Reception

Well for those of you who don't know, I shipped off to basic training on February 25th. I had a straight flight to Atlanta, Georgia where I was picked up by a shuttle. We then drove for three hours to Columbia, South Carolina which is where Fort Jackson is. I arrived at around midnight and started going through all the processing without delay. I didn't get to sleep until around 03:30 and we had to be up at 0400 of what was now that same day. The next day we had our first meal on the base. Meals are incredibly hectic and tense. There is no talking aloud and they somehow have to feed 2,000 soldiers in one chow hall. Because of this every meal takes about 2 hours to eat, or rather finish. You only get about ten minutes to eat because the rest of your allotted time is spent sanding quietly in line.

It is after this that we proceed to our first processing station (we spend about a week in reception which is where we take care of more paper work, medical things, and haircuts). The first station I went to was to get my head shaved. I kinda like having my head shaved because it feels cool and I don't have to worry about my hair being messed up. Then we all went through several other stations like medical. Medical was sucky. When they drew our blood (which was a lot of blood I might add) some dummy in my platoon wouldn't stop talking so our sergeant made him stand up and shout "I'm an idiot. I'm stupid." for an entire hour.

The next day I awoke at 0340 because it only takes me 2 minutes to get ready versus everyone elses 30 minutes. They all crowd into the showers and latrines to shave. I do all that the night before so it makes mornings a lot less stressful for me. Hopefully we will be getting our ACU's today. From what I have heard they are awesome. They basically make you feel invincible, so I can't wait.