Delayed Update

I apologize for the tardiness on this update, but it has been a busy couple of days.

So on Wednesday we had a call to be at the school by 0505 (that's 5:05 in the morning for the non-military folks).

We then had a urinalysis done, which took quite a while. We of course did not know that it was coming, so most of us went to the restroom right before we left our rooms. Needless to say, we were all drinking a lot of water.

We worked on some Army and chaplain songs and then headed out on a bus for our medical screenings. For those of you who are possibly coming here, bring a copy of your MEPS physical and your shot record. If I had brought my shot record I would have saved myself some pin sticks.

In the med screen you get your vision and hearing checked, your immunizations updated, and blood drawn and tested. You can imagine that this process takes a while when you have 85 chaplains working their way through. So, it went over lunch. We had to decide what to do, so we had the opportunity to eat lunch in one of the more "regular" chow halls here.

I really enjoyed this as it gave me an opportunity to chat a bit with some of the regular soldiers who are training here. There appear to be a number of different schools here at Ft. Jackson in addition to the regular basic training that they do as well.

The chow hall was nothing fancy, but the food was excellent. I had baked fish, corn, olives, cucumber, salad, apples and oranges. It was also I think my first experience with "sweet tea." A wonderful treat that I can now recommend.

We went back to the screening after lunch and it still took all of the afternoon to get it completed. This was important because I had been hoping to make it to sick call.

When I arrived here Saturday evening (man, that seems like a month ago) I had a bit of a stuffy nose. I was hoping that it was just a cold, but no. By Tuesday I was feeling more stuffed up and my left eye was kind of weepy. Although I was tearing up from time to time with homesickness, this was not that. So, I had wanted to go to sick call on Wednesday morning, but was unable.

Therefore, I went as early as I could this morning (seems like yesterday now). Everyone was very nice, polite, and friendly. I got checked in and waited in line. I did not have to wait long and they called me back. I spoke with a nurse first and then saw a physician's assistant.

It turned out that I did have a sinus infection, and pink-eye! I have never had pink-eye!

I had tried to be careful yesterday, but I went ahead and apologized to all of my classmates ahead of time if any of them get it also.

I returned to the classroom and was able to catch all of the briefings. I only missed one on athletic training, but was able to get a copy of some excellent notes.

The next events, after lunch today was another briefing and then for us to get together with our platoons and staff leader for our platoon. We shared around a circle of our different backgrounds and then it was time for our weigh-in.

Now, remembering that I am not prior Army, and that it has been 20 years since I was in the Air Force, I know nothing about the Army. When we went to buy our uniforms, we were given a list and away we went. I bought what I thought I needed and was done. I have since been back to the store a couple more times.

As we were all getting our PT (physical training) uniforms out--shirt, shorts, socks--I noticed that my shorts were different from everyone else. It turned out that I had not purchased ALLLLLL of the PT shorts that I was suppose to buy. Myself and another student made the same error and so we had to rush over to the clothing sales store and buy some, and then rush back.

Thankfully, the store was not too busy, or far away, and we made it back with some time to spare. I am happy to report that although I was measured as a little shorter (69.25 instead of 69.5 inches), I passed my weigh-in with almost 20 pounds to spare. My maximum at 69 inches (because at 69.25 they round down) is 184 lbs and my weight was 166.5!

So, training has gone fairly well so far. Please keep us all in your prayers. For health, strength, and resilience. For many of us, myself definitely included, this time away from our families is difficult.

Good evening,
Corey