Greetings Ladies and Gentlefolks,

Today’s installment touches on graduation from BCT and my first couple of weeks at AIT. Graduation at Ft. Knox took place in a theater just down the street that’s also used to show movies and host other formal ceremonies and functions. I always thought that BCT graduations took place outside on parade grounds with lots of marching and bands and pomp and circumstance. But our graduation was inside of an air conditioned theater with multimedia presentations and just a little bit of marching…

Amy and I had a great time at the graduation and the few hours we had to spend afterwards. It was rather disappointing that Amy couldn’t rent a car at the airport. Apparently car rental businesses only take major credit cards, not debit cards. Of course, being the debt conscious individuals that we are, Amy wasn’t carrying a credit card. In the end it turned out alright because we spent less money on cabs that day than the price it would have cost us to rent a car. Of course we missed out on seeing all of the ranges and other highlights from around Ft. Knox and we pretty much could only go to the PX for entertainment (it’s a good thing I was starved for fast food and cany….yum).

At the end of the day we had to load up into big charter buses and I had to say goodbye to Amy….again. The bus ride to Ft. Jackson South Carolina was roughly 12 hours long and it was full of sleeping, eating junk, drinking junk, watching movies (on the TVs they had in the buses), reading, talking on my cell phone, playing my Gameboy and eating more junk. By the time we arrived at Ft Jackson I was ready to swear off junk food for good (but of course that didn’t happen). There were two other soldiers that were 42A (read “forty two alpha”) like myself, the rest were 63B (light wheeled vehicle mechanics) that were also stationed at Ft Jackson for AIT but at a different location. So the three of us chairborne rangers unloaded at Delta Company, 369th Adjutant General Battalion — our new home for the next 8 weeks.

I was lucky enough to be put in the same bay with the rest of my Ft Knox buddies and also be roommates with a bunch of cool guys that I clicked with right away. Coyne, Christensen, Amato, John (yes that’s his last name), Tenny, Gilispie (we call him “Gypsy”), Kennedy, Arvin, and Domingo. All of us get along really well and it’s these guys that are probably going to be the ones that help me through AIT without going crazy.

Because, let me tell you, there are plenty of things here that could drive you crazy. First of all, the discipline here compared to Knox is like night and day. With the Death Dealers we were being trained at an all male post with combat arms MOS drill sergeants that all had combat experience. At Ft Jackson we’re training to be paper pushers, our drill sergeants are also paper pushers so they aren’t as intense as I’m used to. Half of the soldiers in our company are female (not to mention the female drill sergeants) and everyone here has a much more laid back attitude toward training and the Army in general. It’s almost like being in summer camp rather than training with the Army.

However, all of the new privileges that we get at AIT make the frustrating things a little more worth it. We are allowed to use our cell phones and pretty much any other electronic device (laptops included) during personal time. Personal time, by the way, is after dinner chow (around 1800) until lights out. One the weekends we are allowed varying levels of passes depending on our status. For instance, if you pass the PT test you can eventually get an off-post pass that allows you to leave Ft Jackson for a specified amount of time (either overnight or same-day). Otherwise you can get post-passes that allow you to go anywhere on post. Finally, if you for some stupid reason screw up during the week you might only get a battalion-pass or no-pass, which allow you to go anywhere in the battalion area or nowhere at all respectively. I’ve been getting post passes since I’ve been here. I passed the PT test the other day which is good for me but I still don’t get an off-post pass until I’ve been here for a couple more weeks.

Let’s see…what else. The work of a 42A is pretty interesting and actually very important in the Army. After all, the military runs on paperwork and bureaucracy so there’s no place better to be than a 42A if you want to have real power to get things done. It may not be the most glorious job in the Army but, hey, I’m only doing this until I graduate from OSU. Then I’ll be going into super-duper-secret Military Intelligence. Which is glorious in my book.

The training that we do as 42As, on the other hand, is extremely boring and tedious. Not for everybody, I’m sure, but for someone who has had 3 years of university level classes under their belt and 3 years at a job where I wrote technical documents constantly–this stuff is a cake walk. I could take and pass this whole training cycle in 3-4 weeks, easy. But at the Army’s pace it’ll take a full 8 weeks….sigh.

We still have to do field training while we’re at AIT. We have one 3 day FTX starting this weekend and then after that we’re done with soldier skill training for good. We’ve gone out to the field for the last two Saturdays to practice such things as MOUT, reflexive fire, first aid, reaction to IEDs, patrolling, etc. It’s all been pretty easy and straightforward stuff because we’ve all been to BCT and know everything already. Instead of learning new stuff we’re just reviewing and refreshing. Which is a good thing actually. I didn’t want my rifle skills to go dull while I was at AIT so I have welcomed the opportunity to work with an M16 once in a while. But I still pine for my trusty M4 from basic.

To tell you the honest truth, the only thing that’s going to be worth writing about for the next six weeks is the FTX that we’re going on in a few days. After that, all I have to write about is boring class work, shopping at the PX, and going to the gym to workout every day. Sooooo….it might be kinda sparse here until I get home.

Hmmmm….I can’t think of anything else aside from a new habit that I’ve picked up: sunflower seeds. Mmmmm. I can thank my wonderful Drill Sergeants at Ft. Knox for that one. They used to eat sunflower seeds all the time. I have to admit that it looked satisfying and very macho cool so I’ve picked it up since I’ve been here at Ft Jackson. Yay for me! I’m macho cool!