BCT Day 15

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 15
September 27,2010

Today was a pretty cool day. We started out with a march to the Fit to Win (FTW) course. FTW is an obstacle course that you run as a team, but you complete the obstacles as individuals. I think the course is about 1/2 mile long. To make it even more fun, it rained all night so the course was wet and muddy. Most of the obstacles were either jumping over something like a wall or crawling under or through something. Four teams ran the course at a time, so it was an unofficial race. My team won, luckily. It was some of the most fun we've had so far. Everyone was filthy and so pumped up after FTW. We ate some breakfast (hot a's) and headed to our next stop, the gas chamber.
We marched from FTW to the chamber, in some light rain. We were already wet from FTW though. Plus, we had more to worry about than rain. Everyone was nervous about the gas chamber. We've all heard the horror stories about it.
They took us in by platoon, so there were about 35 of us in at one time. our mask were on when we walked in so everything seemed fine. Within a few seconds our shin was burning. We still were able to breath fine since we still had our mask on. Then, the fun started. The DS's went up to us one by one, made us break the seal on our mask, say our rank, name and SS#, and put our mask back on and clear the gas out of it so we could breath again. This did cause a little discomfort, but as long as we didn't open our eyes or breath in while our mask was off. Most people were fine, but a few panicked. One guy, everyone calls him Turkey since that's were he's from freaked out. He wanted to get out and almost started fighting the DS's. He didn't get out, though. After our masks were back on they split us up in groups of 10. Each group had to take our mask completely off our heads and say the Soldiers Creed.Once you breath in, it's over. It has to be the worst experience of my life. Your eyes, lungs, and skin are on fire. You can't breath. There's snot pouring out of your nose. You're going and want to puke. They may have made us stay in for 10 seconds or so like that, but it felt like forever. Once your outside, it still takes several minutes to catch your breath and get back to normal.
Even though it sucked while we were in there, I'm glad we did it. I'll definitely never forget it. It's something most people can't say they've done. Plus, it's just another graduation requirement checked off the list. Oh, by the way, this was all before lunch.
The rest of the day was more relaxed. I think they were letting us recover from our intense morning. That and we are ahead of the normal BCT schedule, so we don't have to rush. Our company only has about 75 people in it. The company would normally have almost 4 times that many soldiers in it. So, it doesn't take us as long to complete most things. Tonight really capped off the day as well. I got 5 pieces of mail some letters and pictures from Em and Izzy, one from my mom , and a card and picture from my civilian co-workers. It's hard to imagine letters making that much of a difference considering that they are rarely used anymore. But when it's the only thing that keeps you connected to the outside world, it's amazing to get a simple letter. To make it even better we didn't have to pay for our mail. We have a PT test in the morning, so they didn't want to wear us out. With that said I've got some reading to do...

BCT Day 14

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 14
September 26,2010

Two weeks down!! This one flew by. This was an off day since it was Sunday. Worship Services were canceled today because there was a Christian concert this morning. It was open to all BCT and AIT soldiers. Only about 10 people from our company went. Maybe everyone else knew something we didn't, but probably not since there were about 1500 soldiers there. Everyone seemed excited to be there. That is until the music started. It was all in Spanish. That's right it was Hispanic Christian concert. Someone dropped the ball on communicating that important fact. Not only that it lasted until lunch. So we didn't get any personal time this morning.
It turned out not to be a big deal though. The only thing we did after lunch was spend a couple hours cleaning our bay. We had the rest of the day off basically. Most of us used some of the time to write our essays.
Tonight was a huge disappointment. We were expecting to get some phone time tonight. Our DS's never directly told us that, but all signs pointed that way. 2nd Platoon was told we were getting calls., but they got in trouble and lost their privileges. They next sign was that our DS let those that needed to get numbers from their cell phones. You'd thing that they meant for us to use the numbers for something. Unfortunately the day ended with no call. I'm very disappointed. I've looked forward to hearing my wife's voice all day.

BCT Dat 13

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 13
September 25,2010

We had our CLS test today. It was pretty easy though. However only one person made a 100 on it, ME. We had 10 people fail, and that means now I have to tutor them tomorrow so they can retake it. It should be easy since they already know the questions.
Our first combative (hand to hand combat) class was today. The Army uses a modifies form of jui jistu, so it's mostly a ground based system. We just covered some basic positions today. We did get to spar some at the end of class. That was fun, but we got a lecture about safety b/c some people got hurt trying stuff that they had seen in the UFC or something. It really doesn't matter what we are doing there's always someone getting into trouble for being stupid, more on that later.
We were issued our gas mask this evening, which can only mean one thing. The dreaded gas chamber is coming up soon. It will probably be early next week. I'm not looking forward to it either. They say it pretty rough, burning skin and eyes, snot pouring out of your nose, vomiting, ect. I'll let you know if all that's true or not.
Remember when I said that there are people always getting in trouble. Well we have some people in our platoon that haven't realized where they are yet. They constantly talk when they aren't supposed to, don't listen to the DS, show up for formation late, and the list goes on. So, thanks ti them, we have to write a 500 word essay on why we want to be in the Army by Monday morning. Honestly, I'd rather get smoked. I bet we have at least 2 people that don't do the essay either. I'll let you know if I'm right or not.
We also got to go to the troop store. It's like a mini PX. I bought an extra PT uniform and a few other small things I needed. All the males had to get haircuts. So, I'm bald again.

BCT Day 12

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 12
September 24,2010

I had a long day today. Not a bad day, just too long. I had staff duty from 3:00 til 5:00, so I was up at 2:30 to get ready. Staff duty is where we go to our battalion offices and clean up, answer the phone, ect. It's not bad they even have a TV in there. It felt strange to have a TV on. I haven't seen a TV in a couple of weeks. I really don't think about it much at this point. I used to watch it everyday, and now it's like it's normal not to have a TV. I may just drop cable when I get back. I'm pretty sure Em (my wife) won't go for that though.
I had a pretty cool experience during staff duty. The shift before mine said they got a call that said the Post Commander (a 2 star general that is in charge of the entire base) and the post Command Sergent Major (highest enlisted soldier on base) were going around the base checking in on people. I kind of hoped that he wouldn't come by while we were on duty though. I was nervous about what to say and do when he came by. Well they did come by and the only ones there when he came in were me and my battle buddy. Our DS had to go check on another soldier. So I called "attention" when they came in, since that's what your supposed to do when an officer walks in. Apparently it was the right thing. He talked to us for a few minutes and was pretty laid back. Our DS came in while he was talking to us and he told her what I did. He said that I was the only person that had done that all night. He even gave us his coin. Senior officers and NCO's have special coins that they give out when someone does something really good. It's an honor to get one especially from the Post Commander. I'd guess most soldiers go through BCT never even getting to see him, much less talk to and get his coin. I was pretty excited about how it all went down. Our DS told us good job when the General left, which is something that NEVER comes out of DS's mouth. When we got to formation our Battalion Commander (Leutinent Colonel) and Battalion Sergent Major came by and wanted to know what happened and also told us good job. They told our DS that it reflected on the job that they were doing too. So maybe I got some brownie points with the DS.
The rest of the day was boring. We had about 8 more hours of (first aid) classes. We've got a test on it tomorrow morning. It should be pretty easy though. Most of what you learn is common sense. I'm off the bed now I've been up since 2:30 and haven't had a full nights sleep in a few days. I've had some sort of duty at night for the past few nights. And in non-BCT related news, I started dating my wife EM (Emily) 10 years ago today. Happy Anniversary Em!!! (and no I did not add that it really said that in the letter, Emily)

BCT Day 11

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 11
Sept. 23,2010

Today was kind of opposite of yesterday. Not much fun was had today. We woke up at 04:30, and packed up our gear and tents. They brought us breakfast then we headed back out to march back to the barracks. It was harder marching on a full stomach and less sleep than the march yesterday.
Once we got back to the barracks, we were supposed to have about and hour to shower, change clothes, and unpack. Halfway through the hour though one of our "jerk" DS's came in and started smoking us for not being ready. So after we just got clean, we were sweaty again. I guess that's just how it is sometimes.
We had some first aid classes today, about 8 hours worth. It was boring and we were all tired. Needless to say people's heads were bobbing. Everyone was getting smoked, including me. I got caught nodding off once. I only had to do a few push-ups and v-ups (kind of like a sit-up). Some people got much worse.
The day ended great though. I finally got some mail!!! I got a letter from Em and one from my parents. They only cost me 20 push-ups each, but it was so worth it. It's nice to hear from my family. It's hard not to know how they are doing everyday. The downside is that Em's letter said she sent one before the one I got, but I haven't received it (we number our letters so we know the order to read them in). She left off part of my address. My mom actually left off the same part but I got her letter. I'll have to investigate.

BCT Day 10

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 10
September 22,2010

This was a long day. We woke up and marched to our land nav. course (4k). They brought breakfast out to us. They call it "hot a's" when they bring food from the DFAC out to the field. All our meals today were hot a's. I'm kinda glad though, I was afraid we'd have MRE's. My group did really well with land nav. We had 3 hours to find 3 out of 5 points. My group found all 5 in 1 hour and 9 minutes. We were only a couple of minutes behind the 1st group to finish. It was a pretty easy course.
During that afternoon, we set up our camp. It was cool to see all the tents set up together. One of our DS's also showed our platoon some combat formations and movements during some down time. He 's an infantryman and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan several times. So, he has plenty of experience to share with us and has some cool stories. He's probably my favorite DS. He's laid back as long as your doing what your supposed to be, just don't get on his bad side.
Once the sun went down, we started our night land nav. course. It was the same course, we just had to find 3 different points. It was fun wondering through the forest in the dark. We found our points easily, but didn't rush back to finish this time. We just hung out in the woods since we knew the DS's would find something else to keep us busy if we finished quickly.
The actual "camping" part wasn't as fun as I had hoped. It wasn't bad, I just didn't sleep good. Plus we only had about 5 hours of sleep. Overall though this has been the most fun I've had so far.

BCt Day9

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day9
September 21,2010

We had our first "real" PT session today. It was actually a pretty tough workout. Part of the workout was called climbing drills. Climbing drills are a variety of exercises using a pull-up bar. Most of my workouts before I shipped to BCT centered on Push-ups and sit-ups, which are two of the three components of the APFT (PT Test). So, the pull-up exercises were tough. If you are reading this and preparing for BCT, work on pull-ups!!!
After PT and breakfast, we marched out to the team development course(TDC). We had the same load in our ruck packs as the march last week, but this one was shorter. The TDC was cool. We were split up into teams of 8-10 and had to complete obstacles using limited supplies and teamwork. For example, we had to get our team and a 55 gallon drum of "fuel" across a "destroyed bridge" using only a couple of 6-8ft boards. It was really more of a mental puzzle than a physical. The hardest part was trying to come up with a plan to complete the obstacle using only the supplies we had. Our team completed 2 out of 4 obstacles, which was in line with all the other teams. We had problems with everyone wanting to be the boss at first, but eventually worked better together. This was actually the goal of the TDC, to get us to use teamwork.
Once we marched back from TDC, we got a refresher on land navigation and got packed and got packed for tomorrow's march and course. I think the DS told us the march would be about 4k which is only about 2.5 miles. Our rack sack will be little heavier to since we are staying in the field over night. I'm not looking forward to the march, but I think the course will be fun.

BCT Day 8

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 8
September 20,2010

WE had our first AGR this morning. AGR's are group runs where everyone is put into groups based on our 1 mile run times from last week. I was in b group which is the 2nd fastest group. I missed A group by 9 seconds on my 1 mile time. I think I may move up to A group next time though. This run wasn't very hard, and I'd rather be challenged which will help me a better time on our pt test. We only ran about 1.75 miles, but it felt good to run again. I hadn't ran in almost 3 weeks and I kind of missed it. I enjoyed running in a group though. It's motivating to know that you have your battle buddies right there beside you.
Most of the day was slow. More classroom. We got a briefing from our company commander on BCT (mostly things that we have already heard several times), a briefing on proper nutrition, and one from our athletic trainer on common injuries at BCT.
Things should pick up soon, or so our DS's say. We're about to start doing more "soldier" stuff instead of sitting in classrooms. We've got a team obstacle course tomorrow and land navigation Wed. We're supposed to start learning how to shoot our weapons in the next week or so too. We got an answer to our mail mystery tonight too. A couple of people in our platoon got letters. It was a little depressing to see someone else get mail and not get any. It's okay though, I should get something in the next couple of days, hopefully.

BCT Day 7

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 7
September 19,2010

Week 1 is officially in the books. This week has actually gone by pretty fast. I hope the rest of my time here does the same.
Sunday's are our "off" days here. We have free time until 12:00 and first formation isn't until 6:00 so we get to sleep a little later too. You can do whatever you need to during free time. I spent some of mine in church services. The services are non-denominational and contemporary. Our Chaplin is younger ( I think he said he's 31) and is very personable. One of the best things about going to church is there are no DS's there. It's also much quieter and relaxed than just hanging out in the bay. I really enjoyed the service, but it did make me a little homesick. I guess it just reminded me of going to church back home.- sitting next to Em, seeing all my friends from Sunday school, and stuff like that. Other than that it really allowed me to clear my mind for the coming week.
Even though free time ended at 12:00, we didn't do too much the rest of the day. We learned how to disassemble and clean our weapon, learned to set up our tent for Wednesday night, and organized our lockers. We did squeeze a smoke session in there too. We had a few people that wouldn't stop goofing off while we were supposed to be cleaning our weapons. We've heard that they are about t start punishing individuals instead of everyone. Hopefully it's not just a rumor.
Everyone's starting to get anxious about getting letters too. Some people think we should have already started getting mail, and that the DS's are just holding it. Personally, I just think it's too soon. We just mailed our families our addresses last Wednesday. It would take a few days for them to get our address write and then return to us. Wither way, I hope we get mail soon. I'd really like yo have some contact from the outside world. It'd really be great to know how Em and Izzy are doing.

BCT Day 6

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 6
September 18,2010

Today we had 8 more hours of land navigation class. They showed us how to plot points on the map, figure out the distance between points, and how to use a compass. We'll have to put what we learned to the test next Wednesday. We'll be broken in groups of 2 and will have to complete 2 land navigation courses, one during the day and one at night. They give us a map, a compass, and a few points to find. We'll plot the points on the map and use the compass to fins and walk to all points in a set amount of time. It should be pretty fun. We'll be camping in the field that night too.
I mentioned in yesterdays letter that I had fireguard shift. Fireguard shift is basically a way to make sure someone is awake and watching the bay all night long. They are 1 hour shifts from lights out(21:00) to wake up (5:00). Two people are on each shift and each shift has specific cleaning duties. Last night ours was taking out the trash and cleaning the sinks in the latrine(bathroom). Since we had the last shift we also had to wake everyone up. We have to start getting up about (04:30 or we won't be ready on time. DS's aren't happy when your late.
I also had fireguard on the second night here at BCT. It was at 1:00, so it wasn't fun. We slept a couple of hours , wake up for an hour shift, and then slept a couple more hours. Needless to say it wasn't a restful night's sleep.
Something pretty crazy happened during our shift that night. We were mopping (yes we were mopping in the dark at 1:00) and I shined my light across the bay only to see a guy standing at attention, with weapon in hand, by his bunk. I looked at the next bunk and he was out of the bed doing the same thing. I walked over to investigate, but the first guy wouldn't say anything, he was asleep on his feet. The second guy said someone came in and told them to get up because DS was coming. There ended up being 6 guys standing by their bunks. They all had the same explanation, someone woke them up b/c DS was in the room. This imaginary DS was never found.

BCT Day 5

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 5
September 17,2010

Today was pretty uneventful. We spent most of the day learning how to read a map. It was actually pretty interesting, but that didn't make it any easier to stay awake during class. I was struggling and you do NOT want to fall asleep in any classes. I've seen it happen and the consequences did not look fun. We've got more land navigation classes tomorrow. We'll be learning how to use a compass.
Since I don;t have much to talk about today, I'll tell you a little about my platoon. I feel like we are pretty lucky. We have a good group of DS.We have 4 that are our main ones, 2 males and 2 females. The two that are around the most are pretty laid back as long as we're doing what we are told. Our group isn't nearly as bad as some of the others. The other platoon in our company gets smoked all the time by their DS's. We have people from all walks of life. We have people from New York all the way to Washington state.. We even have a few foreigners, one from Turkey and one from Africa. Most of the platoon gets along well and don;t mess up too much. We do have a couple that just can't seem to get it together though, but maybe they'll figure it out soon, for their own sake. Most everyone is under 20, but we have a couple of guys in their late 30's though. It's been cool getting to know everyone.
That's really all I've got for today. I need to be hitting the bunk anyways. I've got fireguard shift at $:00. I'll fill you in on what that is next time. There's also been creepy stuff going on during some fireguards shifts. They say this barrack is haunted. (Supposedly) someone killed themselves upstairs during a previous BCT class.

BCT Day 4

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.


Day 4
September 16, 2010

Today was a big day. Our training today was something that we had to complete in order to graduate, Victory Tower.
Victory Tower is a 5 story tower and the only was down is to rappel down a wall with a rope. There are a few other obstacles, but the wall is the main attraction. The tower is designed to do a couple of things. The first is to get people to prove to themselves that they have courage to do anything they put their mind to. The second is to teach soldiers to trust their equipment and training The harness is just a single piece of rope that you tie around your waste and between your legs. It is scary to think that's all that's going to keep you safe.
I'm not even going to lie, I was a little scared at the top, but once I pushed off the wall and was on my way down it was really cool. It's definitely not something I would have ever even attempted if not for the Army.
We also did our first road march today. We marched to and from Victory Tower. It's just under 2 miles, and we only had about 30 pounds of gear so it wasn't to bad. It was fairly hot on the way back though. We had one girl that fell out due to the heat. She had to go to the hospital , but she is okay now. Today was finally laundry day too. We don't have to do our own laundry, which is nice since we don't really have time. The downside is that they charge us $26 bucks a month, whether we use the laundry service or not.
Also, I forgot to mention that I mailed my first letters to Emily yesterday. This won't be news to you since your reading this. I just mention it because I can't wait ti start getting letters from whoever else she passes my address along to.

BCT Day 3

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 3
September 15, 2010

Today didn't start out very well but it ended up being a good day after all.We started the day by marching to the PT field for an introduction to the Army's PT program. We weren't really going to do PT. They just wanted to go over formation we use for PT and the standard warm up exercise. It didn't go that was though. A lot of people weren't listening or weren't motivated enough and were messing everything up. We got smoked for it. I think it was just the DS's way of making us do PT since we weren't going to do "official" PT.
We also got smoked when we got back to the barracks. We've got some people that just don't have the sense of urgency. When DS says we have one minute we have 50 seconds to do something, he means it. I guess some people are just slow to catch on. After we were allowed to shower, change clothe, and have dinner, we went to a large classroom for some briefings. We spent pretty much all day in there. We heard presentations on everything from Army rank structure to sexual assault. We did get a motivation speech from our Sergeant Major, though.
We were also told something that turned my day around. They told us that graduation would be a day earlier that we expected. I know it doesn't seems like much, but when your here it means a lot. As good as this news was it wasn't the best part of my day.
I got to make a short (5 minute) call home!! Again, this seems small, but the small things always been the most. It was awesome to hear my wife's voice. I'm not ashamed to say it make me tear up a little. I wasn't expecting a call for a while so it was a surprise to get this one. It definitely got me motivated.

BCT Day 2

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 2
September 14, 2010

Day 2 started with a 1-1-1 PT assessment. We did as many push-ups as we could in 1 minute, sit-ups in 1 minute, and a 1 mile run. This gives the DS(Drill Sergeants) an idea of what shape everyone is in and helps them put us in groups for Ability Group Runs (AGR), I did 45 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, and 7:25 on the 1 mile run. It's about what I expected, but I wish I would have done a little better on the run. There will be plenty of time to improve though.
After the 1-1-1 and breakfast, we got our weapon (NEVER call it a gun). We have to take it EVERYWHERE, even chow. It is a bit of a hassle to carry all the time, but I'll get used to it. We also got more gear, our combat helmet(ACH) and our armored vest(IVA). The IVA has heavy armored plates in the front and back. Most of the time after that was spent getting our gear setup correctly. We got smoked a few times for not getting things done enough, but nothing serious.

BCT Day 1

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 1
September 13,2010

Today was a big day, the start of Army Basic Combat training.
We started the day off in reception, Everyone had a chance to take care of anything, they needed before BCT. The ones that didn't need to do anything(me) had to clean up our bay. We did that until time to go...

Ship time for BCT was 13:00. We loaded up all our gear and were bused to another part of the base. This is where the fun begins.

We stepped out of the buses and it was MASS chaos. There were about 400 recruits running around trying to figure out what was going on. Drill Sergeants were everywhere, constantly adding to the confusion by yelling at everyone. They were randomly telling soldiers which group they needed to go to. This was how our companies and platoons were form. I ended up in B Company (Bravo), 1st platoon. We are called Spartans. They made us find our bags (more mass confusion) and march to our barracks. Once we got to the barrack, we formed up by platoon. Guess who the the first one to get called out was? It went something like this:

Drill Sergent- "Specialist?!!!" (that's my rank)
"How the bleep bleep bleep did you get Specialist?!!"
ME- "Bachelors Degree, Drill Sergeant!"
DS- "Are you an OSC Candidate?!"
ME- "Yes, Drill Sergeant!"
DS- "You might as well get on the bleep bleep bleep bleep and
start bleep bleep pushing!!!"
Me- "One, Drill Sergeant! Two, Drill Sergeant! Three, Drill Sergeant!...

So much for flying under the radar.
After that they took us up to our bay and assigned us bunks. I then fell out.

Reception Days 2-4

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

Reception Days 2-4
September 10-12,2010

I'm getting a little behind on my letters so I'm going to cram the rest of reception into one.

On Friday we were issued our ACU (uniforms)and other clothing even underwear. This is really all we did since it took half the day. The rest of the day we spent cleaning up our bay in the barracks.

Saturday started off great, I had 5 shots before 06:00 (I'm going to be using military time in all my letters) Some people got more than that, 5 was the minimum. We were vaccinated for every disease known to man. We cleaned more and had some free time.I used my time to call Em, Izzy and my parents.

Sunday was spent packing up our gear and getting ready to ship "down range" to BCT. We did have quiet a bit of down time too. This can be dangerous when you have a few hundred guys, mostly under the age of 20 in the same space. Things got a little rowdy so we all got called outside and got smoked. It wasn't that bad though, just a few push-ups and a lecture from the drill sergeant. Sunday was sad though, It was the last time that I got to talk to Em and Iz. I also called my parents. I'm not sure when I will get to talk to them again. I am guessing 2 weeks.

Reception Day 1

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

Reception day 1
September 9, 2010

Day started as soon as we sot to Ft Jackson a little after midnight. We went to a large classroom to do some paperwork and get a briefing on the things we'd do in reception. We were also taken through the amnesty room. This is where everyone gets a chance to get rid of any contraband without getting in trouble, things like weapons, drugs, tobacco, candy, ect. After that we got an initial issue of gear. PT uniforms (which we also sleep in), a towel, some sheets, canton, and a couple of other things. By the time we finished up it was about 4:00am. Day 1 didn't officially start until 4:30am though. So we had 30 minutes to put our stuff in the barracks, change clothes and shave. We fell into formation at 4:30, and headed for chow. The food actually hasn't been that bad. Breakfast is the best though. The rest of the day consist of TB test, (I almost passed out from this. I was standing in line a few minutes after wards a guy behind me actually did pass out about the some time I got light-headed), a haircut($6), getting our pay and benefits set up, medical checkup (eyesight, hearing, dental x-rays, and blood work), and a trip to the PX (store for you civilians) where you were "required" to buy between $150-$200 worth of supplies including running shoes. The best part of the day was getting boots. It only took 5 hours. Yep, again "hurry up and wait." I finally got to bed around 11:30pm, only 43 hours since I began this adventure in Jackson, MS.

MEPS-Hurry up and Wait

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

Day (0)
September 8, 2010

Spent the night in the Marriott for MEPS. My day started early, about4:30 am. I got up, showered got dressed and headed for breakfast. We ate and were bused to MEPS for begin processing at 6:00. All I did there was sit in a room full of other shippers in my underwear. We sat there for an hour just to be weighted to make sure we all still met the height and weight requirements. Then I signed a few more forms in the National Guard office. This is "Hurry up and Wait" began. I sat around doing nothing really until lunch. I did get to know some of my future battle buddies though so it wasn't all that bad. One of them , is in a similar situation as me. He is also an officer candidate in the NG, almost as old as me, married, and going to Fort Jackson for BCT.
After lunch we were given a travel briefing. They told us about our flights and gave us paperwork to take with us. There were six of us going to Fort Jackson. Since I had the highest rank, I was named group leader. I was responsible for making sure we all got to Fort Jackson and for delivering some extra packets of paperwork. They told us during the briefing that we were running behind and needed to get to the airport soon. We left MEPS at 11:30 and arrived at the airport a few minutes later. When we checked in for our flight, we got some good news our flight didn't leave until 4:45, another 5 hours of "hurry and wait". Eventually we flew out and headed to Atlanta to catch our flight to Columbia, SC. We had just enough time to grab some food in the ALT airport between flights. I had pizza since I figured it would be a while before I got to eat it again. Our final flight left out at 8:15 eastern time(We lost an hour changing time zones). Our flight was mostly made up of other recruits. Once off the plane, we headed for the military check-in desk, along with over 100 others. They only had two buses to take us to Fort Jackson in. Of course this meant more waiting. My group was on the second bus all except one that somehow ended up on the first bus. It was about midnight when we finally arrived at Ft Jackson, but that didn't mean my day was over. We had some in-processing to do.

Phone Call!!

Jason just called and we got to talk for 7 minutes before they cut all the lights out. He said that he didn't get there until 12:30 a.m. this morning and they had to wait and wait and wait to get processed (whatever that means). They didn't finished up until about 4:00 a.m. so no sleep last night for him and had to be ready and shaved and outside for pt by 4:30 so he was rushing and tired. He said during pt some dude passed out from behind him. They shaved all his hair off and he said it hurt like a bad word...lol And then they had to go buy soap, shoes, and whatever else he will use for the next 2 months. He said that they haven't took up cell phones yet but will after reception. Maybe he will get to call again..

Emily

He made it

I just wanted to take a minute to let everyone know that Jason arrived safely at Fort Jackson. Not sure of anything else but he did make it. I will update as soon as I hear (hopefully) or receive something.

Emily

A little about me

Some background on the author of this blog: me

My name is Jason and I'm 26. I've been married to my high school sweetheart, Emily, for almost 5 years. We have a beautiful 2 year old daughter, Izzy. In my civilian life I work in the banking industry (if you didn't already pick that up from the blog's title). So I'm definitely in for a big change.

A lot of people have asked why I joined the military. The simple answer is that it's just something I feel like I've been called to do. I could bog you down with all the patriotic stuff like "I just want to give back to my country" and such but those thing go without saying. Oh, and the benefits didn't hurt my decision either :)

The main reason I chose Army National Guard is that it allowed me to continue to live a somewhat normal civilian life and still serve. I didn't have to uproot my family and move or anything and I still get to keep my civilian job, which I enjoy. So being "part-time" military was an easy decision.


My girl, Izzy


Me and Izzy at Pensacola


My beautiful wife, Emily, and Izzy

Welcome to my blog

Just wanted to take a minute to welcome you to my blog. This is where I'll write about all the new adventures I'll have in the Army National Guard. I'm leaving this afternoon to begin my official training. I'm heading to basic combat training (BCT) at Fort Jackson, SC (aka Relaxin' Jackson - I'll let you know if there's any truth to that). Some of you are probably wondering how I'm going to post while I'm there. Well that's where my wonderful wife comes in. The plan is for her to post the letters I write to her that will document my experience. I'm going to try to keep a day to day journal so my family, friends, and others wondering what Army BCT is like will have a better idea of what goes on. So keep checking in periodically to see what I'm up to at Ft Jackson, or just follow my blog.

Jason