Pre OCS - Arrival into Columbus

So, I have arrived into Columbus, Georgia.

The idea at this point is to chill out for 48 hours before I finally sign into Fort Benning. My plans for the next 48 hours are pretty simple, really. I have to go to Ft. Benning Clothing and Sales to obtain the following:

1) More "Follow Me" Class A patches
2) A Ft. Benning road guard vest properly marked with my name
3) OCS Class A insignia
4) OCS officer's handbook
5) Some OCS rank

Anyway, if you are reading this, then you likely got a link to it either through me or someone I sent the link to. I figure it might be therapeutic to record some of the OCS "highlights" as I experience them. I won't lie that I feel very apprehensive about signing into the US Army infantry school for 12 weeks. It will be an environment much like that I experienced in Phases 1-4 of basic training. I fully expect a confining experience. If there is less confinement than I thought, then I will be pleasantly surprised.

Ok, so where to start. I left home Thursday really sad. I just had a baby about two weeks ago and I was just really beginning to enjoy her company. Then there's my fantastic and beautiful wife, who I haven't really been apart from more than about two weeks at a time. 12 weeks will be a really long time, and then after that we only have a few weeks together before I drive back to Benning once again. If I'm lucky, I might get Christmas exodus - that two week period when units go to half days and all units in training have the option to take that time off. OCS is a TRADOC (i.e. training) unit and should have the 20th of December through the 2nd of January off. However, another OCS blog of a guy who went during a class last Christmas mentioned that in Basic Phase, his platoon came up on CQ (a type of guard duty) during the two week exodus period. They got stuck in town. So, if I'm lucky, I get to come home for Christmas. Meanwhile, I will deeply miss my wife and child. I've been told that my baby won't miss me as much as I miss her, but still. I guess this is a good warm up for the future when deployments will take me away from home for a year or more. I love them both so much and I will miss them deeply.

Tonight I'm chillin at the Marriott Fairfield just north of post. Columbus, the town outside of Benning, is a lot like Killeen. The difference seems to be that the infrastructure here is a lot more maintained. In Killeen, you can go a couple of blocks from a good place and find buildings falling down, debris in the streets, etc. Here, there's none of that. It also seems to share Killeen's love for chain restaurants. I did find a Steak n' Shake here. That's a plus. There are a lot of trees here and quite a few hilly areas as well. I expected it to be flat. Due to a freak monsoon when I arrived in town about 5 PM local (1700) I didn't feel it was a good idea to try and explore the post. Plus 1700 in a military town is not a good time to wander the streets.

I've also noticed a complete lack of soldiers in uniform here. In Killeen, you can't go into an establishment without running into someone in uniform. Then I realized why. 90 percent of the personnel at Fort Benning are in Basic Training, Infantry school, AIT, etc. All of those include confinement on post during most of the training. Anyone you see wandering around outside of it would be post Cadre, who represent a much smaller segment of the population.

So, I think I'm done rambling. I think I'm doing it because I'm bored. As mentioned before, my plans for tomorrow are to wander onto post, go to clothing and sales, and maybe catch "Quantum of Solace." I tried to find a theater tonight, but I kinda failed. So, until tomorrow, I will cease my ramblings. Peace.