Update Time....Or That Time I Spent Four Months In Georgia Bored To Death

Well, not having internet access for the duration of my time at AIT really sapped my will to write. Even moreso, the monotonous routine of life in AIT took my motivation to keep posting updates in the few opportunities I had to borrow someone's wireless hotspot. Every day was the same essentially. Monday through Friday we would wake up around 0730, get dressed and head to PT formation which would leave for Barton Field (where we would conduct PT everyday) at 0815. About an hour or so later we would get back to the company and clean the barracks a bit and then shower. After that, around 1100, we would have free time till 1540 when we would have to go form up again for mail call and then head to dinner chow, which for us was really lunch. After eating chow, we would form up outside the DFAC and step off at around 1645 to go to Brant Hall where our classes were conducted. From 1700 till around 2300, we learned the basics of our jobs as 25Qs and how to use the equipment we would be handling day to day in the Army. After that we marched back to the barracks and had the option of taking part in the absolute best thing the Army has ever thought of: MIDNIGHT CHOW. Midnight chow is available from 2300 to 0100 on Mondays through Fridays and provides the option of either breakfast OR dinner. I always chose breakfast because we, as swings, would always wake up too late for the normal breakfast chow time frame. The amount of conversations and laughs held over midnight chow meals between me and my battle buddies is too many to recount. But it was a great way to finish off the day and I always enjoyed it. After midnight chow, we would head back to the company, in battle buddy groups of at least two of course, to enjoy what little time we had left till lights out, which was at 0100. The platoon sergeants would come up to do a bed check making sure that our lights were out and that no one was on an electronic device. We all became pretty good at tipping the guys in the next room off that the sergeants were heard entering the room down the hall or were on the way to our end of the hall. Texts from the fire guards that we knew were also helpful as they would let us know that the bed check was about to happen on our floor. It's amazing how technology can be helpful sometimes. Lol. After lights out, some of us would stay up late into the night. PV2 Bieber always stayed up the latest, sometimes on Facetime with girls and PVT Sleepy would watch movies on his phone. As for myself, I would play games on my laptop or watch movies.  Then somewhere around 0300, I'd call it a night and go to sleep, only to wake up and do the same thing all over again. Weekends were great except for morning accountability formations, which meant no true "sleeping in" was happening. Most of the soldiers around me couldn't wait to get off-post and to a bar or the movies. As for myself, I typically stayed in the barracks and watched movies or did laundry and talked with my wife or family on the phone. There were occasional breaks from the monotony like the incessant fire alarms that we endured for three weekends straight. Apparently, the alarm system is old and faulty, but that didn't change the fact that in one single night we had to head down (we were in a third floor room) to the parking lot SEVEN times due to evacuation and accountability procedures. As most of the guys had come back from a night on the town, many of them were more than slightly inebriated. PV2 Cartoon was completely gone and had to be helped upstairs by his battle buddies that had gone out with him, who included PV2 Bain and PVT Mimic. He had just passed out on his bed when the first fire alarm went off and then me and about four other soldiers had to help carry him down three flights of stairs that were tremendously crammed with soldiers trying to get out because they thought it might be a real fire alarm. After we got checked off for accountability purposes, they let us back upstairs which mean carrying Cartoon back up another three flights. Then the fire alarm kept going off. Rinse, Lather, Repeat, metaphorically speaking. We kept from going crazy by changing our clothes each time we went down. Various hilarious mixtures of uniforms and civilian clothes were donned and at one point about five of us all wore our long black Army dress uniform trenchcoats down and even got a pretty nice group shot in. On the seventh alarm, there were soldiers screaming up and down the hall just desperately hoping to go to sleep because it was nearly four in the morning by then and we had an accountability formation at 0800. The fire department finally disconnected the alarms and thankfully the platoon sergeant for the next morning was told about the previous night's trouble and mercifully let us sleep an extra three hours before our first accountability formation of the day. Aside from that night, there wasn't really anything exciting goin' on at good ol' Fort Gordon. The only other thing of note was that about three months in to my time there, the Army changed its policy on drinking and off-post priveleges for AIT soldiers. Even if you were of legal drinking age you were not allowed to drink and for two weeks off-post privileges were completely revoked, severely cramping many soldiers weekend plans and social lives. Me, I barely noticed or paid attention. Graduation was right around the corner and I was looking forward to what would come afterwards. The Real Army.