So as I said-no more mass emails cluttering your inbox! And here is what I did today:
Zero Day:
Today was a bunch of in-processing. For those of you not in the military, in-processing takes a long time and is very tedious. We will be doing in-processing until the end of next week. So today we were given an intro to the class and meet our cadre (instructors). There are two captains and three NCO's. They all seem down to earth and squared away, which is going to make the next 17 weeks go well I hope! And of course, we did paperwork. Signing privacy statements, inputing personal information, etc. I went and ate at the DFAC (chow hall, lunch room, whatever you want to call it-on military installations it is called a DFAC) and the food was actually good. Fresh sandwiches and yummy soups!
I started meeting all the other LT's (Lieutenants) in my company today. There are about 70 of us and there is a variety of Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve LT's. I would say a majority of us commissioned through ROTC but there are about 12 OCS graduates and a couple West Pointers too. Of the 70, there are 12 females-more than I was expecting. I already knew two of the LT's prior to coming here as we were in the same platoon at LDAC (the summer training I went to two years ago) and one of them went to Airborne with me.
Our lodging is decent. It's basically a hotel room (with maid service!) with a kitchenette in it. I'm pumped to have a stove but there isn't an oven....no cookies I guess. We have DSL internet which works but is slow.
Ft. Leonard Wood (where I'm assigned right now) is basically in the middle of nowhere. Two hours to St. Louis, hour and a half to Springfield, etc.....Lake of the Ozarks is about an hour away which is excellent. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of hiking and camping on the weekends and once it gets nice-stuff in the water. Weather is a little warmer here than in Minneapolis. I think it was mid-40's today.
I asked today about my orders. For those who don't know-I've been having issues with them. For you non-military folks, orders are what the army gives you whenever you are sent to training or change duty stations or go on a deployment. My initial orders had me going to Ft. Richardson (by Anchorage) and then I received new ones upon commissioning that are sending me to Ft. Wainwright (by Fairbanks). Seven months later, the S1 (personel person in the Army) from Richardson contacted me to get demographic info. A few phone calls later I had been told:
1. I still have you on our list to Richardson so you are coming here.
and
2. Well, if your orders say Wainwright-that's where you are going!
Great! Thanks for clearing that one up for me. Anyways, I talked to one of our cadre today and told him the whole story and at first he says 'well, if your orders say Wainwright, you are going there'....then said, 'wait, your a female....Wainwright is a Stryker unit so they only have combat engineers (I can't be a combat engineer as a female) so you are more than likely going to Richardson.' Ok.....so why do my orders say Wainwright? His response: 'Well you might report to Wainwright and then head to Richardson'. Which makes no sense! Not only is Fairbanks is 5 hours north so it would be a pain to drive those extra 10 hours, but the headquarters for Alaska Command are in Richardson. So if anything, I would report to Richardson and then go to Wainwright. So this has been a lot of fun trying to figure out. The biggest pain and the reason why I want to know right now is that I have to release my house hold goods (all my stuff the army packed up and is now storing for me in Minnesota) to Alaska six weeks before I leave Ft. LW so that I don't get to Alaska and have to sleep in my sleeping bag and eat ramen noodles for two months waiting for all my crap to get up there. Anyways, my cadre are helping me out so hopefully I will know soon!! Both duty stations have good things about them:
Ft. Richardson:
- Anchorage
- Target and Arby's in Anchorage (the only ones in Alaska)
- Alyeska: A really nice ski resort where I can snowboard!!!
- Home to an Airborne unit. I wouldn't be just a five-jump-chump (the army term for soldiers who have gone to airborne, but never get to jump again)
- Weather is very similar, if not better than Nodak
- Stryker Unit: Right now there are only 7 stryker units in the world
- I already have a friend up there that commissioned from the U the year before me
- I know their deployment schedule already
Anyways, I think that's enough for tonight.
I think that's about it for now.
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