Veteran of four wars, four enlistments, four branches: Air Force, Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard. I am both an AF (Air Force) veteran and as Veteran AF (As Fuck)
Saturday, August 10, 2013
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.
Friday, August 9, 2013
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 15th out of the 52 soldiers who ran. Another 20 or so left the formation because
they had medical profiles that excuse them from running.
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