Day #3 - 02 Mar 2009 - "Hurry Up and Wait!!"

The Army has a saying that goes "Hurry up and wait!" The term comes from the Army's strict rules on punctuality and doing things quickly. The problem is that they are in such a rush for you to get something done that once you accomplish your task or arrive where you are supposed to be they are not ready for you to move on to the next thing.

This has never been more true to me than here at my pre-deployment training. We had a formation at 5:30am today. Don't be late the platoon leader said the night before. So I got there 10 minutes early as did most of the others, only to be told that the schedule had changed and we didn't need to be there till 7am. Sweet ... I didn't want that extra hour of sleep anyway. And this is how the first 2 days down here has gone. A lot of rushing around only to get to your location and then have to wait for hours before you do we you have to do. Gotta love the efficiency of the military. I mean we have been at war for 8 years now so you would think that they would have the system down by now. No ... not so much.

Here is a picture of my humble living arrangements. Four bunk beds, a wall locker to keep all of your gear (which is completely ridiculous considering the amount of gear we have gotten) and a community bathroom. Not much ... but they availability of wireless internet has made up for all the other stuff so I complain. It like being back in college again but with no alcohol, stricter rules, and no women. Wait a minute ... this sounds like prison!