LTC memory: mail time

I haven't started any 'memory' posts on the actual training because that would require some actual sitting with a cup of coffee mood. This one is about our evening tradition of getting mail. Well the tradition of watching other people get mail....every night.

The drill sergeants (DS) would come into the barracks with a milk cart of letters and packages. Sometimes the females joined us in the barracks. The DS calls out our names, and sometimes it's not even right; the letters belong to real privates or someone else from a different platoon. They would chuck the letters out to whoever because they didn't care if I got it or someone else got it. We'd just pass it down.

Packages were handled a little differently. The person had to open it and show the DS what was inside. If it was food, then that would have to be eaten immediately with the other cadets. Or, if that person was unlucky, it'd be thrown out. No food in the barracks because it would attract insects. And if they ever found a bug in the barracks, I think we would have been smoked big time like going to the pit big time.

I got two letters while I was there. Both from my sister, and I think both were asked for. OK, not asked, but demanded. The first letter was about the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. It was the last episode, and I had to leave for LTC. It was getting really good with all the cylons dying and the final cylons being revealed to the fleet. Enough with the nerdiness...the letter was good because it explained everything. She wrote down the things that happened as it happened. Reminded me of those in-class history videos from high school. Actually I think the second letter was a surprise. It was just a thoughtful letter. I should thank her for that later.

There were several who got a lot of letters. Anderson and Boysen come to mind immediately. They'd get two letters at a time, and when we missed a day of mail time, they were bombarded.