CRC

After a great deal of stress, frustration, and lack of sleep, Josh and I arrived at CRC at Fort Benning, Georgia. CRC is basically a week of making sure you have all of your ducks in a row to get deployed. It is ran by the Army, and we train and brief with troops who are also getting ready to deploy. But, like I said, it is ran by the military, so it is a whole lot of hurry up and wait. Something I am getting used to, and also hating more and more everyday.

We arrived here on Saturday, at 3 in the morning. Josh and I were assigned to separate barracks, issued two flat sheets, a plastic pillow, and one boiled wool blanket. I made my bed in the dark, trying not to wake up my room mate, and slept for forty five minutes before waking up to get ready for the day. Needless to say, by the time it started, I could tell Saturday was going to be a very long day. I met Josh for breakfast at the DFAC just around the corner from our barracks. Let me throw in an interjection while I am thinking about it - everyone complains about Army food, right? I L.O.V.E it. I have eaten four meals at the DFAC so far, and I was expecting powdered eggs and dried bananas. Instead I have had cooked to order omelets and fresh cut fruit and salad bar every meal. AND I don't have to wash ANY dishes. Why do people complain about this??

Anyway, after breakfast we walked over to the pavilion to wait to get signed in. This was a very tricky process. There are over five hundred people that show up every Saturday to get processed, but only four hundred actually get to stay. The rest get sent home, like two of my room mates. And everyone processes together: Army, Department of Defense, and Contractors, given priority in that order. So every soldier that shows up is guaranteed a reservation, then the DoD's fill in, then the leftover spots are filled in with people like me. So it doesn't matter if you show up two and a half hours early, like me, to stand in line (which there wasn't one), when they call your category, you had better run to get to be first. I was fifth, so I did pretty good. If Josh and I would have been further back in line, we would have been sent home and told to come back later. The soonest we could come back is in 6 weeks.

After we got our nifty red badges, saying we were accepted into training, we bused over to a big white tent for briefings, which are ironically anything but short. After that was lunch, veal parmesan and mashed potatoes, a few more briefings, then we were done for the day. I almost jumped for joy at the opportunity for sleep, so both Josh and I went back to our rooms to do just that. Then we caught a shuttle over to the PX on base so Josh could pick up a few things, and we were back in bed by nine o'clock, or should I say... 2100.

Today we got to sleep in, until six, then it was an early morning formation. I got fitted for body armor, which was humorous, because everyone just lines up, while one person walks down that line, points at you, and tells you your size. We had a few more briefings after that, in which they repeated everything from yesterday, and at 1600 released us for the day. I wish I could say we have been very busy, but we very much have not been.

My barrack. I share a room with one other girl.

This is a sign outside of my door that points to all different places in the world. There is one for      Iraq...that way, eight thousand miles.

   My red badge!!!! Similar to Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket. Minus the chocolate.