After arriving to my AIT company and checking in, I was given an overnight pass by one of my AIT Drill Sergeants. It was great to be able to spend more time with my husband, especially since I know I won't be seeing him for another month.
The first few days were a flurry of inprocessing and getting settled in at my new AIT company barracks. I didn't take many notes on the first few days, but will share a few recollections before my journal writing picks up...
I had to check in at AIT in my Class 'A' uniform. I was surprised to see someone at the company (also checking in) who looked vaguely familiar... It was the girl who I met at Reception back when I first arrived at Fort Jackson. She was the one who was also going to Fort Gordon for the same MOS as I. It was nice to see a familiar face. I had to ask her, where did she end up going to basic training?
I was blown away to discover that she had actually been in my basic training company at Fort Jackson, but in another platoon, and another bay in the barracks. I had no idea. Apparently she knew I was there, but I didn't realize that she was. I felt really bad for having forgotten who she was from Reception (it was odd that I remembered her now at AIT months afterwards).
Jeanene and I were assigned to be battle buddies. I knew I liked this girl when I met her at Reception, and was glad that we could help each other get through AIT. But I somehow felt cheated that I never got to know her at BCT. Maybe it would have been a different experience if I had another friend to help keep me sane... I don't know.
My battle buddy Jeanene in the barracks
The journal now picks up with Day 2 at AIT:
It is April 4th, and 7:06am. We were just marched to a theatre to begin our inprocessing. We marched on part of the massive Barton Field on the way here. I believe it is over 3 miles around the track... it's enormous.
< --Yes, we have to run around this entire field. You almost need binoculars to see its end in the distance...I wanted to have some coffee this morning, but it was a rushed breakfast. I did, however, have a Krispy Kreme donut. Whoa - don't know if I can handle all that sugar!
I haven't had fire guard duty yet in the barracks, so I actually had a rare decent night of sleep in the barracks. The room, however, was hot and humid. I am the only person thus far with a working fan. Someone in my room had the cojones to point it in their direction and away from me. I put a stop to that very quickly. Fans are cheap, and they can buy their own... sheesh.
There have been a alot of formations so far, nothing exciting. From the sounds of it, we will likely still be in Phase IV for the next four weeks (this means limited privileges, and no off-post passes). I still don't know if any on-post passes will be granted either, but we will be in the field anyway for the next 10 days or 2 weeks starting on Wednesday. They are called it the FOB, which I believe stands for Forward Operating Base exercise. It sounds like it might be a lot like BCT, including fun with the M-16, and another convoy live fire exercise. I thought that kind of thing was over... I guess not. We learned that there will also be more MOS-specific training.
It is 1:55pm, and I am still in inprocessing. This is incredibly boring. I've been fighting the urge to sleep all day long. We have been stuck in a room with about 100 people, and four or five low-paid government employees talking to us at once. All of these folks are incredibly rude to us for some reason. It is torture to be stuck in here.
I did find out that my date for leaving Fort Gordon is supposed to be August 21st. I would also assume that it is also the AIT graduation day.
It is 7:56pm, and I just got off the phone with my husband. It was wonderful to hear his voice and speak to him. Today was a bit of a "sad" day for me. I knew it would be tough for the first few days at AIT after I just saw him at BCT graduation. I'm feeling very down right now, but I just keep reminding myself that it is only going to continue for the next few weeks. I cannot wait to see my husband again!
Day 3 or 4 at AIT:
It is 9:18am, and I am waiting to attend more inprocessing, which I've been doing a lot of since I got here. I'm tired, only having gotten less than 4 hours of sleep last night. I was introduced to the fun of hall guard duty. My shift consisted of two hours of cleaning. There is no sitting around writing letters during fire guard like at BCT... it is all work here, and no relaxation. The only perk is that I finally got a chance to catch up on my laundry while I was cleaning.
This morning we were abruptly woken up for a 4:15am formation... about 3 minutes before that time. We wore summer PTs (shorts and short-sleeved shirts) in about 40 degree temps while the other companies had on several more layers, hats, and gloves. Just my luck... I went from one of the hardest companies in BCT to one of the hardest companies in AIT.
I froze my ass off for about a good hour before we took a PT test. I did more pushups than ever before (far exceeding the AIT 60% standards), around what I needed to for situps, and a similar run time as the last test in basic. I was so cold that I only finally began to warm up after running the first mile.
...
It is 2:02pm, and I am at the dental clinic. What a fun day, huh? The first few days of AIT are said to always suck, as it is either inprocessing, medical visits, or sitting in briefings. The lack of sleep is really catching up with me in a bad way. I am utterly exhausted, and miserable. The surprising thing that I found is that we actually get less sleep here in AIT than in BCT. I certainly did not expect that!
After the PT test we were able to eat breakfast at the DFAC without supervision. Ah, coffee. You begin to appreciate the little things when you've been deprived of them for so long.
We were then marched a distance to another briefing about pay and finances.
After hours of fighting sleep at the briefing, we had lunch. Again, a relatively unhurried meal, which was a nice change from BCT. I even had some real food for a change. Afterwards we were issued our TA-50 items, which included another laundry bag, a pistol belt, poncho, canteen, and canteen cup and holder... pretty much the standard accessories that all AIT students have.
It is 2:20pm and I'm still waiting at the dental clinic. I am not here for any problem... it's just that anyone with potential issues needs to have an exam, so I guess they might have seen something odd on my x-rays. I am hoping that any scheduled appointment won't conflict with the upcoming FOB (this stands for Forward Operating Base, and is supposed to simulate what it's like to be stationed in an outpost in Iraq or Afghanistan). This is a 7-day field exercise that we are supposed to attend tomorrow. I can't say that I am, however, looking forward to it, especially feeling so tired right now. More on the FOB later...
Some people luck out and are able to attend a FOB at a location near their barracks (which could mean sleeping in beds, and showers). We passed by one today. There were GS tents set up, sandbags and concertina wire. A mock battle was going on, and a number of "insurgents" with towels on their heads were running around. One of the DSs was loudly mocking their strategy. I have heard that our FOB will be located on a more secluded part of base.
Someone who has already been on a FOB said that it's really what you make of it. It could be a fun week, or a miserable one. A lot of people do end up getting hurt, however, probably due to all the "hooah" crap. One thing that surprised me here at AIT is that they actually encourage you to go to sick call if something is wrong with you. That is a change from basic.
I'm hoping I will be able to hang onto my cell phone in the barracks when we return from the FOB. One of the other people in my platoon told me that the DS said that we could use them in our rooms, but only on our personal time. I don't know if this is a temporary arrangement, or if we'll be able to keep them while we're here. I'm hoping for the best. Unfortunately a frustrating thing about being here is that we haven't been giving a lot of information on what is expected of us, or what is coming up. Much of our info is gleaned from talking to other AIT students in the company.
Today I'm having something of a "down" day. I'm just not having a good one and am pretty high on the miserable scale right now. We heard another platoon talking about AIT graduation practice yesterday, and it was discouraging to know that we are only beginning our time here. There is a girl who just moved out of my room that has been here since October for 25B and is only now leaving. I guess that kind of puts the length of this AIT into perspective. The only thing that I have to look forward to is that my husband is planning to visit me as often as he can during AIT. He is tentatively planning to drive from Pennsylvania to Georgia every 2-3 weeks to visit once I begin receiving weekend passes. However, that won't happen for at least another month.
Otherwise I'm not sure how I would be able to handle being here for so long. God, I hope the next 3 or 4 weeks passes quickly. Getting over this initial hump is going to be difficult, but it can only get better, right?
I haven't had much to base my impressions upon, but I will share my impressions of AIT thus far...
There is a great variability in the types of Drill Sergeants. Some are hardasses, and some are laid back. From what I have observed, the students who are almost done with AIT seem to be pretty much left alone. In a formation yesterday, I actually saw a few people reading the newspaper and goofing around. That would never fly in basic training!
It appears that there is some degree of fraternization amongst the students. I get the sense that they probably socialize together on the weekends. This is a whole different world from BCT.
There are more details issued out than in BCT, from what I can see. Maybe they have more for people to do, since there is greater free, unstructured time.
The students further along in their AIT studies seem to be fairly relaxed and laid back. I daresay that they also don't seem to fear the Drill Sergeants anymore. Perhaps that is to be expected of folks who have been here for 20 weeks, or longer.
I guess it could be worse. Jacyln, a girl in my room, has an AIT of at least 39 weeks. She is going to be some kind of a satellite operator. God, that is nearly twice as long as my AIT.
Sometimes I do envy all of the folks in my BCT platoon who went for MOSs that had really short AITs... some of them were only 5-7 weeks long.
...
It is 3:05pm, and I'm still at the dental clinic. It sounds like I am just waiting to be scheduled for an appointment. Somehow I ended up being one of the last people stuck here, and will probably have to be marched back to the company by a Drill Sergeant. Damn! In AIT, you really do appreciate any little bit of time spent away from the DSs. I played along with the game of being subservient to the cadre in BCT, but at this point it is really getting to be tiring. Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that I am older than most of the Drill Sergeants here. I miss the civilian world, and all things non-military, including being on an even footing with others. I can handle ceding to authority, I mean, I did sign up for this... but it does bother me sometimes that I am submitting to some folks who are less intelligent than myself. In some ways, it seems like a self-imposed insult. I just have to remind myself of the reasons I enlisted whenever it gets a little too nutty around here...
On the other hand, I can also sympathize with the frustration that the Drill Sergeants must feel being around the privates. Even though the students here at AIT are generally in "high speed" MOSs (those requiring a higher score on the ASVAB, and the assumption of a greater intelligence), a lot of them don't always exhibit the behavior that you would expect of smarter kids.
Here is an example... This morning we had to sign a form for accepting the TA-50 issued to us. The Drill Sergeant explained where he wanted to form signed in excruciating detail, and then said, "Even though I told you how to do this, I guarantee that at least one person is going to screw it up." Sure enough, someone did. It happens all the time, even with the most basic of tasks and the simplest instructions issued. I would imagine that this would be very frustrating to deal with after awhile... Yes, I actually have sympathy for the Drill Sergeants, if you can believe it!
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