Personal Narrative: My First Week Of My Military Career

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The first week of my military career was the best, yet scariest week of my life. I was anxious, full of excitement, yet fully uncertain as to what lied ahead. The first day started very early, 3:30 to be exact. I was shacked up at a hotel not far from BWI airport with another recruit waiting to head off to basic combat training. I was headed to Fort Jackson, SC, my roommate, Fort Benning, GA. I can remember thinking, “I will be headed home soon enough, a changed man”. I have quite a few friends from high school that enlisted in the military and they have all said that it was the best thing that they have ever done. Now it was my turn. The ensuing 10 weeks is a period in my life that I will never forget. It was a cool, rainy April morning headed to the airport. I had one small duffel bag stuffed with everything on my packing list my recruiter gave me the week prior. It was the first time I’ve ever been on an airplane. That was the easy part. My plane landed at the airport in Columbia, SC roughly an hour and a half after takeoff. Waiting for me and 2 companions was a black van and two people dressed in their army uniform, or ACUs. Very stern, the one man commanded the 3 of us to, “Get in the van and be quiet”. Without hesitation, we did. We drove for about an hour until we arrived at …show more content…

This time was in front of what looked like a small prison. There were bars covering the small, dark windows. The building looked like nobody had lived in it for years. “Welcome to transition, the most boring 4 days of your life.” said the driver. He was right, it was extremely boring. The next few days consisted of nothing more than making me and 30 other men look as much alike as possible. We had the same clothing, equipment, and haircuts. Every morning was a wakeup call at 4:30am to stand in formation for 2 hours to salute the flag as it was raised. Then it was breakfast, wait in line to be issued something, lunch, stand in line, then dinner and stand in line some

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