That evening, they came to the Clarion Hotel in Seatac, where I stayed, had dinner and promised to be on time for the swearing-in the next morning.September 21, 2010, I raised my right hand in the morning.
From my sister Meg...
Jen is off. Jason and I followed Mom and Dad down to MEPS this morning, and Jen was running hither and yon getting papers filled out, talking to soldiers and sailors, looking very businesslike, like she was right where she belonged. MEPS is a office in the federal building in South-of-Sodo Seattle, and is divided up into very weird angles. It would be interesting to know how it came to be that way. Anyway, Jen came and sat with us, very calm and ready to go (though the girl that was her roommate last night looked a little unnerved!). They called
her name about fifth of twenty, and she had to get up and walk down a hallway to where we couldn't see her, turning aside to neither the right nor the left. When we were allowed to follow, she was lined up with the rest of the recruits facing away from us. An Army captain came in gave them a quick pep talk about using the educational benefits the military offers, asked them a series of questions in a voice which practically precluded understanding (I'm sure the recruits had been briefed prior to the ceremony), and then asked them to repeat after him the words of the oath, which they all did. He went around and shook their hands, which was cool, and thanked them for joining. Most of the recruits said, "Thank you, sir," Jen included, but I feel sorry for the recruit who left off the "sir." Education incoming! We took some pictures, and then repossessed Jen's PJs, hugged her goodbye, and left. She was a little teary, but I think she's mostly feeling excitement. She seems to fit in well with the culture so far. (DATED SEP. 21, 2010, 12:00 PM)
This was very nice of her, and I heard about it moments afterwords when I talked with Mike on my way to Seatac Airport. We talked again when we landed in Chicago; it was so nice to say goodbye up to the very last second. Remember saying goodbye on the elevated train to the arrivals terminal. I had time to talk with my family too, because the airplane had to wait for the ground-crew due to the storm and the rain before we could get off.I nearly forgot my orders on the airplane. The guy in charge of the four or five of us who were traveling noticed my packet wasn't in my hands when we de-boarded. Thankfully, the aircrew retrieved everything for me. Whew! First disaster diverted! :) I felt like an idiot, and the feeling stayed with me all through boot. We went directly to the USO, had time to get something to eat at the airport, returned and then were directed to the roadside terminal where we gave our packets to a Petty Officer. We sat around on the floor for a long time, waiting for the bus.
When it got there we were checked in. Phones off, quick movements, absolute silence. They showed a video about boot camp on the way to RTC. I had a sickening feeling that I wasn't sure I wanted to do all that... Especially when they showed stuff about medical. I think it was a seaman who escorted us on the b us. He was nice, so I started being confused.
I had an ominous feeling when the bus pulled in. We piled off the bus with lots of excitement. Everybody moving quick. We had to grab a piece of paper and get down the hall, stand at attention. We had a little time to make a last phone call to let family know we were there okay. It wasn't regulated like the Marines, though. In fact, everything was so quiet it weirded me out a little. We went into a bleak room to get our shoe sizes and get ready for urinalysis. A female Petty Officer was in charge of us for initial issue... obviously. Heh. We were separated into male and female (no other words for the sexes were allowed) and picked up a big box with the first stuff. Sea bag, boots, hygiene items, locks, dogtags, towels, shower shoes, notebooks, bluejacket's manual, trainee guide, pens, letters & envelopes, stamps, laundry bag. Then we put everythin g into the sea bag, and got issued the PT uniform, sweats, undergarments, socks, swimsuit. This we stayed in for a long time... we put all personal effects into the box, packed it up, wrote our addresses and said goodbye to everything non-Navy, except for our "valuables" like our driver's license and whatever else. I had a little Bible, a list of addresses and a little packet of stamps. These we put into a tube sock and wore tucked into our sweatpants.
The rest of the night and into the morning was taken up with urinalysis. We were so tired by the end of that. Some poor people had trouble going and had to walk in circles and drink water on every circuit for a long time. Most of us had to wait. I remember this all took a long time... we were told to start mem orizing the chain of command... and we had to sign some type of form, or something. It was all very much a muddle. The next task was we were somehow arranged into our divisions. I was first in line to be marched off to our compartment. I saw my RDC's sitting down in the middle of the room and the other half of the division who had already been there for a day, standing at attention in front of their racks. I was assigned the top rack in the corner, and it turned out that RPOC was on the lower bunk. She sure helped me with a couple things at first... like all that stenciling. That took up our first couple days, actually. Stenciling, folding, again and again.
Letter from Jen: Oct. 3, 2010 NAVAL TRAINING CENTER, Great Lakes, Illinois
Dear Mom, Dad, Meg, Andie, Zac, brothers-in-law, (& friends!:)), Oh, gosh is it a whole different world here! They don't yell as much as you'd imagine...but look out if something is wrong! I was with the last part of my division to arrive...meanin g the guys had been here a week earlier and the other 20 girls had arrived the day before. There's about 85 in a division. We're right across from Division 368, and half the girls that bunk in my compartment are in it. They switch during the day so we are "integrated" divisions. I didn't get to the compartment until after the first uniform issue of sweatrs and hygiene gear...that and the urine test took over 12 hours. So as we straggled in, the rest of the girls looked sullen as they stood in front of their racks. It totally looked like prison and suddenly I was stuck here. The reality was a little jarring!
Here was my address, received by my family on September 27th, and posted to Facebook. The only words I was able to write on the couple lines provided (in five minutes) were:
Dear Mom & Dad & Family [I think she defines that broadly], I love you so much! The first day was ridiculous, but things are much better now! Love, Jen
SR Payne, Jennifer S
Ship 11 Div 367
Recruit Training Command
3505 Sailor Drive
Great Lakes, IL 60088-3505
Don't send anything there... I'm far, far away now. :) This was mostly a form letter, describing details about graduation and my situation in boot camp. I remember walking into the classroom for this, seeing the early grad date of NOVEMBER 12 posted on the whiteboard and suddenly grinning ear to ear. That was the first good day. Don't remember if that was the same time the Chaplain (a female Lieutenant) came in to speak to us. That was the first time we were allowed to smile, laugh, and look at someone in the eyes. Upon getting back to the compartment, I can distinctly remember our 3rd RDC, BM2 Dumas, telling us not to get familiar with the RDC's, just because an officer was nice.
They told us they were going to beat us like crazy as soon as we were medically cleared. Chief screamed at people for standing on the compartment floor in bare feet. And part of our uniform was dogtags with a "recruit pen" (a black ball-point Bic with clicker) attached. Everyone kept leaving them dangling outside their yellow PT shirt... and boy, did they scream at people for that.
Sunday, hold day 2, we went shopping at the NEX for a specific list of items. Nothing more than was allowed. And Chief checked our shopping baskets at the checkout. :) We started practicing making our racks with the guys who supposedly knew more, since they had been there earlier (but not the guy I was paired with! I told him, "Isn't it supposed to go like this?"). AT1 Dyess sat us down mid-day for training on watch-standing and on the DECK LOG. Goodness, if that wasn't the source of 90% of our problems! You see, it had to be written in by hand... perfectly! If that wasn't enough, we started work on drill, which was the other great headache. Unbeknownst to us, this was what we'd ha ve to do at the graduation ceremony. To finish the day, we packed our carefully folded belongings into our sea bags in preparation of the long march to our permanent ship the next day.
P-4 (processing day four, Mon, 27 Sep.) started early as always. We had our big medical day... 6 shots (combined into 3 or 4) in the arm, dental x-rays, a re-do on my x-rays, a trip to the dentist, and a pap smear. We had had our initial uniform issue earlier sometime... Peacoat, raincoat, tennis shoes, NWU's... and we got our NWU's back this day with our name tapes sewn on! A very proud moment! That evening we moved to Camp John Paul Jones and the USS Kearsarge, Ship 11; our home for the next seven weeks. I remember Petty Officer Dyess being very intense, as he always was, saying how he wouldn't put up with how we took care of our compartment on the Pearl. This was "MY HOUSE". :) In my training guide, I even noted what I had for dinner... it must have tasted good. A filet of fish and mac'n'cheese & hamburger casserole.
P-5. We refolded and stowed our gear in our new racks.
I was on top at first, with Sebastian below... but later on they switched me to the bottom of Mills' rack.
I think we were located on the 3rd deck... somehow I didn't write that down.
After everything was put away, we had our first NWU inspection, more marching practice, and then we were off to the Midway Ceremonial Drill Hall (where graduation was) to hear Captain Bethke's (the CO) welcoming brief. It was something to hear something like eight divisions coming to attention (in the bleachers) all at once. They played a short video about how awesome the Navy was as well. I had mixed feelings at this point. :)
Finally, 1-1 day!
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