Week 2: Death By Powerpoint Cont'd...

First of all, for everyone who has wanted to see a picture of me in my uniform, here it is, not the best photo but it'll have to do for now! 

So death by power point as really set in.  Yesterday we had a 'leaders and communication' lecture that lasted into the afternoon followed by an older gentleman who was an entomologist and talked about arthropods for an hour and a half...hilarious!  (mostly bugs we might encounter in the middle east).  He was so excited to speak to us about something, you could tell he was passionate about, he was giddy and smiled the entire time.  Then we had two more briefings that I can't even remember the topic they were so boring!  Today I went to the dental clinic so no PT for me!  Myself and two other guys from my plattoon all had to go, I was the only one with a car so I drove us there, or at least attempted to.  We got lost rather quickly after the roads they told us to take were close for a company run.  The map they gave us was also horribly mislabeled and wrong and the dental clinic wasn't even listed.  So after lots of google searching and phone calls we got ourselves in the generall viscinity but still could not locate the building.  A quick stop in the shopette for one last attempt for directions and we made our way there, assuming we would be the last of the 20 of us from the company to arrive.  We soon came to realize that only one person had arrived before us!!  Still late but not the latest!  After that we had several different JAG officers brief us the entire day on different topics, some very interesting, so incredibly boring.  Hopefully I learned a little something! 

Few things I have learned so far in this course: NO FRATERNIZATION!  We get a lecture on this almost daily in some form or another, and the fastest way to ruin your career is to start a relationship with an enlisted soldier.  Second fastest way to ruin your entire career and lose your RN license is drink and drive.   

Something else that's important to know: some of the branches have different ranks, and to make matters worse, they all have their rank on different places on the uniform.  The Army puts it right in the middle of the chest, easy to find, easy to see, the Air Force is on the sleeve, not easy to see from a distance coming head-on, the Navy...well, we're still trying to figure that one out.  It's all very confusing, we think it's on the collar but often times see other emblems there as well.  Hard to salute someone when you can't figure out their rank that quickly! 

Day 2, 3, and 4: And So It Begins...

Tuesday morning we started out in the classroom with a few briefs to get everyone squared away, then we headed out to the pt field for some drill and ceremony.  Drill and ceremony is marching and formation.  After 30 minutes in the pt field, our entire company mastered marching and marched off to breakfast.  Then it was back to the classroom to learn the "in's and out's" of the military.  Did a lot of administration stuff so we can get paid, had briefs by the chaplain, company commander, and learned more about uniforms and saluting.

Tips: One thing I had learned previously from my friend Caitlin that I had forgotten about was that you can only have one friend.  If you go anywhere in groups of 3 or more you have to walk in formation.  So my battle buddy is my roommate and she can be only friend...(well, not really but...)

Yesterday started out with PT in the morning, I think we had to report to formation around 0530 but it was so early, I don't remember.  That was pretty basic, and then it was to the classroom we went for a full day of briefs on everything from a welcome from the battallion commander, Leave/Mileage passes, inspector general's office, sexual assault, Equal Opportunity, and lots of other stuff.  It was a really long day, and often times difficult to stay awake.  They don't really appreciate students falling asleep in class but proper military etiquette says that you can go stand in the back of the classroom to keep yourself from falling asleep.  Half way through most of the briefs, about half of the group is standing in the back of the room, it gets pretty amusing.  I was also saluted for the first time, that was weird and slightly awkward but kind of cool at the same time! 

Today was full of...you guessed it...more briefs.  I was dismissed from class for the morning to head to the G2 office and get my security clearance sorted out but being the over achiever that I am, did the majority of it on my own time, the night before because I thought it was something I had to do so I was done in about an hour and made it back to class for most of the morning.  It was ok though because that way I didn't miss anything important.  We heard from a variety of people today on heat/injury prevention, Tricare (which is our insurance), suicide prevention, Army Values, Army family team building, substance abuse, officer roles, and finished off the day with a security brief.  Fortunaly, many of our presentors are pretty funny, especially the Captain who gave our heat/injury prevention breif.  A good sense of humor definitely makes the time pass much faster!  We also had a meeting with just the Army Nurses and our Nurse Liaison.  I met a couple of nurses that will be going to Walter Reed with me.  I'm so glad to have finally met some people.  It's interesting to find out where everyone is going after training.  A lot of people who had a first choice of Walter Reed and another choice of Germany and they got Germany, my first choice, and I got Walter Reed!  It makes no sense.  They did tell us that if we found someone with our exact situation, and a lot of other criteria, we could switch assignments.  I'm thinking about it, but I've already done so much prep for Walter Reed and gotten excited about it, I think I'll just keep it.  Besides,  I think there is a lot of additional paperwork I would need to do to change to an overseas location. 

Tomorrow we don't have PT and we get to sleep in!  Pretty excited about that!  We're headed to CIF to get our field gear issued and that's all we have going on for the day.  It should still take several hours to get everyone through but hopefully we won't go until 1800.  It's also going to be a great day because then it's the weekend!  We can't go anywhere outside of a 50 mile radius of post but 2 days off will be nice.  Next week is a 4 day week because of the labor day holiday and I think we're going to take a trip to Corpus Christi...should be interesting!

 

Day 1: In-Process

   

We had in-processing today.  Yay!  Reporting for active duty on my birthday!  It was a pretty light day.  We had to report to the auditorium anytime between 0900-1130 and 1300-1600.  Kinsey, my roommate, and I thought we should get there early and beat the rush so we showed up exactly at 0900.  Low and behold, everyone else had the exact same idea, except they showed up about 0830.  So the whole process included filling out 3 forms, picking up about 6 papers, answering a few questions and getting our height and weight taken.  It took us about an hour and a half.  After that though, we were done for the day.  Kinsey and I decided to grab lunch at DFAC (which is the dining hall--it's like college cafeteria all over again) and run a few errands so we took off for Target and the dollar store.  Then we went to clothing supply to get MEDCOM (medical command) unit patches and to Kim's, a tailor off post to get some rank sewn on to my cap.  More DFAC for dinner and back to our room for the evening.  Tomorrow is our first day of classroom training at 0530.  Will hopefully learn a lot tomorrow and have more to write about! 

Tip: If you are coming to San Antonio in the summer, make sure you get a sun shield for your car windshield!!  Especially if you have leather!  A guy in the July class had part of the leather on his center console melt and bubble and his window decal also melted to the back window. 

There You Are, Texas Star!

So this morning started off great, within 5 minutes of leaving the hotel in Plano, I had turned the wrong way down a one way street and missed my on ramp for the freeway.  Oops!  Oh well, I got myself turned around and on the freeway and after 19 hours and 13 minutes of total driving from Cedarburg to San Antonio and 1,335 miles, I made it to Fort Sam Houston.  Texas is quite the state, they definitely do things bigger here.  While driving I went through a county and saw a sign for County Road 3018.  Really??  3018!?  That's a lot of roads for one county. 

So I made it to post, surprisingly went in the correct gate the first time and found the hotel right away.  I got checked in and met my roommate, who is from South Dakota and seems pretty awesome.  She was ROTC so thankfully has some Army knowledge and can help me get going!  Fortunately, we got a room in the hotel we will be staying at for the next 9 weeks and we don't have to move so we spent the afternoon unpacking, getting settled, and getting to know each other more.  I'm excited, I think we are going to get along great.  She has a friend she went to school with in July class so I met him today also and I think we are all going to go out for dinner tonight.  I like that everyone is new here, lots of instant friends!   
Tomorrow is in-processing.  Shouldn't be too complicated and will hopefully only take about an hour.  Then we have the day to explore the base more, stop in clothing supply and pick up a few things and who knows what else!  Guess that's about all for now.  I'll try and take some pictures of my room at some point and post those as well. 
Tips for the day: be flexible!  There is no method to the maddness.  My roommate was chosen because she was standing in line behind me so just go with the flow!

On The Road Again...

On the road again...
Goin' places that I've never been,
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again...

So this morning, I packed my car up with all my stuff: clothes, uniforms, stuff for the field, computer, printer, kitchen stuff, couple of backpacks, snacks, and my small cooler and as I was making trips in and out of the house, I discovered I had a stowaway hiding behind my seat!

Murphy found the last available space left in the car and decided it must have been left open for her.  I guess she was afraid she was going to be left behind.  It took some coaxing but she finally got out, head down and tail between her legs.  She hates it when the suitcases come out, she almost always gets to go but she doesn't understand how could we possibly go on a vacation and have fun without her?? 

So with Murphy out of the car, I could finally head out.  The first stop of my journey took me to Springfield, IL where I am staying with my old roommate, Karli.  I got to her house a couple of minutes before she got home from work, so it was perfect timing.  We hung out for a bit, then went to dinner at a pretty good Mexican restaurant, followed by dessert at the snow cone stand!  YAY!  I love snow cones!  Then we drove around some unexplored areas of Springfield before heading back to her house for the evening, which is where I sit now.  Tomorrow the plan is to drive at least as far as Tulsa, OK before stopping at a hotel for the night. 

Not much else to say for now, one piece of advice for any future BOLC students, make sure you save your receipts for everything along the way so you can get reimbursed after you get to your first duty station!  Until tomorrow, when I'm...On the Road Again...

Tough Mudder: Approved

This post is more of a side note to all of the Army stuff but it helped me get in shape for training so I figured I would write about it.  Besides, I need to brag a little bit about the coveted orange headbands my teammates and I received after completing the grueling 10 mile obstacle course in the 95 degree heat and humidity that comes with every Wisconsin summer.  The race took place at Devil's Head Ski Resort at the end of July.  I signed up back in April because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and because all of the proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.  Being a nurse in the Army means having those wounded warriors as my patients so I felt this was an exceptionally worthwhile event; not to mention FUN!

The event was huge, they started 500 people every 20 minutes for a total of about 7,500 racers and I'm told that about 80% finished.  Not finishing wasn't an option for me and my teammates (a group of co-workers).  The race wasn't timed, the goal is just to finish and help others along the way.  There were lots of people dropping out and ambulance sirens could be heard all day long.  Flight for Life came in a couple of times and there were several broken bones along with lots of people suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration.  We did a good job as a team of keeping each other motivated and hydrated, taking frequent stops for water and energy bars.

The teamwork exhibited by every racer was an incredible thing to see.  I've never been a part of an event before where it didn't matter who was racing next to you, whether you knew them or not, there was always someone ready to reach out and lend a helping hand. Running up the greased half-pipe, I lost my footing and multiple people grabbed my arm to keep me from falling back down. Another teammate cramped up and we didn't realize right away that he had dropped, when we went back for him, another racer was helping him stretch out and a spectator had given him a bottle of water.  At the 12 foot walls, there were 2 sets of 2 walls, we helped the last member of the team ahead of us over and the team behind us helped lift our last team member over. There was no pushing or shoving to get to the front of a line when there were bottle necks, everyone waited their turn and cheered on everyone else around them.

The race really pushed me to my limits.  We did everything from cargo nets to monkey bars and balance beams to jumping off 20 ft platforms and swimming, running through burning hay bales, carrying logs through ponds that reeked of manure, submerging in ice cold water, belly crawling through mud under barbed wire (see the picture at the top of the post), and of course there were the dreaded live electrical wires for an added bonus 30 feet from the finish line.  The race was a blast and I've never been so sore in my life.  I could barely walk for the next 3 days but I'd do it again in a heartbeat if nothing else for the camaraderie and chance to prove that I can be a Tough Mudder.