I'm back! I'm stronger, faster (well, I was faster, but I'll explain later in this post), and dressed in camo head to toe. I don't mind the camo's though, I look pretty good in them, and now that I have my Nike combat boots, my feet are nice and comfy.
It's been an adventure, for sure. It all started with a week of reception, which entails lots of waiting in line for things. All sorts of things, from clothes, to boots, to paperwork, to an ID card, to money stuff, to, and the least pleasant surprise at the end of any of the lines I waited in, shots. Yes, I got 7 shots in a matter of 5 minutes, assembly line style...one shot in one arm, step forward, second shot in same arm, step forward, third shot in alternate arm, step forward, so on, and so on. It was unpleasant. At the end of a week of reception, you're take on a scenic bus ride to your beautiful new home for the next 9 weeks and 4 days and greeted, enthusiastically, by your new caretakers. (Can you see the sarcasm dripping off of that sentence?!) In reality, you're herded onto an old broken down school bus with pounds and pounds of crap in your lap, we were forced to shove our faces in our bags while we moved and got yelled at, you're again herded off the bus and smoked for the next hour or so. Oh, and don't, don't look at you drill sergeants, they don't like that. All in all it's really not that bad. I mean, basic sucks, but it's not bad. After the first few days of constantly getting yelled, constantly being wrong, and constantly getting smoked (which really just helps your PT anyways), you start to get into training, and the days start to fly by. You're issued an M16 which never leaves your side, except for church; you go to range after range after range, you shoot during the day, you shoot at night (optics are difficult at first, but pretty cool); you march everywhere and carry lots of weight; you PT daily; you spend nights out in the woods sleeping in hasties with poncho-hooches over head; you throw live grenades; you shoot machine guns; you run around and shoot in battle buddy teams; you run STX lanes; you sit under LPA's (lightening protection areas) because it just monsoon-ed on you and you're soaking wet; you eat tons of MRE's and your bum gets stopped up; you meet tons of new people and spend way to much time way too physically close to them; you like some of these new people and you hate others but can't change that they're always there; you do what you're told and get in big trouble if you don't; you become a United States Soldier.
And then, once you're finished with basic, you get shipped off somewhere else in the states, Fort Lee, VA for my case, and you start your AIT training where you learn the specifics of your MOS i.e. Army job. But, if you're me, you make it to AIT, go visit a doctor, get put on crutches, and consequently put on med-hold statues i.e. I can't start training. Why might you ask has this happened to me? Well, it all started about half-way through basic with a little bit of groin/hip pain. I saw the doctor, I got on crutches then as well, I had a bone scan. During my consultation after my bone scan I was told that everything was good, I might have some pain, but I was okay to return to training. So after a week of profile to rest, I did just that and returned to training. I was in pain the majority of the rest of basic, but I pushed through because I wanted to graduate and I kept remembering that the doctor said I was okay to train. Well, after 6 weeks of continued pain, I decided to go see the doctor during in-processing at AIT, only to be told that I'm broken, and have been broken since my initial bone scan. I have two fractures of the pelvic bone and a fracture in my right foot. Injuries which I somehow managed to PT test on, complete Victory Forge field training, and a 10 mile ruck march, among other things. Injuries which now have me sitting on my tush with 30 days of con-leave in my near future, which I should be more excited about because I get to go home to rest and heal, but I'm just kind of frustrated that my training process has come to a screeching halt. ARGH! But I know I've got to try and take it one day at a time, one day at a time. Everything happens for a reason right? Just have to figure out what that reason behind all of this is.
But, at the end of it all, I'll be back around on the blog more often, keeping you up to date with how this fracture is going to affect my Army future, my career future, and my general health future. And here in a month or so, Monkey will return from his 'vacation' in Afghanistan as well. I'd say he'll have stories galore, but he's been pretty bored. Something I won't complain about because bored means safe!
Til next time...
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