#132 - The FOB, day 4

It is 5:20am, and I am writing this with the tablet propped on the edge of my M-16. I am waiting for the others to arrive for first formation. I guess I'm always early, which is a good thing.

I actually received about seven hours of sorely needed sleep last night. Of course the air raid siren was sounded right before bed, so we had to run for the bunkers. At least there weren't any alarms sounded throughout the night. I just needed to catch up on sleep. I'm still not feeling like I've caught up on it, but at least I'm a little more rested than yesterday.

Rumor has it that we might be able to go in for showers today. One of the other platoons had showers last night, and everyone else was jealous. I'm not as funky as most because of the shower I got on Thursday. This morning we are supposed to have PT (in ACUs and boots), so that will not help the situation.

We had formation, and are now sitting around, unclear as to what we will be doing, or when it will begin. I've gotten used to it being often like this. Get up early, hurry up and then do nothing. I'm beginning to think there is truth to the adage of "hurry up and wait" in the Army.

The wind is picking up, but it hasn't rained yet. I have a feeling that it will come this morning. I will then don a poncho that will almost reach to the ground. I miss having clothing and equipment that fit properly.

I believe chow is coming around 7:00 or 7:30am. I will actually be able to drink some coffee, as opposed to simply ingesting the contents of the instant coffee packets. It's not Starbucks, hell, the stuff they bring isn't even comparable to bad gas station coffee, but it has the desired effect. Out at the FOB we have usually been having hot As for two of our meals, and MREs for the other. It's not as hard on the body as a full diet comprised of nothing but MREs. They usually have some kind of sweets offered (such as donuts for breakfast and cookies or cake for dinner), but I usually decline.

It is 10:06 am, and we are currently taking a class on using walkie-talkie-type radios. These things are heavy and clunky, like most military equipment, and built to withstand heavy use and abuse. The class has thus far been a barrage of acronyms with little explanation of the terms nor concepts behind them. They may as well be speaking in a made-up language of gobbledygook for all the good this info is providing. I am not impressed with this particular instructor. It seems like it is being taught to the MOS-Ts (AIT reclassers) who have already had experience with the radios, but the MOS-Is (initial entry training) are left in the dark. Hopefully I will be able to retain something from this instruction, in spite of the instructor's delivery. This morning I had a cup of coffee augmented by two packets of instant coffee grounds, so I am doing ok thus far. You have to love caffeine!

It is 12:27pm, and we just finished lunch. It has been raining and thundering here intermittently for several hours. Our radio class went all morning. We had to configure settings on the radio in a set timeframe to pass the class.

It is 6:12pm and I am sitting in a gymnasium. We had to come here to escape a thunderstorm (guess the lightning was perceived to be too much of a threat in the field). We had a class on map reading and GPSing, but were interrupted to go to chow at the DFAC (at least we had real food!). The map reading was very basic.

It's probably not a bad thing that I'm on profile right now. Just the march to the DFAC here has gotten my foot throbbing. We are supposed to be doing a long course in the woodline over the next few days that is going to involve a lot of running, being chased, and whatnot. I don't think I will be able to do it on my profile.

Sigh... I am beginning to get tired here... mentally as well as physically. I am ready to start the classes in my MOS and leave some of this BCT-type of stuff behind. The fact that I'm 35 years old next month and still have to ask permission to go to the bathroom is beginning to really bother me. Seeing other companies receiving privileges while we cannot is also difficult to bear. I told Jeanene yesterday that we've ended up in what is the equivalent of our BCT company here at Fort Gordon. Oh well... I guess I just have to suck it up and deal with the crap for the next several weeks until we have our phase change. Hopefully things will get better. I can only have hope for the future, because I certainly can't expect it to be shitty here for the next 5 months.