Days 3 and 4

Day Three:

Life is so much better. We got about 4 hours of sleep last night, and it did me a world of good. I can process information again. Only the army would be able to make me genuinely grateful for four hours of sleeping. Since I was in better shape than most of my colleagues last night, I volunteered for firewatch and cut an hour out of my sleep time. I was not alone, Platoon Bravo, Company Charlie (or Bravo Platoon, Charlie Company, depending) is an exception here at Ft. Benning. We are a non-infantry platoon. In this case, it means about a third of us are officer candidates. And just about all of the OCS recruits signed up for firewatch last night. We didn’t realize this until after the fact, but it seems we were handling this the best. Not hard to understand, seeing as many of these younger guys are only now leaving home for the first time.

Today is some kind of govt holiday, or something. Is it President’s Day? I don’t know. All I know is that I have downtime after morning formation and chow. No sleeping allowed, of course, and they are checking on us. But I can write.

We have spent the past few days processing, fitting for uniforms, health checks, briefings, marching, standing, standing at attention, standing at parade rest, standing at ease, standing chest-to-back and shoulder-to-shoulder in a sea of recruits, and generally more standing.

My tendency to eat fast is an asset here. In fact, I have to work pretty hard to get my food down in the few minutes they allot me. Just scoop and chug, chewing non-essential. I think Mom would just starve here. No talking; not at chow, not in formation, not in class, not in line. Only in the barracks. And, barring holidays, we don’t spend much time in here.

We’ve got an awesome crew up here. Ft. Benning is the hardest BCT in the army, and we know this to be true because soldiers who trained elsewhere agree with the claim. It’s just a given, and everyone agrees; this place is the BCT to be proud of. So the more dodgy characters, the ones who don’t really want to be here, are all elsewhere.

Had to stop the letter for a number of hours as our down time turned into an inspection, a class, dinner, and PT immediately after dinner. Some recruits in my company do not understand the no-talking rule well enough, and I think some others just have personal vendetta against silence. I hurt all over. Starting to realize that these instructors are serious.

We leave processing and enter BCT Red Phase (the one where they don’t stop screaming at you) on Thursday. Had another inspection as I was writing the last sentence. Informed of a late-night formation; “Be ready,” said the sergeant. Don’t know exactly when. They do keep us busy. Will write again soon.

-Jeremy

Day Four:

Sunday. Day of rest, even for the military. Well, kind of. We still have formation throughout the day and eat like speed demons and aren’t allowed to sleep, but they didn’t harass us much at all. I’m even looking forward to a full six hours of sleep tonight; our Squad Bay Leader (the oldest recruit in the Bay) got tire of asking for firewatch volunteers and started assigning people. Since the OCS guys and I had been taking extended shifts on every night, the Squad Bay Leader told us to take the night off. Things are looking pretty good.

On the bad side, we’re hearing reports that we don’t have enough Charlie-Bravos in the company to form a BCT company at Fort Benning. We may have to move to Fort Jackson, South Carolina next week so as to finish training in time for OCS. Jackson, known as “Relaxin’ Jackson,” is notorious for its lax standards. I would not be pleased if we had to go there for BCT, but regardless, I’m assured that OCS will bring Benning and Jackson recruits into the same shape.

The guys in the Bay are a little listless what with our idleness. Nerves, anxiety, sleep deprivation, alien environments, and nicotine withdrawal have begun to affect some of our company, and we had to break up a fight earlier. Being caught fighting is an Article 15 (or article 14?), which generally means a spell in military prison. So we kept it as secret as possible. There are four groups that have developed in the Bay: a younger group of infantry recruits, an older group of infantry recruits, the loners, and the OCS guys. The groups generally intermingle and get along well, but some tension escalated out of control around noon and the two infantry groups had a little issue that was quickly diffused by some other recruits and all the OCS team. All five of us have a tendency for order and control, so naturally we all came form our corners of the room at the first disturbance and dove into the middle. Fun stuff. No problems, though. Should be settled.

Race relations here are HILAROUS. Some of our black recruits have taken any pretence of racial tension and have turned it into a joke; whenever anything goes wrong for them, they make some quip about the oppression of the white recruits or some comment about how our whiteness explains our complete inability to march in cadence. These guys are popular everywhere. Whenever anything serous goes wrong, they jump in to settle it down. Just real good guys. Unfortunately, both are infantry and will not be shipping with us to BCT. They will be missed.

Some of our recruits have a serious problem with silence, though, and I wish I could be ther when they go to Red Phase and learn the hard way. They’ve gotten us smoked a few times (I hurt all over), and the knowledge that they’ll get what’s coming isn’t nearly as satisfying as seeing is happen. I’ll know on Wednesday if I stay here or have BCT in Jackson, and I’ll keep you updates. But for now I have evening formation.

-Jeremy