No Rest For The Weary - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 2

This morning I had a 0630 formation at the WTB (Warrior Transition Battalion) unit. Even though I just flew in from half way around the world and I'm still trying to adjust to a new time zone, there is no break at all. It wasn't just formation either, my day was busy from beginning to end. Right after formation an NCO took me to sick call to get seen by a doctor for an initial visit. There are a number of time sensitive things they have to take care of within the first day and this was number 1. The doctor asked some basic questions to see if I was a high risk factor for self harm. She then gave me some basic information and turned me loose.

I met with my NCO again and she drove me to Waller Hall which is where most of the major in-processing and out-processing is done for all soldiers except those in the WTB like me. I was shown a meeting room and told the finance brief will happen at 0900. It was kind of strange because there was a room full of people doing in-processing and I ended up just joining them for this financial piece. The brief covered our travel costs and I had to fill out some paperwork step by step as the briefer went over it. Once she was done everyone lined up and turned in their paperwork. There were a couple folks looking it all over and then stamped it and signed off on it. I asked if that was it as far as financing and the person who stamped my paperwork said "yup", so I left. I didn't care too much for just being dropped off with hardly any information, but I figured I would find my way through it all one way or another.

I then headed back to my hotel room for lunch with my wife. After that I headed back to the WTB unit and saw a social worker who also assessed my mental health situation. I guess there are a lot of folks coming into the WTB depressed and suicidal. Once the social worker saw that I was feeling fine and had no suicidal tendencies, she turned me loose. I then headed across the hall to see my NCM (Nurse Case Manager). I found out this person would be my single point of contact for almost everything. All appointments go through her and I will be checking in with her weekly. She gave me a list of appointments that she scheduled already for me. I was told who my squad leader was, this person will basically be my boss while I'm here. He gave me a bunch of in-processing paperwork to start on.

I found out that I'm assigned to HHC, which is basically only during the in-processing stage of my time here. Once I get through in-processing, I will be assigned to either Alpha, Bravo, or Charlie company here at the WTB. This means I'll be getting a new squad leader and everything shortly. I'm told in-processing lasts as long as a month.

I headed back to my room. I'm jet-lagged and very tired. I was in Germany yesterday and I've been going non-stop since I arrived here. I promptly passed out in our hotel bed.

Recovery - (Germany) Day 290

This morning I finished up my staff duty shift, I left off yesterday while still doing the shift. The shift ended at 0900. I spent the morning trying to read my book which became increasingly difficult with each passing hour. I found myself reading a paragraph over and over until I finally gave up. I was getting too tired to concentrate. I sat in my staff duty chair listening to music, then decided to try and play some games on my iPhone. That passed the time for a while, but the longer I played the more uncoordinated I became. About 0530 I played janitor for our S-1 & S-3 offices where staff duty is located. This is one of the things that always piss me off when I have staff duty. I have to clean up after these people who just get up and leave when their shift is over. Our office and every other office I know of cleans up after themselves, but because we are here on staff duty, we have to clean up after them. So I got up and vacuumed, then emptied all the trash cans including the three bathrooms. It's not a hard job, but I think it's just stupid that they don't clean up after themselves like everyone else.

Anyways after I finished, I just basically listened to music for a while. I was too tired to do much of anything else. I felt like an uncoordinated drunk by this point. Even my thinking process was slow. Finally the folks started coming in for their normal shifts in both the S-1 and S-3 offices and I was told I could head home. I called my wife to come pick me up, so I could give her a ride back to work and then drive myself home. It's kind of ironic that the army requires a soldier to submit a form if we driving anywhere over the weekend on pass. This form is done on a website and evaluates the dangers of our trip, it's required that we take rest breaks after every few hours of driving and it's also required that we get a good night's sleep the night before our drive…If we don't promise to do these things we could actually have our pass denied. The army doesn't give a crap that I'll be driving home after being awake for a 25.5 hour shift. I actually feel drunk and almost took a wrong turn, then almost ran a stop sign. Luckily I made it home safely.

When I got home I pretty much headed straight to the bed and passed out completely. I slept until 1500, when I got up and readied myself to pick up my wife at 1600. Staff duty really messes up your schedule. Yes I'm happy that I have today off from work, even though I slept for most of the duty day, at least I wasn't in the office. I also got a call from SPC Mac later on letting me know the uniform for Monday. We will not be having PT, instead we'll be forming up in our ACUs, then heading out to Landstuhl for a change of command ceremony practice. Our company commander is changing and the ceremony will be on Tuesday. I guess he has such an ego that he is requiring 100% participation. We have soldiers with appointments that have to cancel them. We also have 3 that will be going to the Intel-34 course in Vilseck for two weeks and they were going to cancel that for a while, until the command finally changed their minds. All this so we can stand in a field and listen to a bunch of boring speeches. I'm not looking forward to that.

My wife and I headed to the theatre on post and watched "Taken 2". The movie was action packed and a lot of fun to watch. A good way to end the night…date night with my wife.

BCCS (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 123

"RBK at Sundown"
A photo I snapped on the way back to RBK barracks of the sunset

This morning I didn’t have PT, instead I was a battle buddy for PFC Metal at a dentist appointment first thing in the morning. It’s always nice to miss Monday’s PT. It’s always a run and it seems Sergeant Kent is always trying to punish us for having the weekend off by making us run all over Ft. Gordon.

We started a new class today called BCCS. Unlike our last class we actually learned what this stands for...Battle Command Common Services. Not exactly sure how this will play into everything, we have learned the initial setup of the laptops and that is about it for the first day. So far we have had an assistant instructor and the normal instructor teach and they both seem so much better than our previous instructor. This instructor said he will be with us through our last class as well.

After lunch we were reviewing on our own and about 4 people in class fell asleep. Just then a badass sergeant came walking in. He walked right up to PVT Celtic who was fast asleep and yelled “Get Up!!!”. He then proceeded to tell the whole class how important it is to stay awake during your military career no matter how tired you get. Back in the day he realized this when he fell asleep along the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) in Korea. When he woke up he thought he saw a North Korean standing by a tree. His heart was racing and his blood was pumping. He was instantly awake and wondering what he should do. Eventually they went to the tree and there were no foot prints in the snow around, it was only his subconscious imagination at work. He said it taught him a valuable lesson and he hasn’t fallen asleep on the job since.

The rest of the day after class consisted of eating over at the RFAC and then hanging out at the library. I was able to print out all the paperwork I need for my 4-day pass coming up in November (Veteran’s Day). My wife is flying up (using that free ticket) and I’m looking forward to seeing her again. Use of the computers and printing is free at the library....nice!

Sleep Where Art Thou? (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 106

I had hall guard this morning from 2:30 to 3:30. What made it worse was that after my shift I was unable to get back to sleep, all I could do was toss and turn. To top it off the hour before my shift our roommate PVT LD was pretty loud getting ready for his shift, so it woke me up even with my ocean waves from white noise playing in my ears. 

PT this morning was muscle failure day (lots of push-ups and sit-ups), but we did not have Sergeant Kent there to motivate everyone today. He was out motivating everyone that was taking their PT tests. It was also pretty cold first thing in the morning here in our shorts and t-shirts. Everyone had their hands in their shirts or down their shorts it seemed. Once we started working out though we warmed up pretty quick.

In class today we had a bit of lecture that almost nobody could stay awake for, then we went to the lab for the rest of the day. This was a life saver because I couldn’t stay awake in class for nothing. At least in the lab we are doing something and time flies. 

PFC Metal and I took off after class and headed to the vending machine headquarters here on base. PFC Metal got a special bottle in the vending machine that put him in for a drawing to win a bunch of stuff including a big flat screen TV. After that we ate at the RFAC and then hung out in the library until the formation came over for RBK. The library is nice, but still not as great of a napping place as the IET center.

I felt tired all day and tomorrow looks like it may be similar...we have a Brigade run, so we have to get up an hour early at 3:30....grrrrrr FML!

To Save A Life (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 97

A photo of the spider bite on my hairy leg

Last night was another night of little sleep. The new roommates are noisy, which keeps me up because I’ve turned into a light sleeper ever since joining the army. The quality of life here at RBK can really take a turn for the worse just by a few changes in roommates. Our last roommates always made sure everything was quite at lights out. Life here already sucks enough, but when you add interrupted sleep every night it can get even worse. I can’t wait for the day when I can live in my own place again with my family.

This morning we did ninja PT complete with the famous “power skip”. It was not too difficult, which was nice because of the lack of sleep I will take an easier day of PT if I can get it.

During class today one of the students asked the instructor if he knew who Mr. Bean was. The instructor said “stop right there....I’ve heard it before”. (Our instructor actually looks like Mr. Bean....lol)

After a break we all came back to class except for PFC Metal. I was looking around and he was nowhere to be found. Class started and the instructor didn’t seem to notice. I was thinking for sure that he fell asleep on the toilet during the break (it happens). About 10 minutes after the class has started he comes in and sits down. Luckily he didn’t get into any trouble. I asked him later what the heck happened and he said it was only a nose bleed, but he couldn’t get it to stop.

I somehow got a spider bite on my leg at some point recently. It itches like crazy and I have to do everything in my power not to scratch the darn thing. I hate spiders, so it kind of freaks me out to know that I had one crawling on me and biting me. Grrrrrr.

At one of our formations today our platoon sergeant stated that the Lt. Colonel has now made it officially against policy to smoke “spice”. I’m not entirely sure what the heck it is, but evidently it’s legal to purchase at some smoke shops off post and it can give you a high. If anyone gets caught smoking the stuff they will get an article 15 and perhaps even more trouble.

We didn’t have mandatory study hall tonight, which I was a little upset about. We have a test coming up this Thursday and I feel we need every minute we can to get ready for it. Instead we have to go to mandatory company training. Our training was basically watching a movie. Suicide rates have been high in the army and they are trying to do everything they can to help soldiers keep an eye out for others who may be having suicidal thoughts. We were told that this movie is going to be shown to everyone in the army whether they are overseas or in the US. We were also warned that it is shown from a christian point of view, it even talks about getting saved and how God has a plan for your life. So anyone who felt uncomfortable with this had the opportunity to go downstairs for some alternate unchristian ways to help prevent suicide. I don’t know if anyone actually took this opportunity to leave or not, I was about half way back in the seats and I didn’t see anyone leave. I was bummed to hear that the movie was about 2 hours long, so I would not have any time to study tonight. 

The movie was called “To Save A Life” and was actually not that bad. The quality seemed more like a Nickelodeon or Disney TV show. It was about a kid who’s best childhood friend kills himself and how it affects him even though they have not been friends for a while. He goes through a a lot of emotions, his girlfriend leaves him, his parents also break up...I was starting to think that this kid was going to kill himself too. Everything turns out OK and you leave the movie with the knowledge that you should always pay attention to how you treat others because you never know what kind of crap they are going through in their lives.

So Tired (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 96

The beginning of the week kind of started off pretty crappy. I had hall guard shift at 23:30 and because of the new roommates moving in and getting situated, I wasn’t able to sleep. Once I thought I was just about to sleep the sergeant comes in turns on the light and checks for accountability. WTF? The sergeants rotate through and most of them just open the door and let the light from the hall come in, then make sure everyone is accounted for. This sergeant is just an inconsiderate jerk. 

I got up with PFC Metal for our hall guard shift and we went to check in. We couldn’t find the sergeant anywhere. Turns out he was actually in his office, he just had the door closed and the lights off ... Was he sleeping? Was he watching porn? Was he having phone sex? Who knows???

I was able to take a nap after hall guard for a few hours, but it definitely was not enough sleep to get me through the day. PT came way too early. We did ability group runs this morning and I went to C group as usual, this time I was not promoted to B group...nice! We still had a decent run. C group may run at a slower pace, but we run for a longer time period because it takes us longer to do the route.

During class today we had a funny incident. We had a soldier that was eating chips in class (only hard candy is allowed in the classroom). So he had to do some “corrective action” (aka push-ups, sit-ups etc.). The assistant instructor who is an NCO sat in the soldier’s chair and was watching him do the exercises...class went on. The instructor then pauses and looks at the soldier who is just looking at him while squatting on the floor. The instructor then looks up and sees the assistant instructor asleep in the student’s chair. It was pretty funny. I guess NCOs don’t get enough sleep either.

On the way to lunch while in formation there were a number of folks who just would not stop talking to each other instead of sounding off with the cadence. SGT Cujo didn’t take kindly to this and he ended up smoking the entire formation once we reached the DFAC. We had to do a number of push-ups all the while listening to him go on and on. It just sucks the entire formation has to pay for a few people’s infractions.

I was tired all day, a Mountain Dew after lunch helped get me through until after dinner. Study hall was rough, I know I fell asleep a few times during this period....the Dew wore off.

Ex-KGB (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 89

A photo of PFC Metal and how he looks before going to bed.
Both of us sleep on top of our beds so they don't get messed up. I
wear my winter PTs to sleep, but he makes a cocoon out of a 
fitted sheet and sleeps in it.

Didn't update yesterday (Sunday)...I was pretty much out of commission all day. That Crown and Coke did me in, I drank a little more than I had planned. So I just kind of took it easy all day and studied for Security+. I started feeling better by about the time we had to go to recall formation. One really nice nice thing about being Phase V+ is that I don't have to get up for the morning formation at all and I don't have to shave until shortly before recall formation...so no more shaving twice a day on Sundays.

This morning PT we had ability group runs again. As usual I got into C group. SGT Kent came over to C group and told the old Hawaiian that he is being promoted to B group. The old Hawaiian was a little shocked (he recently moved to RBK and just started doing PT with all of us). He told the sergeant "But sergeant I'm 36!" The sergeant said "So, I'm 37 and I'm running with you guys." The sergeant then looked at me and said "You're coming too." Great I have to run in B group again...grrrrr. Somehow, at some point I ended up in front after a couple wagon wheels and the sergeant said I have to stay up front and make the pace. That's fine...we'll all run at the C group pace, which is what we did until we were released to run as fast as possible for the last quarter mile or so back.

In class I fell asleep again. It always seems to happen after lunch while I'm sitting in my chair all comfortable. I had to stand up, then at the next break I got a Mountain Dew. That did the trick. After that, class went on as normal until all of a sudden the internet went down. Which by itself isn't a big deal, it happens every once in a while. This time we found out that it was taken down on purpose.

Internet goes down all of a sudden two guys come in and unplug the instructors PC from the network. They say it is infected and they have to send his PC to Virginia. He can't save any of his files off either. The class is told "now is a good time for a break". The guys then proceed to take out his hard drives and his computer is given a new imaged hard drive so we can continue class after the break.

Makes me wonder if there was anything wrong with his computer at all. Is our teacher an ex-KGB agent? Is he in a sleeper cell? Perhaps our agents are on to him and they are using the excuse of an infected computer to do some more thorough examination of it. What’s funny is that later on, our class leader said in their meeting the story of this incident had grown. The other people in their meeting were telling him that they heard agents came repelling through the ceiling and then took his computer...LOL.

After class resumed and got back to normal we could hear the instructor in the classroom next to us say “So you didn’t do your homework? Front leaning rest position...move” Unlike classes in college, you can be punished here for not doing your homework..LOL (Our classroom is divided by a thin accordion type wall that can be opened or closed making one big room or two smaller rooms. The wall provides a little dampening of the noise, but you can still hear a lot of what’s going on in the other class.)

After class we got back to RBK and everyone was outside in a formation. (Never a good sign). We arrived at the very end of the brief. I guess there was an allegation of a sexual assault in the brigade. So we were told not to put ourselves in any situation that something like this could happen. We were also told the unfortunate news that we will have to wake up at 3:30 in the morning and be in our PT uniforms with our phase badges. We were not told why, just that our company will be over at 4AM to pick us up. Rumors are flying and everyone is a little upset. I’ll be going to bed at least a half hour early tonight to try and get a little extra sleep.

Overheard Quote: “Hello Kitty represents all that is lame” (Our instructor uses Hello Kitty references a lot in class. I think he may be a closet fan)

Security+ (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 84

This morning kind of sucked I found out right before bed last night that I had a hall guard at 12:30 to 1:30 AM. So I got three hours of sleep and then did the hall guard shift with PFC Metal. We did our duties and the sergeant on desk did a thorough inspection of everything. Normally we just switch out with the next ones on shift, but he wanted to make sure everything was done correctly. Not a bad thing because everyone needs to be doing their duties and this way they are guaranteed to be done.

I had a hard time getting back to sleep after my shift for some reason. I just tossed and turned all morning, then when I finally felt like I fell asleep my alarm went off to get up. I hate it when that happens!

PT this morning was the normal warm-up exercises followed by a lot of push-ups and sit-ups. There are rumors of a long run tomorrow. There is also talk of doing weapons pt as well as road marches in the future. Bummer...I thought I left that behind when I left basic.

Started Security+ class today. I was tired as heck because of the hall guard early this morning. The class is full of vocabulary and is the class a lot of people have trouble with besides CCNA. We are also back to the full day of class schedule. We start at 8AM and go until about 16:30, then come back for 2 hours of mandatory study hall from 18:00 to 20:00. This leaves almost no personal time, especially for those of us that live in RBK. After the mandatory study hall we have to walk back over to our barracks. After we arrive, I take a shower and have a little bit of time to call my wife and say goodnight...then it’s lights out.

Overheard Quote: “I wouldn’t have joined the army if I didn’t have some sad stories” (Our instructor talking a bit on why he joined the army)


Instructor

You need to go back through and put in all the NCO's names.  It would be way funnier, and trust me, at this point, they wouldn't care.

Moldavski!  (Opulence...I has it!)

Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 09:46 AM


Brandon

LOL...I decided from the start not to use anyone's real names except for my own. Pretty funny that you found yourself on my site. I am here in Korea with a few people from class and every time we are out and see Hello Kitty (which seems to be very common here) we all think of you.

Hope you are doing well SGT

Friday, March 25, 2011 - 09:56 PM


Instructor

Rofl,  I'm sorry if I misled you, I'm not Moldavski, I just like poking fun at him.  He talks just like the Russian guy in the DirecTV commercials.  Anyway, I'll let him know you said hello if I can find him on Monday.

I like the site, it's pretty impressive work.  Wonder if you are using an app or hardcoding it all.  I would suggest creating a page with links to all the days of each blog by title, or/and creating a search function that will grep the pages for keywords.  It's a little difficult to navigate through them as is.  Nice work though.

Don't know if you heard, but they shut RBK down.  Clark Island is history.

Saturday, March 26, 2011 - 07:49 AM


Brandon

Yes...tell him hello if you see him.

I'm using an app called iWeb for the site. It makes everything very simple...even a caveman could do it. On the main page of my journals it has a "go to archive" link as well as a search field. This sounds like what you are looking for. Take a look and let me know, I'm always looking for ways to improve my site

I hadn't heard that RBK was shut down. Wow! What was the reason?

Also since this isn't Moldavski who may I ask is this? Another instructor?

Saturday, March 26, 2011 - 10:47 AM


Instructor

Ahh, didn't see that link, that will work though.

RBK got shut down because it was designed to be a trap barracks anyway, meaning that when we get a ton of you students in the fall (think about it, everyone joins after school lets out in early summer, then spends 9 weeks in BCT, then we get them, so it puts it at like late summer, early fall for the big push of soldiers.) and here it is winter/early spring and all you guys have PCSd from that push.  There simply aren't enough soldiers right now to support leaving it open.  Plus all that power was going to his head - he got treated better than the freaking company 1SGs did.

Anyway, yeah, I'm a Software Instructor.  You can probably figure out who.

Saturday, March 26, 2011 - 11:14 PM

Falling Out (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 27

If it's not one thing it's another. We didn't have to get in line with our ID cards for bed check roll call, but the female sergeant had the hall guards come into each room at about 1AM or so for the last two nights and turn on the lights. They make sure everyone is dressed and then she comes in to make sure we're all here. Just another interruption of sleep that I can add to all the other things that seem to happen here. It's just plain rude.

Today we had PT as usual in the morning, then all of a sudden a guy passed out. An ambulance came and everything. I heard he was allergic to the fertilizer on the field and had a reaction to it. Certainly made the PT a little more interesting than it usually is.

Pretty much a normal day after that. In class we were entertained for a while watching a guy who didn't get much sleep because of hall guard duties almost get whiplash because he kept nodding off and would wake up as his head was falling. It was quite funny.

Things that go bump in the night (Basic Training) Day 43

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.

Last night was a long, long, long night. We slept in out “hasty fighting positions only for an hour at a time. I had a sleeping mat that I rolled out and a blanket that I used for a pillow most of the time. Every so often I would hear a bomb go off or a gun fire. Sometimes a “halt” command, given somewhere else in the camp. I had my rifle attached to me with a bungee cord. That way during my sleeping shift nobody would be able to steal it. Most of the time during my guard shit, I would stare towards the wood line, but if I heard something I would grab the night vision scope and survey the area. That thing is pretty cool. It’s amazing how much you can see. The only time I saw anyone is when our PG and his squad were returning from a “raid” on another platoon. They were unable to get anything though. I guess the PG saw the other platoon’s DS and thought he was a tree. LOL! As our PG was sneaking by their DS grabbed him and there was a bit of wrestling match. Stories differ on how it all played out. According to the other DS, he had our PG almost choked out. Our PG said it wasn’t even close to that. 

So I only managed a little over 3 hours sleep broke up into 4 different shifts. That SUCKS! Had to get up to the sound of a siren and machine gun fire. Take a quick field shower, shave with no mirror and fill in our hasty fighting position.

We did more battle drills today and during the drills we used up all our blank ammo (that was kind of fun). Other than that, I sometimes wonder why a guy with an IT Job in the army would need to know all this infantry type crap. I was hot, I was still pretty dirty, and had very little sleep, so I was a bit grouchy.

When we finally got back to our bay everyone took a shower. That felt awesome! The transportation back was in a cattle car and it was very cramped and hot with all the people and gear in there.

I was a bit disappointed after our shower to find that instead of our normal hours of personal time, we all had to clean the CTA. Also I had another fire guard shift coming up. I can’t remember when I last slept through the night. At least it gave me time to catch up on my journal. Tomorrow…live hand grenades…Boom!

Random DS Quote: “If you’re in a banana hammock and you’re singing and dancing, then you’re gay” (DS explaining this to a Private on the cattle car ride back “home”)

Clean, Clean, Clean (Basic Training) Day 19

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.

Last night I was on Fire Guard duty from 3am to 4am. Fire Guard is one of those things nobody likes to do, but everyone does it at least a few times a week. What makes it worse now is the DS changed some of the rules because there were some problems with people getting up on time and the previous uniform incident. Now fireguard has to be woken up 1/2 hour before their shift instead of 15 minutes and we have to be in full ACU uniform instead of our PT uniforms (shirt, shorts and sneakers)

As another punishment...we had to get up at 5am today instead of 6am like the rest of the company. I’m still pretty sore from all the smoking we got yesterday along with the PT test. I’m glad Sunday’s are a day a rest from training and PT. My big toes are numb on the outside of each. There are few others that are having the same issue. Something with these boots we wear is pinching a nerve or something. I’ll be in sneakers most of the day today except for church. We have to wear the full ACU uniform to church service.

Just like last Sunday, no training. That does not mean we will be doing nothing. We have to deep clean our bay. We’ll be moving all the beds and lockers so we can buff out the entire floor. We also had to deep clean the bathrooms and courtyard area.

Went to church, that was a nice little get-away from cleaning since 5am. The service definitely wasn’t long enough though. There were a lot of people there, we had to use the overflow seating.

It seems every muscle in my body is sore today. I think the worst was what the DS called “the Indy 500”. We had to take a step (with hands on our head the whole time) and squat to the ground, get back up and take another step alternating legs and squat again. We had to do 4 laps around our bay. When I walked down our stairs this morning my legs felt like jello. 

The pink eye has spread, There is one more confirmed case and another suspected case. The bad thing is that they are both right next to my bunk. I’ve been trying to wash my hands even more and use hand sanitizer any time I think of it. Hopefully I will not catch it!

During all the cleaning one guy went into the stall in our bathroom and actually fell asleep. LOL. He said he woke up with his head on the toilet paper. Sleep deprivation is affecting everyone. While in church, I looked down my row and beside me everyone was asleep except for two people. There are no DSs there to make you get out of your seat and do push-ups.

Everyone is talking about what they want to go eat once they get out of here. The food here isn’t too bad, but there is no time to eat and enjoy it. It is also a bit healthier for the most part - no fast food type items. All the talk about everyone’s favorite foods made me hungry. I could go for pizza and an oreo blizzard right now. mmmmmm. 

We were given this week’s schedule, Land Navigation another obstacle course and the dreaded gas chamber are all on the menu. 

Update on the guy who had to go to the hospital in my platoon. He got a bad spider bite on his butt and I guess it got infected too. He’s back with us, just on bed rest with medication. I guess I’ll call him “Pvt. Spiderman”. Other nicknames…”Vin Diesel” (a guy who’s voice sounds just like him); “Douche” ( a guy who’s real last name rhymes with douche...formally known as “Boston”. 

Shoot’em in the head…Shoot’em in the head…Kill ‘em…reload and shoot’em again.

Tonight was very laid back. For the first time since starting basic. After dinner we finished up the few things we had left to clean. Our DS left early because something came up. The other platoon’s DSs checked in on is from time to time. We double checked with one of them to make sure we could shower and he said yes…shower whenever you want, just make sure it’s done before 21:00 (it was only 19:00). So I quickly grabbed all my stuff and took a long hot shower. Very awesome!

During the time the DS was here he ran into someones fart. He asked who did it and when the guy raised his hand he said “drop” (aka push-ups). While the guy was doing push-ups he said “Don’t talk our of your ass you” LOL.

Overheard Quote: “in Cadence…Push!!!” (in the latrine (bathroom) all the stalls were full and a guy was trying to get things moving)

mahaffey
 

I remember that quote that was to funny
 

Monday, March 7, 2011 - 04:50 AM

Good Day (Basic Training) Day 13

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 an interesting day. We woke at 4:00am and got ready. After formation we went to do some of our daily morning exercises. We thought we were going to do the 1-1-1 test today but it turned out we only did the 1 mile run. The track we ran on is pretty crappy, there is  even a soft sand on part of it. I ended up running an 8:20. Not too bad, I didn't push myself that hard. I was in the very front at the start and I ended up slowing way down after the first lap to try and run an 8:00 minute… I guess I slowed down a little too much.

After the mile test we had to get dressed in our ACUs along with a little backpack and something I think the DS calls a Flick. It's basically a little vest that you can snap a bunch of stuff on, We then took a bus (well 4 buses because the entire company came). We went to a little training area and had breakfast. We had a couple of a couple of communications classes, but the thing that really stood out about this place was their bathrooms. We all had to go to this little building that was just plain disgusting. It reminded me of a restroom you may find at a remote park, except I don't think anyone ever cleans it. Some of the urinals were not draining well and you literally had to hold your breath while in there.  We capped off the training outside with another heat injury demo where another solider had to strip to his undies and get iced sheets put all over him. We ate MREs there for lunch. I had BBQ veggie burger, not too bad, and the best part...they actually gave us plenty of time to eat them. 

Got back to our bunks and found a big surprise. Some people didn't lock their lockers, so the DS pulled out all their crap and spread it all over the bay. They also took a guys sunscreen (or some sort of lotion) and used it to write on the floor "Good Job :)"

So we all had to hurry and clean all that up and then hurry down for some more classes that were hard to stay awake in. It really takes all my concentration to not fall asleep...so far I haven't. There are a number of people that do end up falling asleep and getting smoked for it! All the stuff… the information that they are piling on us is crazy. I still am feeling a little overwhelmed. Lots of memorizing stuff and trying to remember what to say or do while in formation. I swear if the DS winks at us and farts we have to chant something. I have a hard time keeping everything straight.

Sounds like if it doesn't rain tomorrow, we will be doing a road march to "Eagle Tower" and then repelling down it. Sounds like that would be fun with a little scary thrown in it.

Random DS Quote: "Privates, you're as dirty as my wife's private and that some dirty shit" (a couple of privates laugh) then the DS gets up in their faces and starts screaming "What, you laughing at my wife's private!!!"


Victor
 
 
Good info, I know not to laugh at this joke!  LOL

 
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - 10:59 PM
 

The Volunteers (Basic Training) Day 11

A picture of our bay from near my bunk. The "Kill Zone"

in the middle was off limits to all except the DSs

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 for me all around. It started off bad and just stayed that way the whole day. Somehow I put my shorts on backwards and almost made it out the door before someone noticed. That would of sucked!! I quickly was able to swap them around before heading out to PT. In the chow hall, I forgot to take off my hat and got chewed out for it. We had a whole bunch of classes that were boring and very hard to stay awake in. People were getting smoked left and right. One DS even jumped up on a desk and onto another desk and started screaming at a kid. I try and take notes and that seems to keep me from sleeping, but even that is not fool proof. I caught myself almost going a few times.

Outside they had the whole company get together for a demonstration – they asked for a volunteer and a guy jumped up and ran out there. He found out soon that they were demoing the procedure for when a person over heats. It gets hot here at Ft. Benning and they say people have died here before in basic training. So the first thing they do is strip the guy down to his underwear and then lay him on a blanket that has been soaking in a chest full of ice.They continue to add more blankets around his “hot spots” (groin, head, underarms) and then place one on top of him. The whole time they are wringing out ice water on him. To top it off it was still too early for it to even warm up.

Later on I was in class and the DS had a volunteer come up and take off his shirt. He then proceeded to show how to use plastic from an MRE and duct tape to seal a chest wound. Of course when he was done he had to rip that tape off his harry chest. 

I’m having a little information overload right now there is so much crap that we are supposed to know. When we are marching we have to say stuff, but nobody can ever remember so we just sound like crap. I need to memorize something called “the Low”, the chain of command, & the army song. I’m glad tomorrow is Sunday.

We were able to go to the PX today. I didn’t need much, but it was nice to see a change of scenery. I picked up some laundry soap & a small notepad. We were also given a chance to use the phones. I tried calling my wife, we only had 10 minutes inside this room with a bunch of phones that cost $1.00 (no phone cards allowed). My wife didn’t answer so that really bummed me out. To tell you the truth, I almost cried there on the spot. I ended up just leaving her a 10 minute message on her voicemail.

We learned today how we should be organizing our lockers. I’ll need to take a little more time tomorrow, but it will be nice knowing where everything is. Because 1st Platoon (us) pissed off our DSs by having people fall asleep during class, we were only given 20 seconds for showers, 20 seconds for brushing teeth. That was stupid, not a lot you can do in 20 seconds. Our platoons this cycle are smaller than normal I guess. Our barracks can fit 60 or so, but we only have 35. There are 3 DSs per platoon, so it seems they are everywhere and always yelling. What’s funny is that 2 of our DSs and a number of others have lost their voices already!

Random DS Quote: “Hey you…with the glasses…the face…and the ears”  (way to be descriptive there DS!)