Out-processing - Day 144

Post date: Nov 27, 2011 3:06:04 AM

Our class a inspection in the day room. From left to right: Shamadillo, the young Hawaiian, me, and Pvt. Amish

(Original Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010)

This morning I had PT…the first PT in a long time it seems. We went for a run and usually Charlie company runs are a lot easier than the RBK runs I've been used to. This time however I was pretty gassed. The run was pretty tough, there was a whole mess of people who fell out within the first quarter mile. I had to play dodge 'em for a while until they all fell out. At the middle point of the run we run up and down a hill three times. That was the killer part of the run!

Once we got ready in the morning all the MOS-Q and inacts formed up together. All of us in my class and our sister class had an out-processing brief. Everyone else has to do TAK detail. This is basically landscaping or other slave labor to get what the battalion needs done. Because nobody wants to do this there are a lot of people that try to sham out of it. As we were getting ready to leave the formation the TAK sergeant looked each of us in the eye and asked if we were sure we were supposed to go to the out-processing trying to catch any liars.

The out-processing brief consisted of us getting our actual orders and a packet with a checklist that we needed to get done before we could leave. We have to go to a number of places on base and get signed out. We have today and tomorrow (don't want to get it all done at once…then we would have to do TAK detail tomorrow…lol) Today we went to the medical clinic, vehicle registration, a few other administrative offices, transportation, the library, the dental clinic, and the education center. All of these places have to say we don't have anything outstanding and we're clear to leave. Everything went fine except for a little hiccup at the transportation office. They were going to get me a ticket out of here on Wednesday. I told them I was graduating on Wednesday and besides my wife is flying in for my graduation and she'll be here until Monday. The lady looked at me like I was crazy. She said "how can you graduate on Wednesday if you are out-processing?" I told her I have no idea…that's just what I was told. They are going to modify my ticket and I should get it on Wednesday when I out-process.

We also found out who is going to get HRAP (this is hometown recruiting where the soldier gets to spend an extra two weeks at home helping their recruiters and it doesn't count as leave) during the out-processing brief. It has been cancelled since October 1st because the army is now overstaffed, but I guess the submissions for our class were put in early enough to make it. There was one for each of our classes, but I'm not sure at all how they chose them. I always heard it was the best in the class that received it, but they chose Shamadillo the biggest shammer in our class. The guy who left Capstone because he had anger issues and felt like he would hurt himself or someone else. He was actually on suicide watch for a bit…this is the guy that they gave HRAP to. What a freakin' joke. I will be graduating at the top of my class. I've never had a negative counseling statement and I've never failed a PT test. I figured I would have been a good candidate, but what do I know…I'm just a private.

We had our class a inspection tonight at 18:00. Everyone who is graduating this Wednesday had to get all dressed up in their class a uniforms and have the sergeants inspect them. Like in basic training I ended up tying a lot of kids ties for them. I had lots of practice I guess, back in the day our basketball coach made everyone on the team wear ties on game days. The sergeants found stuff wrong on everyone's uniform. Lots of little things like stuff slightly off center or crooked. We all helped each other make the adjustments on the uniforms until we were all good to go.

My wife flew in today and after a delayed flight she finally arrived tonight. She came by and visited for a while. It was so awesome to see her even though it wasn't for too long. I was able to sit in her rented car and hang out until it was time get in before bed check…I am so happy!!!

Another “action” shot in our day room during the class a inspection