Turned in gear. They rejected
my webbing as too dirty!
Motherfuckers. Had to buy replacement.
$5.50 to get out is worth it
at this point. Still, I couldn't have
scrubbed that stuff any cleaner.
Real PT again today. What's
the deal? Oh yeah, Captain [Hotel].
Leg and knee better but still
hurt. 3 more days. Beltline
this afternoon. Get my orders
to go home! Real hot today.
No go. Marched 1/2 hour to Beltline
only to be told to march back.
I'm split option. No info. today.
Got high and tight haircut.
Hour to screw around. Time to
stop swearing so much.
We turned in our gear. It was pretty worn out to begin with, truth be told. It was no worse for wear after I borrowed it for 2 months. But the soldier before me rejected my webbing straps. I had to go next door to the small military clothing store and buy replacements. I had to buy two right-side straps because they had no left-side straps. So I bought them and took them back to the soldier who'd rejected mine. He spent some time inspecting my brand new straps--perhaps trying to determine whether two new straps from one side were acceptable. They were. My old ones probably got issued to the next basic training company.
I recall waiting around outside with our company, relaxing and joking in our veteran status as we watched new trainees coming in to get gear issued to them. Some of our company called out, "What kind of bees are they?" And some happy soon-to-be-graduates called out, "Newbies!"
So it begins. At the beginning of basic those who had been around for three days were the veterans compared to the rest of us. Now we were soldiers compared to the newbies. Regular soldiers looked down on reservists. Army Reservists looked down on the Guard. Rangers looked down on regular soldiers. Special forces looked down on Rangers. Delta Force and SEALs probably look down on mere special forces. Line troops look down on rear echelon types. Heck, we in the signal corps looked down on the combat service support units because we were a combat support (no service in there) unit. In our Army it was not harmful since everyone works together in the end. But it can be a crippling attitude, if unchecked by good leadership.
We also had real PT again courtesy of our company commander. It reminded me that my legs and knee were still injured.
We went to beltline (where troops are processed) to see if we had our orders. I did not. Eventually, on our last day, after me and another college boy on split option (basic training one summer and military school the next summer to make room for the school year) were kind of overlooked, one of our sergeants took us back to beltline to get orders and plane tickets to send us on our way.
Sadly, rather than letting our hair grow a bit more to blend back into civilian life, I had to get a high and tight--basically bald with a bit more left in an oval on the top.
Speaking of blending, I vowed to start watching my language again. I succeeded a bit. It actually wasn't until my first child was on the way that I really managed to clean up my language. I figured waiting until Mister was born wouldn't leave me enough time to really stop. It worked.
