the corioblog

For a few days before leaving Ft. Rucker, I had no duties (having completed outprocessing early) and stayed in Army Lodging, which was pretty much a cheap hotel. Like much of my time in Alabama, it was low stress, low key, low rent.

Yesterday after arriving in Korea, I had no real duties and stayed in Dragon Hill Lodge, which was pretty much an upscale hotel. The hotel restaurants have three pricing schemes: normal, 20% off for junior enlisted, children under 10 eat free. It’s that kind of place.

Today, the paperwork caught up. The paperwork says that I now belong to the 2ND INFANTRY DIVISION, which changed everything. In the INFANTRY DIVISION, there are duties: CQ, cleaning, KP. In the INFANTRY DIVISION, one sleeps in a barracks and makes a bed with hospital corners. (As an officer, instead of daily room inspections, there is only one weekly scheduled at random. That in no way reduces the cleaning duties.) In the INFANTRY DIVISION, there is a mandatory cheer (“Second to None!”) every time the division is named. The cheer is also given when saluting, at which point there is a formulaic response from the officer (“Tonight we Fight!”). In the INFANTRY DIVISION, there is a divisional song, which is to be memorized by everybody and sung daily before PT.

It’s a different culture.

Luckily for me, I don’t expect all of these things to remain the same for the duration of my stay. A division is a big entity, and if experience is any indication, once I get to an aviation base, things will get a lot more relaxed. If nothing else, I shouldn’t have to deal with room inspections once I get set up in my own apartment. Still, for these first two weeks of inprocessing at least, I get to live the Army life in the traditional manner. The major difference between this and Basic is that now that I have some rank, I have a few privileges.

Speaking of rank, I am in the odd position of being the highest ranking person I have yet encountered in this nation. People keep calling me ’sir’ and deferring to me. There are enlisted people everywhere. This may not seem so odd to an outside observer, but that’s just because the outside observer probably wouldn’t know that at Ft. Rucker, enlisted people are a rarity. You might occasionally see a company 1SG, or observe some AIT kids at a distance, but on a daily basis there are just the Warrants, the Lieutenants, and the Cadre. Here, there is no such company of officers. It’s odd, but I find myself wishing to find someone who outranks me.