In college, I loved my military friends. We were gamers and computer nerds. We'd meet the new fresh out of military people at college through them, help them hang out and relax and socialize. Seeing one of them suddenly pause, just freeze, and then look around, you could see the almost panic attack and confusion on their faces. What is it? Could be anything, and it was funny to hear them try to articulate it. Walked outside and didn't put a hat on, didn't know where their hat was, then remembered they didn't need or bring a hat with them. Someone suddenly entered the room and they'd suddenly have this weird physical stutter in reaction to them, they had the sudden instinct to stand up but their body didn't move, and their brain and body were having some sort of paralytic struggle over it to try to both and neither at the same time. They dozed off and you nudged them awake and their head sprung-up all wild-eyed -- were they caught, who what huh, where's my rifle?! Just funny little things. All the time. But they'd adapt and we'd find new newbs to bring in.
Most of them could cut it, but a few couldn't. Several dudes reenlisted and just vanished out of the blue. It was sort of sad. If there wasn't someone telling them exactly what to do and when, they just didn't know what to do with themselves.
Here's what happened to me back in 2006 during the surge. A barracks was scheduled to be demolished, the 42010 bldg. on Ft. Hood. However, due to the massive influx of soldiers from the surge, the post didn't have enough room to house all the soldiers. So the interior walls of this old building were given a fresh coat of paint and stuffed with soldiers, myself included. The rooms were open bays meant to house about 3 soldiers each with communal latrines that serviced about 5 bays. The communal latrines had 2 toilets, 2 showers, and 4 sinks each. When we moved in, none of it was clean. There were no shower curtains and dead roaches and crickets everywhere. There wasn't a single fire extinguisher in the building that wasn't discharged or expired. The exterior stairs had holes in them with entire steps missing that you would have to jump over. So, when the Army says a building is scheduled for demolition, believe it when you see it. FYI, that building has been demolished and is no longer there. I stayed in that barracks from December 2006 to March 2007 when my chain of command found a different barracks for me to live in after the CSGM conducted a barracks inspection of every room occupied by the squadron.
I must be doing something right because all of the channels I watch are getting Shadow banned. Everyone hit the like button because for some reason this really awesome person is a victim of the Google algorithm
Military uniforms need to evolve with the times and target a more diverse group of Warfighters. The PT uniforms need to be inclusive of dynamic gender identities and LGBTQIAPM persuasions.
Lol, i feel like this is specific enough where it has to be a true story..... i was 100% sure that it was going to be they ran out of caffeine or coffee....but this also tracks. 😅
The black and gold I think looks better than the grays. The black and gold summers and shorts are better But the grey winters are actually warm. I’m against a new pt uniform because it seems like a waste of money. While yes the black sucks in hot places, it doesn’t stain nearly as easily as the grays did. I don’t think technology has advanced enough to try incorporating reflective materials into the clothing like they tried with some prototypes in the past because it’s still not durable enough(or belts are dumb anyway) idk what other practical/quality of life improvements they could make. Other than real pockets in the shorts, but you don’t need to completely redesign them for that. On a side note, my dad got to prototype black and gold PT’s 10+ years ago, and his version had black & gold rank patches that were worn on the pt jacket or on the pt belt (which both had a Velcro spot sewn on)
I was in the first basic training company in August 2000 that got the “old grey pt uniform”. We were so excited that we didn’t have to wear the old old grey pt’s…and now looks like i’ll be wearing another new pt uniform…geez i’m getting old lol
