Date: 2009-11-13 10:14:48
Yesterday, I drove 13 hours from northern Virginia to Columbus AFB with my friend and roommate from VMI who is also a pilot candidate. I packed everything I thought I needed into my little Saab 9-3 and took off on my new life. It was weird to leave home after being there for six months, but my family made the most of it by taking me to dinner the night before and getting up at 5:00 am to cook me breakfast.
The drive was uneventful. Durham had bought two walkie-talkies and that made the drive more bearable. I guess driving is just something that either you can zone out and enjoy or you hate. I happen to be in the first category. Good for me I guess.
We woke up early today to get our in-processing papers. Ha! It just so happens that they are replacing the carpet in the room where that takes place, so we’ll have to wait until monday to get the packet. Trying to make the most of things, we go to get our identification cards. That was pretty painless and didn’t take much time. Then we sat around in another friend of ours room and watched TV until lunch. After that we went back to the in-processing room just to make sure that the carpet wasn’t put in already. It wasn’t. But there was someone there to sign off on a piece of paper for us to get our names on the housing list. That was great because housing on the base is a “first come, first serve” basis. The housing room didn’t take much time either. The VMI crew is 7th in line now and it will take about a week before we can move in. Oh well.
There’s a guy a year ahead of us from VMI in stage II of UPT here named Phil. We meet with him for dinner tonight at an authentic Mississippi restaurant. That was pretty good. Durham, Nick, and I all had a billion questions for him and he gave us some great information. I think he may have made it seem harder than it really is… I hope so at least.