Basic 5 David's Journal July 8

2009 07 08

Woke up at 0300 and left the hotel at 0400 to the airport. They gave us $9 for breakfast and $18 for lunch. The flights were not too bad. I did lose my shaving cream at the security checkpoint, but I kind of expected that. We had plenty of food to eat throughout the trip. We first flew from PHX to Dallas/Fort Worth and then from Dallas/Ft. Worth to St. Louis. Once we arrived in St. Louis we went to the USO. This is a military clubhouse at the airport where you can eat all the snacks that you want. It has movies, t.v., computers and internet. That will be nice to go there with my family while traveling.

Then we had a 2.5-hour bus ride. I memorized the Army General Orders with a guy from Yuma named Adrian Martinez. He is going in as a linguist, and is a cool kid. When we finally got to the base, that is when the fun got started. We waited about 5 minutes in the bus for the Drill Sgt., to come tell us what to do. Then a small female Drill Sgt., comes out and we all thought she looks nice. She gets on the bus and begins to chew us out for every little thing. I was luckily at the back of the bus and did not totally feel her wrath. That has been something that has saved me a few times, just staying in the back. The weather isn’t too bad here in MO, and I have not felt the humidity yet. We went through some paperwork and getting yelled at. One guy got “smoked” (that is when the Drill Sgt. Makes a soldier do physical training such as push-ups.) This guy heard the Drill Sgt. Say cross your legs, but she actually said to not cross our legs. He did and then laughed because he knew he make a mistake. He got smoked real hard. Later we were put into our barracks and we were given 15 minutes to pick a bunk, set up, make our bed and take a shower before the lights were turned off. I think we went to bed about 2300. I heard there were 3 groups that were coming after us that night. I feel sorry for them.