Some Different Uses for a Lieutenant

In the past two days, I have lost all motivation. I am not sure if it’s the fact that I haven’t gone to Dunkin’ Donuts in the mornings for my daily mocha/latte fix and am suffering from lack of caffeine, or if it’s the current material. Speaking of which, we are finally talking about (gasp) trucks and convoys! I know, what a surprise, seeing how I am at TRANSPO SCHOOL and only 80% of transportation units are truck units. Why would we ever even discuss convoys?

Seriously though, we’ve been doing a lot of BS details this week. On Wednesday, we had to go to a welcoming reception. Now that we've been here for seven weeks and have even already had a dining in, it's time to welcome us to Ft. Eustis. The best way to do that is to have us sing the Transportation Song, the Army Song and recite the Soldier's Creed in front of a general before eating a variety of finger foods. What, that doesn't sound exciting? Well, I guess that's why they turned it into a competition with the new TBOLC class. Somehow, my class got stuck in the middle - we had dining-in with the previous class, barely giving us enough time to prepare, and then we get put together with the new class for the reception - we've started referring to ourselves as the red-headed step-child. We also feel a certain amount of disdain towards the new class (it's all in good fun) - they actually get to stay at General Small's Inn (so much more convenient) and they keep showing up very early for everything (what a bunch of overachievers). Anyway, we "won" the competition, but that's because the colonel doesn't like the Ohio State fans in the other class. In fact, he made us sing the Michigan fight song to piss them off. Personally, I always thought that the big rivalry was Michigan and Illinois, not Michigan and Ohio, and therefore couldn't sing the fight song in good conscience. I don't even know the words for the Illini song but I know "Hail to Michigan" now. This whole Army thing is making me go against my principles.

Due to military customs and courtesies we weren't allowed to leave until the general left (of course, no one said anything about the fact that the general was late for the reception, and we had to stand around for fifteen minutes waiting for him while the food was taunting us). Anyway, eventually our class leader gave us permission to start disappearing in pairs, especially since we had a 6 o'clock formation the next morning because we had been tasked to attend a retirement ceremony. We thought we were just going to sit in the bleachers and take up space, but we learned differently this morning at the rehearsal. We are going to have to stand in two formations to make it look more formal. It could be anywhere from 1 to 2 hours, and being tall, I have to be up front. I tend to start fidgeting after a while so this could get ugly tomorrow morning.

Also, it turns out that our stuff isn't safe anywhere. As of Wednesday morning, one woman was missing her wedding ring, and another one couldn't find her check book. They live on the same floor right by each other. Basically, we can't leave valuables in the room, and we can't leave them in our cars. Too bad we aren't staying at General Small's. Damn that new class.