A taste of things to come

Although the 'official' academy starts on Monday, my class started three days of preparations called 'pre-academy' today. The morning workout was stepped up to include 3 miles of running, 40 normal pushups, 2 minutes of holding still in the pushup position, 5 cycles of running up and down the staircase to the skybridge at BOB, 25 abdominal crunches, and my favorite -wall squats (back against a wall with knees bent at 90 degrees -like sitting in an invisible chair). We stayed against the wall while the slower runners caught up (about 2 -3 minutes). If this doesn't sound like a long time, please try it some time.

We practiced dress inspection today which will be a daily routine at the academy. A loose thread is all it takes fail. We stood still (in the 'parade -rest' stance for all of you military alumni) for over 45 minutes while each recruit was inspected for proper dress. I was docked for:

>wrinkled sleeve (100% cotton is a bad idea for dress shirts)
>boots not shiny enough
>back of shirt collar not straight

I got to write my first disciplinary memo for the infractions above. These memos have to be written in pen in all upper case letters with no mistakes. One error on the page means starting over with a new page. It took me two tries to get it right but others were re-writing memos 5 or 6 times.

We started learning marching formations and parade commands. Think: "atten-SHUN" or "about FACE." It took awhile for me to learn how to pivot on heels/toes to turn to the left, right, or backwards. The whole class got to do pushups in our dress clothes because somebody decided it would be a good idea to start talking in the middle of 'attention' formation. We're not allowed to move our eyeballs let alone talk while at attention.

My excitement is building for Monday but others are already stressing out. The academy is severly more stringent than this three day practice and you wouldn't believe all the mistakes being made. Hint: don't address a female sergeant as 'sir.'

Well, I have an essay to write and a few dozen radio codes to memorize for a Friday test. More to come soon.