AIT Day 52
November 17th, 2002
Wow. Five days without a new entry. A lot of good things have happened since the last entry. I went home for the four-day Veteran's Day weekend. My class wasn't allowed an overnight pass yet, so imagine the amount of driving it took to get me out of here and back for three days. I live an hour and a half away. I'm a mechanic, not a math wiz. You do the math.
Almost my entire company went to a Washington Wizards basketball game on Tuesday. The section where we were sitting got section of the game. We were on the big screen TV a lot of times. I was on freakin' TV. I made sure to take a picture of the screen. It was weird how a random dude tapped me on the shoulder-scaring the crap out of me-to thank me and tell me I'm doing a good job. Wearing that uniform made us celebrities.
School got a lot more interesting this week. We finally ditched the boring classroom. We traded our pens for wrenches and our sleepiness for excitement. For two days we took apart an eight cylinder, six and a half liter engine, and put it back together. The excitement part came in when I banged my hand so freakin' hard on the engine block, I could've lost a pinky. It's still kind of purple. From that I learned to use the right tool for the right job. I also got a deeper understanding of engine construction and operation. You can't beat hands-on training.
This weekend I pressed my uniforms. The creases are so sharp that my BDUs could be used as a weapon. I also shined boots. The usual stuff. After my stuff looked straight I went out and acted crazy. It's important in AIT to prioritize. It's best to go have fun at the strip club AFTER your uniform is ready for the week or you'll be too hung over to even care.