Fort Jackson

I've been in Fort Jackson for two weeks now - the end is near. We expect to fly out of the country Thursday. What to say about Fort Jackson... well, this is really the first time in the past two weeks where I have had the time and mental clarity to actually sit and write for a few minutes about my experiences. My major takeaway from my time at Fort Jackson is I am glad I never joined the Army. That's not a slam on the Army in general, just that it would not be a good fit for me. Let me rewind... Fort Jackson is the military training for Navy individual augmentees (those who aren't deploying with their unit), and it is run by the Army. We live on an Army post, eat in the DFAC (dining facility), and have Army drill sergeants. One of the strangest things about this place: the training is for all ranks, enlisted and officer. And (at least for the females), we live in the same open-bay barracks. This doesn't sound like that big of a deal from a civilian perspective, but it's a really rare thing (especially for the Navy) to have an O-5 sleeping on the bottom rack with an E-3 on the top rack, and sharing a head (aka latrine or bathroom). I didn't expect the training to be such a time-suck; our first muster is usually at 0515 and we don't usually secure for the night until 1830 or so (6:30 pm). There are rarely any breaks, although there is an astounding amount of "hurry up and wait." We literally sit somewhere for two hours, doing nothing, then all of a sudden the drill sergeants come over and start yelling for us to hurry up and get on the bus in 2 mins. One, we're not in boot camp. Two, why not tell us 2 hrs ago (or 10 mins) that we have to be on the bus by X time? Three, there are no consequences for our tardiness and we all know it. The vast majority of the drill sergeants have been phenomenal (and all of the civilian contractors); they are knowledgeable, patient, and respectful. There are a few, however, who just don't get it. They think we're recruits and/or they're AFU (all f'd up).

What have we been doing? We have learned combat first aid, how to handle the M16 and M9, land navigation, IEDs, convoy ops, humvee rollovers, cultural awareness/sensitivity, and a bunch of other stuff. We spend the vast majority of our time learning about and firing the M16 and M9. I feel 100% more confident than when I arrived in South Carolina, so mission accomplished there. As far as my marksmanship, I've surprised myself at how well I've done. If I practiced (and didn't have to wear body armor), I think I would be pretty decent. Which brings me to my second least favorite part of Ft. Jackson: body armor. That stuff is heavy and hard to move in, and I would bet that I've worn it more in the past two weeks than I am likely to in the next year. I could be wrong, but that would be my guess. My least favorite part of my time here: lack of privacy. I am a pretty solitary person; I don't like to be around people just for the sake of being around people. I very much enjoy my time alone, actually. Living in open-bay barracks and doing everything with 100 other people is the most maddening part of this experience. To combat that I created a little cave for myself out of my bottom bunk; I took two sheets and made curtains so that I have a modicum of privacy. I also tend to wander off as far as possible whenever possible and read to myself. It's funny though; people assume you don't want to be alone, despite all evidence to the contrary. I have intentionally sat by myself at meals and inevitably someone comes up to join me, as if to save me from the high school humiliation of sitting alone. I always welcome them because their intentions are good and I don't want to offend them, but if I'm sitting alone, it's almost always because I want to be alone.

I think I mentioned this in my posts about NMPS, but I've been the victim of proselytizing again. When the chaplain here first spoke to us at the in-brief, I was cool with him. He got up, introduced himself, provided the information on how to contact him and when services were, and sat back down. That was cool. Then a few days later he gave a lecture on dealing with combat stress (again, why the chaplain does this befuddles me; it's offensive to those of us who believe in reality and not fantasy - let the chaplain provide optional services for the believers, and have an actual counselor or therapist or doctor come in and talk about how to cope with combat stress, PTSD, etc.). Although I don't think it's appropriate that he was giving the lecture, he wasn't getting all churchy like the last chaplain in Norfolk, but then toward the end, he started talking about "one true god" and other jesus-y stuff like that. This crap shouldn't be part of mandatory briefs!!! I don't know what to do about all of this chaplain stuff, but I want to do something. It's totally unacceptable to me that we're getting preached to (and even prayed at) during mandatory briefs. Okay, vent over for now. I'll post some pics and write more later (maybe not until Kuwait or Baghdad, but hopefully sooner).