate an MRE for lunch. During lunch SPC Roy described one of the first times he visited his future in-laws house here in Korea. They were eating a family dinner and out of the blue his future father-in-law farted really loud. Everyone kept eating as if nothing happened. SPC Roy didn't know what to do and eventually started laughing. Now every time he goes over there it turns into a farting contest between the two of them. It was a pretty funny story, the way he was describing it had everyone cracking up.

When the day was over we headed back to the office. We arrived back after taking the scenic route. I thought the NCOIC was going to drive me nuts. The entire trip I had her behind me being a backseat driver constantly telling the driver what to do. I wanted to turn around and slap her and I wasn't even driving.

When I got back SPC Roy asked if I could come with him to the PX and then the commissary. I took him up on the offer so I could pick up some stuff as well. After getting well supplied I got back to my room and video chatted with my wife. No working out today since I got back late. I did a tiny bit of schoolwork and then had to lay down for a bit. I could barely keep my eyes open. I'm going to have to try and get to sleep earlier tonight.

After a little nap I got up and played around on the computer a bit before going to bed for real.

Rehearsal Day (Basic Training) Day 70

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

Last night PVT Wal-Mart asked if he could have my fire guard shift...no charge. I couldn’t argue with that LOL. He wanted the extra time to clean his rifle before it was turned in. So I got a good night’s sleep!

After waking up and getting ready, we were rushed through a duty food breakfast in the CTA. Have I said I really hate being rushed through chow? DSs yelling the whole time “Hurry Up! Hurry Up! .. You’re Done!” I’ll be so glad to get outta here just to get away from that.

When we finished eating, we headed out to a field to rehearse for graduation. We ran through the process twice and then headed back to our bay. We had time to do a quick cleaning of our rifles before turning them in.

We were in for a couple of surprises when we headed down to turn in our rifles. The first surprise was that once we got in formation, we had to wait for an hour and a half. The epitome of “hurry up and wait”. The second surprise was unlike our machine guns, this inspection for our rifles took about 5 seconds. A corporal glanced down the barrel and our bolt, then told us to put it back together. We then filed into the supply room and read off the serial number. Once they checked it off we were done. All that waiting (and so many hours of cleaning) for a 30 second process.

News: PVT Home School will not be graduating with the company. He was unable to pass the PT test, so he will be chaptered out of the army.

After lunch we had rehearsal for family day. This rehearsal actually took longer than the graduation rehearsal. We had to go up all the stairs towards our bay, then come out to the CTA making our grand entrance...then we did it over and over again. We also had to practice putting on our berets really fast....and without a mirror LOL). Everyone was having some issues because we haven’t really worn them (except for pics and forming them on our heads)

Haircuts were next on the agenda for the day. While we were there, we were able to get milkshakes. Since I didn’t get one the other day and I wanted to celebrate the end of basic training...I got an extra extra large Oreo milkshake. It was beautiful. I am now bald and full.

We headed back to the bay to clean. We took a break for dinner and then came back and cleaned some more. We moved all the beds and lockers to buff & mop the floor. We are also supposed to be almost completely out of our locker and living out of our duffel bag.

When we were done cleaning for the night our cool DS and our senior DS just hung out and talked with us. They talked about this cycle, who the favorite DS and worst DS were, among other stories. They also wanted to know what kind of things happened that they didn’t know about...assuring us of no negative consequences. It was actually pretty cool and there were a lot of laughs from both the DSs and all of us as stories were told. At one point our senior DS took a plastic garbage bag and fashioned a diaper out of it. He then made PVT Colon Jr. put it on and taped it so it was airtight on him....all because he kept farting. If only I could have taken a picture of that.

Once story time was over our cool DS hooked his laptop up to the projector and speakers, so we could watch the movie “From Paris with Love” staring John Travolta. A pretty good action flick...bang bang shoot ‘em up entertainment, perfect for a bunch of soldiers. We did notice that when John Travolta used his AT-4 to fire a rocket at the bad guy’s car, he didn’t perform his safety check and didn’t say “back blast area clear”...LOL

We finished at 11:30, so I took a quick shower and now I’m going to bed. Tomorrow is family day!!!!!!

Random DS Quote “It has the texture of oatmeal” (A statement our senior DS told us that he made to the first sergeant. Our Senior DS evidently took a picture of his “capital dump” and sent it to the first sergeant. The first sergeant showed it to the other DSs at lunch and one of them gagged and was unable to eat anymore)

It turns out that after talking with PFC Metal, he had snapped a few pictures of the "diaper incident". Of course I asked him to send them to me so I could post them! (See Below...yup that's me sitting on the floor in the photo)

Another Surprise (Basic Training) Day 68

These entries are from the remaining letters that Brandon has mailed to me - the next several days up until Day 62 are letters that didn’t make it to me before I left to Georgia. His writing at times can be a bit difficult to determine his words... bare with me, I do my best, especially with army terms.

We slept in until 6:00am this morning. I had CQ duty at 7:00 which worked out fine because breakfast was at 6:30. During CQ duty, me and PVT Cock just sat at the desk and watched everyone clean for an hour. After our shift, we went up to the bay and had to start the process of cleaning out our lockers. I guess we’ll be living out of our duffle bag for the next few days. We were in for another surprise with DS A-Hole...he played music for us. Our PG even came around and took requests. I had to choose one of the greatest songs of all time, Fade to Black by Metallica.

3^rd squad, my squad, was chosen to pick weeds in the parking lot.… lots of fun… in the hot sun. After lunch, the company headed over to the photo store and everyone picked up and paid for everything we ordered way back in the 30^th AG (reception). I got some of me, one of my entire platoon, a picture CD & a DVD movie they made of clips from our training. I decided against the yearbook, which I’m glad because they combined Bravo & Delta Company together. It seems most of the pictures are of Delta Company.

We then had an opportunity to go to the PX and get milkshakes too. The lines at both places were ridiculous. It's always crazy on weekends. I did wait for the PX though because I needed to get another bag to put all my crap in. When we arrived back we got phone calls for about 45 minutes or so which was great. I was able to chat with each of my kids and my wife… perfect!

After chow and some cleaning in the bay we were allowed to watch “Inglorious Bastards”. There were technical difficulties again at first, but we finally got everything going on the small screen again. Farting from the audience added to the soundtrack, along with lots of giggles after each one was let loose. When we were ½ way through a DS from another platoon came in and said, “It’s 21:00 lights out, this ain’t no college dorm.” So we had to stop the movie and go to sleep.

Random DS Quote: “12 inches, think about it.” (Our cool DS states this often anytime someone starts talking to him)