On the Road Again
We received orders today to move on to our next stations. For me and two others with my same job that is Goodfellow Air Force Base. I was here once before for training after basic training and this is supposed to be a refresher on that.
As if being recalled into the Army wasn't surprise enough, imagine my surprise when I reported here this evening and was asked for my credit card when checking into my room. Not only do I have to come back into the Army, apparently I have to pay my own way. Unfortunately there is no one to talk to about this until Monday.
As we were checking out of Ft. Sill the group that is taking over the training came in. If anyone is reading this in anticipation of inprocessing through FT. Sill forget everything I've said. The whole process is changing and I have no idea how it is changing. I did find out from observing the second group coming in after us that if you are gay, a lesbian, have teeth that are about to all rot out of your head, are crazy, or are a conscientious objector you may have a chance to go home. It seems that a few of them were claiming to fall into those categories. Some people were claiming to fall into more than one of those categories. I guess it doesn't pay to brush your teeth anymore. They're so backed up with dental appointments that they aren't even setting them anymore. They're just pulling the teeth.
We did some pretty cool training today before we left. We rolled around in a sand pit working on some maneuvers used to move under enemy fire. We also learned some Urban Assault movements and how to clear a room in an urban environment. I thought it was pretty cool especially since I had never had that type of training before. When I went through Basic we weren't really focused on Urban Warfare. The Army actually pays you to get to storm into rooms kicking doors down while pretending to shoot menacing looking pictures of enemies. They have a little city set up with different buildings you can clear. It seems the Basic Training soldiers spend a good portion of time working on this. We only did it for a few hours. On the buildings they had signs like "Joe's diner", or "Rusty's thrift store". Then under each one was a sign in Russian. One of the guys I am training with is a Russian linguist and he said they translated pretty well. You could tell by how they were painted and installed that the English and Russian signs were made and installed at the same time. The funny part is that under the Russian signs were very new looking signs written in Arabic. Nobody was available to translate those.
This weekend we are free to do whatever. I think we will probably take a look around the Base and possibly venture into town to see what's around. Goodfellow is a tiny base. If you stood on a building in the middle of the Base you can see the entire perimeter. When I was here the first time we would run around the perimeter for P.T. I don't plan on doing that this time. So far I haven't had to run or do anything. I'm not to sure how long that will last.
As if being recalled into the Army wasn't surprise enough, imagine my surprise when I reported here this evening and was asked for my credit card when checking into my room. Not only do I have to come back into the Army, apparently I have to pay my own way. Unfortunately there is no one to talk to about this until Monday.
As we were checking out of Ft. Sill the group that is taking over the training came in. If anyone is reading this in anticipation of inprocessing through FT. Sill forget everything I've said. The whole process is changing and I have no idea how it is changing. I did find out from observing the second group coming in after us that if you are gay, a lesbian, have teeth that are about to all rot out of your head, are crazy, or are a conscientious objector you may have a chance to go home. It seems that a few of them were claiming to fall into those categories. Some people were claiming to fall into more than one of those categories. I guess it doesn't pay to brush your teeth anymore. They're so backed up with dental appointments that they aren't even setting them anymore. They're just pulling the teeth.
We did some pretty cool training today before we left. We rolled around in a sand pit working on some maneuvers used to move under enemy fire. We also learned some Urban Assault movements and how to clear a room in an urban environment. I thought it was pretty cool especially since I had never had that type of training before. When I went through Basic we weren't really focused on Urban Warfare. The Army actually pays you to get to storm into rooms kicking doors down while pretending to shoot menacing looking pictures of enemies. They have a little city set up with different buildings you can clear. It seems the Basic Training soldiers spend a good portion of time working on this. We only did it for a few hours. On the buildings they had signs like "Joe's diner", or "Rusty's thrift store". Then under each one was a sign in Russian. One of the guys I am training with is a Russian linguist and he said they translated pretty well. You could tell by how they were painted and installed that the English and Russian signs were made and installed at the same time. The funny part is that under the Russian signs were very new looking signs written in Arabic. Nobody was available to translate those.
This weekend we are free to do whatever. I think we will probably take a look around the Base and possibly venture into town to see what's around. Goodfellow is a tiny base. If you stood on a building in the middle of the Base you can see the entire perimeter. When I was here the first time we would run around the perimeter for P.T. I don't plan on doing that this time. So far I haven't had to run or do anything. I'm not to sure how long that will last.
posted by GWM at 11:19 PM
1 Comments:
Glad to hear you made it to Goodfellow. I trust the Army will straighten out the credit card thing. Maybe they will issue you an Army credit card on Monday. Ask for the International Variety in case you have to use it in Iraq. The PT respite will not last forever. You might want to get a head start on it, on your own. I run up the stairs once in a while just in case the Army needs a near 60 year old veteran with 35 years in the publice schools. I did wrestle with some kids over the years and learned that ties make great objects to choke the Principal. What would have happened if you hadn't had a credit card? Do they take M-16's?
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