Ok so everyone wanted me to finish the Army story-I've made you wait long enough-and now the rest of the story.
SO if you remember back in June (WOW it was that long ago) I was telling you about leaving the reception station (the picture you see here was actually taken at the reception Station, look how happy we were-all that was about to change I'm the one in the middle with the big Buggles Glasses)...so we run off the bus with our dufflebags strapped to the front of us. Sgt. Bell told us to get off the bus but he never told us where to go. Dude, that just ain't right, we had NO CLUE-sooo we just ran, in all directions. It looked like a cockroach party when someone flips on the light. Some got it right and ran in the right direction, unfortunately I wasn't one of them, which means I just had to run further to where I was going. We eventually wound up in front of our barracks in a crude formation.
Sgt. Bell met us there, only this time he wasn't smiling. After telling us that we made him ill and want to vomit, not his exact words I'm keeping this clean, he told us to get out of his face and fall in on Sgt. Mims. Who??? Where?? Exactly! Sgt. Mims was waiting for us about 300 yards away. So Off we trotted to meet the wonderful Sgt. Mims. Funny thing is Sgt. Mims didn't much care for us, nope not one bit because he too got ill from being around us and so he sent us back to Sgt. Bell. Now we all know Sgt. Bell has already told us we made him ill, whatever are we going to do. So another trot to Sgt. Bell, who said we were Sgt. Mims problem and sent us back. Can't anyone make up their mind in the Army? After a good hour of the run around, and yes I mean that literally, Sgt. Bell was no longer ill being around us, and we got to stay and visit with him for awhile.
Ahh good old Sgt. Bell, here was a man that was so eager to please us that he was going to introduce us to all his Drill Sargeant buddies-what a NICE GUY. As we stood at attention on that VERY HOT Alabama Day I heard something that sounded like a car crash. A door burst open and I swear I was looking at a Circus Clown car where all the clowns keep coming out of a car-only these weren't clowns, they weren't coming out of a car and I wasn't eating Cotton Candy. How did that many people fit in one room it was a Drill Sgt. Frenzy! They looked like Great Whites going after baby seals (or whatever it is Great Whites eat). Yelling and screaming, asking us to please don't look at them ( Stop Eye F***ING Me is what I believe they said) Gosh such language! This is when we were advised of our favorite poem to recite whenever we were required to exercise at the Drill Sgts request, in other words whenever we were dropped for push-ups by the Drill Sgt., which was ummm lets see ALWAYS) "Drill Sgt. Thank You For This Opportunity To Condition My Mind And My Body-Drill Sgt. Please Feel Free To Do So At Anytime-Drill Sgt. Private (state your name) Requests Permission To Recover!" Wasn't that nice of them to teach us a beautiful poetic verse such as that. It moved me so much that I can still recall it to this day.
So we spent the better part of the next 4 hours running, doing puch-ups, getting yelled at, doing more push-ups, some more running, peeing in our pants, getting yelled at, running, push-ups and oh before I forget MORE RUNNING!
23 people did not make it out of that first day, they just flat out quit, they took them away and we never saw them again (kinda scary) and by the end of the first week we had lost 45 people-through injuries, begging to get out, and at some point in Basic we had a few go AWOL.
Now as I post future things here you'll hear all about my Army life and the fun I had.
Starting with my next post we we delve into my recently found journals..ohhhhhhh
Comments