Hurry Up and Waaaaaait

Yesterday we reported to the orderly room to complete in processing paperwork at 0845 hours.  And waited.  At 0930 hours one of the cadre sergeants started our initial briefing.  He said he did not want us to hurry up and wait.  Then he had to go to a staff meeting.  He said he would be back in 30 minutes.

At 1215 hours one of the sergeants in the student group said, “I’m making a command decision.  Time to go to chow.”  We went to chow, ate quickly and returned to the waiting area.  At 1315 hours, the sergeant who left us in the morning came back and said he had not had lunch yet and was going to eat.  He told us to go in process at dental and medical and return at 1500 hours for finance and administrative paperwork.

Most of us were rejected at medical because our orders were not yet in the system.  We tried to fix this by going to the ID Card section, but the line was so long we could not get the paperwork fixed and get back at 1500 hours. 

So we left.

At 1500 hours we waited again then got our administrative paperwork completed. 

This morning several of us went back to the ID Card building.  We are getting a lot of the paperwork done.  In fact we may get the paperwork completed this morning. 

I am writing this partly to help me stay awake.  We were up again at 0400 hours and will be up every day at that time until we graduate.  This morning’s PT hour was warm-up exercises followed by a 2.25-mile run then stretching.  After the first quarter-mile, the run was self paced.  I finished about 15^th out of the 52 soldiers who ran.  Another 20 or so left the formation because they had medical profiles that excuse them from running. 

Several soldiers shook hands or bumped fists with me after the run.  Getting over the “shitbag” impression takes time.  Everyone is aware who finished up front in the run.  Of course, everyone behind me is younger than me, mostly by a factor of 2 to 3.  So now the soldiers who look at me as just old know that I can run.