The Real Academy (post zero week) (pick up day)
The Friday at the end of our first week was like finally reaching the end of a long race. After speaking to my classmates at the time, we came to the same opinion, that zero week was the slowest and dullest week of the academy. As you now know, during the first week the staff officers had minimal contact with the cadets to limit the amount of stress we were experiencing already...that was laughable and probably the reason why our class became so lackadaisical early on.
Whenever we left the academy grounds, we were required to sign in and out. That way the Staff Office was able to keep accountability on all of us, considering there were two classes with our class being 150 cadets and the senior class being close to 100. The last class was waited on bated breath, craning necks checking on the clock behind us every chance we got or glancing down at our wrist watch. Every break we were given, a reprieve from the dry and long winded briefings.
Unlike high school, we were not at the mercy of the end of class bell, but at the mercy of the instructors and staff officers. Even if 5 o'clock came, it did not matter until we received our weekend briefing from a staff officer.
Finally, the stress briefers were done with us. They wished us luck with the promise of meal on them if at our final meeting at the end of the academy, the same 150 cadets/officers remained. It was an empty promise with no intent on following through since the reality was, even with the new way of the academy, not everyone would make it to the end. With that, they left us (finally) and a staff officer came in to give the weekend brief, with a very real promise of the true academy come Monday morning.
We raced off to the dorms to change into our civilian attire and line up to sign out for the weekend. Unlike the majority of my classmates, I was blessed to live a short 40 minute ride away from the academy. Where many of my classmates either took flights or drove 6+ hours to see their families. There were some cadets that opted to staying at the academy over the weekend. There was one I knew of that spent all his weekends here. Sadly, he was not popular with the majority of the class and got a lot of lash back due to his messing up and the whole class having to suffer. The laugh was on a lot of us when he graduated, however, I did find out that he quit while on FTO. He earned my respect in one; where a lot of us preferred to go home and push the academy thoughts to the back burner, he worked on his PMA and weapons drills to ensure that if he did fail out, he did everything he could to pass.
I was one of many that rushed home. It was a mental escape. And I needed my kids and husband to keep me going. I knew they needed me as well and didn't understand why I did not come home 5 out of 7 days of the week. So, Friday after 5, I found myself in what seemed like a never ending line, pressed uncomfortably close to my classmates as the line moved at a snails pace. The reason for this was that we were scared to make a mistake on the sign out sheet because then we would have to report to the Staff Office about the mistake and face an unspeakable wrath (massive exaggeration) as well as pointed stares at the rest of the class that waited to sign out. So 99% of the cadets double and triple checked before even putting pen to paper and even then, wrote each letter carefully, as if their lives depended on their penmanship.
Finally, I made it to the front and was able to sign out. I glanced at my name and grimaced. Why people couldn't seem to get the spelling of my name right even when it was right in front of them, confounded me, but I bit my tongue and said nothing. To tell the Staff Office they made a mistake...I was not going to be the one to do it. Hurriedly and carefully, I signed out and raced away, grateful that I was getting my reprieve at long last.
The weekend was never so short as it was after that first week. It felt like I just blinked and suddenly Sunday night was upon me. I found myself prolonging my stay by the moments until I felt I couldn't stall any longer. I found Sunday to be my least favorite day of the week at the moment and for my entire academy stay, it was. For some reason, going home always made it harder to come back to the academy lifestyle but every Friday, I made sure I was in line to take my hiatus away from what I considered to be hell. Even during the times when we were encouraged to stay during the weekends during POST scenarios, I left. I found that I was not alone in that matter. Here I was on Sunday night, driving back to West Sacramento and pondering what might happen come Monday morning, the real academy. The last week already bought out the complacency. This week would be a reality check.
Monday morning, we were in the quad in alphabetical order from last name, suited up and pressed together like a can of sardines. It was a moment where we got to know each other pretty well. I was sandwiched between two people that I ended becoming close with, but at the time extremely awkward seeing that my front and back ends were pressed against theirs (both were males). At first we attempted to create an invisible cushion between each other. That cushion became nonexistent within moments of the Staff Office taking command.
"Staff officers, take charge of your troops" I recall a distant voice commanding, and the staff officers that I could see in blurred forms in my peripherals attacked, face uncomfortably close to the cadets and screaming who knows what, it was so mixed up in the commotion it was hard to tell one voice from the other. I kept voicing in my head, composure composure composure, recalling the time when I was in basic training and I laughed as a classmate marched us into a wall. Immediately, I received the repercussions for that fumble. I knew the same would happen, only probably 10 times worse. I bit my lip, kept my eyes focused on the back of the cadet in front of me and stood my ground. I was surprised I wasn't set upon since CTC I-16 had only 6 female cadets, meaning we were pretty easy to spot in the crowd of freshly shaved heads.
The staff officers yell for us to head behind the gym and like a slinky, we begin to move until we are at a running pace and I'm just thinking f*** my stuff is going to fall out of my pockets. I run with my hands kind of on my hips in an attempt to keep my stuff from falling out of the too small pockets of my pant suit when somewhere behind me, I hear a voice yell, "hands off your waist princess." I roll my eyes thinking what a lame response he cooked up but did as directed, crossing fingers that nothing would fall out.
The gym lights were dimmed and all that you can see are the blue and red lights bouncing against the floor and walls. The gym echoed with the blaring sound of the siren that is associated with cop cars. At first I thought they got a squad car into the gym. There's no real opportunity to take in the environment since you're only able to look as far as the person in front of you and if you're caught swiveling your head around, you're likely to have a pack of staff officers pounce on you. This works to the staff officers' benefits since you can't really see what's around you. It is their trick to get you to step on the CHP star that is in the middle of the gym. No cadet is allowed to step foot on that star. And that is the goal of the officers there. One of my roommates fell victim to the star and was recorded doing push ups while being yelled at for all of Facebook to see! Of course, I didn't know that at the time.
This moment was called pick up day. We were getting all required cadet gear that day. After getting all issued gear, we sat on the floor and waited as a staff officer called out an item and we were required to hold it up to let them know we had everything. Doing this in such a massive crowd with gear strewn everywhere only resulted in chaos, but they made sure to let us know we were the biggest screw ups they've ever met and how a toddler could do what they were asked, unlike us. I knew it was just a game, and tried to play the game as much as I could.
This was also the day where I learned and loathed superman and touchdown. Any time someone messed up, we suffered as a team. During the scramble in finding the item that was called out, there were many who couldn't find their items and when this happened or when a staff officer became frustrated, we were made to hold up our penal code book (an insanely large book at that) and hold it over our heads, imitating superman when he flies. After what would feel like an excruciating long time, they would yell touchdown and we'd lower the penal book so that we are holding it straight out in front of us...a kind of reprieve, but not much of one. This was their favorite form of punishment while at the academy.
I remember one instance while in that position. I could see that the male cadet to my right was beginning to fade. This was prior to any formal introductions with each other. His arms would slowly begin to lean forward, his shoulders sag. I knew if he fell, he would fall prey to staff officers and my goal was to keep them away from me for as long as I could deem possible. I knew I had to help him. Discretely, I placed my arm under his falling one and pushed it up, letting him put his weight on me without it looking like he was getting any assistance.
Later on, I found out he was a re-instatee. One of the cadets that went through the academy before. And I wondered how he could fall out so quickly if he already knew what to expect from past experience.
He thanked me for that when he could later on, and we grew to be a type of friend to each other.
Unfortunately, no one is exempt from the eye of the staff officer. It is like they are all seeing. Mainly because they have the freedom to look around where we are forced to look straight ahead, no exceptions. With that being said, I had a couple officers come to me. I remember their asking questions regarding my depending on other people to do my work for me. Questions like, "do you still live with your parents? I bet you never did anything on your own since you expect people to help you for everything." I wish I could have thrown out a retort. Considering I had six years under my belt in the military and a family of my own and have been away from home for almost ten years at the time, I was insulted. But I knew the smart thing to do would be to give short yes or no sir responses. Considering how bad some people got it, my experience wasn't so bad.
We were finally allowed to leave the gym and drop off our gear in the dorms. There was no time to talk as we were ordered to be dressed in the cadet blues within minutes and ready for inspection outside of the dorms. I never felt like more of an idiot, trying to get my damn name tag straight, make sure my buttons on my blouse lined up with the buckle of my belt and that that lined up with the zipper of my pants. Blouse straps...hated those damn things. They were like the bane of my existence while here.
Our first pick up day was done with. We had three more pick up days to contend with, but those stories deserve their own entries.
The rest of the week consisted of lessons on law, introductions to instructors that would be with us during the next 27 weeks (if we were so fortunate to make it so far) and the constant dread of having a staff officer jump out from a tree or rooftop or behind a vending machine to verbally assault us. That first week, very few people exited the classroom when we were put on break to avoid a staff officer. It got to the point where we were told if we were not using the facilities on break, we were not consuming enough water. That was their way of saying to get our asses out of hiding.
Thinking of it now, I can see the humor in it. At the time, not so much.
Whenever we left the academy grounds, we were required to sign in and out. That way the Staff Office was able to keep accountability on all of us, considering there were two classes with our class being 150 cadets and the senior class being close to 100. The last class was waited on bated breath, craning necks checking on the clock behind us every chance we got or glancing down at our wrist watch. Every break we were given, a reprieve from the dry and long winded briefings.
Unlike high school, we were not at the mercy of the end of class bell, but at the mercy of the instructors and staff officers. Even if 5 o'clock came, it did not matter until we received our weekend briefing from a staff officer.
Finally, the stress briefers were done with us. They wished us luck with the promise of meal on them if at our final meeting at the end of the academy, the same 150 cadets/officers remained. It was an empty promise with no intent on following through since the reality was, even with the new way of the academy, not everyone would make it to the end. With that, they left us (finally) and a staff officer came in to give the weekend brief, with a very real promise of the true academy come Monday morning.
We raced off to the dorms to change into our civilian attire and line up to sign out for the weekend. Unlike the majority of my classmates, I was blessed to live a short 40 minute ride away from the academy. Where many of my classmates either took flights or drove 6+ hours to see their families. There were some cadets that opted to staying at the academy over the weekend. There was one I knew of that spent all his weekends here. Sadly, he was not popular with the majority of the class and got a lot of lash back due to his messing up and the whole class having to suffer. The laugh was on a lot of us when he graduated, however, I did find out that he quit while on FTO. He earned my respect in one; where a lot of us preferred to go home and push the academy thoughts to the back burner, he worked on his PMA and weapons drills to ensure that if he did fail out, he did everything he could to pass.
I was one of many that rushed home. It was a mental escape. And I needed my kids and husband to keep me going. I knew they needed me as well and didn't understand why I did not come home 5 out of 7 days of the week. So, Friday after 5, I found myself in what seemed like a never ending line, pressed uncomfortably close to my classmates as the line moved at a snails pace. The reason for this was that we were scared to make a mistake on the sign out sheet because then we would have to report to the Staff Office about the mistake and face an unspeakable wrath (massive exaggeration) as well as pointed stares at the rest of the class that waited to sign out. So 99% of the cadets double and triple checked before even putting pen to paper and even then, wrote each letter carefully, as if their lives depended on their penmanship.
Finally, I made it to the front and was able to sign out. I glanced at my name and grimaced. Why people couldn't seem to get the spelling of my name right even when it was right in front of them, confounded me, but I bit my tongue and said nothing. To tell the Staff Office they made a mistake...I was not going to be the one to do it. Hurriedly and carefully, I signed out and raced away, grateful that I was getting my reprieve at long last.
The weekend was never so short as it was after that first week. It felt like I just blinked and suddenly Sunday night was upon me. I found myself prolonging my stay by the moments until I felt I couldn't stall any longer. I found Sunday to be my least favorite day of the week at the moment and for my entire academy stay, it was. For some reason, going home always made it harder to come back to the academy lifestyle but every Friday, I made sure I was in line to take my hiatus away from what I considered to be hell. Even during the times when we were encouraged to stay during the weekends during POST scenarios, I left. I found that I was not alone in that matter. Here I was on Sunday night, driving back to West Sacramento and pondering what might happen come Monday morning, the real academy. The last week already bought out the complacency. This week would be a reality check.
Monday morning, we were in the quad in alphabetical order from last name, suited up and pressed together like a can of sardines. It was a moment where we got to know each other pretty well. I was sandwiched between two people that I ended becoming close with, but at the time extremely awkward seeing that my front and back ends were pressed against theirs (both were males). At first we attempted to create an invisible cushion between each other. That cushion became nonexistent within moments of the Staff Office taking command.
"Staff officers, take charge of your troops" I recall a distant voice commanding, and the staff officers that I could see in blurred forms in my peripherals attacked, face uncomfortably close to the cadets and screaming who knows what, it was so mixed up in the commotion it was hard to tell one voice from the other. I kept voicing in my head, composure composure composure, recalling the time when I was in basic training and I laughed as a classmate marched us into a wall. Immediately, I received the repercussions for that fumble. I knew the same would happen, only probably 10 times worse. I bit my lip, kept my eyes focused on the back of the cadet in front of me and stood my ground. I was surprised I wasn't set upon since CTC I-16 had only 6 female cadets, meaning we were pretty easy to spot in the crowd of freshly shaved heads.
The staff officers yell for us to head behind the gym and like a slinky, we begin to move until we are at a running pace and I'm just thinking f*** my stuff is going to fall out of my pockets. I run with my hands kind of on my hips in an attempt to keep my stuff from falling out of the too small pockets of my pant suit when somewhere behind me, I hear a voice yell, "hands off your waist princess." I roll my eyes thinking what a lame response he cooked up but did as directed, crossing fingers that nothing would fall out.
The gym lights were dimmed and all that you can see are the blue and red lights bouncing against the floor and walls. The gym echoed with the blaring sound of the siren that is associated with cop cars. At first I thought they got a squad car into the gym. There's no real opportunity to take in the environment since you're only able to look as far as the person in front of you and if you're caught swiveling your head around, you're likely to have a pack of staff officers pounce on you. This works to the staff officers' benefits since you can't really see what's around you. It is their trick to get you to step on the CHP star that is in the middle of the gym. No cadet is allowed to step foot on that star. And that is the goal of the officers there. One of my roommates fell victim to the star and was recorded doing push ups while being yelled at for all of Facebook to see! Of course, I didn't know that at the time.
This moment was called pick up day. We were getting all required cadet gear that day. After getting all issued gear, we sat on the floor and waited as a staff officer called out an item and we were required to hold it up to let them know we had everything. Doing this in such a massive crowd with gear strewn everywhere only resulted in chaos, but they made sure to let us know we were the biggest screw ups they've ever met and how a toddler could do what they were asked, unlike us. I knew it was just a game, and tried to play the game as much as I could.
This was also the day where I learned and loathed superman and touchdown. Any time someone messed up, we suffered as a team. During the scramble in finding the item that was called out, there were many who couldn't find their items and when this happened or when a staff officer became frustrated, we were made to hold up our penal code book (an insanely large book at that) and hold it over our heads, imitating superman when he flies. After what would feel like an excruciating long time, they would yell touchdown and we'd lower the penal book so that we are holding it straight out in front of us...a kind of reprieve, but not much of one. This was their favorite form of punishment while at the academy.
I remember one instance while in that position. I could see that the male cadet to my right was beginning to fade. This was prior to any formal introductions with each other. His arms would slowly begin to lean forward, his shoulders sag. I knew if he fell, he would fall prey to staff officers and my goal was to keep them away from me for as long as I could deem possible. I knew I had to help him. Discretely, I placed my arm under his falling one and pushed it up, letting him put his weight on me without it looking like he was getting any assistance.
Later on, I found out he was a re-instatee. One of the cadets that went through the academy before. And I wondered how he could fall out so quickly if he already knew what to expect from past experience.
He thanked me for that when he could later on, and we grew to be a type of friend to each other.
Unfortunately, no one is exempt from the eye of the staff officer. It is like they are all seeing. Mainly because they have the freedom to look around where we are forced to look straight ahead, no exceptions. With that being said, I had a couple officers come to me. I remember their asking questions regarding my depending on other people to do my work for me. Questions like, "do you still live with your parents? I bet you never did anything on your own since you expect people to help you for everything." I wish I could have thrown out a retort. Considering I had six years under my belt in the military and a family of my own and have been away from home for almost ten years at the time, I was insulted. But I knew the smart thing to do would be to give short yes or no sir responses. Considering how bad some people got it, my experience wasn't so bad.
We were finally allowed to leave the gym and drop off our gear in the dorms. There was no time to talk as we were ordered to be dressed in the cadet blues within minutes and ready for inspection outside of the dorms. I never felt like more of an idiot, trying to get my damn name tag straight, make sure my buttons on my blouse lined up with the buckle of my belt and that that lined up with the zipper of my pants. Blouse straps...hated those damn things. They were like the bane of my existence while here.
Our first pick up day was done with. We had three more pick up days to contend with, but those stories deserve their own entries.
The rest of the week consisted of lessons on law, introductions to instructors that would be with us during the next 27 weeks (if we were so fortunate to make it so far) and the constant dread of having a staff officer jump out from a tree or rooftop or behind a vending machine to verbally assault us. That first week, very few people exited the classroom when we were put on break to avoid a staff officer. It got to the point where we were told if we were not using the facilities on break, we were not consuming enough water. That was their way of saying to get our asses out of hiding.
Thinking of it now, I can see the humor in it. At the time, not so much.
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