daughter of the king: Train to Save!!

We started at 0400 this morning. Today we finished all the introductory military stuff. Today we learned how to march and stand in formation. We were given our platoons and squads. My squad has a dentist and a vet. There are four of us. But I haven't gotten to know the other member he had to go buy clothes during lunch so he didn't sit with us. It nice having a small group of people to always stay with. I'm sure we will know each other very well by the end of the month. We marched around a parking lot for about 45 minutes or so early this morning. I'm so thankful for the prior service people that helped us who don't know anything learn how to do everything. They are so helpful. Then we had to march to breakfast. We then marched to the CIF; Central Issuing Facility. We were given our field gear here. This was one of those Army hurry up and wait times as well as one of those getting yelled at times. The yelling wasn't to bad, but frustrating because we couldn't hear the orders they gave and then the whole company got yelled out. At one point we were told to leave out certain items so they could show us how to put it together. Then awe were yelled out for having certain items out. As you probably guess we were yelled out for not having certain items out shortly after. Oh well. Its all a part of what the prior service people like to call "the game". They would say one thing and then yell at us when we did it and told us to do something else. It was also very hot. I was glad I had my bottle of water with me because we had to sit out the in the parking lot waiting on everyone to finish and then learn how to put all our gear together. And mom and any other second moms of mine out there reading this. They are very good about making sure we have enough water. While we were waiting we were free to get up and fill water bottles etc. After this we took our gear back to the hotel where we are staying...thankfully by we traveled by bus this time.

The rest of the day was filled with briefs and basic introductory material. Basically how to wear your uniform how to salute etc. Also as we have heard from every brief so far...Don't Fraternize with the enlisted. Tomorrow starts our actually class component and we end the day with a land nav. I'm looking forward to this. It should be fun. We are doing this one with our platoon and when we go to the field we will do one with a partner.

As for the title of today's blog...Train to Save. That is the motto of the 187th Medical Battalion that my training is with. I'm excited about what the future holds for me as future physician in the Medical Corp and the lives of soldiers that I will have the opportunity to care for. I think what hit home the most about today was the brief by the Battalion Commander. She stressed the importance of our training here to help prepare us for future assignments with our units. She said that this training provides us the basic soldiers skills we need to do our job. Mastering these basic skills will help us save lives one day. Our job to bring soldiers safely home when we are serving on deployments and to keep soldiers healthy while on the homefront. Well that's all for tonight. Its been a really long long day...since 0300. I'm happy we don't have to be there that early tomorrow morning.

Over and Out!!!

This is what my room looks like. Thalia and I are roommates.