Adventures | For Derek

Basic Training - Day 6

by Melissa—2004.10.12 @ 1440

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October 4, 2004

Monday was suppose to be our last day at reception. We basically spent the entire day in the auditorium. This really taxed my patience-- not the sitting, but endlessly enduring the immature soldiers talking. We were supposed to be reading silently, but for some reason they wouldn't stop. This really gets bad when the Drill Sergeants come in and get all upset. The Drill Sergents don't really make us do any thing in reception except sit, stand, and read for long periods of time. Maybe even delay eating. Today was the first "different" punishment. The Drill Sergeant made us hold out our reference books (a.k.a. "smart books") out in front of us for serveral minutes. It burned my shoulders, but it wasn't too bad. It really was frustrating because the privates wouldn't stop talking! They are really going to have a hard time when they ship down range. Which brings me to the point-- shipping late in the aternoon, before dinner, the NCO called out a list of line numbers, one of which was mine. I wasn't sure why I was picked but I was glad to get out of the auditorium. After about an hour we started worrying that we weren't shipping. A quick glance at the soldiers (about 24) revealed all the injured or delayed entries (one private in crutches.) After another half hour of sitting, the processing NCO told us we were not shipping Tuesday with the rest of our Co. We were all a little disappointed, but he said we were going to ship on Thursday. Regardless, we all were starting Basic on Friday. The difference is that we won't be in the same company and will graduate at different times. Sad, since we've been building friendships all week long. After dinner, we met again and the First Sergeant briefed us, trying to buoy our spirits. On a side note, these young privates use way too much shoe polish on their shoes. So, I'm going to ship out Thursday. New privates already shipped in and are in our bay #3. They are a lot more rowdy than we were-- TONS more. They've got mouths. And to make it worse, they're not very disciplined. I'm going to get smoked. These are the troops I'll be shipping with on Thursday.

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