To my pleasant surprise, I am not the oldest or the most broken (as in physically unfit/injured) person out there, but it has still been quite an effort to try to keep up with everyone....as in the majority of the people in the age of 25 or lower.
One of the most beautiful part about being a reservist is that for just about the other 28 days of the month, you don't have to think about the army. ( or whatever other branch that you might be a reservist of.) In this particular experience, you're army 24/7 for 7 weeks...with a few days of breaks in-between, until the more "professional" phase comes about in the middle of nowhere, Arizona.
The hardest part so far for me has been the physical requirements....here are some examples of what this school requires for graduation:
1. Passing the Army Physical Fitness Test.
2. Run a 4 mile run in a 8 minute a mile pace.
3. Combatives training. (Kind of like a combination of wrestling/ultimate fighting)
4 Road march with a 35lb. rucksack on your back for 10 miles in 4 hours or less.
It hasn't been a comfortable experience so far, I don't think that it's supposed to be. I miss the GF and the pets, a bathroom with a tub, Chinese food, not having to wake up before 7 AM (way before 7 AM), etc. Right now, I'm living my life one assigned task/test at a time, and feeling grateful that I will not have to go back to armyland once all this is over and done with....at least only for a weekend a month.
It's both cute and annoying at the same time, watching these young 20 something year olds who has yet to be really challenged by life...so far, everything have been college/high school/rotc/boy scouts....
I have no idea if this will end up making me a better person or anything lofty like that, but I do know that this is one of the places that I don't ever want to comeback to! (Sorry Western Ga./Eastern Alabama!) The army, with the exception of one or two forts, have a knack of picking some really depressed, middle of nowhere/bumfuckville places to designate as duty stations.
I will have more posts from this almost surreal experience laster...remember, I've still got 6 more weeks of this!
