First Day of Class (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 6

These entries have been sent via email from Brandon. (Yay!)

Wake up was at 3:30 AM this morning. We had our first PT test. It was only a diagnostic, but still very important to pass at the regular army standards. In basic you only have to score at least a 50 in each event. AIT & regular army you have to score at least a 60. Also if you pass the diagnostic and end up getting hurt later on, you can get a waiver for the final test because you've shown you can pass the test already. I did pass, but not with flying colors. (they don't post your score like they did in basic). I guess a combo of doing nothing since we slowed down in basic, eating a bunch of crap, and not hydrating enough the day before all took their toll on me.

After we finished showering none of the new people really knew where to go. The communication here really sucks. It makes being here very frustrating. We finally found out that a lot of us (including me) had our first day of class today.

So those of us who were starting class were told to line up with the school formation. We lined up and were marched to Dixon Hall where all the classes are held. We all filed into the building, but none of the new people knew where to go. We just kind of wandered around and then went back out to the front of the building. Back out front there was a sergeant calling out names of the new soldiers...hey we found the right place to be! Once our names were called we got in line and marched to a classroom.

My first class is A+. This will be going over the basics of computer hardware and will touch on the Windows OS. The class day was for the most part orientation. Class in a military environment is much different than in the civilian world. Before we enter class everyone stands in line at parade rest. When walking the halls everyone walks on the right side and there is absolutely no talking. The funniest one of all is that all the new soldiers (MOS-I) have to be escorted by MOS-T soldiers (soldiers who have been in the army and are now at AIT to switch their MOS - (jobs) ). Today we had a 22 year old sergeant escort 2 36 year olds and one 26 year old to the bathroom LOL. MOS-Ts are treated much better at AIT. They have their own barracks and can come and go as they please. They even have their own break area at the school. 

When we were out for the day I accidentally got in the Bravo company formation to march back....D'oh! No big deal though, I ended up getting in the chow hall a little earlier than everyone else.

After chow me and PVT Metal along with 6 others were "voluntold" (that's when you don't volunteer for a task, but you are told to do it). We had to clean up the brigade headquarters for a couple of hours. Scrubbed some baseboards, mopped some floors and waxed some floors.

I met a guy from Hawaii via Seattle today. He had a rough time in basic. He's 36 as well and ended up with stress fractures in both feet, a dislocated shoulder and something else to his wrist. Sounds like his basic was pretty brutal on him. He seems like a pretty cool guy.

Overheard Quote: "They can talk about us, but they can't talk without us" (our instructor said this about the rest of the army talking about the signal corps) .... I know I know...it's hard to get good quotes now without the drill sergeants running around and scared privates doing stupid stuff.