Day One Down

I completed my first day of drill today. I loved it and hated it all at the same time. I hated that I had to get there before the sun was up, but once the day got started I was over it. There were bigger things to worry about, mostly trying to figure out how and where I was supposed to stand during first formation to avoid drawing too much attention to myself. I did okay with that.

Then we had to do a PT test, which went pretty well I suppose. Push-ups and sit-ups aren't exactly a party, but I do okay with those. Well enough that nobody gets on my case. It's the dreaded running that gets me. We had to go out and run 2 miles in what one of the Sergeants described as "beautiful" weather. Cold and windy is the description that I would use, but since nobody asked me, or really cared what I thought of the weather conditions I found myself out there running in the freezing cold, and wanting to take my own life part way through my second mile. I did walk for a quarter of a mile or so there at the end, and then finally decided to just get the torture over with, and finished in a dead sprint, which seemed to really please the SGT's. Unfortunately for the guy right behind me he attempted a reverse tactic and took off like a shot at the very beginning, and then crapped out and walked in the last half mile or so and was greeted at the finish line by a SGT who went into a screaming frenzy.

After the run I kind of thought I was going to die when they made us run in formation and cadence all the way back to the Armory. It was really cold, and we were so hot that you could literally see the steam coming up off of everyone. After that it was back to formation, and then we had to go get weighed and measured and do some pull-ups before they dismissed us for a few minutes to the showers. I was running down the hall to get back to formation, and zipping up my blouse on my way when I got spotted by a SGT who yelled at me to "never leave the latrine like that again." I think that was the only time I got yelled at today.

Some of the guys didn't make it back into formation in time and we all had to get into position to do push-ups and then just stay there balanced on our toes and hands until everyone was back in formation. The guys were probably 5 minutes late, but I swear it felt like an hour. It kind of made me wonder why they bothered to have us shower at all.

We stayed in formation for a bit, and then split up into classes based on how many times you've attended drill. The first half of the class was pretty routine stuff, teaching us about ranks, pay grades, etc. We stayed there until lunch.

At lunch they lined us up and while we were standing in line the squad leaders came around and asked us questions. If you can't answer correctly you get sent to the back of the line. I fortunately managed to get my questions right and never got sent to the back. I thought the food was fantastic. I know I'm not a picky eater, but I really thought it was good, however a bunch of the guys sitting by me only ate half of their food because they felt that it wasn't meeting their standards. Good luck to them in basic.

Once lunch was finished we cleaned up, fell back into formation for a few minutes and then returned to the classroom. One of the SGT's made us stand with our arms held out parallel to the floor for a few minutes, until they started to burn, and then made us do the claps over our head until I felt like my arms were going to fall off, and then he made us stand there for another few minutes with them straight out, the whole time saying things like "who's going to quit first? Who wants to go home and tell their family that they couldn't cut it today?" I wanted to quit, but there was no way I was going to quit, because I sensed that they'd just make me do something else terrible as punishment. It was actually a very painful experience, and I sense that I'll be repeating it sometime in the near future.

When class was over we all met back together for a brief award ceremony for people who over acheived on their PT test, then back to formation, and finally dismissed. It was 9 hours, but they keep you so busy that it felt like a much shorter day.

We were given parting instructions reminding us that we are on military orders until Sunday night, so not to do anything stupid tonight, and to be back in formation at 0745, wearing PT gear and ready for more PT, and with that off to bed I go, and I pray that I can move my arms for tomorrow's fun and games.