How the Military Recently Impacted my Life
Being in the military is no easy task. I recently joined the Navy again as a reservist after I completed my active duty contract. In my post Getting back that Seabag I talked about my story and why I decided to join again. Well, it’s almost my one year mark as a Navy Reservist and it has been a whirlwind. From learning new things and figuring out the learning curve on how reservists operate. I finally was getting the hang of things.Go in on my “Warrior Weekends,” get caught up on training, workout and hang out with all my new friends I made. I was placed in a new unit, they were called the HM (Hospital Corpsman) detachment. I was excited, it meant I would be able to get on the job training and actually see what my new job did! Then I realized, I needed to get my “A” school set up so I will have the proper certifications. Fast forward to January and here I am.
This past week has been crazy, stressful, chaotic and adventurous to say the least. From getting military orders reprocessed twice, my personnel profile not being set up correctly to the military travel site messing up on my airfare, its surprising that I actually made it here to Fort Sam Houston in Texas. None the less, here I am and it is completely what I expected…kinda. Since this is an “A” school, everyone is treated in a student status which means no freedom in a sense. Secured liberty by 2200 (10 pm), can’t leave base, can’t drive and I have to still be in my uniform. This is considered phase 1, it’s meant for the fresh out of bootcamp people. People that don’t know how to act in the fleet yet. Then there is a phase 2 which is a little more freedom, we can wear civilian clothes and travel off base. We just have to be back by 2200. Then finally there is phase 3. That means we can have all our freedom back and stay out overnight on the weekends. Going from reserves and a whole civilian life back into student status is almost like a complete shock to me. I haven’t been in an “A” school for almost 7 years! Thank goodness, I have about eight other “fleet returnees” in class with me, which makes this bearable.
So going from a DC, Damage Controlman to an HM, Hospital Corpsman will be interesting. There will be a lot of knowledge to take in these next 4 months. This school coincides with my civilian career which is a huge perk for me. Not only will I have civilian side knowledge, but, I will also have military combat medical knowledge to use to my advantage. I start my actual class Wednesday, after the long week of life skills that are taught to everyone to make sure were well rounded Sailors. I look forward to learning as much as I can, so that I can challenge myself and those around me. Here is to a new adventure, for the start of a new year! Time to push myself, learn something new and dedicate myself to Corpsman school and flourish in this new trade.
“You fight like you train.”
– George S. Patton Jr.
Katie Writes 