Since I haven't been able to use the internet for a while, I've been writing a little on the laptop. Rather than post date the entries, I'll just cut and paste them:
17 OCT
After hundreds of hugs and many tears shed at the send-off ceremony yesterday, we debarked to Camp Ripley one last time. We picked up our remaining gear and tried to catch some sleep while waiting to load the buses again, this time to the airport. Most of the soldiers flew out of Fort Snelling, while a small group of us flew commercially.
We arrived in Philadelphia this morning, the 17th, and was shipped to Fort Dix from there. There was an amnesty briefing, and then we settled into our rooms. The billeting was nothing special, but was quite a bit better than our typical Ripley barracks. The food was also decent at dinner this evening, with a few different entree options as well as some short order.
It sounds like we will be pretty busy in the upcoming weeks. This week will mostly be checking in and squaring away last-minute gear, medical, and administrative issues. There’ll be lots of standing in lines and the typical “hurry-up and wait” that we’re used to. We’ll also start our physical training, which I am looking forward to. This is the part of the adventure that really isn't that interesting or fun.
18 OCT
At the crack of midnight last night I was awoken to what I thought was an alarm clock. When I realized it was a fire alarm, I was angry that we had a drill on the very first night. As I shook off the haze of sleep a little more, I was surprised to find that people were yelling frantically and I detected the faint smell of smoke. The guys in my room all jumped to action and began throwing on clothing. We ran down the stairs from the third floor of the barracks through increasingly heavy smoke. It was nearly impossible to see where we going by the time we reached the ground floor. After everyone was outside and accounted for, the firemen went in.
The firemen determined that there had been a fire started in a waste basket. They said they found a cigarette butt in the mix of smoldering paper and cardboard. We'd been standing out in upper 30 degree cold in our shorts and t-shirts. Needless to say, nobody was very happy about the whole situation. In the morning, all of our things still smelled like a campfire... welcome to Fort Dix!
24 OCT
It seems like we've been here for much longer than seven days. The last few have been moving more quickly however, as we've begun the "validation" process. With most of the administrative tasks out of the way we're studying-up, training, and having classes on basic soldiering skills. As we move further along in the validation process these tasks will become more complex.
I'm finding very quickly that a huge factor in making this training easy or difficult is the group that you train with. I'm very lucky to be roomates with the 11 guys in my bay. Its pretty close quarters, so its nice that everyone has a positive attitude. One of the guys in my room is Andy Vesely, who I've known since sixth or seventh grade. I'm in the same platoon as the rest of my roomates, however, being the medic, I'm not in their squad. Reguardless, they treat me as a part of their team and nearly everyone in the platoon calls me 'Doc' or 'Doc Z'.
