First Day of Class

Here is the outline for what was the schedule for my first day of class today. I speculate this will be the routine for many days to come.

0400 - Wake up

0450 - PT Formation. PRTs today and muscle failure.

0630 - Breakfast break and Barracks maintenance.

0710 - Squad detail. Clean the showers.

0730 - Motor move to school.

0820 - Class

1130 - Motor move to lunch.

1250 - Motor move back to school.

1500 - End Class. Motor move back to the company area.

1645 - Formation. Then Dinner.

1845 - whitephase formation ( for noobie no privilege people like me ).

After this formation we are usually made to do some kind of stupid detail like kick rocks or pick up trash. Most of the time is spent just waiting for the sergeant to come and make announcements.

I usually have some free time right about now. Enough time to go on the net for a bit and take a shower and lounge around. Upper phase people are running around the company area in their civis enjoying their time off that they've had all afternoon.

2130 - Last formation and then dismissal to go to bed.

The best thing you can do after 2130 dismissal is to go right to sleep. So far the biggest challenge in AIT is staying awake during all the tasks you have to do.

My class that I am taking is Shop Operations. Today we learned how to navigate through a technical manual and process paper work associated with shit we have to fix. By the way, Echos fix a TON of stuff. Since we got combined with Limas we have to fix both regular army radios and equipment in helicopters. One of the skills we have to learn as an 94 series is to learn how to fix something just by referencing the manual. There is more to it than you would think.

***edit 12 feb 12*** Actually, Echos might not actually fix that much equipment for our job. We might be capable to fix a wide variety of machines. But when ever I talk to someone on the other side it sounds like all we will work with are SINCGARS. Food for thought.

I'm happy about the path I've chosen. I think that I will be good at fixing electronics and that the experience will allow me to pursue a good career in the future. My life as a 94e will probably be a far cry from being an army ranger or air borne infantry. But I wouldn't be happy at anything I wasn't good at.