After basic training, at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, I was sent to Fort Gorden, GA for AIT (advanced initial training).
We were shell shocked after 12 weeks of someone telling us what to do and controlling every minute of our lives. We got off the bus, went through in-processing, got to the barracks and were told to be at roll call Monday morning at 7am! A whole weekend with nobody telling us what to do!
My training was six months long so my wife was allowed to join me in GA. We lived in a trailer and that's where we spent the second half of our first year of marriage.
It was tough. Mary arrived and my class was placed on the 3rd shift. The equipment I received my training on was new and the Army was trying to ramp things up quickly so they had three classes running at a time.
Third shift meant that we met at the barracks Monday evening at 10pm. My class of 11 would march to the school which started at 11pm. We would have a break at 2:30 in the morning and could eat at the local mess hall. After about a month of training many of us opted to fall asleep in our cars during that time.
We'd be in school until 7am, march back to the barracks, do PT, and then head home at around 9:30-10:00. I would then have to try to sleep in a trailer that had marginal air conditioning during a hot summer in GA.
There was also the matter of being newly married. Mary would be home by herself at night and was scared to death and lonely. I had to start sleeping with a pillow on my head because if I opened my eyes she was literally sitting there staring at me and would start talking.
I would follow this schedule until when we got out Saturday morning at 7am. We didn't have to do PT that day so I'd head home and then spend the day with Mary. I wouldn't go to sleep until around 10-11 that night. I'd be up Sunday morning and spend the day with her and then the same thing Monday.
I'm sure you see the problem here...I'd wake up Monday morning and not be able to sleep in the afternoon at all so the first night back in school would be brutal. I did the mid shift for 5 months and never got used to it. I once fell asleep standing up and nearly pulled a book shelf over on top of me.
We had to take notes but were never allowed to take them home because the training we received was classified. It wouldn't have mattered...the text would only flow for a few words and then the ink would trail off the page as I nodded off again.
Somehow, I managed to be first in my class which helped in the promotion world.
Mary and I, despite the crazy hours and schedule, still managed to have a great time in GA. We learned to love home-made ice cream, thunder storms while living in a tin-roofed trailer, and spending hours talking and being with each other.
Oh! And we bought our first TV there so Mary would have something to watch while I was at school. We got it from JC Penney and that TV still works today, around 22 years later!
Posted by bbarton at June 8, 2006 11:21 AM