The Second Sojourn

The next day I went to the Hospital to have my ankle checked out by a Podiatrist. He sent me for an X-ray and a CT scan, which revealed that my ankle had a fracture right inside the joint. Apparently this particular type of fracture may never heal on its own, and it's also a possibility that I may never be able to run again. He consulted with another doctor, and they both decided to see if it could be healed by Casting in lieu of Surgery. So he had a cast put on my leg, which was supposed to stay on for 6 weeks. I had never had a cast on before, I had NO idea how annoying it was going to be.

So that was it. I was getting restarted for sure. My doctor kinda saw how I was down, so he asked me
"Have you ever heard anything about Convalescent Leave?" I looked at him and said
"No, what is it?"
"It's where you go home for 30 days to heal following an injury, you need a doctor's recommendation, and approval from your Company Commander, I'm recommending you."

Thirty days of free, paid leave back at my home, over a thousand miles away from Fort Benning. Why not? The only two catches were that I had to get approval from my CO, and I had to pay for the plane ticket. Money was no problem, I had enough. The biggest Hurtle was getting my CO to sign the leave form, he was always busy with training the Company, and didn't have alot of time to spend on Medical Holdovers like me. He had already proven that by waiting two weeks just to act on another soldiers Con Leave paperwork, and those two weeks came out of his 30 days.

So I left the hospital and went back to my unit. My Drill Sergeants took my paperwork and submitted it, and two days later I had my leave approved, I guess having two cases on his desk put alittle more power behind the paper.

I went online to US Airways, selected a flight from Atlanta to Buffalo, put my Credit card number in, and clicked submit.

It told me my credit card was denied.

This being the first time I had ever used the damn thing, I was kinda annoyed. I went to the ATM to check my funds, and it told me my Credit Card was "Invalid". I got the Con Leave recommended by a doctor, submitted to my Drill Sergeants, and approved by my Commander, I had contacted my Mom and I had a place to stay, I was sure I had the money to buy the ticket, but, I had no means to access it. You couldn't possibly believe how frustrated I was. I Called up my bank, and when I told them the ATM said my card was Invalid, they looked up my account and told me that I never had a Debit Card. I said that was kinda hard to believe, as I was holding it in my right hand. I was told to go to the Bank's branch the next day, which I did.

The Drill Sergeants Drove me back to 30th AG, so I could visit the Personal Affairs Office (which is ironically where I now work until further notice) and go to the bank inside of it. They said my card was never "loaded" when they gave it to me, in other words, they handed me a useless piece of plastic with no purpose or value. So I had them "load" it, which was a chore all of itself as they had to look up my account number, contact various people, go through several breaks, etc, etc.

Phew, SO, I walked out with a "Working" Debit card. Great! I got back to my unit, hopped on the Drill Sergeant's Computer, and clicked "submit" one more time. Your account has been locked, please try again. WTF. I seriously felt like I was being asked to jump through hoops of fire just to get a working Debit Card.

So I called them back up, talked to a customer service guy, and had them Unlock my card..... What else could POSSIBLY go wrong? Thankfully, nothing did, I bought my ticket online without further trouble...

So the next day a Shuttle Bus picked me up from Sand Hill (The BCT area of Ft. Benning) and took me to the Atlanta Airport, roughly 6 hours later I stepped off of a plane at Buffalo.

I told everyone I was coming back, except my Girlfriend, I wanted it to be a surprise so I just told her a "Big Package" was coming in the mail, well my mom and her boyfriend picked me up from the Airport, and took me to her house (which is also where my best friend, her brother, lives). Her parents had her go into this little TV room with her back to the door, I walked in, we had her turn around with her eyes closed, and I hugged the crap out of her :D . My friend's Birthday was only a few days prior, so we combined it into a big Welcome Home - Birthday Party. I was kinda sick with Laryngitis at the time, and didn't eat much, but even so...

It was one of the best days in my life.

Mark, Autumn, Everyone, Thankyou...

WTF

4 days, NO SLEEP. SAME THING FOR TONIGHT AND ITS A F-ING FRIDAY... I'm seriously ready to just pass out for like a month, BUT WE CANT SLEEP. This better not continue past sunday...

The Eye of the Storm

Where was I.... Okay,

We Qualified, spent an extra night in the woods, then the next day the pain finally got the better of me, I went on sick call, only to find out that I had an appointment with the Podiatry clinic at MACH the next day. So they gave me some Tylenol for the pain (it cures everything in the Military dont cha know) and sent me off. That night, me and Smith had CQ duty. We were both on crutches at this point, he sprained his ankle back when we spent the last night in the woods. We used to call ourselves the Sick Call Rangers, he was Crutch Master 1, and I was Crutch Master 2, there were also other rangers, by that time there were almost 20 people on medical profiles in my company. When Delta Company (the guys next to us) started to get a sizeable force of Sick Calls, we decided to form the DADADADADADADA SICK CALL SPECIAL FORCES - 5TH PLATOON "BLUNT DAGGERS!!!!" It even caught on, our Company Commander started calling us by it, but, I digress.

We had CQ duty that night, and eventually we got onto the topic of Girlfriends. I told him about mine, how I loved her and missed her, how we had known each other for years, and I showed him a picture of her. When I was done, he looked down at the ground, smiled, and asked me "Do you want to see a picture of the most beautiful girl in the world?" Well, I doubted that he had a picture of my girlfriend, but I decided to amuse him lol. "Sure" I said. He pulled out his wallet and took out a small pocket photo of a girl in her early 20s, he started telling me about how they had met in Highschool and fell in love, he told me how she liked the outdoors, how she could bring a smile to anybodies face, he told me about his plans to propose to her on Christmas.

And then he told me about how she killed herself in our second week of training.

You could have heard a Pin drop. It was like a bunch of puzzle pieces came together, I suddenly understood WHY he stared off into the distance all the time, WHY he liked to be alone, and why he always seemed on the verge of tears. I wasn't sure what to do, what do you say to something like that? Nothing I could tell him would change what had happened and by then he had had plenty of time to collect his thoughts so it's not like I could tell him anything he didn't know. I paused and said "Wow... I'm sorry for your loss man..." and we just sat in silence for a good half hour...

SIGH..........

Still no sleep... They found EVEN MORE DIP, AND somebodys Cell Phone... I got half an hour of sleep last night, that was it... I'm really irate right now, so far the only good thing about today is me comming in for work, I have an hour so I'll try to continue my story as much as I can.

SIGH...

The Drill Sergeants Haven't let up, last night we continued with the half platoon on/off every hour, and tonight it's gonna be both platoons on the floor... Last night they found Dip hidden in the boiler room, Some Dumbarse actually brought in MORE CONTRABAND... I mean WTF, they always find it, it's not a matter of if but when, especially considering that half our Drill Sergeants are also MILITARY POLICE and search for contraband for a LIVING. It wouldn't be so bad if whoever did it fessed up, but they obviously have zero integrity so that's not likely to happen. I got 4 hours of sleep last night, better then last night's 3 at least. I'm just hoping that this ends soon, we're all seriously tired.

No sleep...

Sigh.... Last night the Drill Sergeants decided to punish us because they believe we were hiding contraband, even though they searched and found none, and nobody said anything to our knowledge to even set them off.. They made half our plattoon pull guard duty at night all at once every hour, so an hour on, an hour off. I got three hours of sleep, that was it, plus we were also smoked a few times in the rain outside, so im alittle tired and sore. I'll Continue my story in a few hours perhaps.

Hmm

Well, Im at Ft. Benning, over a thousand miles away from my family and friends. Im a Private Second Class in the U.S. Army, I joined August 17th, Shipped on September 11th, and I go for Private First Class on March 11th. I've had alot of... interesting expiriences in the Army, I'll lay it all out for you guys, but not right now.

I'll write more, dont worry lol.