And I'm back...
...sort of. I finished Basic Training on May 9 and reported to Officer Candidate School (OCS) the next day. I got to see Carson, Eden, Ted and my mom so that was great, but I only got to see them for about 24 hours. I will not put up a whole bunch about Basic since my sister was kind enough to email letters from me. If you have questions, ask 'em. I can only get online on Sundays right now (today is the exception because of the Memorial Day holiday).
OCS has been much more difficult than I expected. Right now I am 88th out of about 150. This has been a huge blow to my ego. I certainly expected that I would be in the top 10%, not struggling to crack into the top 50%. The big issue is that my ranking affects what branch of the Army I might serve in...we will be choosing our branches in rank order.
For those completely in the dark about what I am talking about, the branches I am considering are:
Military Intelligence Adjudant General
Engineering Quartermaster
Signal Ordnance
Military Police Transportation
Here are some pictures that I took the last few days of Basic Training...
This is me and my bunk mate SPC Friday and our actual bunk. She is also from Delaware.
"Buddy" my M16-A2 and I standing at attention.
A morning march...we marched and stood in formation for endless hours.
But there were fun times too. We are laughing and joking in the barracks in this photo.
My mom and Ted took more photos at graduation and family day than I did, but here are my two favorites:
Carson gives his signature wink and thumbs up from the sunroof of "FireBat" (the VW has a name).
Eden is as tall as this soldier.
I will try to do the best I can at keeping up. I am physically exhaused and in a lot of pain all the time, but I do think it will all be worth it. If nothing else, I have gone from a size 8/10 to a size 4. I'm still about 12 lbs over my maximum skating weight, but I assure you, most of that is muscle. Those are excellent results for only 10 weeks. So far the PT at OCS makes what I did at Basic look like a joke.