Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Monday, 4 JULY 88

Saw 3 movies--Casual Sex?,
Friday the 13th Part N, and Rambo
III. 1st 2 sucked. Last all right but
perhaps only in comparison. Up
late watching fireworks.
[Sergeant Delta] got in trouble!
Called [fiance]. Slow day.

God, what dreck I watched that day. But parking us in a theater was an easy way for the drill sergeants to give us time off without worry we'd wander off and get in trouble. And it was on our dime. The Friday the 13th movie must have been Part 7.

The fireworks were the best part of the day. I must say, having a patriotic Fourth of July on a military base is a great way to wrap up basic training. We marched out in formation to see the fireworks and it was awesome.

One of our sergeants, in an effort to pal around with us, made a mocking gesture about a women walking by who was clearly not just coming off of basic training after getting lean and fit. The women's husband noticed and confronted our drill sergeant. He attempted to calm things down and at one point ordered us in ranks and to about face.

One 17-year-old kid in the platoon actually wanted to attack the man--a former drill sergeant, it turns out--in defense of our drill sergeant. What an idiot kid. He really needed to brush up on the lawful orders thing and what we swore an oath to fight for. I guess he was too young to have seen Taps. But the drill sergeant's order to us took our company out of the dispute as a factor that might intrude.

Our drill sergeant turned out to be a good guy, but he made a mistake. And was rude. And he knew it. He ultimately defused the situation and we got on with our day.

But yeah, fireworks on an Army base was pretty cool. Beat the Detroit River fireworks I saw from a small plane flying nearby a few years before that, even though that was pretty awesome, too.