Grand Finale

So I lost my legs today.

Both of them.

And what was remaining of my patience.

Alright, so I didn't really lose my legs, but in the training scenario I did, because of a grenade that wasn't originally there when I went to clear a room, but whatever. The entire day was a bust, having only had two real things to do: the convoy exercise and the land nav course, where we had to find our way to various points using nothing more than a compass and a map. The convoy exercise was relatively straightforward, but it was frigid outside, and that aggravated my illness. It made it hard to breathe, and I could feel my fever flaring.

Oh, and as it turns out, it's a good thing I didn't go to medical about this: all they do is give you an IV or three and some motrin. lawl, what a ridiculous regimen. And yeah, they would've held me back for three weeks, since they only have flights into Kuwait when a class completes.

But anyway, yeah. At one point in the convoy exercise, I was standing up in the back of the humvee when we came to a stop to get better fire coverage of our area. And without warning, the driver (a Drill Sergeant) gunned it, and I nearly fell out of the truck. Which, with an additional 70 lbs of body armour on, would've been especially bad. I'm thinking smashed nose at best, broken neck at worst.

The land nav course was of little consequence, so I won't talk about it here.

But from there, Jarvis decided to take advantage of that time and give us some "opportune training", in the form of a "wedge formation" in marching.

And what made me lol about this is that I'll probably use the wedge formation as often as I use the Pythagorean theorem. My math teacher told me I'd use it on a constant basis, but in the end, I never have since I graduated from high school.

So yes, more busy work. Followed by cleaning our weapons, which I'd already cleaned days before, and since then only fired two blanks through. Needless to say, there wasn't much for me to clean.

From there, we were let loose to the barracks to get into our wet weather gear to go and wash the humvees that the southern Drill Sergeants had dirtied up with their reckless mudding. One last muster of the day, and I was back in my berthing on my bed, gasping for air.

Let it be known that I can't stand the Navy anymore, because of a certain lack of self-accountability and condescending people. And I've lost some respect for the Army as well, because it's more or less just like the Navy in all the ways I can't stand.

My patience is shot. My health is shot for the moment (thanks to the Navy's countless and doubtlessly useless immunizations). And I'm hating this.

A little over six months to go.

Gonna be without the internet for the next two weeks or so, and even then I probably won't post much here anymore, anyway. But know this: unless you volunteered for an IA, you're in for a potentially terrible experience, and maybe even if you did volunteer.

My thoughts on the Navy at this point? Don't join if you haven't already and are considering it.

Is it a family tradition? Be a trend-setter.
Do you need money for college? Rob a bank.
Do you want to see the world? Get off your lazy ass and get going, you don't need the Navy to do that.

Over and oot.