Thursday, October 15, 2009

LONG day of inprocessing

This morning started with formation at 0415. It was a massive gaggle of all 370 of us, not really a formation! We did height and weight first. which went relatively quickly and then all gathered in an auditorium where we had short briefings from our TAC, a 1LT, and the Company commander a CPT and small hello from the Brigade Commander. We also had a brief from the Chaplin telling us the service times and locations. The big focus on these briefings was the big "DO NOTs" in the Army... fraternization, drunk driving, sexual assault.

We then had chow at 0700 and when we returned we found out that we were kicked out the auditorium. Typical Army we found a new place but it was smaller so we had to sit on the floor. Still it had air conditioning so I thought it was good. There was more than a few grumbles though. We did our inprocessing paperwork which took a while since we had such a wide range of people (direct commission, ROTC, green to gold, prior service, permanent party which are those being stationed at Ft. Sam). We got a quick lunch and then once more off to more briefings and paperwork.

Unforutnatley this breifing did not go as well. We were doing our paperwork that allowed us to get paid, very important! It was chaos since instead of going line by line they just had us fill it out ourselves..bad idea. There were so many questions. It took 3 hours to fill out 4 sheets! It was at this point that alot of complaining started. Personally I dozed off for a while in my seat.
Once that chaos was settled we got an hour long brief on military customs and courtesies. Mainly when and how to salute. We also found out our platoons. Its done alphabetically so I'm 2nd PLT. The first round of leadership was given to those prior service so not me :) Finally we were done at 1730 and I got some chow, and went for a run. I don't know tomorrow's schedule yet besides first formation at 0515 and CIF ( gear pickup) in the morning. First formation could be interesting since I answered the question more than once of "Whats a platoon?"

What I learned:

-Direct commissionees really really don't know anything. Be patient! and try to be nice when helping them out. After being corrected ten times they get very frustrated. More than one officer tried to walk around outside in ACUs when they didn't own a beret!
-Have account information ready including routing number. Even though I had direct deposit set up for my stipend you have to redo it unless you are goldbar or guard.

Oh and the good news. We are getting 4 days off for thanksgiving and we can get passes to fly anywhere in the continental USA!!!

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