Up in the Air

I'm on my way to BCT. Thus far it happened like this.

Yesterday all the recruits that were either shipping out or just going to MEPS checked into the Radisson and had a briefing at 8. Lights out was at 10. Our wake up call was at 4:30 and I've been awake since.

Typically everyone takes a chartered bus to MEPS in the morning but today they lost the bus. The hotel instead called a few cabs and shuttled us there a handful at a time.

Upon arrival to MEPS we all went through the motions of medical screenings and getting travel arrangements. Mine of course went awry. For some reason my name kept getting locked out of the computer system and I would have to wait for 10 minutes each time to try again.

The MEPS was short staffed and everyone was stressed, the one who most easily showed it of course was Scott. A civilian that was of equally bad demeanor the last time I went through MEPS.

Eventually I got on my way with my "travel squad." There are six of us that are all going to the same base and we all travel together.

The only real problem I encountered was when I showed up to the airport and my reservation was under the name "Manuel T Towse." With the wrong birthday to boot.

After making a call to the travel liaison who made a few more calls, the reservation was changed and I was on my way.

On our flight from Salt Lake City to Denver I sat next to a National Guardsmen, who had been in for 42 years.

Once we got to Denver we took out meal checks and went to the nicest place we could find. We were all allowed 23 dollars and all but one of us went over the limit and had to pay the difference. But 3.42 for a full rack of ribs isn't so bad...

Now I'm sitting at the gate waiting for our flight to St. Louis. Upon arrival, as far as I understand we should be getting on a bus to take ua to the reception center at Fort Leonard Wood. It is at the reception center at which we will all get to spend a couple days filling out paperwork and getting shots. 

I don't know if I'll have any time to add a last post but I want all of you to know that I am going to use the restroom aboard this flight and cross that off my bucket list.

Walking it Alone

Lately I've come to realize that no matter what you do, you're going to be alone. I've found this to be especially true since I've joined the military.

I grew up in Utah so you probably know that there are a few Mormons around. I'm one of them. Mormons you see, send their 19 year old young men out on missions to preach the gospel and whatnot. It's supposed to be viewed as an opportunity but I've come to find it as more of an expectation. I'm not of course trying to cheapen the faith and resolve of those who do serve missions I have the utmost respect for those who do since many of them are my closest friends. I'm just adding some substance to my next point.

When I tell someone, particularly a girl, (since I really don't care about and male's opinion about me...at all) I can see them instantly coming to a conclusion about me. It's pretty interesting. It basically boils down to these 5 courses of action.

1. You should be serving a mission.

2. You can't be that smart if you decided to throw away the opportunity to attend college.

3. You're leaving soon so we probably shouldn't date.

4. You're leaving soon and I want to kind of date you, but not call it a relationship since there's no way you'd ever be able to convince me to sustain any type of loyalty to you.

5. I'm a decent human being and I would love to associate myself with you without looking for your smallest mistakes to call you out on so that I don't seem like a jerk that really just wanted to hook up and dump you right before you leave.

5 of course is my personal favorite. Of course it hasn't happened, and probably won't happen in the next 7 and a half days, but it's always nice to think of it as an option.

As for family, I like my dad. That's about it.

Getting Nearer

I now have 16 days, 1 hour, and 18 minutes until I report for duty at the Provo Army Recruitment Center. I've been going to the gym and feel like I've been making progress. So hopefully BCT won't be nearly as miserable as it's going to be for most recruits.

In other news another one of my friends, Clayton Dunnivan has also decided to enlist in the Army. I'm a recruiting machine.

I also recently passed my APFT so I will officially be starting my Army career as an E-3, or in other words Private First Class. So I'm pretty excited for that. At this point I kind of wish I had gotten my Eagle Scout Award so I wouldn't have had to do all this extra recruitment stuff.

Now I've got 16 days. 1 hour, and 8 minutes. Time's a wastin'

Tagging Along

Just recently I think my friend Paul Sanchez decided to join the Army Reserves, I say maybe because it's not really in stone. More of a maybe than a hopefully even. The biggest reason he has decided to take this step in his life is for the money he will receive for education, which in this economy is a large factor for a lot of people that are deciding to enlist. My recruiter Sergeant Anderson gave him the packet to fill out and said bring it back ASAP. Hopefully he goes through with it. I feel like he needs the Army just as much as it needs him.

Sleeping In

My current job is allowing me about 5 hours of sleep per night, so getting up at 6:00 AM for our latest company sized Future Soldier function was pretty easy compared to my usual wake up time of 4:30.

All of the Future Soldiers met at the recruiting station and we left at 6:45 for the Army Reserve base up by Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. I don't remember what it's called, so I'll probably add that in later.

There were about 75 Future Soldiers from the different recruiting stations around northern Utah present. We fell into formation in the parking lot and were given instructions on what we would be doing that day. There were 3 classes that we rotated through. A weapons information class, a simulated firing range with handguns, and a class from Army OneSource (A program designed to help the families of soldiers in any way it can) and Wells Fargo. Oh, and lunch, a really good catered Italian lunch, probably to try to convince us that food in the Army is going to be great.

The class from OneSource was pretty boring, probably because I don't have a family I need to support. Naturally I tood infinitely more interest in the weapons classes, and shot pretty well with the simulated pistols.

All in all it was a good experience and I'm glad I went. In the course of the function I met a couple more people that have aspirations of being something great in the Army, and are idiots.

Frisbee and Snacks!

Yesterday I went to my first Future Soldier Function. A Future Soldier Function is basically just a meeting all the recruits in the Army Delayed Entry Program at our recruiting station have every other Thursday. I asked my recruiter, Sgt Anderson what we do at these things. He said, "Basically we just play ultimate frisbee and have some food and stuff."

So I show up to the function ready to play some extremely feminine sports...like frisbee. But after a short presentation from some Human Resources lady outlining the benefits and programs available for our families, and taking pictures for the Future Soldier Wall of Fame in the office, we got ready to go play. It was at this moment that one of the recruiters said "Let's go run up to the Y!" It was at this moment that I thought to myself, "I've made a huge mistake..."

Long story short, we got to the Y and started running...which lasted all of like 50 feet for most of the recruits. I of course am no average recruit. I ran all the way to the second of ten switchbacks...immediately wishing I was as smart as the kids that didn't start hiking up the side of a mountain with a full sprint.

There was one recruit, that is apparently in my "squad," that was wearing weights on his ankles and wrists. He was also dressed like the Unabomber or something. He made it about twenty-five feet before looking like he was about to have a cardiac episode. So one of the recruiter's told him to take off his damn weights and keep going. I don't know what happened after that, but on of the recruiters said that he quit after the first switchback...Army Strong!

I'll just say that I hope that a couple of my fellow recruits end up in supply and logistics...like so far away from the combat that they supply the supply and logistics guys.

Anyway. We all made it to the top of the Y, with the exception of Mr. Kaczynski of course.

Then we all ran down, so that we'd impress girls.

Probably didn't work.

PFC Cody Towse...eventually.

Well there are a couple ways you can start at an advanced pay grade in the United States Army. Things like college credit, ROTC, Eagle Scout Awards, and things like that. Since I'm an underachiever...I have none of those things under my belt, but alas there was hope. Basically you just have to be able to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test, and refer either two of your borderline retarded friends, or just one that has at least some semblance of organized thought in their skull, meaning they get at least 50 on the ASVAB.

I got my cousin Dustin Campbell to sign up too. Unfortunately for my pride's sake, he can put together an organized thought pretty well. Since he beat my score on the ASVAB with a 96. (I got a 93) Bummer, I know. I haven't take the physical fitness test yet but I don't think there's really any way I can fail it, it's not a particularly grueling thing. So between Dustin and my PFT, I'm going to start as as E-3. (Private First Class) This all means I get more pay initially starting out, and there are going to be about 10 fewer people in the army that can give me orders...