Post date: Nov 20, 2011 1:20:56 PM
(Original Date: Monday, June 28, 2010)
These entries have been sent via email from Brandon. (Yay!)
It's now been an actual full week since I arrived and stayed here at Ft. Gordon. I guess you could say some of my expectations were met (being able to use a cell phone and laptop every night) and others were not (no communication).
I woke up about 6:30 to get ready for breakfast which I thought was at 7:00, but the DFAC didn't open until 7:30 on Sundays...D'oh! So me and PFC Metal hung out in front of the DFAC for a few extra minutes before getting a bite to eat. I had thrown my laundry in the washer before breakfast, so afterwards I went up and moved it to the dryer. It's not a good thing to leave your laundry in the washer or dryer for too long, you never know what will happen to it. That is why I was a little upset to find out in our morning formation that I was volunteered to do duty at brigade. 10 of us went over there and cleaned from about 8:45 to 9:30. We finished everything (sweep, mop, clean everything metal, and wipe down the baseboards). After that we just had to sit in a room until about 11:15. The sergeant said we could watch TV, but there was no TV in the room LOL. So after that we were allowed to leave back to our company area. I wanted to get over there as soon as possible because I wanted to check on my clothes in the dryer. Right before we were out of there the sergeant said we needed to prop the women's rest room door open. A guy went to get a couple of buckets and when he came back he was waiting for a guy in front of him to move so he could place the buckets in front of the door. I tapped the guy on the shoulder and said "watch out buddy"....turns out that guy I tapped was the sergeant! I was behind him and he looked just like one of the privates in our group. Luckily he didn't say anything, I thought for sure I was going to be doing some push-ups. All the other guys were laughing and couldn't believe that just happened.
So back at our barracks my dryer had been turned off at some point...the clothes were not dry grrrrrrrr. So I started it up again and went to my room for a bit before heading to lunch. For the most part the weekends are pretty relaxed. After the morning formation and detail that we are assigned we have the rest of the day off.
I was able to video chat with my mom, my nieces and my wife later in the afternoon. After getting off the video chat I was a little overwhelmed by how long I have to be here before I'll be able to see any of them. It can get depressing when I think I have 19 weeks before I will be able to see my family again. I can't wait to get out of AIT and get in the regular army so I'll be able to see my wife each night at least. I can't imagine getting deployed right after AIT, that would be super tough. All this was a little easier on paper when I was planning it all out with my wife. In reality it can be heartbreaking at times. Especially when I know she needs me back at home and I'm stuck here in AIT with a bunch of clowns.
Watched a documentary on Netflix. That is about the only video I can watch here with the wireless network. All the other TV websites have issues because the bandwidth here gets choked up with all the people playing World of Warcraft all the time. Every once in a while the Netflix movie will pause and buffer, but nothing like any of the other websites I've tried. Hulu did good for about 1/2 of the show and then it just stopped. That is frustrating.
The evening formation was just an attendance call. Last Sunday the sergeant walked through the ranks and during attendance he checked each person's hair cut and facial hair. I shaved this time right before formation just to make sure I was good to go...and no check at all this time. I did find out after dinner that we can change into our PT uniform right after we are dismissed from detail in the morning. That would have been good to know earlier, but I guess it's better to know now than 5 weeks from now. Like everything else here the communication sucks. The best way to find out stuff is to ask others who have been here a while.