Lights out was supposed to be at 2100, but with people taking showers, cleaning up, and just being excited about the last day, we ended up staying up until 2200. Everyone was just excited about being done with Basic Training, so most people stayed up the whole time. Lights came on at 2330 (30 minutes before they were supposed to come on!), so when it was all said and done, I probably only got an hour of sleep because of those who were awake the whole time. We were told to start cleaning, and to stage our personal bags, that we would be taking with us, downstairs. We continued to thoroughly clean the bay upstairs, because after today we would be out of here! We cleaned the windows, we cleaned the walls, the wall lockers, the bunks, the floors, the latrine, the showers...every single nook and cranny, we cleaned. It was about 0300 in the morning by the time we finished cleaning, and so I hid behind the wall lockers just to try to get a few more minutes, if not an hour or so, of more sleep. People were pretty loud, but I was able to get a couple of naps here and there. At 0500, we went downstairs and loaded the deuce with our personal bags, and we would get them back once the graduation ceremony was over. We then formed up and marched as a company down to where we had our Turning Blue Ceremony the day before and took buses to the graduation field, which was located behind the National Infantry Museum. Once we got there, we formed up parallel to the other company that was graduating with us and we did a run-through of the ceremony, which took a couple of hours. We had already ran through the ceremony a couple of days before, but this was the first time we ran through it on the graduation field. Once we were done, we sat around and waited for an hour, and watched all of the families file into the bleachers and wait for us to commence. A little before 0900, the Army band went out onto the field to play some music for the crowd before the ceremony began. At 0900, it was finally time for the graduation ceremony to start, and the Hooah squad had different colored smoke grenades go off in the back, and then paraded up to the front, and a brief history of the Infantry and the weapons they use today was delivered over the loud speaker. We then marched out onto the field and stood in a mass formation in front of our families. After standing before our families, the music struck up again as we paraded around the field, and got in a second formation in front of the families, and the Honor Grad from each company graduating was honored. We sang the Army and Infantry songs, and the ceremony concluded. The families came out onto the field, took pictures with their new infantry soldier, and I got to see my family again! After about 10 or 15 minutes of taking pictures, we formed back up and marched off the field, where we were given a briefing about transportation to our next duty station, but since I'm in the National Guard, I didn't really need that. I snuck a text to my family letting them know where to meet me after the ceremony, and by the time I got my bag off the deuce, my family was there waiting for me. We were FINALLY released to go, and at about 1030, I was on my way home! I was finally FREE! My Reinbold grandparents headed back home to Florida as soon as the ceremony was over, so I got to ride home with my Sease grandparents, my parents, Brittney, and Devon. We stopped off at Ranger Joe's and while my family looked around at Army memorabilia, I changed into civilian clothes for the ride home. The ride home was kind of a blur because I drifted in and out of sleep, and answered questions while I was awake. We stopped off at Ryan's for dinner, where I got a military discount, and enjoyed some non-Army base food! After dinner, we headed on home and got in around 9:00 pm (yes, 9:00 pm, finally off of military time!). I took my stuff inside to my room, said hi to my little sister who I hadn't seen since April, and then headed over to Brittney's house to "re-introduce" myself to her family! I had defied the opinions of my drill sergeants, I had my mom and everyone at home praying, and I had made it through basic training!
15 November 2009
07 November 2009
Day 110
13 August 2009 (Day 110 - 1 day to go)
Ugh! Wake up was moved up during the night to 0400, so most people only got a few hours of sleep last night. Everyone got up and took care of their personal hygiene, then almost everyone went back to sleep. I stayed awake, making sure the bay was squared away, and at 0500, we had to go downstairs for first formation. We were sent back upstairs to finish squaring away the bay (or for our platoon, sleep) before we had to be back downstairs at 0530. I called Brittney at 0510 for her requested wake up call, and got to talk for a few minutes before heading downstairs again. We marched to the ceremonial field and ran through the Turning Blue Ceremony once (which took about a half hour), then returned back to the barracks. Our platoon guide's wife was there, and he stopped to say hi, but when we got upstairs, we got smoked for thirty minutes by our special forces drill sergeant, who thought we needed a lesson in waiting to talk to family until the ceremony was over later that morning. After a good smoking, we went downstairs for breakfast, where we put on a show for the waiting family by doing push ups in the hallway while waiting to enter the D-Fac. After we ate, and while the families were in the classroom being briefed, we went back upstairs, cleaned up, changed into Class A's, and then formed up in the formation area. We marched down to the ceremonial field, where we waited until the families came from the classroom and filled the bleachers. It was then time for our Turning Blue Ceremony. The company marched out and we stood in formation facing our families. The ceremony went along and at the end, we received our blue cords (which distinguishes infantry soldiers) and our families came down to put them on us and take pictures. I got to see my grandparents, parents, Devon (who surprised me by showing up), and Brittney! After the families had returned back to the bleachers, the company marched back up the the barracks, where we got our personal things together to give to our families before leaving on our family pass for the day. We changed into Class B's, and when I finished, I took m stuff downstairs and gave it to my family. The rest of the platoon joined me in formation, but due to last nights mooning incident, we were not yet released and had to go back up to our bay. the first sergeant told us that the family saw a flash come from the bay window, and if no one showed him the picture, we would all have our family day pass taken away. We had to dump all of our belongings out. He and the drill sergeants went through all of our phone pictures, and the photo was not found. The person who was with the guy who mooned the family said that no picture was taken. It wasn't looking good--we thought we had lost our family day pass, but because the photo wasn't found, they decided that if a picture was taken, it had been deleted, so a half hour after everyone else had been released, we were let go and I got to meet my family outside. I enjoyed hugs and cookies from my Grandma Reinbold. We split up into two vehicles and I gave a tour of Ft. Benning for the Grandparents who weren't on the driving tour last month. We drove by our FTX site, and I took them the route of our last road march up to Honor Hill, and then we went out to eat at Cheddar's. As we were leaving the restaurant, my company's drill sergeants, first sergeant, and captain, with their families, came in and were seated at the table behind ours. I was glad to get out of there! After we ate, we went to the National Infantry Museum, where we spent nearly four hours looking at the exhibits, again because my grandparents weren't there the first time, and the museum does a really good job portraying what I went through at basic, as well as displaying the different wars that the U. S. has been in. Once we finished looking through the museum, we went back to the hotel to relax a little bit before heading to dinner. For dinner, we went to Caraba's and enjoyed a good italian meal. I had to report back for final formation at my barracks, so Brittney, Devon, and my parents took me back while my grandparents finished eating their meals. It was a lot easier to say goodbye to family this time knowing that I would back with them in less than 16 hours, so when it was time to leave them I headed to form up. We had a couple of guys in the company that were running late, so we got smoked until everyone showed up. By the time we were dismissed from formation, lights out was at 2100, and we were told that we would be waking up at midnight. I was exhausted from a busy day with the family, and wanted to get as much sleep as I could.
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