Day 9

Greetings all,

The last two days have been nice and warm here in Georgia, although the mornings have been cool enough to see your breathe. In many ways it has reminded me more of Pensacola than Jacksonville, the smell of the pine trees, the accents, the sand and red dirt.

The Army has become an increasingly interesting creature. When I arrived Sat and they refused to check me in saying it would happen Sunday at 0650. I showed up at 0650, they said to come back at 0900. I showed up at 0900 and did 15 minutes of paperwork (still no check-in stamp) and they told me to come back at 1200. Everyone showed up at 1200, the put us in formation and marched (yes marched, I haven't done that since OCS) us to another building where we did paperwork and briefings for 4.5 hours.

This morning, it was show up for formation at 0600 (preceded by a shower and chow) for medical. Thanks to the stuff done both at home and in San Diego, I was done at the medical clinic by 0900, finally got a ride back to the barracks at 0945. Unlike the Navy, where we would be free for the rest of the day, we have formation again at 1500. Tomorrow it is 0630 for uniforms and followed by a healthy dose of administrative paperwork. This morning as I was walking to lunch, I saw one of the Sailors here walking with a pillow, I asked what the deal was, he said that he finally found a pillow.

When the commanding Col spoke to us, he said that patience was the operative word. I guess he is right. I met on of my roommates this morning, he was off for a four day weekend since he is awaiting transportation. He found out today that he will finally fly out on Wednesday, he was done with all his requirements last Thursday. The Col did mention that the hardest place to move people to is Afghanistan, not sure why, but it is. I guess I am lucky that I am flying commercial and that Honduras is close, I should get out of here soon. They have one of those sign posts amongst the barracks with the distances to various exotic locations (like on the TV show M.A.S.H.) Honduras is only 1180 miles, a shorter distance that either the flight from MSP to SAN or SAN to ATL.
There are about 150 of us, 2/3 are civilians, the bulk of them contractors. Most of the military are Army, a few Air Force and 7 of us are Navy, plus one Aussie and a Belgian. All the Navy are headed to Honduras. Many of the Army and Air Force are heading to Afghanistan, with a few heading to Iraq or Egypt. Don't ask me what is in Egypt, I hardly know what is in Honduras. (to quote Pat Buchanan's book title, An Empire or a Republic?) I did meet up with the guy who was in the postion I am headed to. He is an Army reservist who absolutely loved it down there. Most of the weekends are off, with a 4 day weekend once a month (he worked a couple of weekends and long weeks after a humanitarian disaster in Nicaragua, apparently the locals had brewed up some poisonous alcohol). He spent nine months down there, but the Army funding was shifted to the middle east from elsewhere (Honduras being included in that elsewhere). He said that he visited both Panama and Costa Rica. He's given me some insight into the personalities down there, and what the job will be, "Current Ops Chief". I did find out that for the sum of $40 a month, I will be able to hire a "hooch maid" who not only will clean the hooch, but also do the laundry, Hmmmm, tough decision.

Another interesting thing about the Army is the chow hall. The old building was run down and it is in the middle of a $1.5 million restoration, so they put up a temporary tent down the hill and civilians run the whole thing. I have no idea what the thing costs, but it is the nicest tent I have ever seen. The walls can best be described as garage door panels, the lights are big gymnasium sized mercury vapor lights, there are two huge air handling units outside to cool the air. The do no cooking on sight, it all gets shipped in, that probably explains why the "steamed" broccoli is thoroughly wilted.

That's about it for now, I'm sure there will be something comical at the uniform distribution.

Evan