Arriving at Lackland AFB

Finally I have (mostly) unlimited access to a computer with internet, so I can write a little bit about what I've been up to since April.

I suppose I'll start from the beginning! The day I left for the MEPS in Spokane was pretty hectic. Jim was getting ready to move out that day as well and we were still packing, dropping stuff off at the goodwill, shipping my crap back to Phoenix... etc. I was sad to leave since I knew I wouldn't ever be returning to the Tri-Cities (nothing there for me anymore, really, except for a few of my friends) but I was also anxious to start the next chapter of my life... as cheesy as that sounds.

My roommate in the hotel room in Spokane was a girl leaving for Army BMT and she only had one tiny bag! I had my huge duffel bag that was actually pretty heavy so I was really worried. I tried to squish it down but it didn't really work. Later it turned out to be a good thing that I had brought so many clothes because my flight in BMT didn't even go to clothing issue until like 5 days after we got there. I heard most of the other flights got their uniforms on the 2nd or 3rd day arriving at Lackland.

Anyway! The night passed by and I got pretty much no sleep. By morning I was so nervous I couldn't even eat any breakfast. When we got to MEPS I discovered there was another girl named Stephanie who was also leaving for Lackland so I felt a little better after that. I can't really remember what happened at MEPS except that the doctor was all happy that I lost like 20 pounds since the last time I'd been there. After we finished processing (it felt like it took SO LONG), we finally got on the plane to San Antonio. It was already hella late by the time we got there. We were instructed to sit down and not look at or talk to anyone. My recruiter already warned me about it so I wasn't surprised... what did surprise me was that some people there were already crying. Even the boys!!

During the bus ride to the base, the driver let us use our cell phones one last time. My stomach was all over the place at this point. Then when we finally got to Lackland we had to run everywhere (of course they started yelling at us right away) and I was already daydreaming so I totally missed all the instructions they were giving us! Later we got filed into this huge briefing room where they asked which of us had played an instruments before, and then they proceeded to threaten us that if we lied, terrible things would happen. Of course I lied and said I had never played an instrument in my life. BUT I GOT PUT INTO A BAND FLIGHT ANYWAY. Although I didn't even realize it until later that week when one of my flightmates was like "HAY GUYZ WE HAVE BAND PRACTICE TOMORROW!!!!!!" (I never looked at the weekly schedule... even though I was supposed to!)

Anyway, after all that we got back onto a bus that took us to the different squadrons. I was in the 323rd (Strike First, Strike Fast, Strike Hard!!!! 323 Vipersssssss!!!!!!!!!). The whole time I was praying that we got a male TI because I'd heard the female TIs were like, the worst (and I did find out later that male TIs are a little bit more lenient with things when it's a female flight...) and of course we pull up to the squadron and a female TI strolls out. The driver was just like "Ohhh man I recognize her, she's a feisty one." We all piled out of the bus and ran inside, TIs yelling at us the whole time. We had to find an empty bed... I still remember my first one too--number 57! I was totally panicking the whole time because they yelled at us to take the batteries out of our cell phones and then put the cell phone away in the locker, but I couldn't get the battery out because I was so nervous so I just chucked the entire thing into the locker. I was stressing out about it the entire week before shakedown because I was so convinced I was going to get caught and I'd get recycled (kicked out into a flight behind you) or something. Also I messed up the blankets on my bed when they yelled at us to go to sleep so my TI threw a pillow at my head.

I didn't sleep at all the entire night. Apparently they let us stay in bed longer too, since we had gotten in so late. I heard Reveille playing and TIs yelling cadence outside. Plus lots of running sounds and other yelling. Some of the ECs that night were hella bitchy and yelled at us... Since we were new we didn't realize that they were also trainees who were in like their sixth week or whatever. But the girls who ECed for us later that morning were pretty cool. One of them gave us a lot of tips for fixing our hair.

I really don't remember what happened that first week, except that the first day or two they would only give us this really shitty rice concoction to eat and I would only eat a couple bites before they yelled at us to get up. But I was strangely never hungry those first few days. Probably because of stress or something. Clothing issue sucked because they were yelling at us so much that I totally picked the wrong size boots (WAY wrong). I got like a size 8.5 when I was supposed to get a size 6. And then the people there had trouble sizing me because my legs are so short so I had to try on so many different sizes. I was like the last person out of there. Sometime during this week the TI made me the third element leader (just for marching, I wasn't a student leader, THANK GOODNESS). When she was assigning jobs she would ask us questions like who had managerial experience, who had catering experience, etc... then she asked who scored high on their ASVAB. Like half the flight raised their hands. So then she asked who scored 90's on every section and I half heartedly raised my hand... then I looked up and realized nobody else had their hand raised so I quickly tried to put it down, but it was TOO LATE. And that is how I got stuck with the Academic Monitor job. It was pretty fun though, once I figured out that I was allowed to actually do crap. But it also kind of sucked because I never really got a chance to study for myself... and then you had to help tutor people... Ugh.

Anyhow, zero week passed by pretty slowly, but by the end of it I'd gotten used to using the restroom hella fast, showering with 40 other girls, etc. By the 4th day I was finally able to actually fall asleep right after lights out. I was pretty convinced that all the girls in the flight hated me but I guess that's normal when you first throw a ton of girls all together. Our first PT day was the first Monday after we got there... and I was extremely nervous about that.

For the record, our TI was Staff Sergeant Saulsberry. I was terrified of her all the way up until the day I left for Keesler AFB!