I’ve known this day was coming for awhile but it was still difficult to leave Orlando, so I finally left and headed towards Columbus, Georgia via Atlanta. And of course I ended up getting delayed due to weather, but that was okay as I was able to spend some time visiting with my friend Sean Dunleavy (Dun send me that picture when you get a chance please, thanks). Most of you might not know my luck of late while traveling, but it’s been nothing but delays or missed connections. So I finally arrived in Columbus around 7pm and found my way to the hotel where I checked in and got settled.
The next day (Saturday) I made my way towards Fort Benning where I was going to begin my week of CRC. Well my first impression was this isn’t going to be that bad at all, but that will change very shortly. So the first day began with me signing in, going thru a couple briefs, getting my training certifications signed off, and then finding out that I needed to report at 7:30 the next morning. I had to take a double take because I wasn’t sure if they knew the following day was Sunday and for the first time in my life I was about to use church as an excuse, but I thought better of it. With that I headed back to the hotel where I relaxed for a bit before heading out to grab some dinner and watch some of the NCAA Tournament, where my favorite team North Carolina lost to Kansas. I finally went to bed as I had an early morning the next day.
Sunday morning began with a 7:30am formation (formation always takes place at the pavilion) where we would get fitted for our protective gear (armor vest). That is probably the first time when I thought, “Am I crazy?” Then I realized that most people would answer “Yes”, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. And this is where I began to think this whole process wasn’t organized at all. Nothing seemed to be in order or thought out, it was like they were just going with the flow which is not good when there are almost 400 people going thru the CRC process. Then we had some time to grab some lunch and then begin our afternoon of filling out paperwork that would be needed for the next couple of days. I must say thank goodness I watched all those videos online the past couple of weekends or I would have been there until like 9pm instead I was able to get back to the hotel around 6pm after stopping for some dinner (Taco Bell) on the way home.
Monday came quite early and when I mean early I mean a 5am wake up call as we had formation at 6:30am. I was starting to wonder about his whole process with these early morning formations because I do like to sleep if you don’t already know that. So after formation we headed towards SRP (which is a 10 step staging area for processing) which thankfully I had a majority already completed due to advice from fellow employees who had been thru the same thing. Instead of waiting in lines for hours I only had to wait a couple hours to finish this paperwork process leaving me only my dental and medical paperwork to be completed which would take place on Tuesday. After lunch, we again had formation and then proceeded to CIF (Central Issue Facility) where we would be given our gear. Needless to say this was nothing but chaos. Again another example of no organization as everything just seems to be one big cluster that results in us getting somewhere and then waiting for an hour or two, or as the Army likes to say “Hurry up and wait!” So after waiting for an hour to have my name called, I proceeded to pick up my equipment which consists of a protective vest, helmet, gas mask, and duffle bags. Then I threw my bag on a truck and then headed back on a school bus to the Pavilion where we would meet for formations. After waiting for nearly 2 hours our equipment finally showed up, but again more confusion as people seemed to only care about finding there duffle bag rather than unloading the truck. After a few minutes there was a nice organized line unloading the truck of all the duffle bags. After unloading the duffle bags off the truck, we continued our teamwork of identifying the bags by calling out the names on the tag to help individuals located their bags since we were dealing with over 200 bags. After retrieving my duffle bag I proceeded to the hotel where again I stopped for some Taco Bell on the way home. But, before leaving for the day I noticed that my next day would begin with a 5:30am formation before beginning our medical/dental paperwork process.
Today (Tuesday) was suppose to be the day I dread most due to getting my small pox and anthrax shots, but I would turn out to dread it for other reasons. After reporting for formation at 7:30am we proceeded to the Medical facility where we would be our paperwork process. After reviewing my paperwork it was decided that since I recently had an MMR shot that I could not receive the small pox shot due to both being live viruses, Oh shucks guess I’ll have to wait on that one… lets just say my feelings weren’t hurt especially after all the horror stories I’ve heard with the small pox shot. I still had to get an anthrax shot which I’ve been told by numerous people especially my friend Brian who I am replacing in Iraq that it burns like hell. Well I am still waiting for it to burn, seriously Brian suck it up it’s just a shot. I’m not a fan of shots, but the anthrax shot did not burn like I was told it would. The biggest thing I had to deal with today was taking care of a couple paperwork mishaps, but I think that’s all taken care of now.
With everything that has gone on I’m really looking forward to it being over with already. I’m really looking forward to getting over to Iraq and spending a couple weeks with my good friend Brian before sending him home to his girlfriend Stephanie as I know she is really looking forward to his arrival.
I will try to write at least once a week and keep everyone updated on my journey. I look forward to wirting and also reading your comments. Until next time! Peace!
