Advanced Individual Training: AIT, one step closer to becoming a real soldier. When we are done with this we have a real job in the army. I picked medic, because of my background in veterinary medicine and my brother having the help of some good medics when he was in Afganistan, i thought i could use my medical skills and help soldiers get home alive to.
So when we left Fort Jackson SC we headed for Fort Sam Houston, TX. It was funny cause like half of our battalion from 260th ended up there. One the way there people were talking about how relaxed and unbasic training like AIT was going to be. We would get our cell phones, get weekends off and go out when we wanted to. I however knew that basic training type stuff was not over. My brother warned me about having to earn your freedom with good grades and passing pt tests. Everyone else wouldnt listen. So when we arrived at Fort Sam I had to laugh. The sergeants got on the bus started yelling and when we got off the bus we got smoked. So yeah no difference. Over the next 2 days with hardly any sleep we got picked up from reception and put in to our company. It was a huge company made up of around 400 of us.
The first 8 weeks consists of EMT training. It was so very boring. W sat through class and recieved our emt after testing out. Yes some people had trouble with the test and it does give you a good medical base to start from but when your done they tell you now forget everything you have learned here cause the whiskey side of things is done differently.
The whiskey side of things got kinda cool, we got to do sticks lanes, go out to the field and use what we have been learning. I like actually using what we learn in practical situations. camp bolus was the best it was a set up in a fob and we lived there for 7 days. We did field exercises and ran scenarios all week. We worked out of a black hawk, striker and a fla. All the types of vehicles we would be transporting our patients in off the battlefield. We worked in a tent hospital during the day and night. We cleared houses and did a patrol. It tried getting you ready for what ever unit you were on our way to after graduation.
San Antonio is the city Fort Sam is located in, one the weekends when we did get to get off post was not a bad city to hang out in. The river walk is amazing and fun. It always had something to do. The only thing about it, its expensive to get a taxi off post every weekend and that is our only mod of transportation. The friends I made during AIT, I still talk to a majority of them still.
We all got moved across the us and different countries and now most of us have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The unfortunate part is most of us have all lost a friend over there to.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
My Version of basic training
After I signed my papers the following weeks went fast.... Soon it was Sept 22nd 2008. My parents were to drop me off with one bag at the hotel in Minneapolis the night before I shipped out. Its kinda hard to forget that day.... a bunch of us met at Red Lobster and my mom cried most of the time. The thing was i was only going to basic training. My friends showed up and hung ou with us as well. So my last night as a civilian i got to hang out with my friends and family. Staying up almost until i had to catch the bus to go to meps the next day.
Sept 23rd was now here, early morning wake up call and hurry eat and get on the bus. Then we spent all morning getting looked over by a doc again and height and weight making sure we were still with in regulation to go to basic training. Even the first day of the army was a sucky day.... The army doc told me that that i wasnt going to make it past the first week of basic and i would be right back at meps telling him about my injuries so i can get releived of duty. I wanted to put my foot in his ass i was so mad. But he medically cleared me and just called me a fat soldier. Then we got on another bus and was taken to the airport. Next stop was suppose to be Fort Jackson SC. There was about 10 of us on our way there and we came fast friends hoping we would all be in the same company. Due to the weather we ended up staying in kentucky for the night. Which made us happy, we heard rumers that if you got to basic in the evening then they kept you up all night and smoked you and then made you do stuff all day with out any sleep. So we got our last good night sleep at a hotel they put us up in and then flew out the next day.
The 1st day at Fort Jackson, SC we were put in to platoons and barracks to sleep in. Then the day began, we were given our gear, uniforms and met our drill sergeant. Her name was Drill Sergeant Jackson. She liked to make you squirm. She had it in for me from the beginning. I was not the typical age fo a soldier, i didnt look like a soldier and i didnt act like a soldier. She called me over to her and asked my age i told her i was 31, she asked how tall i was and i said 63 inches and she asked how much i weighed and i said 168. She called me a lier and told me i would be out of the army in a week. I had an issue with people telling me what i cant do with out letting me try. So i told her i would see her at graduation. She laughed and said i was dismissed.
We went through improssessing for 2 days, getting shots, seeing doctors, going over paperwork in case we die and what goes to our families when we die. We got on the bus to get brought to our company to start basic training. Drill sergeants every where yelling "Get on the bus! Put your head down in your bags" "get on the bus". I got on the bus as fast as i could took my seat and buried my head in the bag just like i was told.
Getting off the bus, DS yelling that we had 10 sec to get off. There is no way 40+ people to get off a bus in 10 sec, so we are going to get smoked. We were then lined up and DS Johnson and DS Jackson put us in 4 lines to divide us in to plts. We were all given a number and told where that number was to go. I was given number 4. Later I learned i was in 4th Plt. My new DS are now DS Fetters, DS Manly and DS Madison. We got smoked with our duffle bags, we did push ups, sit ups and other things i never did before. We stood at attention while DS got in our faces to see if we would flinch they said crap to make you break. A female next to me took something personal that DS Madison said and yelled at him. I stood at parade rest wishing for her to shut up. Eyes forward trying not to get his attention my way. I couldnt believe that people here were not told that DS try and get under your skin. If you do as they say and work hard they leave you alone. But no to many people couldnt hold it together. We filled out paper work, got our bunks, and got smoked most of the day. Found that going to the chow hall means 5 min of eating if that and back out side in formation as fast as you can. You run everywhere, you dont talk and you do as your told. Not hard.
The next two weeks is considered red phase, we get smoked for every little thing wrong. We do everything as a plt or company and we have to ask for everthing including using the bathroom. For me that was the hardest part. Getting told what and when to do things. Pt sucked for me to, but i got better everyday. I wasnt the worst at pt and surly wasnt the best. I was the 2nd oldest person in our plt. and the 3rd oldest in my company. It was weird being so much older and a little harder for me then the others. i was always sore in the morning when we got up at 0430 every day. Muscles hurt that i never knew i had.
I got to do things i never knew i could even do. We did a ruck march, I had Blisters on my feet so bad my feet were bleeding even before we got started because my boots didnt fit right. We did Victory tower, We repelled, crawled across ropes bridges, and other obsticals. It was fantastic and so much fun. I did the whole day, my arms hurt and my legs hurt to. But i had fun. We also did the gas chamber, which i hated that was the worst day of red phase. We also did a 2 mile opstical course, it was DS Manlys baby for the PLT to win. One of my fellow people told me to tell them I was hurt and couldnt run it because they said if we won we could have our cell phones for 4 hours to talk to our families. I went to talk to DS Manly and asked him if i could not be in the Fit to Win compatition. I didnt want our PLT to loose cause I am slow. He said "No, you have never given up on anything we told you to do yet and you always try hard. So No." I ran that 2 mile opstical course, low crawled, ran, jumped, climbed and all that other crap. I wanted to die in the end. i was pissed cause our team came in 2nd and i blamed myself.
At the end of red phase we had to take a writen test on our military knowledge. After we took the test we had a performance review with our DS's. I didnt want to be face to face with any of them but now i had to be. My name got called and i reported to DS Fetters. He first commented on my pt. Which was bad. My run time wasw off by 2 min, i could do my push ups and sit ups but i am no runner. He told me i had to get better and we would work on it. But then after that he suprised me. He told me that i suprised them every day. They all sized me up the first day and figured I would not make it past 1 week. I never give up and always finish what they give me to do. I stay under there radar which is good and i am not a trouble maker. He says the day we did Fit to win it looked like i was gonna die, but i finished, I never walked and never stopped like others in our plt did.
Now i come from a small town in MN, and while i was learning to push my self physically, I also ran in to a few road blocks that i never would have expected. I have never experienced racism before. The females in my plt were majority black. That never bothered me, they were louder then what i was use to but i stayed with a girl from virginia named Thomas, she was a great battle. She was much younger then me but i always told her she had a old sole. We were inseperable. We kept to ourselves and stayed by our lockers on down time. One day we were all braidin hair to get ready to go out to the field, I can braid as good as any black girl. So no one cared who was braiding hair except one black female from 3rd plt. She told me she was not letting a white girl touch her. Later a white female from our plt wrote a very racest letter and gave it to the DS. Well you dont do that. The DS let the girls that were being called out in the letter read it. There was a uprising in the bay. They black girls got pissed and wanted to find out who wrote it. Thomas and i were automatic suspects cause we kept to ourselfs It was crazy. Thomas started to cry and i was surrounded by 15 chicks wanting to kick my ass. I told them to try but i didnt know anything about no damn letter. Another good friend of mine Black first name cherry. She stood up for me. She told them i didnt care what people did in our plt and how could i know what was said cause i didnt pay attention to what others did. I just wanted to get through this. It took a bit but they got over it. Still pissed about who might have wrote it, the girl being gutless and racest never came forward. But adventually we found out who did it.
As time went on somethings got easier, we began using weapons and shooting a lot.Which i loved. I have been waiting to do things like this since i was a little kid. I watched this stuff in war movies, now it was my turn. I got to sit behind a 50 cal and shoot it, a M240 B, that was amazing. Learn to set up a claymore mine. We did vehicle convoys, learned how to clear houses. One day must have been like a DS fun day, they got to play haggi and blow us up.... we had to make it to the LZ and clear houses as we went. Our Plt SGT had to much fun, they set up booby traps in the houses and had hand granades (fake ones) thrown at us, and land mines to look out for. It was a day of fun. I had been waiting to try and do real things for a while. We also had a night of live fire and low crawling through lots of sand. we were told the live gun fire was just above our heads so dont stand up and dont stop. That was so not very fun. we had a 12 mile ruck march to graduate, and out in the field for 7 days. It was a very cold week.
With all this stuff and more, we had a celebration when we got out of the field for all of us who qualified to graduate. Not everyone graduated. If you didnt pass your Pt test or one of the other list of things needed to graduate you didnt attend the ceramonie. I did attend the ceramonie and i was relieved. Graduation came about a week later 6 Dec 2008. My parents were coming all the way from MN.
the day before was family day, we got to spend time with our families all day. We had a great time. Walked around Fort Jackson and i showed my parents some of the stuff we got to do. The next day was graduation day. After the ceramonie was over we got released to our parents. When my parents came down to the parade field I never saw my dad so happy and so proud that i saw that day. It was amazing. i have never seen him look at me like that ever.
The next day we got bussed off to the airport and i was on my way to Fort Sam Houston for AIT.
Sept 23rd was now here, early morning wake up call and hurry eat and get on the bus. Then we spent all morning getting looked over by a doc again and height and weight making sure we were still with in regulation to go to basic training. Even the first day of the army was a sucky day.... The army doc told me that that i wasnt going to make it past the first week of basic and i would be right back at meps telling him about my injuries so i can get releived of duty. I wanted to put my foot in his ass i was so mad. But he medically cleared me and just called me a fat soldier. Then we got on another bus and was taken to the airport. Next stop was suppose to be Fort Jackson SC. There was about 10 of us on our way there and we came fast friends hoping we would all be in the same company. Due to the weather we ended up staying in kentucky for the night. Which made us happy, we heard rumers that if you got to basic in the evening then they kept you up all night and smoked you and then made you do stuff all day with out any sleep. So we got our last good night sleep at a hotel they put us up in and then flew out the next day.
The 1st day at Fort Jackson, SC we were put in to platoons and barracks to sleep in. Then the day began, we were given our gear, uniforms and met our drill sergeant. Her name was Drill Sergeant Jackson. She liked to make you squirm. She had it in for me from the beginning. I was not the typical age fo a soldier, i didnt look like a soldier and i didnt act like a soldier. She called me over to her and asked my age i told her i was 31, she asked how tall i was and i said 63 inches and she asked how much i weighed and i said 168. She called me a lier and told me i would be out of the army in a week. I had an issue with people telling me what i cant do with out letting me try. So i told her i would see her at graduation. She laughed and said i was dismissed.
We went through improssessing for 2 days, getting shots, seeing doctors, going over paperwork in case we die and what goes to our families when we die. We got on the bus to get brought to our company to start basic training. Drill sergeants every where yelling "Get on the bus! Put your head down in your bags" "get on the bus". I got on the bus as fast as i could took my seat and buried my head in the bag just like i was told.
Getting off the bus, DS yelling that we had 10 sec to get off. There is no way 40+ people to get off a bus in 10 sec, so we are going to get smoked. We were then lined up and DS Johnson and DS Jackson put us in 4 lines to divide us in to plts. We were all given a number and told where that number was to go. I was given number 4. Later I learned i was in 4th Plt. My new DS are now DS Fetters, DS Manly and DS Madison. We got smoked with our duffle bags, we did push ups, sit ups and other things i never did before. We stood at attention while DS got in our faces to see if we would flinch they said crap to make you break. A female next to me took something personal that DS Madison said and yelled at him. I stood at parade rest wishing for her to shut up. Eyes forward trying not to get his attention my way. I couldnt believe that people here were not told that DS try and get under your skin. If you do as they say and work hard they leave you alone. But no to many people couldnt hold it together. We filled out paper work, got our bunks, and got smoked most of the day. Found that going to the chow hall means 5 min of eating if that and back out side in formation as fast as you can. You run everywhere, you dont talk and you do as your told. Not hard.
The next two weeks is considered red phase, we get smoked for every little thing wrong. We do everything as a plt or company and we have to ask for everthing including using the bathroom. For me that was the hardest part. Getting told what and when to do things. Pt sucked for me to, but i got better everyday. I wasnt the worst at pt and surly wasnt the best. I was the 2nd oldest person in our plt. and the 3rd oldest in my company. It was weird being so much older and a little harder for me then the others. i was always sore in the morning when we got up at 0430 every day. Muscles hurt that i never knew i had.
I got to do things i never knew i could even do. We did a ruck march, I had Blisters on my feet so bad my feet were bleeding even before we got started because my boots didnt fit right. We did Victory tower, We repelled, crawled across ropes bridges, and other obsticals. It was fantastic and so much fun. I did the whole day, my arms hurt and my legs hurt to. But i had fun. We also did the gas chamber, which i hated that was the worst day of red phase. We also did a 2 mile opstical course, it was DS Manlys baby for the PLT to win. One of my fellow people told me to tell them I was hurt and couldnt run it because they said if we won we could have our cell phones for 4 hours to talk to our families. I went to talk to DS Manly and asked him if i could not be in the Fit to Win compatition. I didnt want our PLT to loose cause I am slow. He said "No, you have never given up on anything we told you to do yet and you always try hard. So No." I ran that 2 mile opstical course, low crawled, ran, jumped, climbed and all that other crap. I wanted to die in the end. i was pissed cause our team came in 2nd and i blamed myself.
At the end of red phase we had to take a writen test on our military knowledge. After we took the test we had a performance review with our DS's. I didnt want to be face to face with any of them but now i had to be. My name got called and i reported to DS Fetters. He first commented on my pt. Which was bad. My run time wasw off by 2 min, i could do my push ups and sit ups but i am no runner. He told me i had to get better and we would work on it. But then after that he suprised me. He told me that i suprised them every day. They all sized me up the first day and figured I would not make it past 1 week. I never give up and always finish what they give me to do. I stay under there radar which is good and i am not a trouble maker. He says the day we did Fit to win it looked like i was gonna die, but i finished, I never walked and never stopped like others in our plt did.
Now i come from a small town in MN, and while i was learning to push my self physically, I also ran in to a few road blocks that i never would have expected. I have never experienced racism before. The females in my plt were majority black. That never bothered me, they were louder then what i was use to but i stayed with a girl from virginia named Thomas, she was a great battle. She was much younger then me but i always told her she had a old sole. We were inseperable. We kept to ourselves and stayed by our lockers on down time. One day we were all braidin hair to get ready to go out to the field, I can braid as good as any black girl. So no one cared who was braiding hair except one black female from 3rd plt. She told me she was not letting a white girl touch her. Later a white female from our plt wrote a very racest letter and gave it to the DS. Well you dont do that. The DS let the girls that were being called out in the letter read it. There was a uprising in the bay. They black girls got pissed and wanted to find out who wrote it. Thomas and i were automatic suspects cause we kept to ourselfs It was crazy. Thomas started to cry and i was surrounded by 15 chicks wanting to kick my ass. I told them to try but i didnt know anything about no damn letter. Another good friend of mine Black first name cherry. She stood up for me. She told them i didnt care what people did in our plt and how could i know what was said cause i didnt pay attention to what others did. I just wanted to get through this. It took a bit but they got over it. Still pissed about who might have wrote it, the girl being gutless and racest never came forward. But adventually we found out who did it.
As time went on somethings got easier, we began using weapons and shooting a lot.Which i loved. I have been waiting to do things like this since i was a little kid. I watched this stuff in war movies, now it was my turn. I got to sit behind a 50 cal and shoot it, a M240 B, that was amazing. Learn to set up a claymore mine. We did vehicle convoys, learned how to clear houses. One day must have been like a DS fun day, they got to play haggi and blow us up.... we had to make it to the LZ and clear houses as we went. Our Plt SGT had to much fun, they set up booby traps in the houses and had hand granades (fake ones) thrown at us, and land mines to look out for. It was a day of fun. I had been waiting to try and do real things for a while. We also had a night of live fire and low crawling through lots of sand. we were told the live gun fire was just above our heads so dont stand up and dont stop. That was so not very fun. we had a 12 mile ruck march to graduate, and out in the field for 7 days. It was a very cold week.
With all this stuff and more, we had a celebration when we got out of the field for all of us who qualified to graduate. Not everyone graduated. If you didnt pass your Pt test or one of the other list of things needed to graduate you didnt attend the ceramonie. I did attend the ceramonie and i was relieved. Graduation came about a week later 6 Dec 2008. My parents were coming all the way from MN.
the day before was family day, we got to spend time with our families all day. We had a great time. Walked around Fort Jackson and i showed my parents some of the stuff we got to do. The next day was graduation day. After the ceramonie was over we got released to our parents. When my parents came down to the parade field I never saw my dad so happy and so proud that i saw that day. It was amazing. i have never seen him look at me like that ever.
The next day we got bussed off to the airport and i was on my way to Fort Sam Houston for AIT.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Life changing decision
Life for me in 2008 wasn't so bad, I had a great job working at the Animal Emergency Clinic as a Veterinary technician. I had a great group of friends, ones that follow you and are behind you no matter what and a great family. I lived in Pine City where i grew up and worked in St. Paul MN. In the spring of 2008 i went to visit my friend sherre, she lives in Virgina and is in the Navy. I envied her life and the ship she got to play on, The USS George Washington. I have been dreaming of military life since i was a little kid and sherre knew this. The thing she told me this spring was that i needed to go for it and stop wondering. I only had to give them 4 years and get out if i wanted. How bad could it be.
I went back home and before long i was sitting in front of a army recruiter, an over weight 31 year old female that couldn't run worth crap. lol, I was sure he was laughing at me. He might not tell you this but catch him off guard then he just might. As the summer went on, i started running, went on a diet and started working out hard. In Aug i went and took my asvab again. I took it in high school, but I didn't go I was scared of drill sergeants. At this point i still was. LOL. I had to get a medical quaver cause i had a hysterectomy earlier that year and they made me wait till Sept to sign my paperwork. All this time, my parents acted supportive but my dad was hoping this was just another goofy dream i had about joining and i would give it up. My brother all ready served in Iraq and Afghanistan and now was out of the army so my dad wasn't to happy about giving another one over to the army. Sept 8th I came home and told my dad I was "PFC Johnson" and i leave for basic on 23 Sept. He swear that day. He was pissed and I didn't completely understand why but I left him alone and went into the house and told my mom.
I went back home and before long i was sitting in front of a army recruiter, an over weight 31 year old female that couldn't run worth crap. lol, I was sure he was laughing at me. He might not tell you this but catch him off guard then he just might. As the summer went on, i started running, went on a diet and started working out hard. In Aug i went and took my asvab again. I took it in high school, but I didn't go I was scared of drill sergeants. At this point i still was. LOL. I had to get a medical quaver cause i had a hysterectomy earlier that year and they made me wait till Sept to sign my paperwork. All this time, my parents acted supportive but my dad was hoping this was just another goofy dream i had about joining and i would give it up. My brother all ready served in Iraq and Afghanistan and now was out of the army so my dad wasn't to happy about giving another one over to the army. Sept 8th I came home and told my dad I was "PFC Johnson" and i leave for basic on 23 Sept. He swear that day. He was pissed and I didn't completely understand why but I left him alone and went into the house and told my mom.
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