Meals Ready to Eat

While we were in basic we had to carry our rucksacks every where we went. Even though we were only issued 4 sets of BDUs the Drill Sgt. made us carry one set of uniform, socks and undies, you know, just in case we were at a training site and got dirty or wet so we could change into them. One particular day we were out and it had been raining. The ground was wet and there were puddles everywhere. This was the day we first learned to low and high crawl. We were all very wet and muddy and we stayed that way. In fact we never ever, no matter how wet and muddy we were, we were never told to change. One thing we did do that day was have our first MRE or meal ready to eat. Mine was BBQ beef slices. We at them cold and instead of being slices like it said it was one big hunk soaking in BBQ sauce. It came with dehydrated pears which we all ate dry and this chunk of cardboard called a cracker with the worst squeeze cheese in the history of mankind. That was one of the better MREs they had at that time. They had just come out and I was lucky that I didn't get the ham and turkey loaf or the even more dreaded dehydrated pork patty. Once in the field at my radio school I got beans and franks for 5 days straight on a random draw from the box of assorted MREs. I was the luckiest person on earth.

Don't think about not putting what you are told into your rucksack though. I had a private in my platoon who thought she would get over and marched around with it empty. We went to the bayonet course and as is the way we took off our rucks and set them up in perfect formation. The DS came along to decide that the formation wasn't perfect after all and made the discovery that her ruck was empty. Aw hell. She got to fill it up with gravel and march around with that for the rest of the day. Don't ever walk around with your canteen half empty either. Esp. if you have a long way to march and it is a hot day. Lessons learned in another life.

My barracks in AIT

Brems Barracks, Fort Gordon. I went to AIT there for 31C Single Channel Radio Operator, Delta 361st Signal Bn, 15th Signal Brigade. It was at the height of summer and there was no AC. The March to class daily was long and dusty. I hated every minute of it and could not wait for it to be over so I could move on to my permanent duty station. Instead I was chosen to continue on to an ASI school for satellite communications. I would do it over again in a minute.