Camp Freakin Bullis

You know you're at Camp Bullis when you have to put on your poker face while on the toilet. Cause you're actually playing poker on the toilet. And the other four guys you're playing with can all see your face. That's right, nothing prepares you for deployment like sitting face to face with other dudes while enjoying a morning constitutional.

And officially, this course is retarded. It's nothing different than AIT except the four month course has been reduces to an 80 hour course over nine days. And the fact that we're already MOS Qualified medics doesn't spare us from being handed a Nasopharengial Airway and being expected to examine it like we've never seen one before. The fact that most of us have put at LEAST one in a live patient before notwithstanding...

Now I love my job in the Army, and I love being in the Army, so let the description of our living conditions here be just that: a description, not complaining. We live in an 18x30 foot hut called a"hutment." I'll post pictures once that's an option. Now, our 12-man "hutment" has eight smoke detectors (yes, eight), and no AC. Not that the AC doesn't work, it just isn't here. Wasn't in the building plans I guess. Concrete floor, bare wood framing, and did I mention the eight smoke detectors? Three on the ceiling, five on the walls. We have cots, so that's good, mattresses here wouldn't have been a good idea. Again, there's no AC, but here are six giant windows that allow the sun to bake everything inside, and two portable fans that blow air around. And two doors to let air flow through. It's a well though out plan. Even the temper tents we slept in at AIT had AC! But no, not here. And the classroom we're in is a seventy year old building that is cooled by two equally old window mounted units. They don't exactly do much to fight the 97 degree heat outside, and the heat created by over 80 soldiers inside. You can't get away from the heat! It's just a constant thing during the day. But at night, sometime around ten when the lights go out it's not too bad. We sleep with the doors at both ends open and all the fans on. It's still so humid you can't help but sweat all night long, but even in all it's deprivitey, I kinda like it. We just sleep on the cots, no blankets at first, but then around two it cools enough to where you can cover yourself with a poncho liner to keep the bugs from biting you. And it's hot/cool enough at night to where the scorpions aren't trying to come in here and snuggle with us, so that's good. Our cell phones don't worky, and only one guy has a laptop that has true wireless internet (which is what I'm using right now, thanks Feichtinger!).

But it's endurable.

Only eighteen days and a wake up. Minus one where we get a half day pass to go into San Antonio. Not to bad. The guys, all us medics being down here, make it great. Last night we played ultimate frisbee for a few hours and got a good workout in the hot sun and had an awesome time. At one point I realized that we were all running around laughing and having fun while wearing our PT uniforms and I made a comment about having seen something like it in a recruiting video and everyone started laughing. It's alright I guess. We get done so early in the day though, it's hard to find something to do the rest of the time but just sit around and sweat. But that's ok...

Just eighteen days and a wakeup.