It is 1:00am and I am currently on fire guard duty (so much for the plans of sleep!). The only benefit for having a fire guard shift is the ability to write letters.
The problem females in my bay wouldn't quiet down again tonight at light's out (9pm). A few fistfights have nearly broken out between these girls at the end of the bay, and everyone else. Two Drill Sergeants appeared because they had heard the ruckus downstairs. It was only with their intervention that they finally settled down, and I was able to get some sleep. These girls are definately the blue falcons of Reception (blue falcon is a term which means the person who gets everyone in trouble or fails their fellow soldiers in some way... this term is also known as b.f., bravo foxtrot, or buddy f***er).
It has been interesting to see the mix of personalities present here. There is one girl nicknamed Barbie who always has frilly things (I don't know how she kept them through shakedown). Another of my female battle buddies is a 40 year old straight-A law student. There are the girls who are extremely quiet and shy, most of them small in stature, and looking appropriately mousy bedecked in their Army-issue birth control glasses. There are a few tall masculine women that I wouldn't want to rumble with in a fight. And there are the loud and obnoxious girls who are always quick to engage in verbal altercations. Almost everyone here is young... I would guess around 18 years old as the median age.
My second time going through basic training has differed so far significantly in two ways from the first experience nearly a decade ago. The first way is that I now have a considerable knowledge of the events that have been taking place in Reception. It seems that my ability to predict what is going to happen next is viewed as almost Nostradamus-like by some of the females. Little is a surprise, and much is the same - I think I might even be staying in the same Reception barracks that I did before. The uniforms issued this time are ACUs instead of BDUs. Shots are now dispensed individually with needles instead of the big needle gun used before. The civilians I've encountered working here are quite rude and seem to harbor ill will toward the recruits as a whole. Compared to my previous basic training experience, I've noticed more signage posted with things like "the Army Values" than before (I later found out that these were instituted right after I had finished basic training the first time).
A lot of the details are the same, but the big difference from my first experience here is that I've already made a number of friends in Reception. That didn't happen the first time around. There are probably about eight of us on my end of the bay in the barracks who always seek out each other's company and offer one another emotional support. I hope I am lucky enough to have some of these women in my platoon in basic, rather than some of the other girls. It feels like there is someone to lean on, and knowing these girls I actually feel like I have a shot at making it through this experience.
Today we labeled our Army-issue green duffle bags and laundry bags with black markers and stencils. I had to purchase a large black "Army of One" bag to hold anything that wouldn't fit in the duffel bag. Yesterday we received our ID tags, which made some of my platoon mates feel like they were really on the road to becoming soldiers.
The Drill Sergeants just came by during our fire guard shift. Apparently our response was well-received (they usually ask you questions like the three general orders or the Soldier's Creed), as we did not receive the ass-chewing that the previous shift did. The other girls on fire guard duty had their shirts hanging out of their pants, were slow in getting up when the Drill Sergeants walked in, and did not come to the position of parade rest when addressing the cadre. One of them didn't even recognize a Drill Sergeant as being such.
"Don't you think my funny hat is a clue to my being a Drill Sergeant?"
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!"
"So, you think my hat is funny then?!"
"No Drill Sergeant, er, um, I mean..."
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