Class Room Ahh, the Class Room. Now, most of us have been through school, correct? And in doing so, we have all gone through that torturous class where the information presented was less then interesting and we were so dog tired that we didn't care about it anyway. Well, put a Basic Trainee into a class room when they are smoked daily, put on their wits end, given less sleep then they're used to, and on top of it all pulling fire guard, thus interupting their already pesky sleep schedule, and you'll have an inkling of what's going on here. These classes are not terribly exciting. They come in two variaties. Hands on (which really was kind of interesting) and just general briefings where we all sit down in a classroom and listen to a Drill Sergeant or some other high ranking individual in the army talk to us about something in the Army. We're talking Rights and Priveleges, Army Values, UCMJ, Proper Wear of the Uniform, More Army Values, Radio, The Phonetic Alphabet, Female Hygene, Commanders Briefing, Consideration of Others, Even More Army Values, History of the Army, History of Ft. Leonard Wood, History of the Battalion, Map Reading and of course, Army Values. Now, once in a blue moon, I felt myself awake enough where I didn't have to douse my stomach with water to stay awake, or I had a battle buddy next to me who was more then eager enough to give me a hard nudge in the rib cage, but more often then not I would find myself sent back to the fitness center located at the back of the classroom. This is self explanatory, if I might say so. If you are caught nodding off, the drill sergeant will send you and your battle buddy (because he wasn't watching you and you are supposed to be looking out for each other) to the back of the class room where you are further smoked by another drill sergeant by doing Push ups, jumping jacks, the flutter kick, or some other method of physical torture that they can dream up. I hated the class room. It was so hot and stuffy in there my eye lids were just screaming for me to let them close for a few moments of rest and relaxation. My body was going through a big enough shock as it was. And guess what? For the first two weeks, in todays PC Army, we basically had nothing but classes. Now, this isn't actually very usual, the classes are generally spread out throught the course of Basic. However, I went through Basic in the Dead of Winter so when it got too cold, the Drills couldn't do much more with us other then give us a bunch of classes. These first two weeks I was constantly getting my butt smoked for being bored and it was at this point that I was seriously doubting my decision to join the Army. But it did get better, honest! -Risawn: # 4:20 PM 4:20 PM