First "Letter"

I got what I will call my first "letter" or rather correspondence from Cass on August 26th.  What it is his journal entries for the first few days.  I thought I would share some of them with you.  I left out some of the more personal entries until I have his permission!

20080819

It made me sad to leave family and friends behind today.  All I could hope for was that everyone knew that this was best for me.  . . .At 2300 I was dropped off at the MEPS hotel in Oklahoma City.  I said my goodbyes and finally I felt that everyone was proud of what I was doin. . . . 

20080820

I awoke at 0400 this morning to a wake up call from the front desk.  I gathered my things, ate a light breakfast and went downstairs.    We headed to the hotel lobby.  We checked our gards in and caught the MEPS Shuttle.  After hours at MEPS, I caught my plane at 1600 to St. Louis.  My group of Oklahoma "Soldiers" consisted of 4 guard and 2 active (including myself).  All of whom know everything about "basic" or BT.  At SL we stopped at the USO and received for free food, beds and entertainment.  We left there and went to processing. This took a 3 hour bus ride.  When we arrived a Drill Sergeant, or DS, came aboard the bus and ordered us to pull up our pants and to tuck in our shirts.  After a few hours of processing at 0100 we stood outside of our "home" for the next few days.  We stood in the rain completely silent for 30 minutes. The room I stay in consists of 100 bunks separated into 4 rows with a locker on either side of the bunkbed.  Goodnight.

20080821

0430 Wake up.  I squeezed in 3 hours of sleep last night and rushed to fit my pistol belt and put my canteen on it.

0500 Breakfast.  Powdered eggs, bacon, waffles (terrible).

Rest of Day-learned to address DS properly.  Ate more shitty food.

2100 Lights out.

20080827

0430 Wake up.  March to Main Hall

0500 Shitty food.

Rest of Day-received all military gear...civilian clothes are now prohibited.

I also took pictures today.

2100 Lights out.

2230  New "Warriors" file in (they call us warriors).

20080823

0100 I was abruptly awoken for fire guard duty.  I was appoint a battle buddy to guard the barracks for one hour.

0430 Wake up

I have to go for now.

Chris and Bruno called me to tell me they got letters from Cass as well.  Of course, I believe they got a few more of the better details!  Chris told me that Cass has made a couple of friends, one from Tennessee and one from New York.  I made Bruno promise me that Cass was doing okay, he assured me that he was.