Army life

1. HOOAH is the answer to any question except a question that requires a no answer. E.g. "how are you doing today?" "HOOAH" or "does what I just said make sense?" "HOOAH" Also used as an adjective -- a HOOAH day, some HOOAH shooting at the range, feeling HOOAH today, all HOOAH all the time.

2. "Too easy" is another favorite Army saying. It can be used in many contexts, but most often after explaining something. Often combined with HOOAH for a real Army phrase. E.g. "to clear your rifle, place the weapon in the safe position, lock the barrel back, visually inspect the barrel, close the barrel, switch to semi, pull and hold the trigger, charge the weapon once, release the trigger, switch to burst, pull and hold the trigger, charge the weapon three times, release the trigger, charge the weapon again, switch back to safe. Too easy, hooah."

How to properly stack rifles in the rare instance you're allowed to put it down. Too easy, hooah.

3. The TTB, tactical training base, or FOB, forward operating base, is where we stay when we're out in the field. It's located at Camp Bollis, which is a training base some distance away from Fort Sam Houston. I can't tell you exactly how far because I always fall asleep on the bus. It has a bunch of tents for sleeping and classrooms, a tent for a gym (obviously can't live without that), port-a-potties for bathrooms (referred to as a latrine in Army parlance), and three trailers of semi-functional showers.

Loading up duffel bags at the TTB

Our luxurious lodging at the TTB

4. Our company at BOLC is a little over 300 students. A lot of dentists/dental students, a few nurses/PT's/PA's, a bunch of medical students, a few doctors, and a sprinkling of vets/veterinary students. We're divided into 6 platoons, then further into 4 squads, and within each squad, two fire teams. I'm in 6th Platoon, 4th squad, Alpha team.

4th squad is the best squad

Women of 6th Platoon

5. Everywhere we go in the TTB we have to carry our rifle (M16) in the low ready position (as illustrated in the picture above). We also have to wear our Molle vests at all times when in ACUs and our two canteens must always be full. We frequently have to carry our assault packs and Kevlar helmets as well. Those days are not my favorite days -- that's a lot to carry in the heat!

Kevlar and assault packs. Sometimes we're allowed to put them down. Sometimes

6. Vocabulary. Our guns (M16s) are rifles, not guns. It's a latrine, not a bathroom. It's 1400, not 2pm. A WARNO is a warning order, to let you know that something is about to come down the pipeline. FRAGO is a noun or verb that means "fragmentary order," or -- what I just told you is wrong, e.g. "FRAGO that, we're going at 1400." Your kevlar helmet is an ACH. 

7. Battle buddy = someone in your squad who you're assigned to for accountability. You're supposed to always know where they are and are as responsible for them being squared away as you are for yourself. If your battle buddy jacks something up, you're responsible/guilty as well. My battle is a really nice gal from Ohio who just finished her first year of medical school. I also have a different battle buddy for land navigation, a really fun dental student from California who has a 6 month old daughter at home (me: "how much does your wife hate you right now?" him: "so much"). Heather and I also call each other "life battle buddy" or BBF (battle buddy forever) since we're roommates and best buds. You can also address your battle buddy as battle, e.g. "hey battle, what's up?"

Land nav battle showing regular battle the finer points of the M16

8. Yelling things. Every time we come to attention as a company, we have to yell the battalion motto -- "train to save." Every time we come to attention as a platoon, we yell our battle cry: the platoon sergeant yells "SONIC" and we all respond with "BOOM." Sonic the hedgehog might be (=is) our mascot. 

Sonic helps Julian clean his M16

9. We usually eat MREs (meals ready to eat). Not as bad as one might think. They contain a ton of food and include beverages as well (dehydrated -- just add water!). The entrees are meant to be heated and each MRE comes with a magical heater pack -- just add water and somehow it heats up (really hot). Throw your entree in there and within a minute, it's all heated up and ready for consumption. I've had chicken fajitas, beef chilli, pork rib, chicken with vegetables. Haven't had one yet that I didn't like. The sides can be hit or miss, but there's usually several sides in each MRE, so you don't need to like them all! A full MRE is usually 1200 calories, so I definitely don't need all that food at every meal. I often save some of the sides and have them later as snacks, or give them out to people who need more food. We have a shelter on the TTB that we eat under. Standing up. Always a little weird in the Army. 

Amber shows off her sweet MRE

Some good-looking soldiers enjoying MRE's