Shoup Airlines

YES, DRILL SERGEANT!!!

Lots and lots of yelling and push ups (front leaning rest position) and that about raps up the first day. All seven hours of it. We didn’t get there until about 3 in the afternoon. Everything has been a blur since.

That night we were issued bunks and unfortunately I ended up on the top bunk. These things sit 7 feet high. They don’t make them easy to climb up into and I’m constantly paranoid of falling off that tiny twin!

That’s not even the worst part. My head is about 4 feet from the ceiling which has the PA speaker right above it. This thing goes off every hour for heads and weapons counts and the voice on the other side is not very soft.

But if this is the worst I have to deal with then I’m not too concerned. I’m actually more irritated by the seemingly lax discipline of the Drill Sergeants. It seems too easy!

Ouch!

Day 8

Well all of the offices opened back up today and it was hurry up and wait as usual. Today wasn’t all that much fun because it was shot day! Five shots in the arms and a flu mist up the nose. Most guys arms are sore, but I think it’s the flu mist that’s giving me the headache right now.

Let’s just say the Army Medics do not have a very good bedside manner. One sergeant was “jabbing” the needles literally into our arms. He was stabbing arms like one would with a dagger. The Staff Sergeant in charge was double-fisting syringes into one arm while using more expletives than I even knew imaginable! The guy sullied daffodils! How in the world does one even go about conceiving such acts?

My head is ringing right now because I just pulled the 0100 to 0300 Fire Guard shift and my body is still waking up. What’s Fire Guard you say? Another military idea to keep you from getting too much sleep. Basically, you stare out a door and make sure no one comes in or out for 2 hours. Oh yeah, and that no fires start!

Did I happen to mention that January to March is the rainy season in South Carolina? It’s raining right now which means that I will most likely have to put on the rank and moldy poncho that’s just loads of fun to wear. We also start Basic later today and I’m HOPING the rain has stopped by then because I know those Drill Sergeants are gonna have us out in it all day.

What else happened yesterday? Oh yeah, we took these photos I’ve always found funny. You know the ones, in uniform, flag halfway draped in the background and absolutely NO SMILING. Can’t wait to see how that serial killer pic looks!!

We also got our dog tags yesterday. Nothing special there, except my morbid mind was wanting to know what happened to the indents used for ramming into teeth for i.d. if you died in battle? I’m also a bit different (yeah, what else is new) because I have a third dog tag. Looks just like the others but it is bright metallic red. Some of the more gullible in my platoon now believe I have this tag because I’m “old” and won’t have to do as many push ups as them. You would not believe how fast this pisses an 18 year old off and makes me grin from ear to ear. The red tag is actually for my allergy to penicillin and means I won’t have to take the “peanut butter” shot. It’s this giant shot that goes in your butt and supposedly feels like the old American sandwich stand-by knotting up your butt for several days on end. I guess being different has it’s advantages.

Alright, the next letter should be coming from Basic if I’m not too tired to write it. My address should be up on the blog soon. Actually, by the time you read this entry the address should already be here somewhere in a previous entry. I need to get back to guarding this door. Take care everyone!

August 12th, 2000

Today was a well deserved day of rest. We all got up at the butt crack of dawn, as usual, for a two hour bus ride to the beach. It was well worth it, the water was beautiful and warm, the day was fantastic and the food was excellent! A couple of us walked over to a pier about a 1/2 mile away and watched the fishermen pull up puffers and rock bass. Some children were jumping off the end of the pier, so I figured why not. There being no other takers, I jumped off and swam back to point where the group was. Talk about exhaustion! We counted our sunburns and aches and headed home.

That night we went to church and someone spilled the beans that I could speak Spanish. Lucky me, when they ran out of translation headphones, I got to translate for a couple of us. With all the thees and thous and smiting and begetting going on it’s hard enough in English, now imagine translating from Spanish. Let’s just say this pastor liked to talk and my head hurts now.

After church we went to dinner. They do things late here around here so we didn’t sit down until 9pm. Talk about starving! I had the Honduran version of lasagna with chicken and peppers and the usual canned Sprite. You DO NOT drink anything here unless it is in a can and you opened it. Anyway, dinner was muy excelente!

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28