And now for something completly different.

"It's not stupid.....it's advanced!"
- The Almighty Tallest

Well for everyone who did not know, or is just now finding out, I enlisted in the U.S. Army as of 31st of October, at the rank of Specialist. I'm in for a 6 year stint as a 25B, Information Systems Operator and Analyst. Basically its exactly what I've been doing in the civilian world, but the DoD is going to pay for my certifications, and eventual masters degree.

I joined up for a lot of reasons. Free healthcare, dental, the enlistment bonus, but mostly I felt I just wasn't able to get ahead in my life. All the jobs I wanted just kept telling me, "Sorry kid you've got the training and degree we want, you just don't have the experience.". I was tired of crappy job after crappy job hanging on hoping that eventually I'd be able to land that one job that finally propelled me forward rather than holding me down, and so I finally broke down and did something I knew would propel me forward, but at a great personal cost.

Its definatly been a rough, bumpy ride so far, and I'm still not sure if I made the right choice. Things are far from what I was promised, and the personal cost has been greater than I expected. I know had I been better informed I could have gotten a far better deal, but you take the cards you were dealt, you move forward, and you see where life brings you.

Basic training was, as most people who are being honest will tell you, very difficult. I did my training at Ft. Benning Georgia, home of the infantry. My platoon's grand total at the end of training was 2 dead (One heart attack, one of 'natural causes'), 3 mental cases, 1 medical discharge, 1 private get shot, and an unknown of UCMJ restarts (a lot of people got restarted on the last day). On the plus side, I lost 50lbs, can now run 2 miles in under 15 minutes, have a PT test score of around 215 (I'm trying for 250), and have a whole host of very amusing stories.

I graduated basic training on Febuary 7th, and got shipped out to AIT at Fort Gordon Georgia the following day. Since than I've basically been getting settled into this new place, learning the rules, and mostly trying to keep my head down. With a last name like Krygsheld however, it hasn't been easy (I now have the clever nickname of Special K, thanks to my Sergeants ;)). To sum up AIT, its better than I'd feared, but not as great as I hoped. We are still not allowed many privillages here, but for the most part there aren't any people yelling at you 24 hours a day. I wish I could tell you when I'd be able to get out of here, but unfortunatly the army is presently so backed up at Ft. Gordon on training that I might not be getting out of here until November instead of July as initially promised.

I promise I'll try and post more later, for now I'm kind of limited by the time left on this stupid machine (7 dollar an hour for internet, Wheee!!!), so I'll get into more details, and crazy stories from basic and AIT later. For now know that I still miss you guys like crazy, and I hope to get to talk to you all soon.