"To the Bandana Republic!" -J. Timberlake
Yvan eht Nioj. What does that even mean?
-Lisa
It's meaningless. Like rama-lama-ding-dong, or Give Peace a Chance.
-Homer
Odd. That's how I would describe this weekend. Disturbing might be another apt description. For the past 9 years August drill weekend for the Army National Guard has always involved shooting M-16s at targets. It's a routine and like it or not I've had to endure real Army tasks on occasion, and for the most part, this time around at the range was no different. Hooah. The odd bit about the weekend, though, was the living conditions for the past two nights. Typically we've stayed in "open-bay" style barracks and have had to endure wearing shoes to the shower and MRE's for meals 3 times a day. Given that our unit is used to hotels that give you warm cookies upon check-in and mountain bike rentals at group rates, for the band, living in tile floor bays with wall lockers and community showers during weapons qual. weekend is really roughing it.
Way back when, Dwight D. Eisenhower was injured in a big world war. Then he was treated for his injuries, at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. Because of this, the hospital building that doubled as the mental ward in the 80's, is still in existence and also happened to be the barracks, ummm....rather ward, that my unit and a few others had to stay in the past two nights. The floors were disgusting and probably hadn't been swept in years, the beds stained, and the bathrooms untouchable. So I don't sound like a princess who cant stand unusual sleeping facilities, I must state that I've spent many nights out in the woods and I would have much rather been camping outside using the La"tree" rather than the sick Latrine in this nasty place. I've never seen a building so decrepit and unkempt and I cant believe that the Army/government expects their soldiers to live in these conditions right here in the US. I've talked to many soldiers coming off of deployment and I know that the accommodations overseas are better.
Anyways, I also call it a ward because of the crazy things that happened in the night. Though I slept through the whole ordeal, apparently a girl from another unit wandered in late at night and sat right down on the bed next to me, which was occupied with one of the women in my unit, and proceeded to drop her pants and pee. When the woman in my unit woke up and noticed what was happening, she pushed the girl who then tried to kiss her, (ohmigosh this is a disgusting story) and cursed at her to get out of her bed. The girl got up and the woman in my unit watched the girl pace the room flicking a lighter and talking incoherently for the rest of the night. Weird. I know. And I slept through the whole thing. We're giving the girl the benefit of the doubt and determining that she's probably suffering from a bit of PTSD from Iraq. Otherwise she's just crazy. Needless to say she peed on the wrong bed and the guys in our unit threw a fit the next morning and found us little ladies a new living situation for the next night. Thank goodness.
I don't know what you want call it. Some would say bad karma, others would say it's some sort of evil presence because of the history in this military barracks, turned hospital, turned psychiatric ward, turning national guard housing unit for weapons qualification. I just want to call it used up and ready to be demolished. Maybe I slept in the bed that Pres. Eisenhower slept in when he was rehabilitating from his injuries, but I really don't care. I'm just happy to be currently sitting on my couch watching, ironically, the episode of the Simpsons where the Navy uses subliminal messages through "Project Boy Band" to recruit kids. And tonight I'll be sleeping, comfortably in my own bed.
-Lisa
It's meaningless. Like rama-lama-ding-dong, or Give Peace a Chance.
-Homer
Odd. That's how I would describe this weekend. Disturbing might be another apt description. For the past 9 years August drill weekend for the Army National Guard has always involved shooting M-16s at targets. It's a routine and like it or not I've had to endure real Army tasks on occasion, and for the most part, this time around at the range was no different. Hooah. The odd bit about the weekend, though, was the living conditions for the past two nights. Typically we've stayed in "open-bay" style barracks and have had to endure wearing shoes to the shower and MRE's for meals 3 times a day. Given that our unit is used to hotels that give you warm cookies upon check-in and mountain bike rentals at group rates, for the band, living in tile floor bays with wall lockers and community showers during weapons qual. weekend is really roughing it.
Way back when, Dwight D. Eisenhower was injured in a big world war. Then he was treated for his injuries, at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. Because of this, the hospital building that doubled as the mental ward in the 80's, is still in existence and also happened to be the barracks, ummm....rather ward, that my unit and a few others had to stay in the past two nights. The floors were disgusting and probably hadn't been swept in years, the beds stained, and the bathrooms untouchable. So I don't sound like a princess who cant stand unusual sleeping facilities, I must state that I've spent many nights out in the woods and I would have much rather been camping outside using the La"tree" rather than the sick Latrine in this nasty place. I've never seen a building so decrepit and unkempt and I cant believe that the Army/government expects their soldiers to live in these conditions right here in the US. I've talked to many soldiers coming off of deployment and I know that the accommodations overseas are better.
Anyways, I also call it a ward because of the crazy things that happened in the night. Though I slept through the whole ordeal, apparently a girl from another unit wandered in late at night and sat right down on the bed next to me, which was occupied with one of the women in my unit, and proceeded to drop her pants and pee. When the woman in my unit woke up and noticed what was happening, she pushed the girl who then tried to kiss her, (ohmigosh this is a disgusting story) and cursed at her to get out of her bed. The girl got up and the woman in my unit watched the girl pace the room flicking a lighter and talking incoherently for the rest of the night. Weird. I know. And I slept through the whole thing. We're giving the girl the benefit of the doubt and determining that she's probably suffering from a bit of PTSD from Iraq. Otherwise she's just crazy. Needless to say she peed on the wrong bed and the guys in our unit threw a fit the next morning and found us little ladies a new living situation for the next night. Thank goodness.
I don't know what you want call it. Some would say bad karma, others would say it's some sort of evil presence because of the history in this military barracks, turned hospital, turned psychiatric ward, turning national guard housing unit for weapons qualification. I just want to call it used up and ready to be demolished. Maybe I slept in the bed that Pres. Eisenhower slept in when he was rehabilitating from his injuries, but I really don't care. I'm just happy to be currently sitting on my couch watching, ironically, the episode of the Simpsons where the Navy uses subliminal messages through "Project Boy Band" to recruit kids. And tonight I'll be sleeping, comfortably in my own bed.
posted by carlymarie | 6:45 PM
1 Comments:
Hmm... dirty bathrooms and no mountain bike rentals... I can't say that I feel sorry for you from over here. Try a 23 hour train ride in peasant class and experience the bathroom when there is an inch of standing 'water' on the floor. Ugh...
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