so I'm in this cybercafe at North Fort Polk
JRTC kicked my ass. I got almost no sleep, and I stayed busy as hell the whole time. However, since coming to North Fort on Sunday night and getting all the essential shit done that night and during Monday, I've had plenty of time to catch up on my sleep. I can't wait to get back; I should be on a bus tomorrow, and this coming weekend is a 4-day weekend, so I'm just going to spend it relaxing with Christie.
On top of the usual 12-or-so hour RTO shifts, I had 6.5 hours of guard duty immediately following every night. Ugh. I hope it's not like that in Iraq, b/c being a battalion RTO requires mental alertness, and it's hard to stay awake at the boring parts even when well-rested. Luckily a friend and I were able to split the guard duty in half, so we were able to get somewhat decent sleep. One thing that bugged the hell out of me though was our section's platoon sergeant. He's the battalion NBC guy, so he's not even an infantryman. That should be enough to make him not our platoon sergeant. On top of that, though, he's always blowing off platoon sergeant meetings without designating a replacement, and then he gets mad at us for not knowing the info he was supposed to put out to us. He also makes shit up; for example, he told us before we left that we couldn't have our cell phones at all. So, being the good soldier I am, I follow instructions. When we get up here, almost everyone has a cell phone except for a few of us, and to make things even worse, he said that if we brought our cell phones, we could go ahead and use them, but not in the box. OK, so what happens is, I follow your instructions and get fucked because of it? Fuck that. This jackass also, EVERY NIGHT we were in the box, would come grab me to do something after I'd already climbed into my sleeping bag. Two of those nights, he even sat on his cot and watched me get ready for bed and/or read, and then come get me once I lay down. Fucking asshole. Enough about him.
I can understand why we had to come down here now. The OPFOR here were hard as hell on us, and really tested us. We actually learned a good bit from this. More on this another time.
I can't wait to get back. I've missed Christie so much, that it's almost like a part of me was missing while I've been down here. I never thought I could feel that way about someone, but I do, corny as all this sounds.
On top of the usual 12-or-so hour RTO shifts, I had 6.5 hours of guard duty immediately following every night. Ugh. I hope it's not like that in Iraq, b/c being a battalion RTO requires mental alertness, and it's hard to stay awake at the boring parts even when well-rested. Luckily a friend and I were able to split the guard duty in half, so we were able to get somewhat decent sleep. One thing that bugged the hell out of me though was our section's platoon sergeant. He's the battalion NBC guy, so he's not even an infantryman. That should be enough to make him not our platoon sergeant. On top of that, though, he's always blowing off platoon sergeant meetings without designating a replacement, and then he gets mad at us for not knowing the info he was supposed to put out to us. He also makes shit up; for example, he told us before we left that we couldn't have our cell phones at all. So, being the good soldier I am, I follow instructions. When we get up here, almost everyone has a cell phone except for a few of us, and to make things even worse, he said that if we brought our cell phones, we could go ahead and use them, but not in the box. OK, so what happens is, I follow your instructions and get fucked because of it? Fuck that. This jackass also, EVERY NIGHT we were in the box, would come grab me to do something after I'd already climbed into my sleeping bag. Two of those nights, he even sat on his cot and watched me get ready for bed and/or read, and then come get me once I lay down. Fucking asshole. Enough about him.
I can understand why we had to come down here now. The OPFOR here were hard as hell on us, and really tested us. We actually learned a good bit from this. More on this another time.
I can't wait to get back. I've missed Christie so much, that it's almost like a part of me was missing while I've been down here. I never thought I could feel that way about someone, but I do, corny as all this sounds.