G.I. Josie

April 21 I got my first gun wound. Yeah, we were doing push-ups in formation because someone messed up, and someone kicked my gun into my hand and cut it up. I forgive Maybell, of course. I love my weapon so much. I don't know, I've just really bonded with her. Today there was another fight. It's always the same people and the same issues, and everyone else taking sides. It's so dumb. I heard one of the girls yelling in the bathroom, from across the bay. I think I've yelled that loudly once in my entire life and I actually passed out. I couldn't see her, but you know her veins were popping out of her head. She tried to attack Eversmann! Howe caught her last second. She punched a wall instead. It wasn't like me and Durant playing. It was really bad. Afterwards, the bay was full of that tense silence after something bad happens. The girls from the other female bay walked in to pick me up for church and said, "Wow, your bay is so peaceful!...

Mail Time Just to give you a snapshot of life here: Mail time. We have to do push-ups to get our mail. Fifteen per letter. They say it will go up each week. One girl got 8 letters. I am glad I don't get letters. (Yet.) We all have to stand perfectly still at the Position of Attention. When you get a letter, they call you up to get it. Then when you come, they throw it in the opposite direction. If you get too close, they ninja throw it at you. One girl gets a paper cut on her face. "Your bad," The drill sergeant says. Then he asks who didn't get a letter. A few of us raise our hands and he says, "Guess what? That's because nobody loves you." Depending on what your insecurities are, he'll say, "Probably because of your pot gut," or "your comb-over" or "you're a failure to your kids". Then we all do push-ups because someone itched their nose. Close curtain. April 13 I had a small hope that the male s...

I'm not great at remembering things, but if there's one thing I'm good at, it's writing things down. So I will be taking most of my experiences in the next blog posts from my journal entries I wrote during Basic Training. I was limited in my time to write while I was there, but when the entries jog my memory of other experiences, I will include those here too. ****************************** April 06 I feel kind of jipped that I've already been here a week and Week 1 is only now beginning. We are shipping out to the real Basic Training tonight. It's a lie when the recruiters tell you Basic is only 10 weeks. (The first of many lies, I'm starting to think.) At least Reception week (the week before Week 1) is finally over and the drill sergeants have chilled way out. I didn't really mind being yelled at or insulted all the time (and the drill sergeants get really personal with some of their insults, going after peoples' "ugly-a** eyebrows...

Mission accomplished! It’s been a long 20 weeks, but I am back in action after graduating from Basic  Training and AIT. My next task is to record the experience for all you good folks to read. Luckily, I already wrote about my first couple days at Basic while I was there, before they took our phones away. So enjoy this first snapshot of life at Fort Jackson!  •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Hello from Hell. Just kidding. I’m writing you this from Fort Jackson. So pretty much the same thing. Normally I won’t be able to blog, but they haven’t taken our phones yet, so I think I can give you a quick update. (They were planning on having us lock up our phones the other day, but honestly, I think they just forgot. And we somehow failed to remind them.) They tell you Basic Training starts the week after you get there. That was a lie. Basic Training started the moment we stepped off the airplane. There was a man there waiting for me who...