The week in Review

Ok folks, it has been a crazy week, but here is what has been going on to date -
Sunday - BWI airport and the jet engines roar (up up up little plane!) Put my phone list in order and trying to remember everyone. It is kind've funny, I have ridden on a million plane flights, but only now am I realizing how very isolated we all are - so many travellers going on business, vacation, and normal life. I am off to war. Do they even realize what is in the balance? In the meantime, my carryon got scanned twice, but my slim knife / multi tool still made it through. So much for the TSA! Jimmy Buffett and us pirates looking at forty are off to a big adventure. Changes in Latitude and all that stuff.
I arrive at Glorious Ft. Jackson, SC late in the day and get hustled into a room of about 120 men and women waiting for drips of information to be scattered upon us. In typical Army (in)efficiency, I am left strangely wanting of more data.....

Monday the 13th... Somewhat reminiscent of "Biloxi Blues" this place gives meaning to the term "milling about smartly". The schedule is unclear, and most of the evolutions have been slapped together, but with great seriousness and urgency. To a bubblehead, there is a meaning behind getting issued a flak Jacket with Ballistic Armor....but it is thrown into the rucksack they gave me and on to the next station. Issue first, train later I guess. Another 90 minutes of issue, another 100 lbs of gear. I will leave here with 500 pounds if I am not careful! We got two pairs of boots, thermal underwear (Under Armor none the less!), two sets of goggles, sunglasses, Army Camouflage uniforms, and all the NBC / Protection gear you could ever imagine....

Wednesday - "Intro to PT". No, not 'Hi, how are you'... Welcome to the army way of doing business. I will announce the exercise we will commence. You will respond with hooahh (which I steadfastly refuse to do - "Yarch" if anything, just to mess with them...) Then we will assume the position, and commence. The Drill Sergeant actually felt he needed to demonstrate to us the change in the inflection of his voice to indicate the final repetition......god help us if this is how every boot is welcomed to the Army..... Briefings today, classes in how to carry your weapons (yes we got weapons today). I got a 9MM which is relatively new (reconditioned at the factory), but I also get to carry a beat up Reserve issue M16 which looks like it hadn't been cleaned since the Carter Administration. It is an interesting dialogue - the Army/Air force tends to focus on the job - kill people. We get a lot of instruction on how to clear weapons jams WHEN they occur. (frequently apparently!). The Navy / Marines tend to focus on how to do the job, and the efficiency with which we carry it out. Less weapons jamming with more weapon cleaning.

Thursday - the folks getting shots got back so late, that they cancelled PT the next morning. Unfortunately, those of us not getting shots failed to get that word.....More weapons familiarization today. Classes in how to assume the prone position, sight alignment, trigger control. All in all a good refresher, but you would be shocked at some of the folks who have NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER with a weapon in their hands. During chow, after hours, and anytime that all the weapons aren't checked out, we have to guard them. Seems inocuous enough, but compared to some of the watches I have stood in my life, it is interesting that they would have a collection of LCDR's, CDR's and assorted officers watching weapons racks on a secure installation. This must be the one or two times the Drill Sergeants get to have fun with us....

Friday - Qualification day ! 40 out of 40 on the 9mm, 27 out of 40 on the M16, 5,287 out of 1,000,000 in picking up spent brass!!!!! Not as good as I would have liked on the Combat M16 Qualification course, but good enough to qualify and get liberty. Shannon of course had to let me know that she did better on it when she took the course.......

This weekend has been pretty good. A nice steak, a big hotel bed, and plenty of time on the computer. Frantically trying to download some stuff to my MP3 player, but I am still learning the ropes. Sorry if I didn't get in touch with everyone I needed too. I promise that I will call this week. LOTS more to fill in - found out all sorts of stuff about my new job. More to come......Dive Dive......