Thursday, March 23rd

Today is Thursday, March 23rd. I arrived at Ft. Leonard Wood yesterday at 2100 (that’s 9:00pm). I left San Diego at 4:30 am, so yesterday was quite long.

I flew into the St. Louis airport and went to the USO office. These offices are pretty much military only lounges, but we met there with about 50 other recruits (there were 4 of us from San Diego). After 3 hrs on a bus, we arrived at Ft. “Lost in the woods”, Misery.

Yesterday night we stayed up until well past midnight trying to get a jump on our processing. (Right now, I’m not actually in boot camp. I’m in “reception”, which is the processing portion before boot camp that lasts 5 – 7 days.) We handed over our orders, were briefed on contraband, had a “shakedown” of all of our luggage, issued PT uniforms (sweats, shirts, cool ARMY t-shirts, etc.), issued bedding, laundry bags, lockers, locks, bunks, and finally were briefed on tomorrow’s (today’s) events.

More recruits kept arriving throughout the night, so “lights out” after our briefing lasted about 30 minutes so more recruits could find a way to their beds. Three more busloads arrived between our lights out and wake up call at 3:30am. I’d say I got two hours of total sleep last night. Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy.

Today, however, was a different day. The day was again long, but much more fun. Wake up was at 3:30 and all 200 of us were in formation outside at 4:00. By 4:30, two people had passed out and one poor fellow puked 10 ft from the drill sergeant! We were being briefed inside an auditorium at the time on all of our responsibilities while at reception. I guess the kid just couldn’t hold it in.

Later on this morning another kid passed out for a good five minutes because he saw his blood during a blood draw. They’re dropping like flies already, and it’s not even boot camp yet! Oh, and three more dropped out because of previously undisclosed medical conditions, one of which was an apparent allergy to metal. (?)

For the rest of us though, it’s pretty much a game. Throughout most of the day today we were issued over $1,000 worth of uniforms and equipment. BDU’s, utility belts, canteens, cold and warm weather boots, customized patches for our uniforms, etc. It was like Christmas celebrating the birth of testosterone.

I’m not sure how I feel about this place yet. Some of the higher ranks are real jerks. Today, one PFC (private first class) threatened to put us in formation outside in the cold if we didn’t stand heel-to-toe (literally). A soon-to-be PFC in our group of recruits grumbled about how he will soon have the same rank as him after boot camp. The other guys enjoyed that. I kind of just smiled, because I knew I would out rank them both.

For some reason, I am more comfortable keeping my future rank a secret. I have yet to meet another E-4 recruit in our entire company, and many of our processing personnel are E-4’s also. It’s just weird.

Anyway, lights out in 5 minutes. I should get a good 4 hrs of sleep tonight@ BTW, the food is actually quite good.

Benjamin