1st Letter

This is Lisa, Keith's wife. I will be updating his posts every time I receive a new letter from him in Basic.

Bus Ride to Tampa- 4/25 Monday

I had the pleasure of eating breakfast with my wife this morning. Up until this point, I have not gotten emotional or teary eyed. However, after my mom sent me a text with a prayer, combined with watching my wife, my emotions started to take over. My wife then dropped me off at the recruiter's office for me to wait for the shuttle to take me down to Tampa.

I'm riding in the van to Tampa right now. Luckily the van is full and I don't think we will be picking anyone else up on the way down. On a side note, the guy behind me is driving me crazy. He is constantly making this sniffing noise as if he has to blow his nose! I usually don't get annoyed like this, but I can compare this to water boarding torture but for the ears. I am passing the time by practicing and reciting the soldiers creed, the general orders, the Army Song, and other material I will need the know at Basic.

About to head off to bed for the evening. We stopped in Lakeland on the way and picked up a few more people and then went to the hotel by MEPS. We waited for about 15 mins before I got my first of what I'm sure will be the first of many briefings. Basically get rid of any knives, don't knock-up any females, and get back to the hotel by 10pm. After being let free, my wife came by and picked me up. We went to the hotel she's staying at and enjoyed each other's company and went out for dinner. After she dropped me off, I ran a little on the the treadmill and took a shower. Now I sleep till about 0445 and get ready to got to MEPS. Hopefully, all goes well!



4/26- MEPS

The morning started off at around 0430. I probably fell asleep around midnight and slept on and off through the night. I guess I kept worrying about waking up late. I drank a little water to aid my anticipated urine fest. After getting my stuff together, I made my way over to the dining room at the hotel. I only ate a very small portion considering I worried about my weight. After breakfast, we all waited for the bus to take us to the MEPS building. What I found annoying was that there were a number of people that could not help but break out, light, and puff away a cigarette in record time.

I got situated painlessly at MEPS upon arriving there were no issues with my files or records. Then they had all of the shippers (people like me) into the examination room to see us in our underwear. First, they took height and weight measurements. Then the people that passed were asked to perform a few movements and questioned about traffic tickets and Dr. visits. However, people that did not pass the height and weight standards had to be measured for Body Fat Indext (BFI). Evidently, I was one pound over! After measureing me, they found that I was around about a 21% BFI, the limit for entering the Army is 26%, so I was fine. On a side note, it was unfortunate to see one guy who was suppose to be shipping to Ft. Benning as an officer candidate school recruit get held back. Evidently, he had his appendix taken out and there is a 6 month wait before shipping. Today marked 4 days prior to the 6 month mark and the Dr. said he was disqualified for another week. Problem for him is that OCS ship dates are very scattered and random and he already quit his job. His recruiters thought that a fews days difference would not be a problem.

My wife was able to make it to the building to see me before she left Tampa to got to work. She was able to sit with me between me going to see various people process my paperwork. After getting my contract finalized, I waited for another swearing ceremony. Luckily my wife was able to be in the ceremony room and could take as much video and as many pictures she wanted. It was very surreal to have finally swear in and to know that I would be starting a new chapter for my wife and I's life. She had to take off promptly. I did not get very emotional like I thought I would when she left. This was around 11:40, I then had my free lunch and waited till about 1430 before getting in a van to leave. I'm already running into guys I do not want in my platoon. Mainly the smokers who kept crying about not being able to go outside to smoke a cigarette. I would have expected that they would have to quit by now as to limit their jonesing at basic. It was so bad that in the two minutes of us leaving the building and getting into the van, the guys had to light up a cigarette! They then got threatened with not shipping for not listening. We made a couple of stops before getting to Ft. Benning.

As we pulled up to reception, I started feeling nervous for the first time. I wasn't sure if something I brought was considered a weapon. Turns out my van missed the training video that explained a lot. Oh well. They then yelled at us, called us out for forms, made fun of people's names, and walked us out to another part of this huge building to get our duffel bags and first bit of clothing to start. They then had us back to the first room and had us stuff our personal bag from home into our duffel bag. This is where I needed to call SSG WTF back in orlando for telling me that my carry-on roll on would not be a problem for me. I had to stuff that thing in my duffel somehow walk to our barracks.

It's 0350, I have not gotten any sleep. I have to wake up at 0400 and what's worse is that there was a group getting in after us.

For my first jerk in my group award, I would like to issue it to private Blondie. He is a 25U-signal guy who is lazy, whiny, and annoying as hell! I almost told him off but bit my tongue and decided to let him hang himself. Hopefully, not at any inconvenience to me. He was actually laying down when we were issued our clothes.
Anyways, it's 0400 and I am gonna S.S. (shower and shave). I usually do 3 S's, but you can guess the 3rd, My friends know what I am talking about.

Wednesday, 27 April 2011- 1st Day Reception
The 40 hr. first day

As I said before I did not get the chance to go and sleep the night before. Wow. I'm in such a horrible mood right now. It's about 10:15pm. My morning started off with a chaotic 5 min. breakfast at 5am. I am a little disappointed because I thought the Army was going to start changing the food standards and dropping the fried foods and using whole grain. Hah NOPE!

The morning started out with us doing some drilling with a Sgt. that helps the Drill Sergeants. We will call him Sgt. Crazy Eye. He was the most entertaining yet scare stare. He also is kind of funny. His voice broke during cadence and laster he said if anyone made fun of him and his voice he would f*ck then up. BTW, there's a rumor the DS's can't curse at you...Big Lie!! Stupid goes hand in hand with the 4 letter words too.

Later, I did my eye exam. I have 20/20 vision so no BCGS! Then our shots, not fun. Then, we got issued our uniforms. And our stuff is getting heavier and heavier to carry. We have had to move our things multiple times. Each time it gets heavier.

Holy shit, we finally got time around 1930 to go to our bunks for free time and cell phone time until 2100. Yay...it would have been fine except there was a tornado in the area and we had to evacuate from our barracks upstairs with all of our stuff and move to another packed barracks across the street. FML baby. Then, it gets better. While I was sitting in what I thought was an empty bunk. I tried calling my wife one last time because I hung up on her during the tornado scare. And then I text her "tornado" like an idiot. We then had to drag all of our crap downstairs to another barracks. I had a bed but when I tried to call my wife back, no answer. We could hear tornado sirens! Afterward, I finally went to take a shower and went to sleep promptly after writing a little.

Reception Day 2- 4/28/2011

I slept like a rock, no tossing or dreaming. I did however wake up at 0330, rather 0400 and could not get back to sleep. Oh well. We then did breakfast...nothing exciting. You are not allowed to look around or talk. I did wake up to my butt hurting from the penicillin shot. We did a hearing test and I'm not deaf thank God. We saw the dentist, I have good teeth evidently. Pretty neat Star Trek-esque X-ray. We went and did DEERS (insurance for family) my wife has insurance again!!

After seeing DEERs, the unit took individual pictures in our ACUs, but with just the top. Later, we went to dinner. I clocked my self at 5:57 for chow time. After dinner, we listened to SGT crazy eyes about how we have been doing a good job and that we need to stay motivated. He explained that somehow he has stayed motivated for his daughter even though his wife killed herself. He's a strange character, he said "If she wants to kill herself fine! There's another Mrs. Crazy Eyes out there." I like talking with him though. I feel like I am slowly feeling the Army mindset and having fun a little even though the new boots are a little sore and the duffel bag is killing my back.

After getting back from our dinner, we formed up in our chair less classroom. One DS informed me and 4 buddies of mine that out of 45 people we only had our forms from the night before. I replied back, "What..." He said " You know I love those civilian answers. I love them so much that you are to do CQ duty tonight from 2100 to 2200." Oops. He later explained to me that they are just trying to get the civilian out of us. He was actually pretty cool about it. I could have gotten 0000 til 0100.

They then told us where to move our bunks for the last time, hopefully. I think it was planned into a team exercise because he told 70 people to fill in a 68 bunk bay. Total cluster-fornication! But we got it. As for CQ duty, I ended up riding with the main DS in a van to get ice for the ice stations for heat injuries. After that  he had my battle buddy and I go and fill up these huge camel back filling stations called water buffaloes. It was not bad even though it went into my sleep time. The weather here at night is amazing. I also got to make a new friend with a "Kennedy" accent. PVT Chowder. We talked about our families. He has 3 kids, and he is 33. Nice guy.
Well off to sleep

P.S. I'm loving our names right now. Everyone is "Hey guy, hero, or retard."