Post date: Nov 25, 2011 9:27:26 AM
(Original Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010)
Everyone at RBK that is in Charlie company had a wake up this morning at 4:00 AM (30-45 minutes earlier than normal depending on who is on hall guard). We were told to get in ACUs and be in formation in 15 minutes. Great...this day is already starting off pretty crapy. I hurried up and got dressed and shaved. The shave took longer than normal because of the number of people trying to cram in the bathroom all at once. Precisely the reason I set my alarm to go off 15 minutes before wake-up, so I can get everything I need done in the bathroom before the rush.
We get out to formation and march over to the chapel which is where a lot of our training is at (it has a big projector and screen with a lot of seats). The training consisted of a number of “death by powerpoint” shows. Each one had a different sergeant who usually had soldiers read the slides out loud. It consisted of Cold Weather Injuries, Ethics, UCMJ, and LOW (Laws of War). FYI: we are not allowed to do any mercy killings as a soldier.
As we were marching to class I remembered an incident that happened yesterday, but forgot to put in the journal. For the second time since I’ve been here we have had a person actually run into a sign while marching. It is funny every time too! It’s always very loud, so there is no playing it off.
I learned in class today that a girl in Charlie tried to commit suicide last night. Turns out she was actually at our table at Hooters this last Saturday. I guess her fiance broke up with her and she took it kind of hard.
At this new school house we do things a little different than at Dixon Hall. Every morning before class the entire formation sings “The Army Song”, “The Signal Corps March”, and then we say “The Soldiers Creed”. We then do it all over again after lunch before we head in. Speaking of after lunch, our small detachment of 447 soldiers all got smoked before going in to the school. The leader of our formation told us to fall out, but the rest of the 551 formation wasn’t ready yet. So we all did a number of push-ups. I think all the sergeants there hate 447.
During the afternoon break a sergeant saw someone with a cell phone in the break area which is against the rules. So they ended up having an impromptu shakedown of everyone in the break area searching for cell phones. I happened to be using the facilities at the time, so I was not part of this shakedown, but I heard they caught a few people with phones. They will be taken away for a week.
After class today we hung out at the IET center for a while, then ate dinner at the DFAC before all the people from Dixon Hall were let out. We then had formation for more training at 17:45. We marched all the way to the end of Barton Field into the garrison building. Here we learned we were going to have ACEP training...and not just tonight, but for a few weeks. ACEP stands for Army Center for Enhanced Performance. Their goal is to make better soldiers. What I got out of tonight’s training was that we should not think negative thoughts, focus on the positive things, talk to yourself (positively), and set goals. It was hard to get motivated or even pay attention though. I’d been up since 4:00AM attending class pretty much the entire time. When class is over it’s really hard to be motivated to do even more training.
Overheard Quote: “We Piss Excellence!” (When asked what positive phrase did Charlie company come up when they had this same training about 5 months ago)