The first step

Greetings from Fort Benning, GA!  Thank you for your prayers for my flight.  It was an interesting experience.  LTC Hopkins and I had a delay on our first flight and missed our connection from Atlanta to Columbus.  However, we were automatically put on another flight and after another delay we arrived with our luggage!  We took a bus with some other Soldiers to Fort Benning to begin processing through the Continental United States (CONUS) Replacement Center (CRC).  We will be here for a week.  Above you can see one of the landmarks of the site.

So far Army life has not been too bad for this Civilian!  LTC Hopkins has helped me stay out of trouble and understand what is going on.  We are supposed to have 4 man rooms, but given the smallish group that is here and the very small number of females, I have my own room.  I've never had a dorm experience, so I guess this is it!  The food has not been too bad.  I decided to go off my diet (with the help of some supplements) so regardless of what I am eating, I am no more restricted than anyone else - which is a wonderful feeling!  The lady who serves the food is trying to get me to gain some weight and serves me portions that are more suitable for a teenage boy!  So I am definitely not starving.

The days have so far been filled with paperwork and boring lectures, but I am quite fascinated by all this Army stuff, so I am enjoying myself.  I tried on a uniform today to get my size and stood in formation. Probably not cool for a Soldier, but it certainly is for a curious Civilian!  They told that they will not march us to places because previous people wrote in their evaluation surveys that the did not like to be marched.  That sparked quite a bit of laughter today!  But I guess these people really pay attention to their surveys!

Tomorrow we have formation at 0530 for the military and 0600 for Civilians, so I had best get to bed.  We have medical all day.  I would not be too disappointed if my lingering cough was enough to prevent me from getting the smallpox vaccination...  I shall have to report on that later.