Saturday, June 19, 2010
graduation!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
AIT
I had originally planned on continuing my journal entries through AIT and on if I could, however, upon arriving at AIT, I soon found out that most of the classes here are classified. So basically that’s the end of my entries. Feel free to ask about AIT and whatever you want, I’ll try to find a way to answer your questions!
Feb 6 (Sat) - Day 77 – 2300
We got up around 0400, but didn’t actually leave until 1200. Then, we drove about 15 min away from base, and got right onto the runway where our private plane was waiting. When we got out, we loaded right onto the plane, which was kind of cool. I felt like a VIP. The planes were commercial planes, but with only military personnel on board. Once we got on the plane, we flew to Dallas, TX and stopped to get fuel and change the crew. After sitting there for about an hour, we flew to Tucson, AZ. Then we sat and waited on our buses for a second plane to get there.
After about an hour long drive, we finally got to Ft. Huachuca around 2000 hours local time (HLT) (it was 2200 EST though), and proceeded to fill out a lot of paperwork until about 2300 HLT. Then we got to our bays, which have about 35 guys in them, and we unpacked until about 0130 or so. Yeah, it was a long day.
Feb 5 (Fri) - Day 76 – 2130
Graduation!!! We got up and sat around for a while, then got bussed over to where we were having graduation. The ceremony was pretty cool, and it was really short. After that, we started marching back to the company. It started raining pretty good about halfway there, so we started running back in formation. Finally we were released, and my parents and brother and sister came and got me. We didn’t do very much, but I spent a lot of money and wasted time. We went to Applebees for dinner, which was really good, and a great way to end my time with my family. Now I have about 12 more hours until I leave Ft. Jackson. I can’t wait.
Feb 4 (Thurs) - Day 75 – 2200
The morning was really cold, and I would know since I stood out in the woodline with about 1200 other soldiers for almost three hours waiting for family day to start. After all that waiting, the DSs popped a whole bunch of smoke grenades and we all ran out onto the field yelling and screaming. Then we got formed up and our families came and got us. I spent the rest of the day with my family not really doing anything (since we weren’t allowed to leave post) but it was awesome to see them again. Tomorrow is finally graduation, and I can’t wait to get done with this! I have to stay one more day though, because I don’t ship out to AIT until Saturday.
Feb 3 (Wed) - Day 74 – 2000
Nothing but a lot of frustration today. We got our phones, then they got taken away. We almost got smoked as a company because one person was talking in line for dinner. But we did get some info about going to AIT. I’ll be taking a charter bus to the airport, and then there’s a very good chance I’ll be flying in a government plane (like with the air force) but only a small chance that I’ll fly commercial. Either way is fine with me I guess. I also packed most of my stuff, I’m just waiting to get a garment bag and a bigger backpack. Tomorrow is family day so that’s pretty cool. The morning should suck though, we’ll just practice something for a while…
Feb 2 (Tues) - Day 73 – 1800
This morning we got to sleep in until 0600 and sit around until breakfast. Then we started outprocessing, which consisted of us looking over a lot of paperwork and then turning it back in. That’s it. Right after lunch, we ran through a graduation ceremony in the Solomon Center (our main gym) in case of rain or whatever. After that, we turned our weapons in!!! I feel so free! I was really getting sick of cleaning that thing all the freaking time, let alone having to carry it everywhere. Now I’m just sitting here deciding what to pack now and what to leave for later. One more day… and actually, we get our personal bags and phones tomorrow sometime, so it won’t even be a full day.
