My Army, My Military

Our group of 27 soldiers got divided into three classes on Monday.  I am in a group of eight: two airmen, a Marine and five soldiers.
[NOTE:  Marine is always capitalized.  You can look up the fact in the AP Style Guide.  You can look up the reason on line if you are curious.]
During the first class we had an "ice-breaker" exercise.  During that exercise, I knew I was in the the part of the Army where I belong.
We each took a Post-It poster-size sheet, stuck it on the wall, and divided it in fours quadrants: Bio, Likes, Dislikes, Goals

Our class student leader is Ben.  Here is some of his answers:

LIKES:

Norrin Radd

Clubber Lang

Vita Sackville West

The Saturn myth

DISLIKES:

Fox News

The Lord of the Rings movies

Crossfit (as religion)

Ideology, particularly American pragmatism

Wynton Marsalis as representing all of Jazz

 

BIO:

31 

from Connecticut

Grad student at Trinity College

GOALS:

fulfilling employment

personal writing

learning to play the upright bass or speak a new languauge

develop more capacity empathy

Ben is a tall quiet staff sergeant who lifts weights and is a very fast runner.  

I like being in the Army, but I like it a lot more in a room of soldiers like Ben.

Good at Grammar After All--and Learning More

It's official. I got the highest grade on the grammar test in my class at DINFOS.  I got 93 of 100 right on the grammar test.  Next best grade was 90.  And I will be even better soon because we are spending the next week or so reviewing grammar.  Tonight's homework is looking up 33 grammatical points in the AP Stylebook and then editing several press releases.

It's after 9 p.m., I have less than a third of my homework done and I have to get up at 0400 hours.

More later.

First Day of School--and a Bonus Class!!!

 Today was the first day of school in our basic journalism course.   As promised we began with the 100-question grammar test.  We took the test online, so we thought that we would get the results immediately.  Wrong.   It turns out that the Army has to have paper for nearly everything so this online test is graded on paper at a different location.   Even the parts of the Army that are automated often really have a "sneaker net" behind the automation.

 Before and after the tests we were told that we must score at least 70 or we would be required to take a remedial grammar class.   It turns out this requirement is not ironclad, at least not for guard and reserve soldiers. But after the test most of us were waiting rather nervously for the results to see if we would continue in the course or start over again later after two or three weeks of grammar class.

 Since this is a military school we listened to introductory lectures  for the rest of the day. Several of them were welcome lectures by senior staff members who reminded us in various ways that we must attend class and obey all the rules. In the middle of the fourth or fifth of these lectures one of the instructors came in the class, read several names, and told those people to go to the hallway and bring their gear.  They were headed for the remedial class.  We won't see them again.

At the end of the day, we signed out and met in front of the building to get a short writing assignment from our class leader, due at 10pm tonight.  We started to walk toward chow when one of the sergeants from the cadre said we had to sign back into the building.  In 10 minutes the First Sergeant is going to teach a class in treating and identifying cold-weather injuries!

Really!

To be fair, we also heard about heat injuries, but that was only the last 10 minutes of the next hour.  For forty minutes we learned how to identify frostbite, trench foot, chill blains and administer first aid for these and other injuries.  The high temperature today was 87 degrees in case you were wondering.

After eight hours of tests and lectures in school, it was quite a challenge to sit in a windowless room for an Army Powerpoint presentation on cold weather injuries.

Hooah!!

My School Barracks--NOT!!!!

Before I arrived at school, I heard from several people the barracks would be really nice.  At summer camp this year, I thought the barracks was exceptional.  I had almost 40 roommates, but we had air conditioning.

The junior officers and senior NCOs had their own rooms--with AC.  I was happy for my roommates.

At Basic Journalism School, I heard we would have our own rooms, sharing a bathroom with one other guy.  But when we got here, they did not have enough room for all of us.  I had a moment of wondering if I would get a two-man room, a four-man room?  Neither.

They took us to a IHG Hotel (Holiday Inn) office on post.  The guard and reserve sergeants and specialists got rooms in one of the IHG buildings on post.  This is nice!  We have our own TV, microwave, refrigerator, and coffee pot!  We have our own bathroom!  

I am sitting at the desk next to the bed, drinking tea I made in the microwave.  Waking up at 0400 every day won't be much fun, but so far everything else is great.

 

Two Terrifying Tests--Today and Monday

At dinner yesterday, most of the talk was about to the terrifying tests. We took one test this morning. We will take the second test Monday morning.

This morning's test is called height and weight. We line up in our PT uniforms, take off our shoes, step up on the scale and get weighed and measured. That height and weight measurement is compared with the chart. "Making height and weight"  as it is called means you weigh less than the chart allows for your height. If you don't make height and weight you could be sent home. In most cases the soldiers who are just a few pounds overweight are allowed to stay because we do so much PT it is likely they will pass the next time. We take a fitness test followed by height and weight at the end of every month.

The height measurement put me at 71 inches and 186 pounds. My scale at home says 183 and my less calibrated tape measure says 72 inches. But even though the Army thinks I am shorter and fatter than I am at home I still was within the standard. At my advanced age I am allowed to weigh up to 197 pounds at 71 inches tall.

On Monday we take a grammar test. Soldiers who don't pass this test do not get sent home; they actually spend more time here. If you fail this test, the school puts you in a two-week, intensive, remedial grammar program and you start regular classes two weeks later. As with height and weight, I'm pretty sure I will do okay on this test, but most editors I have worked with would wish I was put in the remedial grammar program.

I just finished lunch with my classmates. Now I'm headed home for about 24 hours. I'll have to return tomorrow afternoon. I am bringing back three more bikes. I already have one of my racing bikes here. And I'm going to bring the others to loan to soldiers who flew here from far away and have no transportation. It really is a great group of soldiers that I'm in. I hope they all pass the grammar test and we stay together.

This morning when we were waiting for height and weight one of the students who has been here a month and a half told us when their group took the grammar tests all of the Army people passed, but six Marines and two Airmen  failed. I am going to hope that all the soldiers pass and it is Navy, Marines, and Airmen who fail.

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.

In Processing, Hurry Up and Wait

It's 8:15 AM.  In processing my new unit begins 30 minutes. I've already been up since 4 AM, I did an hour of really hard training, rode my bike, took a nap, and I just finished breakfast in this lovely dining facility.  Whew!!

The alarm went off at 4 AM. I did not get ready as fast as I could have and just made it to formation at 4:45 AM. At 5 AM fitness training started with the usual warm-up exercises. Then we did push-ups and situps and the instructor’s favorite exercise: lie on your back and lift your legs and upper body together. By the time the hour session was over I had done 150 situps, 140 push-ups and I don't know how many other various exercises.  I was tired. I went for a short ride on my bicycle just to stretch out and was riding nine or 10 miles an hour.

When I got back to my room, I tried to read and then ended up checking my eyelids for leaks. They did not admit any light for the next 30 minutes.  After I showered and changed I went to the Dining Facility (not called Chow Hall or Mess Haul anymore).  This lovely place served a breakfast my sons live for:  Omelets, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, waffles, scrambled eggs, juice, coffee, bagels, toast, grits, home fries, hot and cold cereal, and fresh fruit.

I ate like I did an hour of hard PT then started writing this post in the Dining Facility.  I am at the in processing unit now.  Real Army here!  We are sitting in rows of chairs facing a TV waiting for someone to come out and tell us how to fill out their particular Army forms. 

More on in processing later.  I thought this was going to be nothing special, but we are almost at two hours of waiting.  In the active Army, accountability is everything.  What matters is that the people in charge of us know where we are.  Our time has no inherent value except in accomplishing whatever mission our leaders have.  So a dozen men and women are sitting in front of a big screen TV watching the movie “300” probably for the tenth time.  And we are here to learn to be writers.