More CPN (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 105

This morning we had PT, but for some reason we didn’t have Sergeant Kent with us. We did an AGR (Ability Group Run) again. I’m not sure if everyone was feeling slow today or if it was because Sergeant Kent was gone, but the size of C group more than tripled from last Monday. We had 19 people in our group. It was still the smallest out of all the groups, but much bigger than the 5 we had last Monday. My legs felt like lead weights today. Not sure why, but I had a hard time running. I guess not as hard as one of the sergeants who ran with us, he ended up falling out of C group which is unheard of. (He did say he ate too much at Golden Corral last night...lol). 

CPN today was tough to stay awake, I think everyone was falling asleep at one point because the instructor ended up making everyone in class stand up. I think it’s a combination of comfy chairs, a boring subject, and a very boring instructor which makes it tough to keep our eyes open.

Later on in the day we did have a lab exercise where we programmed our call centers on our computers and then plugged in USB headsets to our computers and made calls to each other. That was a little easier to stay awake because we were actually doing something hands on.

The rest of the day consisted of hanging out and taking a nap at the IET center, eating at the RFAC, then hanging out at the library until the formation for RBK finally arrived.

Overheard Quote: “You look like a giant penis” (This was actually said to PVT Celtic twice after he shaved his head)

Surprise!! Extra Training (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 104

Everyone at RBK that is in Charlie company had a wake up this morning at 4:00 AM (30-45 minutes earlier than normal depending on who is on hall guard). We were told to get in ACUs and be in formation in 15 minutes. Great...this day is already starting off pretty crappy. I hurried up and got dressed and shaved. The shave took longer than normal because of the number of people trying to cram in the bathroom all at once. Precisely the reason I set my alarm to go off 15 minutes before wake-up, so I can get everything I need done in the bathroom before the rush.

We get out to formation and march over to the chapel, which is where a lot of our training is at (it has a big projector and screen with a lot of seats). The training consisted of a number of “death by PowerPoint” shows. Each one had a different sergeant who usually had soldiers read the slides out loud. It consisted of Cold Weather Injuries, Ethics, UCMJ, and LOW (Laws of War). FYI: we are not allowed to do any mercy killings as a soldier.

As we were marching to class I remembered an incident that happened yesterday, but forgot to put in the journal. For the second time since I’ve been here we have had a person actually run into a sign while marching. It is funny every time too! It’s always very loud, so there is no playing it off.

I learned in class today that a girl in Charlie tried to commit suicide last night. Turns out she was actually at our table at Hooters this last Saturday. I guess her fiance broke up with her and she took it kind of hard.

At this new school house we do things a little different than at Dixon Hall. Every morning before class the entire formation sings “The Army Song”, “The Signal Corps March”, and then we say “The Soldiers Creed”. We then do it all over again after lunch before we head in. Speaking of after lunch, our small detachment of 447 soldiers all got smoked before going in to the school. The leader of our formation told us to fall out, but the rest of the 551 formation wasn’t ready yet. So we all did a number of push-ups. I think all the sergeants there hate 447. 

During the afternoon break a sergeant saw someone with a cell phone in the break area which is against the rules. So they ended up having an impromptu shakedown of everyone in the break area searching for cell phones. I happened to be using the facilities at the time, so I was not part of this shakedown, but I heard they caught a few people with phones. They will be taken away for a week.

After class today we hung out at the IET center for a while, then ate dinner at the DFAC before all the people from Dixon Hall were let out. We then had formation for more training at 17:45. We marched all the way to the end of Barton Field into the garrison building. Here we learned we were going to have ACEP training...and not just tonight, but for a few weeks. ACEP stands for Army Center for Enhanced Performance. Their goal is to make better soldiers. What I got out of tonight’s training was that we should not think negative thoughts, focus on the positive things, talk to yourself (positively), and set goals. It was hard to get motivated or even pay attention though. I’d been up since 4:00AM attending class pretty much the entire time. When class is over it’s really hard to be motivated to do even more training.

Overheard Quote: “We Piss Excellence!” (When asked what positive phrase did Charlie company come up when they had this same training about 5 months ago)

CPN (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 103

Me after arriving back in our barracks. The room was freezing! I had
to quickly put on my winter PT uniform to try and stay warm and comfortable.

PT this morning we did ability group runs. I ran in C group again. The young Hawaiian was promoted this time to B group lol. After all was said and done we only had 5 people left in C group. I think the other usual folks were all on profile, that left me, PFC Metal, our roommate (PVT LD), and the old Hawaiian plus another guy. I would say it was a perfect run to ease into the week again. We jogged 3.2 miles up Victory hill and back.

We went to our first full day of CPN class today. We found out that a CPN is actually a big suitcase type device that when opened up has a router, switch and everything else you need to setup a network in the field all in compartmentalized portable units. The instructors are going over everything so fast and there are so many acronyms it really is hard to follow. I’m having a hard time even trying to figure out what to take notes on. I’ve talked to everyone in our class and right now nobody is tracking on what is going on. This is a little contradictory to what I’ve heard about CPN, because everyone says it’s easy. Hopefully the slide shows will get a little more focused and we can actually figure out what is overview and what we need to know for the test.

It started to rain today and PFC Metal and I were the only ones to have rain gear...nice! We both have ACU print ponchos that fold up to next to nothing. The nice thing about this class is the schedule. We get out for lunch break before the big rush from Dixon Hall (where all our other classes are) and we also get out about an hour before everyone else as well. 

Getting out early gives us a little extra time, but we cannot head back to RBK until the formation at 18:30. So PFC Metal, me, and the Hawaiians decided to hang out at the IET center for a while. We then walked to the RFAC to eat and hung out at the library until we could head back to RBK.

Weekend Wrap-up (AIT - Fort Gordon) Days 101 & 102

PFC Metal falling asleep during dinner at the DFAC...
after a long weeekend

I had hall guard Friday night at 10:30 for an hour. It seems like the shifts keep coming more often lately. The problem is that there have been a number of people who have left RBK in our company as well as Bravo and Delta because they have graduated. The companies have not replaced as many over here as they have left, so there are less people now more than ever it seems. This causes the hall guard roster to rotate pretty quickly. The hour shifts aren’t too bad, but I also have a 6 hour shift coming up as well.

Since it’s the weekend I slept with earplugs in because I didn’t have to worry about getting up the next morning. Even though everyone in my room left for the weekend, I still wore them because you can hear people in the hall at times and I didn’t want to be woken up in the morning before my body decided it was time to get up.

Woke up on Saturday feeling refreshed and headed out to the PX. Once there we were bombarded by boy scouts and their parents trying to sell us popcorn. It was like a swarm of bees attacking us, they were everywhere. I have purchased it in the past at my old job and actually like it, but since we are not allowed to have food in the barracks I had to pass. I picked up some supplies and got a haircut, then headed back to the barracks and ordered some Hungry Howies pizza....mmmmm good stuff.

Saturday night we took out our old roommate from RBK since this will be his last weekend here before he heads out to Korea. We went to Hooters and watched the UFC fight. Everyone had a fun time, he’s a good guy and will be missed here. We got back around 1:30AM. I took what seemed like a short nap and then had to wake up at 6:30AM for the other hall guard shift only this one is 6 hours long. For the most part all we do is sit in a chair with our laptops the entire time. I watched the latest Robin Hood movie with Russell Crow and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I’ve seen a number of Robin Hood movies, but this is the first one that has told the story of before he became Robin Hood and what drove him to it. I was also able to watch some Tosh.O episodes I have on my laptop....that is a funny show!

After the hall guard shift I took a nap for a few hours and then got ready for recall formation. We had to show up in our winter pt uniform so the sergeants could see that everyone had everything they needed before the weather starts to get cold. There were new people again this week (I heard about 16 of them). One of them was next to me in formation with a look of shock on his face. I asked him which basic he came from and he said Benning. I told him I remember my first formation here at AIT. Coming straight from basic where at the position of attention or parade rest meant there is no moving or talking at all. Here in all the formations no matter what position people are in there is a lot of movement and talking. I remember being in shock watching all of it the first time, but I guess you get used to it pretty quick. I said it’s hard to keep your military bearing in this kind of environment and he said he wouldn’t lose his...time will tell.

Now that I’m out of security+ and do not have mandatory study hall I should be able to keep up with my blog nightly instead of waiting until the weekend to update the entire week. I also had some time lately to edit the video from the DVD I purchased in basic. I’ve put video clips up from the various parts of basic. There are some in reception such as when we got hair cuts and shots. There are also some of the main events in basic such as the confidence course, obstacle course, shooting on the range and more.

To Certify or To Not Certify (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 100

We ended up having a light run for pt this morning. We released to run at our own pace down the street and back again multiple times. I took it a little easy, but not noticeably easy. My entire body is sore and I need a little recovery time, the weekend can’t come soon enough.

Took the certification test first thing in the morning once we got to school. Since it’s a certification test those of us taking it all had to go to a special testing room that was a bit more stringent on all the rules.

I took this test the same as the one yesterday...slowly and methodically. I also had a Mountain Dew for the caffeine. We were all also given mints because they were supposed to help us on the test...lol. This time when we finished we were able to see our score right away, so we knew if we certified or not. I ended up passing the test and getting my certification (which is actually required by all 25B, so everyone else will have to eventually get theirs or else they will end up not being able to do a lot of the work). I also later found out that I actually broke the record for the schoolhouse with the highest score ever on this certification exam. I guess all that studying and stressing out has paid off!

We were released until after lunch when we had to form up for our new class “CPN”. It is actually located in another schoolhouse filled with mostly students from another battalion. So we are in a new building with a whole different set of rules. No food or candy at all as well as no backpacks or bags. We have to leave our camelbaks in the back of the classroom and there are no drinks at all at the desks. This means no Mountain Dew for me when I really need it. The chairs are way more comfortable which may make it even harder to stay awake in this class. I saw about 5 people fall asleep this first day, it’s going to be interesting. The lecture we had was pretty acronym intensive. My brain has been so fried getting through security+ that I think it all went in one ear and out the other. The teacher was going so fast and all the material was brand new. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up a little better next week after a weekend to relax.

I went to eat after class and didn’t realize that was when the safety briefing was going on. I think I can manage this weekend without it though, I just have to remember not to do drugs, drink and drive, or beat my wife....easy enough.

PFC Metal’s wife came to town and gave us a ride back to RBK in her air conditioned car...nice. Time to kick back and relax.

Judgement Day (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 99

Today we had muscle failure day for PT (lots of push-ups and sit-ups). Very good workout this morning!

Today in class we had a girl dismissed and told she was going to be recycled. The funny thing is that she was placed in our class because she was recycled from a previous class. She had missed too many days of class, so many that when the teacher was doing attendance it became a joke when he got to her name because she was never there. She always had an appointment for something. She was pissed and stormed off, but she only has herself to blame. She’s going to make a career out of being a student at AIT.

Today is test day for Security+. We were able to study for the first half of the day and then after lunch we took the test. I took it very slow, reading each question twice, then answering. Before I hit the next button I would also go over each of the answers I didn’t choose and ask myself why they were not correct. I ended up changing a lot of answers or going back and forth on some. After the test everyone had to wait in the student break area until everyone was finished. This is a horrible time because we are all just sitting there with anticipation of finding out our grades. Talking with each other trying to figure out which questions we got right or wrong.

After we were called up I found out that I actually did very well...a 94% on the test! This means I get to take the certification test tomorrow. Surprisingly our class ended up doing much better than our sister class. We had 6 people fail the test vs. 9 fails in our sister class. There were a number of people crying and very upset that they failed. We also had more qualify for the certification test (we had 6 people qualify and they had 3 or 4) 

I’m very happy...no more mandatory study hall for me at all!!!! I just have to study for the certification test tonight, but I’ll be doing that in the barracks.

When we got back to RBK we were shown “discrepancies” in our room from an earlier inspection today. (crazy how something I’ve never changed since I’ve been here is all of a sudden wrong). I didn’t let that bring me down though, I just fixed the problems and then started studying for the certification exam tomorrow. Even though I scored high on the final test, I’m still a little nervous about taking the exam.

WhiteNoise (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 98

I have figured out a solution to save me from the sleepless nights that I’ve been having. We were issued a winter beanie pt cap back in basic that I pulled out. I wore this to bed with the top of it pulled down over my eyes to block out the light if it happens to get turned on. I also downloaded an app for my iPhone called WhiteNoise. It can play a variety of background noises to help you sleep better it also blocks out any of the noise that our new roommates happen to be making. You can choose a number of noises such as flowing stream water, rain, or my favorite...ocean waves. I turned this on and put in my earphones and finally was able to get to sleep without interruption. Here is a link if you are interested:

White Noise

PT this morning consisted of a run around Barton Field. It consisted of everyone here at RBK. We ran at a good pace and I had a pretty good workout by the end of it. After PT we had to move the smoke pit picnic table out, the smoke pit at RBK has been officially closed. The smokers couldn’t stop leaving their trash in that area and after multiple warnings SGT Kent finally had enough. He said it’s closed indefinitely, so we’ll see how long that is.

There are so many new people at Charlie it’s crazy! I see so many kids I’ve never seen before. It’s like an ocean of white phase IV badges all over the place. It’s made our formations for school huge. 

I don’t feel like I have enough time for this class. We are getting a normal quarter’s worth of a college class jammed into 12 days. I feel like my brain is going to explode with all this information. I’ve gone from wanting to score a 90% or better and getting the certification, to just wanting to pass the class. I feel like I’m swimming up stream. I’m reading the text book every night, taking notes all day long, and taking practice tests as often as possible.

A humorous point in class today...one of the guys in class fell asleep with his mouth open. I got a sour candy out of my bag and put it in his mouth. He didn’t wake up from that, but when it was time for our break he woke up. Everyone was kind of watching him and waiting to see how he was going to react. The look on his face cracked everyone up when the taste hit him and he took the candy out of his mouth. We all had a good laugh at that one.

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.

Weekend Wrap-Up (AIT - Fort Gordon) Days 94 & 95

I didn’t go out at all this weekend, I spent a lot of the weekend studying for the upcoming Security+ test. I was able to finish reading all the chapters in the book and also do a number of practice exams. My study time was broken up by watching some movies and TV shows. I can only study for a while before my brain starts to just shut down. So whenever I felt the need I took a break and did something else. I watched a movie suggested by PFC Metal called “Grandma’s Boy”. Turned out to be a pretty funny stoner movie. I was also able to watch the first episode of this season’s “Ultimate Fighter”...looks like it’s going to be a good season. It’s hard to watch an episode of anything faithfully while living in the barracks. The day rooms with the TVs are community rooms, so you are subject to the will of whoever gets there first. I instead try and watch it on my laptop when I have the time. The last movie I watched was “Ninja Assassin”. I grew up watching “ninja” movies, so I had been looking forward to seeing this for a while. I was curious how they were going to make a modern ninja movie. I wasn’t disappointed. The movie was full of a comical amount of blood and gore, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a fun film to watch. I wasn’t expecting any academy award movie, just some good old fashioned action with blood and guts and it delivered just that.

During the recall formation the sergeant asked who was phase V or above and still living at Charlie...as people raised their hands he proceeded to copy down their names and tell them that they were moving to RBK tonight. There were a number of people that weren’t too happy. They all know the PT is tougher at RBK and the standards are quite a bit higher, plus what a pain in the butt to have to pack up everything and move at a moments notice.

We ended up getting two new roommates in our room. I’m going to name them PVT LD and PVT StrangeLove. They stayed up for what seemed like an eternity trying to get all their stuff put away. All I could think about was every minute that went by was a minute that I was loosing of sleep. I don’t know either of them well, but I know them from being in Charlie company and they are in our sister class. They both are OK people, just a bit noisy with noisy friends.

Overheard Quote: “Guy number 1: ‘I saw something truly disturbing’ Guy number 2: ‘Did you look at your penis again?’” (This was from two guys in our company at our table while eating dinner before recall formation. I almost spit out my food because I started laughing pretty hard at that one)

Battalion Organizational Day (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 93

A photo I snapped of a lot of the Charlie company folks just hanging out.
We all had the bright florescent orange company shirts.

Today is the Battalion Organizational Day. It’s a day where each of the companies in the battalion will compete against each other in a number of events. We will have no PT (except for the events themselves) and no school today. A good day indeed!

Wake up this morning was at 5:50 so we were able to sleep in a bit compared to most days here. I had a great breakfast at the RFAC (love our dining facility here at RBK!). We then marched over to a big field were most of the events were taking place. After a little welcoming ceremony the events started. I volunteered to play on the company basketball team, so we all headed off towards the gym. We ended up playing Alpha company (all the MOS-T soldiers). Unfortunately after having the lead the entire time we turned the ball over multiple times and they ended up winning. I didn’t play too much leaving it to the younger guys to duke it out. It was a little strange playing after almost a year off! Fun times though even with the loss.

At lunch time they had some tents out in the event field where a huge line of the entire battalion was waiting. I waited in line for a while, but it didn’t even move. So I asked the young hawaiian if he wanted to walk to the RFAC and eat lunch. We took off and ate lunch at the RFAC which was glorious. Normally we only get to eat breakfast there, so lunch was a real treat...and we were able to eat in air conditioning.

After lunch we all formed up to watch the dance off. Yes each company had a dance team and there was a competition. It was pretty funny too. Charlie came in third place in that event. The last event of the evening involved the NCOs from each company competing in a relay race, but instead of a baton they carried the company guidon (basically a pole with a little flag on the top). 4 NCOs each ran a lap around the track. Charlie was way behind, but made an amazing comeback with our anchor on the last lap. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get 1st, but we did place 2nd in the event.

It was freaking hot all day long. I got a sunburn as I’m sure a lot of people did. There were also at least two (that I know of) heat casualties. One was actually an NCO! When there is a heat casualty they wrap them up in ice sheets to cool down their body temperature. 

After the relay we all formed up and listed to the results of the day. Alpha came in first place after coming in dead last the previous 14 times. Charlie took that from them this year coming in dead last. Charlie company only came in first in one event...not basketball, not football, not volleyball, not the dance competition, but.........horseshoes...LOL

After the announcements and the handing out of the trophies we headed back to our company area for the safety briefing. It was the same stuff as usual except the lead sergeant said he spent some time on Facebook this last week looking up soldier’s profiles. He said they really need to change their privacy settings. If he can see some of the stuff they say so can the bad guys. Plus if they are underage and there are photos of them drinking that could get them into trouble. Also if you make bad remarks about company sergeants by name...you may want to change your security settings....D’oh!!

We were released early for the weekend...woohoo!! We headed back to RBK and ate dinner at the RFAC...for the first time ever I ate all three meals at the RFAC. A good day indeed!

A video I took from my iPhone (so it's a bit shaky) of the dance off competition.
The first portion is Bravo's dance team and the second is the Charlie team.

Motivational Run (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 92

Wake up this morning was bright and early at 3:45, I set my alarm for 3:35 to let me beat the rush to the bathroom. I always try and get up about 10 minutes before everyone else. This way I can use the restroom, brush my teeth and shave before everyone else starts filling up the bathroom.

This morning was the battalion run (a motivational run). We formed up and marched across Barton Field to meet up with the other companies. Sergeant Kent always likes to show off, so he had all of us drop and do a number of push-ups before he released us to our companies. Once each of the companies were ready we all started a run together. Charlie company led the way and the other companies fell in behind us. Since it was a motivational run we had a number of sergeants taking turns calling cadence. We jogged at about a 9 minute mile pace for about 4 miles. For the most part everyone stayed in the group. We did have a number of girls fall out as well as a few tubby guys though. It was good enough for me to get a good sweat going and to tell you the truth it was a little motivating..lol.

After that it was back to business as usual. After class on the way to lunch, SGT Cujo didn’t like the way the formation was talking and walking, so he made us all do push-ups in front of the cafeteria. Not normal push-ups either...he would say down (at this point we were supposed to hold ourselves about an inch or two off the ground). While we were in the down position, he would go on about what a bunch of dirt bags we all were. Then he would say up and everyone would go to the up position. We would stay in this position while he went on and on talking to us all. This continued for a while...down......jabber jabber jabber.....up......jabber jabber jabber...and so on. I was a little pissed because I wasn’t one of the ones talking or screwing off, but sometimes in the army a lot of people are going to pay for the few.

Overheard Quote: “Are you high” (The instructor asking our company PG. Our company PG was just in a daze in class. In fact he was high on some pain medications that he was prescribed because of some dental work he just had done)

Monopoly (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 91

Today PT was pretty normal except we actually finished a little early which never happens. We had plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast without having to rush, which was nice.

In class today we had a couple of entertaining things happen. First PVT Dell (a nickname our CCNA instructor gave the guy) fell asleep hard. His head was down on the desktop and laying on his beret. When the teacher saw him, the guy sitting next to him kicked his chair to wake PVT Dell up. When he woke up he had drool all over and his face was all red and had lines in if from where the beret was. It took him a few seconds to realize the entire class was looking at him and laughing. I guess the instructor thought that was punishment enough because he didn’t have to do anything else. 

Our company PG wasn’t so lucky though. He was caught playing Monopoly on his computer while the instructor was trying to teach class. The instructor thought for a minute and then decided to have him do some “corrective training”. So our company PG got on the floor and had to do the following:

20 leg risers

15 toe touches (kind of like the v-up except you have to touch your toes)

The supine bicycle until the instructor told him to stop

25 frog kicks (another kind of modified v-up)

Our company PG couldn’t complain though, this action is much preferable than a negative counseling statement or having to talk to the Master Sergeant.

On the way back from study hall everyone from RBK usually splits off and just heads back to the barracks. Technically we are supposed to stay for a formation, but it never pertains to us and it’s just a waste of time. Today right when we all split off one of our sergeants was behind the formation and started yelling for us all to come back...bummer. We had to stand in the company formation and waste about 20 minutes. When we have to do study hall it really eats up into our free time, so every spare minute is precious.

Overheard Quote: “The only person that should yell my name when I’m in bed should be my wife” (PFC Metal after someone came in the room early in the morning to make sure he was awake)

Yet Another Pee Test (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 90

We woke up at 3:30 in the morning and found out that the reason was for another pee test. Unlike previous pee tests, this one was being “randomly” performed on 90% of the entire battalion. My guess is that they have reason to believe that someone in the battalion has been doing drugs of some sort and this is the best way they can still call it a "random" test and still catch the people. We marched over to Charlie company and did the test. It took longer than usual because of the number of people. Those of us at RBK were allowed to walk back with a battle buddy once we were finished. This turned out to work out pretty well because we arrived back at RBK with plenty of time to eat a leisurely breakfast and get our room squared away as well as perform our normal morning duties.

During class today after the morning break we heard our sister class getting a shakedown. They had to all empty their pockets onto their desks. The instructor was looking for people with cell phones. Later on I talked to our platoon PG who is in that class and found out that two people got caught. 

During our class a guy who keeps falling asleep constantly got punished...well the instructor is not allowed to punish people, so he gave him some “corrective action”. The guy had to do some push-ups, some sit-ups and a modified v-up. Afterward the instructor said “hey...you mopped a bit of the floor!” referring to the wet spot he left on the floor when he was finished.

I spoke with our platoon PG that is in our sister class and he said he got a negative counseling statement for falling asleep in class. He was trying to graduate with honors, but this will eliminate that opportunity. We would go back and forth in test grades with him beating me by a few points in one class and me beating him by a few in the next. Our current class (Security+) is the hardest class we’ve had so far. It has a whole new vocabulary that needs to be learned. There is also a lot of information that we have to process down to the last detail. There are a number of people that fail this class at least once. If you score an 80% or better on the final you will be allowed to take the CompTia Security+ certification exam for free. Right now I don’t feel comfortable at all in the class. I’ve been taking notes every day and studying every night. I am hoping it will all start coming together before the test.

Overheard Quote: “I heard you talking, but I didn’t understand anything you said” (One of the students in the class responding to the instructor when asked if he was “getting it”)

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)

Tired (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 87

As noted yesterday I found out that I had hall guard shift with PFC Metal first thing in the morning 12:30AM until 6:30 AM. I tried to take a nap at around 10:00PM, but all I did was toss and turn until it was time for the hall guard shift....so much for sleep tonight.

The weekend hall guard shift, like any other shift is assigned one area for clean up. When I checked to see what we had I saw it was the laundry room. Not too bad, the laundry room is pretty easy to clean up, I thought we could have them done in 15 minutes to a half hour and be able to study and play on my laptop for the rest of the shift. The sergeant on desk had other ideas though...he had us clean the bathrooms and the day rooms as well. FML! As if having this hall guard shift wasn't bad enough now were doing three duties along with it. PFC Metal and I work well as a team though and we knocked them all out and had the sergeant inspect them all.

After our hall guard shift was over we both spent a little over an hour getting our room and lockers squared away for the coming inspection. We took the rest of the time we had left to take a small nap for about an hour. We woke up and went to the 9:00AM formation and waited on the sergeant as usual. The sergeant finally came out and said to come back in a half hour. So we went back inside and shortly before the half hour came up, we were told to wait outside our rooms with our lockers open. We waited...waited...and waited some more, then finally the sergeant started checking out each of our rooms. He got to ours and checked everything out pretty quick, we were now good to go and ready to finally start our weekend.

Even though we were both pretty tired, PFC Metal and I went over to the PX and the commissary to pick up some supplies and also eat some food. I was getting hungry and that was overpowering my need to sleep. Once we got back though we both literally passed out. I was only planning on sleeping for two hours, but it ended up more like 5 hours.

Woke up and studied a bit, then took some tests that we have to have completed before the 6th day of our class. We ordered Chinese food for dinner and had it delivered. We then had some Crown Royal and Coke with an ex-roommate to celebrate his coming graduation. Turned out to be a pretty good night.

Phase Up! (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 86

This morning during our pt formation I overheard the sergeant talking to the barracks next to us (RBK 9 - Another company with a different MOS, but it does have some guys from my old basic training platoon in it). The sergeant was talking about one of their soldiers that up and left in the middle of the night. He is now AWOL.

Our pt this morning consisted of the normal warm up exercises and then a number of push-ups and sit-ups. I’m looking forward to this weekend and a rest from pt at least for a few days.

Once we arrived at school and were in formation we found out that yet another guy from Charlie company went AWOL. Holy cow people are running away like crazy! This particular guy just decided to not come back from the 4 day weekend and the sergeants were wondering if anyone had heard from him. 

In class today we had a moment of silence for the 9/11 victims. In fact the entire school house stopped what they were doing and observed this moment of silence. I still remember when the attack happened. I was at work doing my IT job at the local newspaper when I heard the news. We turned on the TV and I logged into our AP photos feed and started seeing all the pictures that were flooding in from AP News. There were of course the photos of the twin towers getting hit, but there were also numerous photos of people jumping from the towers to their death. As far as work that day, nothing got done. We all just stared at the TV in disbelief and viewed the tragic photos that the AP was sending.

The safety brief seemed unusually long today. There are a number of new soldiers in Charlie and the sergeant had to go over some ground rules since this is their first safety briefing. We then had to file in alphabetical order to receive our company shirts we had to order earlier. There is a challenge coming up called “The Centurion Challenge” in which each of the companies face off against each other in a number of sporting activities and such.

After picking up our shirts, those of us that were eligible to phase up were told to go to the Charlie day room. Woohoo we get to finally take our phase up test. I had been studying for the test by trying to put together all the questions from the previous phase up test and going over them with others. We were told that it would be the same test, but it turned out to be a little different. Our platoon sergeant decided to give us the questions orally and we would write down the answers on a sheet of paper. Some of the questions were the same, others were from the policy letter that he just went over with everyone during the last training session. There were also a few chain of command questions thrown in as well. Overall it was pretty easy since most of it was just either common sense or stuff we heard all the time. Turns out everyone in our platoon passed. We all phased up!

The next issue was that we had to wait for the actual phase badges and also for our names to get put into the system. This last step is the most important, because it’s the system that they use to do the morning roll on the weekends and if we’re phase V+ then we don’t have to show up. The process ended up taking a while, so long in fact that it was pretty dark out by the time we left Charlie company. There is a rule that states soldiers cannot cross Barton Field after dark, so we had to walk all the way around it. It didn’t bother me too much, I was still pretty happy to be phased up.

My happiness wouldn’t last long as I found out they decided to restart the weekend hall guard shifts from the beginning because of all the new people here at RBK. Unfortunately PFC Metal and I are the first room, so we get to do a hall guard shift from 12:30 at night until 6:30 in the morning. Oh yeah we also found out that our room didn’t pass inspection, so we have to have another inspection at 9:00 in the morning. We have to be in ACUs and it will include a locker inspection. FML. The things both of us were dinged on have not been brought up in any other inspection. They are little things and they are things that we never change. Stupid Stupid Stupid!!! So we will not be enjoying any of our new found phase V+ privileges until Saturday night and Sunday morning.

zzzzzz (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 85

As promised our pt this morning was a long run. We ran around 5 miles (some were saying it had to be 6). We just kept going and going and going. We ran so much that we actually had to stop and do our morning salute in the middle of the road. Usually this is the last thing we do on the pt field after our cool down exercises, but we still had a long way to run just to get back to our pt field. Since we were behind it rushed everything else we had to do in the morning (shower, eat, clean our room, and perform our daily cleaning duty of a common area)

I was pretty tired again in class today. I even fell asleep once and the instructor saw me. I had to stand up for a while to get my blood flowing. During the next break I got a Mountain Dew from the vending machine and I was good to go for the rest of class. There are a number of guys that fall asleep daily in class, so this being my first time in this class falling asleep didn’t make me feel too bad.

There are rumors that we will be able to phase up tomorrow. I am hoping they are true, but you never know with all the rumors that fly around here. It is actually past time since we are on week 12 already (we are allowed to phase up at week 11).

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

Congratulations (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 83

This morning I had a rude awakening during PT. SGT Kent was trying to get everyone motivated saying we were going to shake off the weekend rust with an ability group run. After this a lot of people were overheard they were going to move down to C group. So as we were all ready to go in our groups, I was happily in C and ready to go when all of a sudden SGT Kent comes up and starts just picking people at random (including me) saying “congratulations you’re moving up to B group”. FML! Really??

So I had to run with B group. About a half mile down the road the guy behind me tells me he needs a battle buddy, he has to go pee. Great...so I escort him to the wood line and Sgt. Kent comes up and is yelling for us to hurry up and that we have to catch up to the group. So we get out and proceed to try to catch up to B group. We ran to Victory Hill the half way point where everyone stopped (that is where we finally caught up). Then it was off to head back, my energy was all sapped trying to catch up previously, so I didn’t make it too far before falling out. I can say that I wasn’t the last one to get back, but I was pretty close to it....which is why I run in C group in the first place. Grrrrr!!!

In class today we did some review and then I met my wife for lunch. She brought me lunch and we ate it together in the car. After lunch she had to leave to the airport to head back home. It was nice to see her one last time before she left. Let me say this one more time....I hate being away from my family, it really sucks. I now understand first hand when they say our military sacrifices so much for our freedom. Families and the soldiers themselves suffer just being apart for these long periods at a time. This may seem trivial when compared to the lives that soldiers give, but it is still an important sacrifice that I don’t think a lot of people consider.

When I came back from lunch I was surprised to find out that we are testing out of VOIP today. Holy Cow! I thought we would be studying the rest of the day and testing out tomorrow. We took the test which included a hands on portion (configuring a Cisco switch) and also a written portion (a number of multiple choice). Luckily even without the study time I was planning on, I still tied for the best score in the class with two others. We all scored a 96%...there were no 100% scores this time. Security+ starts tomorrow.

We had dinner, then had to go to the company for some mandatory training since it’s Tuesday. Today’s training was on one of the policy letters, stuff everyone should know anyway. Basically the rules that we have to abide by while living here. I guess the sergeants have been hearing people say “but I didn’t know that” a little too much, so now there can be no excuses.

Labor Day Weekend (AIT - Fort Gordon) Days 79 - 82

BeerFest!...lots of people...lots of beer...and even a live band

Busy having fun away from the base this 4-day weekend...here is a summary of the events....

Friday: Woke up for a 7AM formation. This formation was for anyone who was leaving on pass and we formed up in civilian clothes. It just didn’t seem right. We marched over to Charlie company to sign out. The process only took a few minutes once we arrived, which was nice. We were free for the 4-day before 8AM in the morning! At the moment we didn’t have anywhere that we could go, so PFC Metal and I ate breakfast at the DFAC and waited for his wife to come pick us up. They were nice enough to drop me at my hotel so I didn’t have to take a cab. I checked in and waited for my wife to arrive. It was so awesome to see her. We just hung out in the hotel all night (hotel pt).

Saturday: Unfortunately my wife’s luggage didn’t arrive at the airport with her. She was bringing me a lot of my civilian clothes as well, so this kind of sucked for both of us. The airline told us they would deliver it either last night light or this morning. They called this morning and said they changed their mind and we could either come pick it up or they can FedEx it. Needless to say we were a little pissed off. We actually had some plans today and this is going to throw us behind quite a bit. We drove to the Atlanta airport and picked up the luggage, then back to the hotel to change. We then drove to Savannah to attend a BeerFest with PFC Metal and his wife (Check out their website here). They had already been there for a while by the time we arrived, but there was still plenty of time for us to taste all the beers that were there. It was pretty fun, there were a lot of good beers...as well as a few that were not so good.

Sunday: Had Starbucks for the first time in a long time and pretty much just relaxed all day. It was very nice....even spent a little time in the hotel hot tub.

Monday: Today was a bit emotional knowing that it was our last day together. It’s times like this that make me question if joining was the right thing to do or not. I hate being away from my family. I am so looking forward to getting out of AIT and getting stationed somewhere, so when I get off duty I can go home to my wife. Just a couple more months...just a couple more months. My wife came to our recall formation and sat with PFC Metal’s wife waiting for our formation to finish. We have to have a sergeant take accountability and check all of our shaves and haircuts. We then took off back to the hotel to hang out until bed check at 21:30 when I had to be back in my room.

Overheard Quote: “Baby...it smells like rotten milk” (My wife in the car on the way back from BeerFest....yes I had a little gas)

Me on the left and PFC Metal on the right doing a little beer tasting.

Me in front of the doors to BeerFest...great times are had through these doors!

Safety Marathon (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 78

There were a lot of rumors today that PT would be another run day, because SGT Kent wouldn’t want to lose a run day because of the holiday weekend. This was not the case however as we did the normal warm up exercises and then a number of push-up and sit-up drills. 

Today at school we only had a half day which was nice. After lunch we didn’t have to return, but the Russian instructor was sure to remind us of all that we had to get done over the extended weekend.

After lunch we had safety training scheduled. This was not the ordinary weekend safety briefing, but a full blown session with a number of speakers and the entire battalion. Because of the 4 day weekend coming up I guess they thought they needed to remind everyone to be safe. We were broken up into males and females. Males headed to the gym and the females headed to the chapel. Sitting in the gym bleachers with no air conditioning and a few hundred other hot and sweaty dudes was not a very comfortable experience. We ended up getting briefs from several different sergeants, each going over a certain topic. The battalion commander started things off letting us know how important this information is and ended his speech with having the entire battalion repeat after him...”Wrap That Rascal”. The topics included: Going AWOL, Suicide Prevention, Sexual Assault, STDs (complete with the graphic photos of STD covered penis and vaginas), drugs and alcohol, and finally Traffic Safety. This last segment was done by our own SGT Kent who during his brief said the word “doggon” 50 times (a guy behind me was counting). 3 hours later we were dismissed to our company areas.

One more note on STDs...we were all informed that the 15th signal brigade is in first place in the entire army with the number of STDs! I’m glad I’m married and monogamous. (I'm also guessing this is a scare tactic)

We had about an hour break then had to have our normal safety briefing from our 1st sergeant and our commander. The commander said a person in our battalion committed suicide this last week. Our lone girl sergeant took the stand after that and asked if anyone wanted to talk to the commander about this suicide (they stated the name because there were some that knew this person). The girl sergeant is just a total bitch and I’ve hated her from my first impression of her. She stood on the stand in front of everyone and after asking if anyone needed to talk to the commander about this suicide she just stared at the formation...anyone...anyone...OK, moving on and started to do mail call. She is pretty heartless and from what I’ve seen treats all the privates like crap and doesn’t care about any of them.

After what seemed like an eternity of standing in formation in the hot sun we were finally released. It turned out only to be an hour, but when you’re in direct sun in full ACUs with sweat rolling down your belly and legs...it seems like forever. Those of us in RBK then marched over to our barracks. Everyone was fully expecting some sort of cleaning marathon because of the 4 day coming up, but to our surprise we were released for the night. The sergeant on desk also said he’s treating this like a weekend night so we don’t have to be back until 1AM (Phase V) or not at all (Phase V+). We later found out that the folks in Charlie had a 21:00 bed check (a half hour earlier than normal). Sucks to be them!

Me and the young Hawaiian went over to the bowling alley. We met up with my old assistant bay leader (back from reception days), PVT Diesel from my platoon in basic, and a few others. We had a few beers and talked about the times in basic and how AIT has been treating all of them. PFC Metal and his wife joined us later on, it was a pretty good night. Nice to unwind and relax.