Hate is a Strong Word (Basic Training) Day 65

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.

Today we slept in a little (5:15am) and had duty food in the CTA. As we were in formation we had a guy (I’ll call him PVT Ironic) ask the PG if he could sit down, he wasn’t feeling well. (Our APG had a fever the other day and has been in the infirmary since).  So PVT Ironic sat down and our senior DS took his temp. He had a 99 point something temp,  so our DS told him to go up and take a cold shower. Two guys were helping him get back to the bay when all of sudden PVT Ironic passes out. Our senior DS came back over to him and slap him in the face… he wakes up. LOL. So he goes up and before we left formation he was back in line with us and said he didn’t remember any of it… strange.

We then walked over to reception, that place we arrived so so long ago. It’s funny that we can walk there from our CTA, but the bus ride from reception to the real boot camp took much longer… all to build up the anticipation for the recruits. Anyways, we took any clothing items we had that were damaged or stained and exchanged them. I was able to exchange all my pants (4 pairs) and 1 top all because of stains this Georgia clay gives your clothes. 

Oh My God! We had to clean those damn machine guns yet again. I basically sat with one piece and a Q-tip trying to find dirt. I rubbed all over that thing for hours all the way until lunch. 

Lunch was MREs and near the end our cool DS said if anyone can eat a packet of crackers that came in an MRE in 2 minutes (without any drink), then that person will get a 30 minute phone call & the platoon will get a 15 minute call. We had two people try, but the crackers are so dry nobody got even close. Our DS said the whole time he’s been the army he’s never seen anyone able to eat the crackers in two minutes.

After lunch… guess what? Cleaning our machine guns more. I think I may never want to shoot one of these again. At least we get to listen to music. 

A number of other side businesses have sprung up at the end of our cycle. Guys are making peoples beds and a new one… cleaning other’s equipment for turn in. One thing I would have considered is paying someone to clean these machine guns.  They were turned in, but the supply sergeant took about 6 people to go down and clean spots he found. Not too long after the entire platoon had to go down and clean those machine guns. I hate machine guns!

Before the end of the night the entire company was forced to stay in their bay. I guess guys from the 3 other companies were down in the CTA gawking at Alpha Company female family members. I guess they didn’t have to clean their machine guns as long as we did!

Random DS Quote: “If your wife gains weight while you’re deployed she doesn’t love you” (Our cool DS giving us some of his wisdom)

Last Day Reception - Reception Day 8 (Basic Training) Day 8

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.

We ship out tomorrow "down range" or "up the hill" to start our basic combat training. I can't wait to finally get this started so I can start counting down the days before I see my wife.

I have to bitch a little now… I tell you, these guys just don't know how to shut-up. I know most of them are straight out of high school. They still act like this is high school. Whenever we are all together as a group and the DS leaves the room or the area, everyone starts talking. It starts off quietly talking then it continues to get louder and louder. Every once in a while someone will shush everyone, the process starts all over again in a low rumble getting louder and louder. Even when the DS or cadre are in the room people just can't stop talking. We've been smoked for it a few times and the DS and Cadre have yelled at us for it. But nothing changes. I imagine when we start basic that crap will stop fast...I hope, or else I'm going to get very very strong.

We had inspection again the morning and other than the DS telling a few people to straighten their bunks there were no issues. We've come a long way. I had to assign people small, but specific task they are in charge of to keep everything in order. Hopefully we'll keep it all clean. A couple of people had to shave again and the DS took down one person's name for not shaving at all. What a dumb ass. We all know he'll be checking our faces, now he'll be spending some quality time with the DS tonight instead of sleeping.

We were all sent out for formation at 7:45, after waiting a little bit we were told to come back in an hour. So at 8:45 we went on the "nature hike".  We walked out in the woods and the DS & Cadre showed us some examples of formations. After that the DS sat down on a stump and had us all sit down around him for some questions and answers about anything. It was a nice change in scenery and very laid back. When you don't have any privileges, something as simple as that is pretty cool.

We also got our BCG glasses. They are these really huge thick brown glasses that everyone has to wear if prescribed. Picture a bunch of people walking around looking like "Revenge of the Nerds" only in army uniform.

We started watching a movie (some war movie with John Travolta as a guy who is interrogating an army ranger - I didn't catch the name), but after 45 minutes it was cut short. A captain came in a wanted to do some Q & A to find out how reception was for everyone. After that we had the pleasure of standing in line for dinner at attention for an hour. Standing still doesn't sound that hard, but it starts to get tough after a while! People the DS saw moving hat to get out and do push-ups in front of him. Every time he would start talking my first reaction was to look at him because he was talking to us. Doing any movement (even following him with your eyes is not allowed). I'm in the barracks right now resting my feet!

I have fire guard duty right now. Which really sucks. 3am-4am and we are waking up at 5am. Each hour of the fire guard shift has a different set of duties and responsibilities. Some of the earlier shifts have cleaning and all of them at some point have the fire guard head count. My special duties include talking out the garbage and taking out any laundry that is still in the washer & dryers.

Tomorrow is the big day, we are finally shipping "down range", I feel like they have just been fattening us up here in reception. It will be interesting to see how things change and how the people will be changing.

My Bad - Reception Day 7 (Basic Training) Day 7

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. 

(Side note: I've since tried to go through all my entries and correct spelling errors & other terms that my wife made mistakes on...usually due to my poor handwriting)

I have to start with something I forgot to write about... "The Rangers". A Ranger recruiter came and gave everyone a briefing. It started with a short promotional video, then a PowerPoint, and finally a Q & A. The recruiter threw out the F-bomb about 3 or 4 times a sentence and and he never lost a chance to let us know "We Kill People". If there is a bad guy out there, we don't mess around. We just go in and kill the "effer". Everyone was given the requirements to apply and the MOS (jobs) that are available to apply. And yes even if your MOS is in HR, if the team leader likes you, he can invite you on a mission and you can kill people! I think they are a little too gun ho for me. LOL

This morning our bay was inspected by the DS. We won the honor of having the dirtiest bay of everyone. After that we headed to chow and then my 2nd haircut (which I had to pay for) in the week that I've been there. I forgot if I mentioned the clippers here before, but they have vacuums attached to them (I've been telling my wife forever that, that would be the coolest invention - no hair anywhere, just nice and neat.)

Today we also got our dog tags and our ID cards, but they didn't trust us with the ID cards so after we verified the information we had to turn them back in. We also checked the contents of our duffle bag and then locked it up and left it in the classroom. I guess for transportation down range for Basic on Thursday.

During this time in the classroom there was a lot of shuffling around. (People going and getting stuff they forgot etc.) The guy in the bunk next to me bumped into the DS, but he didn't even realize it was a DS - he didn't have his big hat on and he's a short dude. The DS turned around and said "Oh, hell no… get down in the front leaning rest position." The poor guy had to stay there for a few minutes in front of everyone.

I feel a little more like a soldier now, that I have my dog tags around my neck! We had a chance to go to the PX (the general store on base) today. The DS & Cadre were pretty strict on us only getting essentials, they caught one guy getting a love card of some sort  "I miss you" and kicked him out of the store and to back of the line. I got foot powder & Band aids ( I also got some stamps too, didn't know if they are essential, so after I got'em I stuffed 'em in my pocket in case they check my bag on the way out). Everything takes a long time to do here. Just going to the PX took hours because they only let about 10 in at a time and everyone has to wait before and after standing in formation. My feet are tired and sore and the DS and Cadre were telling us we are not allowed to buy gel insole or any other comfort for out boots.

Since lunch we haven't done much of anything. The bummer is that we did most of the sitting doing nothing in the classroom, at least in our barracks we can chill or even clean. 

Random over heard quote: Pvt. Home School "people tell me I have my mother's body" I told him he shouldn't tell people that! LOL

Beat the Heat Drill Sergeant - Reception Day 6 (Basic Training) Day 6

A photo over each of the urinals I thought was kind of funny. You

watch your pee come out and compare the color of the chart above

the urinal to see if you are adequately hydrated.

 

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

This morning I had a fire guard shift - woke up everyone at 3:45 instead of 4:00am because we were told to report down in the classroom at 4:45am. When we got down there the DS’s seemed a little confused as to what and where we were supposed to go. After a bit of discussion they lead us all to the medical for guess what?… more shots! (with a couple of nasal sprays as a bonus) We got there before they opened and had to sit in a line on the floor in the hall ‘till they came and opened the joint. I’ve heard stories of people passing out, but after all these shots we’ve had, nobody has passed out yet. I think I may be immune to all diseases known to man now. LOL! 

Breakfast was after that, then we headed back to classroom 1 where the cadre (these are all the processing sergeants and staff) helped out everyone who had issues with their clothing or boots and such. We then headed out to a field where we practiced some of the basic movements such as “attention” and “about face”. It was warm here at Ft. Benning, so at certain intervals the DS would have everyone stop and drink. (We all have to wear these things called camel-baks. These are small back packs that we can fill with water, they have a tube that comes around the front with an adapter you can suck the water out of. This is part of our required uniform whenever we go outside here at basic.) So the DS had everyone shout “Beat The Heat Drill Sergeant, Beat The Heat”. After a bunch of those we would start practicing again. Lunch came and went, then the DS divided our bay up almost down the middle and had us all move to classroom 2. We were then informed we would be going down range (to basic) on Thursday for sure and that half this bay would most likely be "A Company". I sure hope so because there are some real jokers on the other side. One of those jokers I’ll call “Pvt. Pusher”. He likes to push everyone’s button, he's an agitator and doesn’t take anything seriously. He’s always doing something stupid in formation. That’s going to get him and his company in a lot of trouble.

Later the DS was telling everyone to drink, when he saw not everyone was drinking he said “open your mouth and suck on it, I wanna see everyone with the tube in their mouth.” Of course he saw someone who didn’t listen and we all had to get in “front leaning rest position” (there is no rest for that position). We also had the tube in our mouth while he made us start doing push-ups. People started coughing and choking. Luckily we didn’t have to do too many.

After dinner, bay leaders had to report to the DS office. This kind of sucked because it took forever and it was eating up my personal time. Finally we found out we’re getting an inspection at 4:45am tomorrow. We also have a list of items that everyone needs to have in their duffle bag. Tomorrow may be interesting.

Sunday... Day of Rest - Reception Day 5 (Basic Training) Day 5

 It seemed like any down time we had, people would use to catch a cat nap.

We are never allowed on the beds (unless it's time to sleep for the night)

so people just went down anywhere.

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

It’s Sunday and we were told to report to formation at 6:00am in our winter PT uniforms. These are some comfortable clothes! Long sweat pants with active wear type jacket. One of the things everyone likes is that we can wear our tennis shoes with it. So much more comfortable then the army issued boots we have to wear. 

We were told that while in reception, Sundays are pretty laid back. We woke up at 5:00am and then after formation went to chow. After chow we can either go to a church service or just chill in the barracks. Right now I’m doing laundry. It’s too early to call my wife which is a real bummer, it’s only 4:47am there, so I’ll have to wait a least 4 hours or so. I did get to talk to her for a while last night which was awesome. There has been a few times when I was talking to her and had to hang-up and jump to attention because the DS came in.

We’re doing absolutely nothing today. After breakfast I took the other bay leader with me to the DS to ask a few questions, like are we allowed to sit on our bunks, lay, what shouldn’t we be doing? The DS said do anything you want, you can even sleep. (Usually during the day we can’t sit or lay on the bunks.) This was good news for everyone. A number of people took a nap and just chilled. All of a sudden at 10:45 the DS came, swung open the door and screamed “Get your asses outta bed!” It was pretty crazy. People trying to jump out of bed straight outta dreamland. Once everyone was up he just started laughing, then just talked about cooking & fishing and stuff. After that he said to get in formation at 10:45 for chow (it was already past that time). Once everyone got down there he had us all line up and we marched to the D-Fac. It was actually pretty cool because the DS was doing cadence, (he would shout out a line and the soldiers would shout it back) I was in the back, so I couldn't hear what he was saying, but it sounded cool when everyone would shout it back.

Now I'm back in barracks, doing nothing again. It’s funny how everything has changed since I was appointed Bay Leader. One minute I’m a private, the next I’m “bay leader”. The second I became bay leader everyone just assumes I know everything. People have been coming up to me asking all kinds of stuff. I’m thinking I was just next to you and knew the same stuff you know a minute ago, how am I supposed to know everything? Me and the other bay leader have tried to scrounge up as much info as possible. We talk with the other bay leader and try and spread the word. A lot of it is just common sense though. I was woke up from a nap today and the kid asked “what do I do when I plug up the toilet bay leader?” I said, “you go plunge it.” Lots of stuff like that. 

DS came up and I had to quietly hang-up on my wife and jump to parade rest. We had 5 minutes to get ready and get in formation. We found out that we were going to do question and answer with some soldiers from “down range” (that’s what they call the real basic training). They evidently weren’t able to come the other day so lots of people asked questions and we got answers from guys who are in it now. The one I found interesting was a question “what’s the food like up there?” Their answer was that there is not a lot of selection and chicken seems to be the staple. We have a lot of selection each day and it’s all good here in reception. I’ll be missing this. The meeting was cool just for the fact that it broke up the monotony of the day. Before the meeting and after, we just hung out at our barracks.

I thought there would be more nicknames but the only one right now is “Midnight”. That’s what everyone calls a dude who’s obviously black. We were looking at graffiti under the top bunks wasn’t much until we checked Pvt. Home Schools bunk it read “Don’t kill yourself.”

Bay Leader - Reception Day 4 (Basic Training) Day 4

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

Just as I was about to finish up my journal last night all hell broke loose. First let me say that the DS comes at 20:30 every night and we are suppose to be at our bunks. The DS came up last night and 5 people were in the shower. The shit hit the fan! The DS freaked out and had us all start doing push-ups. Not just normal push-ups, he would make us pause in the middle of the push-up. Finally he left us get up and fired our bay leader. The he walked around looked at me and asked how old I was. I said “36 Drill Sergeant”. DS said you are the new Bay Leader. FML that is the last thing I wanted. It was already past lights out and I had to get the fire guard duty ready and I had to get the entire roster done since we are in a new bay. I also had to escort the shower people who got us in trouble to the DS office. Those guys ended up having to sweep, strip, wax the floor in on of the big classrooms. They didn’t get back til after midnight. I had to finish up with the fire guard paper work and laid down after 22:00, but didn’t sleep til after 23:00. Then at 24:00 I had to do my fire guard for an hour, luckily we woke up at 5:00am this morning so I a got a little sleep.

With all the "excitement" last night DS didn’t tell us where to go in the morning. I had to go down at 5:00am to DS’s office because a guy lost his keys. DS gave me a bolt cutter to chop off the lock.

So someone decided to have everyone line up outside. After I returned the bolt cutters me and my battle buddy joined them. You always have to travel with a battle buddy (any other soldier), wherever you go. DS came out screaming “Who all told you to line up out here?” Eventually one guy said it was him and we all ended up coming inside and doing a bunch more push-ups and holding mid way at times. It’s no fun doing that at 6:00am. Finally we all lined up, then out of the blue DS changes gears and just starts BS’ing with everyone until we left for breakfast. Crazy morning so far.

Today all of us were in “Classroom 1”. This is a big open room (where the drill sergeants office is as well). This problem is there are no chairs, so we either stand or sit on the hard floor. We were watching a power point on Army courtesies and customs and people started falling asleep. (We’re not allowed to touch our face and rest our head aka kickstand) The DS kept saying if you’re tired stand up. Finally he stopped the presentation and we all had to start doing push-ups (with the pauses). People just don’t listen. A guy at lunch got in trouble for talking which we are repeatedly told not to do. After we got back to classroom 1, the dude who was talking at lunch was smoked in front of everyone. Push-ups and then squats, the dude's legs were shaking! Just listen and do what you're told...it's not that hard!

After our lectures everyone went back except all the bay leaders…lucky me. All the other bay leaders have two; one leader and one assistant. The DS asked where my assistant was. I told him I don’t have one. He says, how did you become the bay leader and I told him that the previous bay leader was fired. So he told me to find a specialist and promote them to bay leader assistant. Yeah I get help. He also gave us a bunch more responsibility to do which sucks – now we are going to be held responsible for making sure everything is spotless. When I got back to the barracks I held a short meeting. I asked “who’s an E-4?” The first one to speak up I promoted. Then I had to let them all know what’s coming. I can’t babysit almost 90 people even with help. Everyone has to look out for their bunk mate and neighbors, as long as we work as a team it should go OK. We were suppose to be getting “mentored” right now.  Guys that are in the real basic came back and answered any questions we have. There were too many of us so now we're just hanging in the barracks. 

We had dinner and then were released for the night. Everyone broke out their cell phones (including me) and just hung loose. It was nice to just relax. I got the fire guard list done and I think we are good to go. Checked in with the other bay leaders and found out they are actually both older than me. One is 41 and the other 39. WOW!

One other note: my stomach finally felt normal today. I don’t know if I was catching something or if it was the fast pace that we’ve been forced to eat. My head felt good too!


Hew


bay leader mcguire...bwulpbwulp...awesome!
 

Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 11:08 PM 

Private Home School - Reception Day 3 (Basic Training) Day 3

Pvt Home School trying to do push-ups with the help of

a battle buddy and the encouragement of everyone else

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

Not much has happen yet today, just a shot and breakfast. There was a guy at my table who drew all the DS’s attention, he was shaking and not looking to good. The DS asked him what was wrong and why he has a medical bracelet on. He said the bracelet was because he wasn’t thinking very good thoughts and he had to visit medical. The DS asked what was wrong now and he said he couldn’t finish his food. The DS said well get up and get out of here. Having four DS’s around your table while trying to eat isn’t comfortable!

Now onto a guy I’m going to call Private Home School. He seems to have lived a very sheltered life. He is the guy who I think is going to break. Today after breakfast right outside of the D-Fac he threw up! I know my stomach hasn’t been right, but I hope that doesn’t happen to me.

While in formation, a guy walked in with a DS. The DS said this guy loves ice cream. That got my attention. The DS started yelling at him. He ended saying “Ice cream is like sex for the first time. Once you start enjoying it, it’s over!”

Right now we’re in our barracks learning how to make our beds. Everyone was done and shooting the poop (I was writing today’s note). The DS came in and saw two people on their phones and took them away. Wonder what kind of trouble we’ll be in? The DS was like a ninja, came in and nobody saw him until it was too late. 

So just as I was about to write another update… DS comes in again all pissed off. He “heard” someone whistle at a female sergeant. No one did. I think he was still pissed off from the phone incident earlier. We got our first official smoking. Everyone had to get in the starting push-up position (the up position) and hold it while the DS walked around asking who did it. No one fessed up, so the DS flipped a few bunks then left.

Back to Pvt.Home School...today is his 20th birthday. A bunch of guys wanted him to do 20 push-ups. He was really struggling after 5. He’s gonna be in some deep shit soon! I can’t believe he didn’t try to get in shape before coming.

So it's a bit later in the day and I’m pretty sore and tired. We had to pack up everything and move our stuff to another barracks. I had my huge bag, my laundry bag and my personal backpack all at the same time and upstairs. It got a little warm. LOL! We also got our second smoking. This time we started in the up position for pushup then DS said down, everyone laid down and he screamed “Do not lay on the ground”. We had to hold ourselves up about an inch off the ground. We only had to do a few. Lots of grunts and groans, just a little taste of what’s to come.

Later on…what a day. We have be on our feet so much today everyone was complaining. Blisters and sore feet because of these new boots. “Number One” nickname for this huge guy in our company, (number one is his roster number and it just stuck) had to guard a guy in another company most of the day. The guy went AWOL, just tried to run off the base! We haven’t even started basic yet and this guy flipped out! With “runners” I found out they take their shoelaces and they have a medical bracelet on, Pretty crazy!

A clip from a DVD I purchased near the end of basic training.

This shows the process we went through to get our hair cuts at Fort Benning.

 

Pain in the Butt - Reception Day 2 (Basic Training) Day 2

});

Some guys doing PT on their own 

(A good idea in reception, so you can try and stay in shape)

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

Last night really sucked. Fire Guard had started. Fire Guard is where two people have to stay up for an hour in rotating shifts throughout the night. It wasn’t even my turn, but everyone doing it was so noisy I only slept about 15-30 minutes at a time. Woke up with a headache that has stuck with me all day. To top it off my stomach is acting up too. For breakfast all I could eat was a bunch of fruit. I’m hoping I start feeling better before we actually start basic. I can’t imagine doing any physical fitness right now feeling like crap.

We started the day after breakfast with all our shots and filling out medical forms. One shot in the butt – still feels like a charlie horse. Two shots in the right arm and one in the left, then four little tubes were filled with my blood (my DNA kit). Next came the hearing test. 8 guys stuck in a very small box. Everyone was sweating and tired. It seemed to take forever. One dude had to stay behind because on the plane flight from MEPS he lost all hearing in his right ear. Not sure what’s going to happen with him.

Lunch was lasagna, which i ate, but nothing else, my stomach is still not 100%. After lunch we filled out our DEERS paperwork and all other financial paperwork. DEERS is for all the benefits for dependents. Then there was a lot of sitting around listening to briefings (Red Cross etc.) trying very hard not to fall asleep.

We also took photos of our company and I had to put on my soldier face (no smiling).

We finally have another break, I tried to call my wife and she didn’t answer…damn.

*side note: I heard a rumor that the sergeants can’t swear. It’s pretty funny to listen to because everything is “doggone”, “where’s the doggone thing”, “you better straighten up your doggone collar” etc. You still hear a four letter word every now and then, I can’t imagine the Drill Sergeants hold back. In fact, he walked in last night and saw we were on our phones and started screaming “Get the fuck off the phone!!!!”

*another side note: The D-Fac (aka Dining Facility) has a fascination with only using spoons no matter what you are eating. Have you ever tried to eat a salad with a spoon?

We had chow tonight, my stomach is still a bit of a mess. I basically only ate veggies. As I sat down and realized they have soft serve ice cream machine. What a temptation, but I’ll be staying away from that. Right now everyone is just hanging out in the barracks. Nobody is sure how long we have, or if we’re here for the night. Rumor is we may be shipping out to basic on Thursday. There are a lot of different personalities here. There are a group of guys that just can’t stop talking and joking. I hope I don’t end up with them in basic. I see a lot of "smoking" (this is what they call a physical punishment like push-ups etc.) in their future. There is this one guy I can see totally breaking down and quitting. He already gets picked on a lot by the recruits, I fear a drill sergeant is going to tear him apart. There are also 3 foreigners  who are joining to get their American citizenship. Pretty cool, I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

A clip from a DVD I purchased near the end of basic training.
This shows the process we went through to get all our shots at Fort Benning.

Reception (Basic Training) Day 1

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

Hey Guy. Hey Guy. Hey Guy… this is constantly being said from all the staff at Ft. Benning. When I was in the bathroom I even saw some graffiti with a DS saying “Hey Guy”. I forgot to write that last night during showers, there was a loud thud! It was so loud that it woke up some of the people who went to sleep early. A dude was walking into the showers and his feet went right out from under him... thud! 

We woke up at 6:00am (2 hours sleep). Today we got a whole crapload of clothes, my locker is full of new stuff. We also got our dental X-rays and vision check… yes I will be getting some of those awesome BCGs (birth control glasses). Let me tell you about the staff here. There are all kinds of sergeants running all around. In reception we don’t see much of the DS’s. Our sergeant who is in change of us is pretty cool. Professional and instructional, but he can yell when he needs to. There are also other sergeants just looking for someone to yell at. What really got me today was the civilian x-ray tech. She was a royal bitch. Yelling at everyone from the start. When I was in line I heard her ask a recruit his name, he said it and then started spelling it out loud because it was an uncommon name, she freaked out and started yelling at this poor guy. Saying he was an idiot and if captured, he would give up everyone including his mother. She went on and on very unprofessional, especially since she was a civilian. This is the kind of person that has a very low self esteem and because of this, she has to go out of her way to put others down. She has this little tiny piece of power in her sad little world and must flaunt it around as much as possible to make her miserable life seem a little better.

We shopped at the PX and bought a number of items that were required. Contrary to everything I read... if a person had running shoes less than six months old they were not required to get new ones.I guess it all depends on the sergeant you go with. 

The food here is pretty good. Most of the time there are sergeants telling us to hurry up, hurry up. I feel like I’m getting a little lazy though. We are not allowed to do anything except walk. Everyone’s going to be in for a shock I think when we finally go to basic. One guy is already talking about quitting, but most others just want to get on to the real thing, Right now all we do is stand in lines and wait. 

That does remind me of an interesting side note – while standing in line a little civilian midget walked by me with an oversized coffee cup in her hand so it looked ginormous. That brought a smile to my day.

A clip from a DVD I purchased near the end of basic training.

This shows the process we went through to get all our clothing at Fort Benning. 

 

Rainne

Already with the midgets? Do you have a dwarf magnet, or something??

 
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 12:38 AM




Christina (CC)

 
Hey Guy!  I'm laughing reading these posts.  I'm living my "dream" through you and it's pretty funny!  Keep up the positive thinking and it will be over before you know it.  JT has told me some goofy stuff about basic training and it's stuff you can laugh at later on.  

Thank you Leandra for keeping us all updated!

 
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 06:05 AM




Carlita

 
Only you, my dear friend, would find a midget in your current situation.  I am glad to know that you are still smiling though.

 
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 08:33 AM




Brown Bear

 
Being a midget in the military would probably be awesome.  You'd be so low to the ground, pushups would be easy peasy.

Miss you buddy.

 
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 08:49 AM


 
Hew

 
i just spit beer all over the monitor! you and  midgets LOL!!!!!

 
Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 10:57 PM