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Tuesday – 19 Jan

NO PT! We met in formation at 6:45 am. It was freezing 32 F. That is way to cold to be standing at parade rest for half an hour. They bused the whole class to the obstacle course for briefings of what we were to do. We were split up into our squads and began working on our station. Basically, these were scenarios where we had to work, plan, communicate, and execute a plan to accomplish the goal. The challenges were pretty neat, climbing walls, walking planks, swinging, etc. It was a fun morning and it was good working together to accomplish tasks together.

The afternoon had several simple sessions. Chaplain musuem tour, intro. to the humvee, and a convey ops briefing. I was there for the convey ops but then had to go to DEERS to have my status changed to active duty for my time here. I hate standing in lines, so i would have rather taking the musuem tour but these are things that have to be done.

Close out formation is stressful and hilarious! All of the NCO’s and SGL (chaplain instructors), basically all of the staff, come in to hear updates, changes in schedule, and the next days schedule. The person everyone fears is the LTC (Lt. colonel). I’ll say more about his part shortly. Daily mail is given out at closing. The names are called out by the NCO’s and the class has to repeat the name to be sure the individual hears it. Then he is to respond coming sergeant and run up there. It never fails that someone doesn’t respond correctly or does run up there fast enough and they get “smoked,” which means dropped for push ups. I finally figured out why some people were being dropped for no apparent reason. They were receiving love letters. It’s happening a lot and it is quite embarrasing to the person receiving because a big deal is made of it. I’m glad I didn’t give Rachel the mailing address! The pink envelopes are handed to the LTC. His facial response (and sometimes wild comments) to the love letters is indescribable. I really can’t put it into words. One time he smelled it and said, “does it smell like perfume,” and threw it on the floor while the student did push ups up in front of the class. Classic!! 

During mail call, the LTC (Lt. colonel) starts calling students up to the front and has them say the Soldiers creed, the Army values, sing the platoon song, or recite the army ranks both enlisted and officer ranks. This caught some people by surprise so they got smoked and embarrassed. One guy recited all the ranks correctly and the LTC said, “drop for being so smart.” Like i tell people, if you get called, your’re going to do push ups whether you do good or whether you do bad on reciting those things. I’ll say more about some hilarious things things later this week.

I’m writing this Tuesday post on Friday, so i can’t remember too much on what i did in the evening. The days are so long and they are blurring together. All i know is that i’m tired and don’t like getting up at 4:30 to go running. Oh that reminds me, we did have PT that afternoon but I can’t remember what we did!!