OCS Day 78 (24/AUG/09)

August 26th, 2009 Doug Posted in Journal Entry | No Comments »

We really only had one major goal for today – getting a supplemental issue of ACU’s. We also finished up our presentations of our professional reading assignments, including mine.

But like I said last night, we had our first formation at 0800 this morning. And like I said last week, we will have no organized PT this week. So even though I had planned on doing PT this morning, I instead slept until about 0700. I did wake up a little before 0600 and heard a different company outside doing PT, but that just made me want to stay in bed even more, just because I could!

So I didn’t do PT, we had formation at 0800, we turned in some company equipment we had (knee and elbow pads, compasses, magazines and our black ascots,) and we began our presentations at 0900. Being short, they didn’t take too long to get done, and I thought mine went well.

In the afternoon then we had the main task for the day, in getting our supplemental issue. This is the last time we will ever be issued uniforms (with the exception of before a deployment) because officers are expected to maintain their personal clothing on their own dime. We will also get a onetime $600 clothing allowance to cover additional costs (though this will be mostly used up by purchasing Dress Blues.) But today was it: more or less after this we will be expected to replace something ourselves if we rip something.

More interesting to me was where we did the issue: at 30^th AG, the reception battalion here at Fort Benning. Basically all basic trainees go through 30^th AG for in-processing before going to their basic training companies. And so this is where I in-processed 8 years ago. I remember going there at 0100 after flying in to Atlanta and being bused down, and sitting on the very wood benches that are still there. Also, the room where I got my ACU’s and boots today is the same room I got my BDU’s from 8 years ago. Talk about flash-backs, but it was fun to see it and to be able to go back into it. I should of had someone take my picture on one of the benches…

But that was the extent of our day. We all got back at 1530 and were released for the day from there. I’m currently working on packing up, because tonight will be my last night in the barracks. Tomorrow is our formal, and so I am meeting my family tomorrow afternoon and staying with them the remainder of the time. I am excited for the formal, as is my wife. Hopefully it is a good time.