Sent on KP duty. Missed inspection.
Pain in my groin. Fear hernia
is close. Suck it up and make
it past PT and EOCT.
Go on sick call Friday.
Won battalion inspection. 1st Platoon
fire watch tonight. Hope to
call [fiance] tomorrow.
12 more days!
My memory of KP (kitchen patrol) is vague. I did not peel potatoes, I'm sure. Mostly I just remember it being hot and humid in my uniform inside a large kitchen. I don't think soldiers experience KP any more since contractors provide such services. This allows troops to focus on combat, training, and resting from combat or training. Back when we had a mass Army of draftees representing lots of cheap manpower, it made more sense. I hated that duty. In the Guard, I really hated it. One guy in my unit used to joke, "Brian Dunn: E-4, MA, KP," when I got the duty, because my years of education were being put to use washing dishes.
Oh well. That was my duty, and I did it. I won't say that the prospect of having that duty didn't play a part in my decision not to reenlist when my term was up. Once I decided not to go to NCO school when I got a good career job and didn't want to have a rival military career that might interfere (I was an at-will employee in a political environment--shoot, my hiring had to be confirmed by a joint committee that had responsibility for my organization--despite being in a non-political position).
At least I missed the boredom and tension of an inspection. I'm sure my absence isn't what allowed us to win.
And we had more fire watch duty.
Doing labor did have the effect of aggravating whatever was wrong with my leg. It really wasn't a hernia risk (remember, Doctor Dignified is not a real doctor--he has a master's degree, in history!), but the muscle damage was so close that it just radiated out from there to feel like a groin injury. I never did find out if there was cartilage tearing as the doctors wondered. I eventually healed after getting out of basic.
I remained focused on the physical training test and the end of cycle test on military skills. I wasn't really worried about either, except that I worried that my leg would just fail on me.
I could count down days at this point. That made me happy.
