A Commander, A Chihuahua, and the McDLT (Pre-Basic Training) 54 Days until Basic

 The McDLT was sold in a novel form of packaging where the meat and bottom half of the bun was prepared separately from the lettuce, tomato, American cheese, pickles, sauces, and top half of the bun and both were then packaged into a specially designed two-sided container. 

The recruiters asked me if I could come in today at 4PM. Their boss, who is the commander of the region was coming in and needed to meet with all the future soldiers. I arrived to the recruiter’s office and after a few moments all the other future soldiers where there. There were 6 of us total, 5 guys and 1 girl all ranging from 19 to me. The commander came in and I saw she was a captain, following her was a little Chihuahua dog with an army sweater on. (it had the rank of a sergeant major on it… lol). I expected the recruiter and everyone to be a little tense because there was now an officer in the room, but it was all pretty laid back. We each introduced ourselves and when it was the youngest guy’s turn, he introduced himself and what his interests were. The recruiter chimed in “and he likes gay porn”. That got a chuckle out of everyone.

Next she went over a question sheet that each of us needed to fill out and sign. It had a number of questions like “Have you become pregnant?”, “Do you have any new injuries?”, “Do you have any new tattoos?” etc. A number of questions to make sure there nothing to delay us shipping out. She also asked if we had any questions about anything. She wanted to make sure we were all progressing in our learning before basic. She asked what a couple of the ranks were. When asking what one gold bar is a guy stated correctly that it was 2^nd lieutenant. She let us know that we should always call them mam or sir… or depending on the situation LT, but never butter bar. The recruiter then added “or we can just call them McDLT.” Only me and one other recruit even knew what he was talking about. I had to explain to the captain that it was a McDonald's hamburger back in the day “where the hot stays hot and the cool stays cool” because it was served separated, and the customer put it together. Nobody knew what the heck I was talking about. They all looked at me like I was crazy when I was explaining to them how it was served in two pieces. Funny how things change as time goes by and new generations arrive.