Advanced Individual Training Well, one thing about AIT, its not quite like basic. Not nearly as fun or xciting. And while everyone who reminisces about Basic Training, as it is something everyone in the Military has something in common with, for everyone, AIT is different. Now, despite some circumstances, I loved Basic Training. But coming to AIT, after 9 weeks of zero freedom, I was given a real eye opener. Basic Trainees are a funny lot. I'll warrant that. And I sure in hell was one at one time. I probably had a real bad case of BCT Soldieritus. I guess that's a good a name as any for this milady. So, you might ask, what is BCT Soldieritus? It is a case of being in Basic Training for9 weeks and finding yourself back amongst the real world, with real people who don't dress the same as you do. After being in what some consider hell, this is a shock. Well, I thought that pretty much all the army acted much in the way that the cadre at Ft. Lost in the Woods did. I guess if they did, we wouldn't have an army, as everyone would desert at some time or another for having to put up with a lot of jackasses. But I'm getting off topic. They carted us Ft Sam Houston folk from Ft. Leonard Wood on a bus. It took us a day and a half to get to Ft Sam. We pretty much relished in the freedom we had (if you could call it that) of no supervision, while a couple of the privates even risked a cigerette after 10 weeks. Once we got onto Ft Sam, we were slightly lost, but eventually found our way to our new home for the next sixteen weeks (at least, for us 91 Sierras it was). My new company was B182, a Medical Training Company. They trained the 91K Labratory Specialists) and the 91S (Preventive Medicine Specialists) here. Probably because we were long MOS's. Well, anyway, we got there around noonish, and promptly introduced to our Drill Sergeant. For the sake of protecting the innocent (me!) I'll call her DS H. Well, she gave us a quick spiel. We could go anywhere on post as long as we remained in uniform, and could go on company grounds in our PTs. Be in formation on Sunday at 6:00. Now go treat ourselves to some lunch and be back in an hour to finish inprocessing. That was about it. Well, you civilians out there, you probably don't think much of that. But to a hand full of people who have just got out of Basic, and have BCT Soldieritus really bad, this is quite a shock to the system. What does one do with oneself? We didn't have to have a battle buddy everywhere we went?!? What was to become of us? Well, naturally, since we were civilians at one time, we adapted. Since I wasn't always the most thrilled to be at AIT, I will not bore you with the details. But I wasn't the best private in our little class when we first got there. For one thing, I was wondering why I chose to become a Sierra. Of all the jobs offered in the Army, why this? Well, that's a whole other web page, in the meantime, i had to go through the training. And my body, which hadn't gotten any rest in the last 9 weeks and hadn't taken well to classroom time to begin with, betrayed me on more then one occasion. I nodded off in class for the first six or so weeks. And not just nodding off either, I would go into a full fledged coma every day. Let's just face the facts, I saw one to many Power Point Presentations. And it wasn't that exciting. But eventually, I did manage to get some rest and participate in class, particularly during Entomology, which I particularly enjoyed! And since I managed to graduate near the top of the class (fourth, I do believe, if I remember correctly) I almost made up for my blatant disregard for my earlier training. But I don't fall asleep in class anymore, honest! Well, as I said before, AIT is not nearly as exciting as Basic. It's a lot like college, only its the Army. So if you ever been to college, picture that. Heck, even the rooms I stayed in resembled more in the way of dorm rooms then barracks. Except we had to keep them nice and buffed! I would go into the rooms, but I was most likely in one of the easier companies when it comes to living quarters, so I will not go there. Let's just say that I had a fridge. -Risawn: # 2:38 PM 2:38 PM