Today was our first test. It was all about what we covered from AR 601-210. It was mostly situational, for example,

John is a prior service applicant wanting to return to active duty. He served 9 years in the Army and got out as a SPC. What is his eligibility. A. Qualified; B. Disqualified, Waiver Authorized, BN CDR Approval; C. Disqualified, Waiver Authorized, CG, USAREC Approval; D. Disqualified, No Waiver Authorized.

Thats pretty much it. All of it could be found within the reg if you knew where to look and paid attention to the wordage of it all. It's tricky for some and not so much for others. We had one guy get 100%, I got a 92%, but about 44% of the class failed. We then reviewed the test after we received our scores. After that, those that passed were released and those who didn't achieve 80% or better stayed for retraining. Supposedly it's supposed to take a lil while for them to finish. They'll retest Monday morning as the rest of us start our first PT session. After that whoever fails again is going home. So everyone out there that really don't want to do this, just fail the first test twice. That was our day.

Another thing that popped up today was we have "mandatory" community service also. So tomorrow about 15 of us will be going to a local high school to grade a JROTC PT test. Those of who don't go will be going out next Saturday to pass out flyers for some kind of clothing donations and then going out the Saturday after that to pick them up. Oh and I almost forgot, PT here is gay, we have to form up at one place and march to the PT field singing cadence, with roadguards wearing organe vests and then someone has to carry a 5 gallon water cooler. But whatever pleases the brass I guess. It's only 3 times a week for about 5 weeks, so only 15 times, can't be that bad right. But where I come from my unit doesn't even sing cadence so I guess I better not try to figure one out.

Today was long and boring. Long to the extent that it was all Chapter 4 which basically covers the waiver stuff. Most of it is all about the types of charges a applicant can have and how many and what requires a waiver and what makes them disqualified. Towards the end it was kinda a review for tomorrows exam. Yes, the Friday of your first week there is an exam. Supposedly this is what gets most people, it's even sometimes said that if they can pass this exam they are good to go and no other test is as hard. It sounds like it's only hard because there are so many combinations of charges someone can have and each combination can have a different outcome. I'll let everyone know about the exam tomorrow and maybe throw in a few examples of questions. What I do know is that it's 40 questions, you have 3 hours to take it, and it's multiple choice. If you fail it there will be retraining after class and a retest on Monday. After that I think they kick you out if you fail the retest. Other than that nothing happened.

More and more students are getting kicked out. We had a lil over 40 yesterday and now were down to 32. Don't know exactly what for, but I know some were within 90 days of redeploying and others didn't have their BN CDR Interview done. Also the mental eval is big, even though they have a shrink here they only deal with the Reserve people, if your active and don't have it they will send you back to your base to get it and you'll have to wait for another class date. But don't worry, the Division Chief says that once your selected for Recruiting duty you'll keep coming back here until you get it right, but who knows. There are about 5 or 6 people that this is their second time here, so maybe.

But today we reviewed chapters 1,2,3,5 of AR 601-210 and started into chapter 4. It's all about waivers and such, so there is alot of stuff. A lot has to do with types of criminal and civil convictions and how the Army sees them. I'm telling you, my head is about to explode with all this crap. It's like one section says one thing and another says something different, so when they throw a scenario at you in a practical excercise your going back and forth between all these sections trying to figure out if that person would be eligible. I mean it's not hard because it's in the book, but there are so many things to consider when figuring it out. Who would think a simple traffic violation could make someone not allowed to join? But thats all we really did today, no more briefings so far and it was all reading out of the book today. Tomorrow, who knows, I know we'll be finishing chapter 4.

The rest of the class arrived today. We have about 40 or so people. It started off with a little bit of reading from 601-210. We handed in our homework, they didn't grade it they just made sure that we did it all. Then the people from the Ops. cell came in to brief us about finance and the ASU. Males will get 418.80 plus 62.00 for alterations for their ASU and females will get 390.75 plus 62.00 for alterations for theirs. They made it a point to let us know that we HAD to get new ones because the CSM's at our new Battalions will want to see them and if we didn't buy them they will ask where the money is and possibly hand out some UCMJ. The best part of the whole day probably is when Mrs. Gray came in to talk about assignments. Yes, today is when all DA select will fill in their assingment preferences based on whats available. It's all online so only the choices that need new recruiters will pop up for selection, and that changes weekly. This week there were alot in the mid west and upper east coast. None from Florida, apparently thats a hot pick. Soldiers who volunteered for recruiting like myself didn't have to pick any preferences since we already filled out ours when we put our packet together. The rest of the day was devoted to more of AR 601-210 and we got our nifty ACU laptop backpacks (which can hold 9 Heinekens and ice).

Many are probably wondering about food and why we aren't authorized in and around mileage. Breakfast and lunch will be at the NCO Club just a few blocks away, probably only place to eat since most times you only get about an hour for lunch. Dinner is on the voucher system. It's just a punch card that's worth $10 each meal. So you go to either Burger King, Manchu Wok, Anthony's Pizza, Cinnabon, Taco Bell, Blimpies, and Charleys order your food, hand them the punch ticket and then sign the receipt and USAREC will foot the bill up to $10, over that is on you. But most places you can get a decent meal for that much. The school house will provide a van for students to use to go to dinner or out to the mall or something like that for free and as long as it's used properly, and since it's available for everyone that somehow justifies no in and around miles for us. But I don't see 40 people wanting to go to the same place all the time, so POV's will be used mostly (I'm using mine) so this don't make much sense to me. Oh and they preach that USAREC is no longer the "mafia" but only time will tell.

So today was Day 0 according to the training schedule. It started off with a 0600 weigh in and tape if you needed it. Then change into ACU's and in our seats by 0730. After that, it was basically filling out paperwork and getting briefings by everyone imaginable. Let me tell you now, the rules are gayness times 10. It's a basic training fort and TRADOC, so there are tons of officers. From 2LT's going to their training to 3-Stars with nothing to do with their time. It's almost to the point that they go over so many don'ts you have no idea what you can do. I guess it's not that bad, just a little more strict on everything they teach you about customs in basic, I guess these officers get really bent out of shape if your not saluting them a mile away. We also started on enlistment eligbility, but not to into since people will still be coming in tomorrow. Overall, it was a long day sitting in a class room. But it's not the worst day apparently. We'll see and I'll let you know when I find out. And there is homework today, only 68 questions on Chapters 1,2,3,5 of  AR 601-210.

PT is M,W,F from 0600-0700 and it's not for improvement, it's basically the learning of the Pre-BCT PT and the evaluation of you conducting it. The instructors seem pretty knowledgable and laid back on some things. Some of the gayer things (if that makes any sense). And remember, the Army don't shake hands anymore, we fist bump.