This Army Life, Volume 8

Before Volume 7 was Volume 6. We’ll pick up where Volume 6 left off after that rude interruption from Volume 7, with my assignment to HHSC, 172nd Medical Battalion. This blog will be short as my memory of this unit is not very strong anymore.

SFC Nyman took me to the unit after we finished up at MEPS. I think it was the same day. It was funny because the unit I was assigned to shared the building with an engineer unit, and when he showed up with me, htey though I was in their unit. Apparently, I was the first non-engineer that SFC Nyman, an Army engineer by trade, put into the Army as a recruiter.

I went around and met the full-timers from the unit, had some uniforms ordered. This is where number one on this list came into play: told the supply sergeant I wore size 13 shoes, so I got size 13 boots. It was like walking around with skis on my feet. Nothing else was really memorable. I was told when I had to be their for “drill” and whatnot.

When I showed up to drill, I didn’t really do much. They assigned me a couple of pre-AIT Soldiers (kids who had gone to basic but not AIT yet) as my sponsors and they showed me over the next few months some of the basics I would need to know for basic training. There was a lot of training they wouldn’t let me do, like shooting actual weapons and whatnot, but I suppose it was a good introduction to the Army Reserve.

They sent me off to basic training prepared for the most part for the week one stuff. I will delve more into basic training in the next one of this series. But I must note that the 172nd Medical Battalion was one of the first Reserve units activated to deploy to Afghanistan after 9/11. I was no longer of the unit obviously, but if I hadn’t moved to CT, I probably would have gone right along with them. Good times.