Showing Off the Island
I get a call yesterday that MEPS screwed up and didn't get finger prints to do a FBI background check on one of my enlistments. "When can you take PVT S down to MEPS?" Tomorrow.
I tell PVT S to meet me at the armory at 9. Traffic in Atlanta should be sufficiently cleared up to make a quick (one hour) trip to MEPS. "We'll also get your ID card while we are down there." I sweeten the pot for my young recruit.
After the MEPS debacle (I won't go into it. Suffice it to say I believe that you have to check your brain at the door when you arrive for work at MEPS) we leave and head for Fort MacPherson.
Many many moons ago when I was in the best damn Navy in the World I was stationed at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Hawaii is a series of increasingly beautiful islands in the Pacific Ocean. The weather is PERFECT year round. The people are wonderful and I made many good friends there.
However Island Fever set in about a year after I arrived there. The islanders had a popular bumper sticker that read "Just Another Shitty Day in Paradise." The idea being that when you live in paradise you get accustomed to it and pretty soon each day is just the same as the other. Your senses become deadened to the beauty and grandure. Until that is you get to show off the island.
Inevitably I would have someone come visit me (yeah right) and I would get to show off Hawaii to a new pair of eyes. I would take them to the little known places off the beaten track. I would take them to see the veiw from the top of the island overlooking the North Shore. Breathtaking. Or the little surfboard shop by Kaneohe. The great food at a REAL Luau. I would fall in love with the Island all over again. I would see Hawaii through their eyes.
Well today I got to "show off the island". I drove PVT S around Fort Mac. I showed him the parade grounds and the officer housing. After we got his ID card we went to the uniform shop or the "Military Clothing Sales". I bought a book about General Patton, some National Guard stickers for my son and PVT S purchased an ACU patterned wallet. I then gave him the Grand Pooba tour of the base. Fort MacPherson was built in 1885 and some of the buildings look it! LOL. FORSCOM is there so it is an important base.
PVT S was full of questions. He will be part of a LRS (rhymes with purse) unit out of Fort Gillem nearby. He is so excited. He is also nervous about Basic Training, AIT and his Airborne school. He will be fine.
It was nice to get a fresh vision. He ships out in February. I told him he better write me at least one postcard. He chuckled and said sure. If he is like most of my recruits, I will get a phone call from Basic saying "Sgt F, its' just like you said it would be...".
It felt good showing off the Army. I fell in love with it all over again.
I tell PVT S to meet me at the armory at 9. Traffic in Atlanta should be sufficiently cleared up to make a quick (one hour) trip to MEPS. "We'll also get your ID card while we are down there." I sweeten the pot for my young recruit.
After the MEPS debacle (I won't go into it. Suffice it to say I believe that you have to check your brain at the door when you arrive for work at MEPS) we leave and head for Fort MacPherson.
Many many moons ago when I was in the best damn Navy in the World I was stationed at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Hawaii is a series of increasingly beautiful islands in the Pacific Ocean. The weather is PERFECT year round. The people are wonderful and I made many good friends there.
However Island Fever set in about a year after I arrived there. The islanders had a popular bumper sticker that read "Just Another Shitty Day in Paradise." The idea being that when you live in paradise you get accustomed to it and pretty soon each day is just the same as the other. Your senses become deadened to the beauty and grandure. Until that is you get to show off the island.
Inevitably I would have someone come visit me (yeah right) and I would get to show off Hawaii to a new pair of eyes. I would take them to the little known places off the beaten track. I would take them to see the veiw from the top of the island overlooking the North Shore. Breathtaking. Or the little surfboard shop by Kaneohe. The great food at a REAL Luau. I would fall in love with the Island all over again. I would see Hawaii through their eyes.
Well today I got to "show off the island". I drove PVT S around Fort Mac. I showed him the parade grounds and the officer housing. After we got his ID card we went to the uniform shop or the "Military Clothing Sales". I bought a book about General Patton, some National Guard stickers for my son and PVT S purchased an ACU patterned wallet. I then gave him the Grand Pooba tour of the base. Fort MacPherson was built in 1885 and some of the buildings look it! LOL. FORSCOM is there so it is an important base.
PVT S was full of questions. He will be part of a LRS (rhymes with purse) unit out of Fort Gillem nearby. He is so excited. He is also nervous about Basic Training, AIT and his Airborne school. He will be fine.
It was nice to get a fresh vision. He ships out in February. I told him he better write me at least one postcard. He chuckled and said sure. If he is like most of my recruits, I will get a phone call from Basic saying "Sgt F, its' just like you said it would be...".
It felt good showing off the Army. I fell in love with it all over again.
posted by SGT Lori at 20:55
1 Comments:
Gotta love MEPS, they screw up at the most inconvenient moments. I know cuz I got Beavis (hubby's SN) ranting about it to me knowing that I listen,...lolz.
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