First Days At Fort Jackson

A few months ago I joined the Army and it has been a blessing; I will summarize my time in the majestic fort Jackson. I left for fort Jackson early on a Monday morning it was very sad to say goodbye to Mackenzie and Marcy knowing that Mackenzie wouldn't understand why I vanished from her life.  I went and stayed the night in a nice hotel in Tampa, Florida. Everyone there and all through basic believes every word their recruiter tells them and feels the need to brag about their MOS.  Unfortunately for all of them, they couldn't comprehend that in fact mine was the best one.  Most of the conversations began the same way those days; You talk to a lot of people from everywhere they always ask, "Where you going and what's your MOS?" I laugh usually... oh- I am this/that or I am EOD.... I am thinking to myself "Explosive ordinance?? Yeah that's awesome.. "I am a water purification specialist"..." need I say more...Anyways- On a tangent best day in basic was when  a kid in front of everyone in the company asked the first sergeant what he thought about his job as a water purification specialist and the DS said, "I could do your FU&* job, put tablets in water, done... your job is the biggest waste of money... well you and the army marching band...  How long did you sign up for solider?" The private says 6 years... First sergeant says, "holy crap!!!! Your screwed..". And i am thinking, "That kid is really regretting his decision right now".

Back on track- Tuesday morning we swore in again and began our full day of traveling to South Carolina.  I flew from Tampa to fort Jackson with a couple of guys, a few I would like and one I would grow to hate.  We arrived in Atlanta and ate our last meal at an expensive restaurant  paid for by uncle Sam. I really hated it and I was very disappointed.  Next we hopped on a bus ride I will never forget. The bus driver played awesome boot leg copies of movies in theater but that was only to distract us from the mortal danger we were in going 90 plus miles in a charter bus on a highway which makes trying to sleep impossible and my heart was racing 180 beats a minute.   By the time we reached Jackson my arm hurt from gripping my sit. I had been up since 4 o clock that morning it was now 10 o clock at night and my day was just beginning.

We got off the bus and lined up and we were one giant assembly line for the next 3 days.  Paperwork wait wait wait wait paperwork wait wait wait paperwork wait wait wait paperwork. You look around and see all the other kids and judge them on how red neck or hood they look not knowing how close you would become or how much you wished you sacked tapped him before he opened his mouth.  anywho We were asked constantly if we wanted to go home or if we brought anything illegal and were threatened with all kinds of stuff if we were lying and then we lined up and were handed our pt uniforms and were told to form up outside.  By this time it was 3 in the morning we got lectured by the drill sergeants for awhile till finally and 4 o clock in the morning we were allowed to go put our stuff up in our bunks. I think i called marcy i don't know for sure we didn't lose our phones till we got to the real basic. After we dropped our stuff off next to our beds we looked at them said goodbye went downstairs and for half an hours tried to line up in a numerical order. It was embarrassing how bad my group was at lining up in formation numbered from 1 -287 and the drill sergeants were getting pissed off. They aren't really know for their patients.  After that we marched about a quarter mile to ear breakfast and the 287 of us ate in about 15 minutes. I was stilling dieting then from before basic so for the first week i was good about limiting my calories but after that i ate everything i could like it was my last meal and it's still a habit i fight today.  After that we were marched one place to the next waiting for hours at a time to doing medial tasks like hair cuts 3 hours waiting for boots 2 hours waiting for uniforms.. eat.... no talking.... no talking... shut up or else...... if you open you mouths one more time i will make all of you stand up for the next 3 hours..... don't thank me thank your recruiter... sorry?? what??? you saying i am a sorry drill sergeant?? I am a damn good drill sergeant... so on and so forth.  Sometime during that day that never ended went to the doctor hearing checks blood takin dental exrays i really can't remember it all i was so exhausted.  Finally i got to hit my bed for about 4 hours. I was really good about doing pushups even being tired before bed i was mediocre going in to basic but i wasn't when i left. The finally morning their was when they lined us up and you walked around a room the size of a elementary school cafeteria and every 10 paces or so someone stuck you in your right arm left arm right should left shoulder. Swab Prick, Swab Prick... Ohh your bleeding clean that up.. Crap the needle broke got to give you another one.. Finally we grabbed all our stuff we were issued loaded in a truck and waited with very little enthusiasm for the buses to come to finally deliver us to basic.  We didn't know which was worse going there or staying in processing.  Either option for very unpleasant most of decided we rather get smoked by drill sergeant then sit one more second to wait to go get yelled at by drill sergeants so we just wanted to go and get this whole mess over with... 5 hours of waiting and finally get on the bus drill sergeant that would be my drill sergeant for next 3 months told us all to put our faces in our heavy bags we were carrying and shut up and not to look up till he told us to.  I was very unhappy the bus ride was short it was a feeling i would get used to the bus rides were always disappointing in their length.  We get to our little corner of fort jackson that would become my home and then the shark attack began!...!!....!!!!....!!!!!..!!!!!!!

-Nathaniel