Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee...

I am at the end of my 3rd day at Fort Benning (incidentally, the Chattahoochee River of Alan Jackson fame really does run through the base).

BOLC II is a LOT better than any other course I've done with the Army, with the possible exception of CTLT at Fort Hood:
  • I'm getting my first training in the "real Army", not cadet land.
  • I get off every day at 5:00 PM
  • I am getting paid as a 2nd Lieutenant, instead of the cadet rate of $25 per day
  • I have people calling ME Sir for a change
  • ACUs are much more comfortable than BDUs
  • I have my xbox 360 and a TV in my room
  • I have my laptop and an internet connection (so I can blog among other things)
  • I have a car and the freedom to drive off post if I desire
There still are a few negatives:
  • I miss my cute wife and son
  • Georgia is amazingly hot and humid in the summer
  • I had another "Army birthday" - the day after we checked in (thanks to the people who emailed/texted/replied to Becca's blog post with happy birthday wishes to me - it meant a lot to me!)
Lucky for me the positives far outweigh the negatives and it's only 46 days until I head up to Fort Knox and I'll get to have "my babies" with me again.

I don't really have any pictures to upload because I didn't bring a camera with me... I'm hoping to borrow one soon so I can post some cool pictures to give you an idea of what it's like here.

So far we haven't really done too much - we've signed a lot of forms, sat through a bunch of briefings, and took a PT test this morning (got my run back down under 14 minutes thankfully).

Anyhoo - I'll keep you all updated as we start to do the "cool stuff" - next week we'll start combatives (beating each other up).

3 comments:

Becca Jo said...

I'm so glad that you got settled in. We miss you.

jeri said...

Glad you are enjoying where you are, but we miss you too!

Scar Belly said...

I am glad I'm settled in - not sure I'm "enjoying" where I am... but I'm not miserable either ;-)

Believe me, BOLC II is something I HAVE to do, not something I would choose to do if I had the option to skip it.