Army Values

1-8-09

Most of today was spent in the classroom with numerous presentations (a.k.a. "briefings"), including exercise and nutrition (they're big on being in shape here, for some reason), harrassment, TriCare benefits, and a few others. They are also trying to teach us the Army Song and the Soldiers of God Song (for Chaplains). When we got it wrong, they made us drop and do pushups. Seriously.

The Army values, by the way, are: (1) Loyalty, (2) Duty, (3) Respect, (4) Selfish Service, (5) Honor, (6) Integrity, and (7) Personal Courage. You memorize them with the acronym LDRSHIP for "Leadership." If you get these wrong, I'm sure you'll do more pushups.

Funny story: I found a hat sitting on top of a coke machine yesterday with car keys in it (this was in the medical building near the end of the day). So I grabbed it and walked into the closest room to see if the owner was still around. She was. In fact, she was a drill sergeant, and it was her drill hat! (The female version looks different from the round brimmed male version). Anyway, she was kind to me, and asked me if I knew the only person in the Army who would touch a drill sergeant's hat? I suddenly knew where this was going, so I said, "An idiot?" She laughed, and said, "A rookie Officer, because my Privates are afraid of it!" She had me pegged but let me off the hook without dropping me for pushups! Actually, she saw that I was a new Chaplain and probably had some compassion (and grace) for this "idiot!" Needless to say, I know never to do that again!

Tomorrow we get issued our gas masks (for real), because we get to experience the gas chamber next week. That ought to be fun! There are tales of guys throwing up afterwards. Should be a great time. We also get to climb the 8-story "Victory Tower" next week as well. Team-building stuff, we're told. I'm looking forward to that one, too. Finally, I've lost 3 lbs since showing up last weekend, and I'm so glad I did because I passed my height-weight test today with zero room to spare. That means I escaped the "overweight" group that now does extra PT starting next week!