So far in the Army

I've been in the army almost 9 months, on December 21st it will be 9 months. It isn't too bad, my only problem so far is that every once in a while i won't wake up in time for work. I don't do a lot of pt which is kind of nice but could kind of screw me later on. Being a cook sucks, i won't lie, everyone that is a cook doesn't really like it, some people might but they are retarded, no im kidding, it really isn't too bad. The hours suck really bad. Work at 0500 work until about 1330, 1400, than go to pt the next day, work at 1030 until about 1900. These are just average times we get out, it doesn't happen every day, some days might be sooner some days might be later. It's getting close to christmas, kind of excited hopefully i get to go home for christmas, im not sure yet, they (the army) messed up my leave when i got here, and they still haven't fixed so im kind of pissed off about that because im not just going home for christmas, sara is supposed to be driving there after christmas, than we are driving back to Fort Drum, NY. She is moving here of course duh. Word is lately that we are deploying May, 2008 to go to Iraq. This will be my first, hopefully it goes pretty good. I've gotten pretty close with my squad so far. There's only one guy in my squad that im worried about, hopefully he isn't going with us. Don't really get a lot of time to call people, sorry im so tired after work i just fall asleep when i get to my room and sleep until like 2030 2100. Anyways, comment me or something, idk. See everyone later.

Back to the Army

Well I am heading back to new york. Sounds like a ton of fun I know. I wish I could've stayed longer and done a lot more stuff with a lot of people. I was busy while I was home, it flew by way to fast, just think i should've only been home for about two weeks. A month is incredible for leave. I should be back home for christmas, I am hoping. I haven't spent a christmas away from home, this might be my first. It's sad to say but i am about 75% sure that i won't make it back home for christmas. I did get to see Sara before I left, I went to Ohio and went to her sister's wedding it was fun. Partied with her family for once. I wish I knew what to say, I want to write a lot more but I don't know what of. Anyways, I guess I will end it here, short and sweet. I love all of you guys and I wish I could've said bye to everyone but there are a lot of people out there, so this is my goodbye for now. Don't worry I will be back and I am sure my mom will let everyone know when I am going to be back. Love you guys

The Past Couple Of Weeks

Well AIT is going pretty good so far. I met an amazing girl named Sara Elise Strauss. I never would've thought I would meet a female here, but it happened. She is 18 years old and from North Dakota. Never thought I would ever date a girl from North Dakota but it happened. I like her a lot, we have been dating for almost three weeks, it will be three weeks on Friday. She is planning on coming home with me for a couple of days after AIT is over when i take my leave. Obviously she is in the army, National Guard, but it still works. She just graduated high school from a small town in North Dakota. Cooking has been getting easier, getting more boring. The weekends are getting better because we finally got our off post passes and in civilian clothes too, i was so excited for the first weekend that we got those passes. Got to finally get off of an army base for a couple of hours, well it was for like 7 hours, but yea. Doing some field training right now, basically cooking in a trailer and setting stuff up for if we ever had to be in the field. It's basically just a waste of time but maybe we will need to know it for the future. Some of our sergeants are saying that we will never ever use it if we are Active duty, which I am even though i still pay attention just because you might need it for something in the future. Anyways hope to hear from you guys can't wait to be home Aug. 1st. Love all of you guys.

Pv2 Lewis, Joseph B.

Cooking In The Army

I finally found out what cooking in the Army was all about. The most important thing to remember about cooking, is reading the recipe, always be careful when reading the recipe and make sure all of your measurements are correct and very accurate. I got to make quite a bit of food so far, from meatloaf, to baked chicken, fried chicken, baked fish, omelets, muffins, biscuits, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pies on monday, and for our bakeoff we have to make a pinneaple upside down cake and peanut butter cookies, im excited for it. After we get done with baking we do small quantity cooking like making breakfast and setting up a salad bar and a fruit bar for the rest of the people in the building if they want to eat. Days are going by fast, classes start at 0830, lunch is at 1200, class until 1700 than personal time for the rest of the day.

A Fresh Start

When I first got to Ft. Jackson it was about 10 o'clock at night, fresh out of the civilian world, it wasn't too bad, than we got our first experience of an NCO(Non-Commissioned-Officer). It wasn't a pretty experience for some people, I already new that this would be a fun experience for me and my battle buddies. Peolpe were already pushing, quite funny, of course I wasn't. It was called reception, not actually Basic Combat Training. A week there was one of the most boring things I have actually done. No pt at all time went by really slow, I thought it would be like that the whole time we were going to be there. The day came, we packed up all of our shit and shipped out to Basic Combat Training. That's when the real fun started for us, the second we got off the bus they started yelling, I was scared to death, honestly I didn't think I would like it. If you even looked around moved your eyes or your head they were right in your face yelling, telling you to start pushing. Happened to quite a few people, but not to me, never really got yelled at too much, maybe once or twice, but nothing big. Got into our classroom, that was when I knew I was going to like this place. We got to know our DS's a little better which helped because they are pretty laid back. BCT was a lot of fun for me, got to work out, taught me when to be serious and when I could have fun. A lot of physical work actually, not like the movies where they are constantly yelling, only for like the first 2 weeks that happened but only because they wanted us to start thinking like soldiers and not like civilians. It wasn't that hot there, it was hot a couple of days, but not too much. Got to AIT, its pretty good, liking the passes but thats all i got for right now. New cell phone number is 804-481-0243, so give me a call when you like, leave me a voicemail, i have class from 0830-1800, so i will call you when i get back from class and i have classes Monday-Friday so I use my phone on the weekends mostly. But I love all of you guys and hope to hear from ya soon, this blogspot is a new thing for me so hopefullt i can keep up with it weekly.