From the Hip

 

Army Stories- AIT

 I know I've mentioned alot about AIT already and might repeat a few things, but I guess when you reach my age, that's to be expected.  We still had to stand in the chow line at Parade Rest, but we had more time to eat.  I don't know if every meal was enough time to take as much time as we wanted, but it was much more leisure eating than Basic.  In general, the base is very linear with two main avenues forming like the legs of a triangle.  The one leg was the shopping/recreational area like PX, Commissary, Fast Food, Bowling, Clothing Sales, etc.  The other leg included Barton Field which was in my mind the main feature.  Along one side of the field, the 'back' side were most of the units.  Ours was on the far end close to the wood line.  The other side of Barton field was the Base Command HQ and all the signal corps for that matter and alot of the trianing 'Halls'.  Signal Tower is the icon of Ft. Gordon.  I think SGM Mercado (one of my heroes in the Army) was a prominent figure there.  The units ao's are rectangular 3 or 4 stories with halls that are along the length of the building.  The halls have similar rooms on either side of the hall.  I think my room was on the second floor.  I had a wall locker and a bottom bunk and shared the room with 5 or 7 other trainees.  One feature that stands out it an overhang below the window.  Outside that always seemed like a patio.

Ok, Whatever

I never claimed to be an Artist

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNIV6fl_5E_rmiGTKp8phRJG3JZrX4Qx8ju_bJq 

Things I Remember

 More stuff I remember about Basic Training

We marched wherever we went.  Chow, the Shopette, almost all our training sites.  Several times, it was and even with rucksacks, ouch, my feet, etc.  I remember the gas chamber.  My mask wasn't working that well to begin with, but when we took them off, Oh it was Awful.  I remember struggling on the PT runs.  It was dark so early in the morning.  I was just trying to keep in formation and follow the recruit in front of me.  I remember working hard to do well on the PT Tests, First Aid training, Heavy Weapons training.  I remember when we did M16 weapons qualifications.  Our training was to put the nose on the charging handle.  The air was strong with the smell of gun powder and occasionally, the ejected brass burning hot until it was time to police up the range.  During qualification, the recoil busted my nose to start bleeding.  I think the Drill Sergeant was proud that I kept going.  Later, I found out that firing in hot weather was hard because of the sweat burning and blurring my eyes when I was trying to aim.