My Basic Training Graduation  − 5 March, 1992

"It was hell and it was a blast all at the same time." and "I wish I could do it again" were two of the many things I remember saying to my fellow platoon mates from Basic Training. Becoming a Cavalry Scout was the best thing I ever did up until that point. I had accomplished something that not many can do.

I tried getting my parent's to come to Basic Training graduation because it was important to me at the time. They couldn't come, but I'm kinda glad that I have the memory all to myself. I think they knew that having Mommy and Daddy there would have made it less-manly and it was something that I still hadn't thought of until that point. I guess I just wanted my parents to know that I wasn't the band-geek wimp anymore.

Funny story: There was a tough guy virgin at Basic Training named "Williams." Although I'm sure that he wasn't the only one, he was the only one that was proud of it. We rode him really bad about it the whole time during training. Well, on Christmas, we got lucky enough to get leave. On returning, he told everyone he had gotten married and showed us the picture of him and the very beautiful bride. "I'm not a virgin after all you bastards, now leave me alone!" he said. I guess he showed us...

Fast forward to graduation on this day, I saw Williams' new bride and after the ceremony I went up to her to congratulate her and I said, "Mrs. Williams, congratulations on your wedding, your a lucky girl to have married 'Bill'." and she replied, with Williams running up behind me, "Him? He's my brother, I didn't marry him"
It turns out that to stop all of us from razzing him, he took a picture of him as an usher with his sister at her wedding and tried to pull it off as his wedding picture. How sad is that? If you're proud of being a virgin, be proud about it. This all happened in front of his parents and all of his Basic Training buddies. Needless to say, I think it's safe to bet that anyone that went with him to wherever he ended up serving didn't let him live that down.

Anyways, I actually cried a little when I received my certificate, I was really going to miss my drill sergeants and due to an unfortunate accident with one of my classmates (I may write about it in the future), my class saw a personal side to the drills that many recruits don't witness. They became our parents, our mentors, and even our friends towards the last 2 weeks. But most of all, I made it through, a little band-geek from Pennsylvania did what many football jocks in my school wouldn't even dare try... I became a Scout.

Little did I know that Basic Training was nothing yet...

(Names have been changed to protect the lying virgin)