Post date: Nov 22, 2011 11:58:54 AM
(Original Date: Monday, August 9, 2010)
This morning I had hall guard duty with PFC Metal. The weekend hall guard duty here at RBK is actually 6 hours long! Ours started at 6:30AM, which seemed a bit early after staying out late last night. Add to that a lot of beer and the hot wings and you could say I wasn’t feeling a 100%. I can’t complain too much about the weekend shift because it doesn’t come up too often and we get to sit in the comfy chairs and use electronics. So most of the shift I was on my laptop, iPhone, or reading my book.
I watched a movie... the third in the Twilight Saga “Eclipse”. Which the sergeant saw and commented on how good the quality was. You see there are terabytes and terabytes of movies that soldiers have on their computers here. Some are purchased legally, some are backed up copies of their legal dvds, but I would venture to say that most are illegal downloads of the movies. In fact I watched one that a soldier let me use and it was actually a recording made from a person in a theatre. The quality was watchable, but you could actually hear the audience laugh during funny parts. Anyways the sergeant wanted to know where we got it from because he wanted to go there and download movies too. I told him I got it from a buddy. This started quite a long conversation with the sergeant (Sgt. Cujo by the way). We all talked about kids, news, movies, computers and regular army life. This was a little strange, maybe it’s a drill sergeant thing where these guys can just change their personality like a light switch. He was actually normal and laughing with us, treating us like normal people. I kept wondering if he was on drugs, or maybe since he was at the end of a 24 hour shift his mind was not working normally. I’m not complaining, I was happy to chat with him and it passed the time.
Our roommates were on the schedule to relieve us, but only one showed up. He said the other guy is running late and asked if one of us could cover for him until he arrives. He also said he would pay us for it. I didn’t have anything planned and since PFC Metal’s wife was still in town I offered to stick around. I ended up doing hall guard from 6:30 until 14:30. Surprisingly the time flew by and my roommate finally came to relieve me. I promptly went to my room and took a nap.
I woke up from my nap and shaved to get ready for the recall formation that was coming up in a couple hours. We went to recall formation which took quite a while, instead of lining up by platoon we did one mass formation and it took forever for everyone to get in alphabetical order and get checked off. There are a number of new people as well. I remember those first few days I was here, they sucked because of the lack of communication. I feel for those guys!
When we got back to the barracks our roommate ordered us all pizza from “Hungry Howies” and we got the cajon crust style pizza. This turned out to be the absolute highlight of my day (besides chatting with my family of course) The pizza was awesome...so awesome in fact that I suggest anyone who likes pizza and lives in the Augusta area to give it a try. Check ‘em out online here:
Nick's mom
Good Morning
Just wanted to Thank you for sharing your experiences. My son just arrived at Ft. Benning on Aug. 3, he is going DR tomorrow. I found your journals while searching for any info on Ft. Benning basic training. I am completely Army ignorant and have appreciated your mature insight. I would like to Thank you and your Wife for your service and wish you and your family Godspeed.
PS: We are Mac fans also!
Monday, August 9, 2010 - 07:19 AM
Brandon
Thanks!
If your son is going to Ft. Benning I would recommend checking out their facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/fortbenningfans). They will post updates and even photos of soldiers during basic. My wife and other's family members visited it frequently and also used the discussion boards on there as well to get their questions answered.
Monday, August 9, 2010 - 08:17 PM