Heartbreaks, Prosecution, and Retribution

Chapter 6 : No Place like Home

Now getting into my new unit, it felt as if I was working a normal job, not like training of course. I stayed in the barracks once again, but it was more like a college dorm instead of an open bay with 25 bunk beds. Most of the soldiers that lived in the barracks were single and ranged from 18 to 25 years of age. There were no Sergeants that lived in these barracks, but they, however, have their own separate housing unit next door.

Each soldier had their scheduled duty hours; some were working various shifts which could be either day-shift or mid-shift or even what was called platoon duty or off work. Those on platoon duty were on just mainly administrative work from 0900-1700 hrs. People at random were drinking or going out, just trying to enjoy their time off. There were plenty of things to go see and do. Washington D.C. was a hop, skip and a jump from us.

Since I arrived here, I needed to get a vehicle and a cell phone. They were a necessity. The barracks did have a payphone in the hallway, but phone cards cost money over time. So as a new private in the Army, I didn't make a lot of money, but I could make do with a cheap car and a cheap cell phone.

My Platoon Sergeant knew that I would need a car, so he had my team leader take me to an actual car dealership and not a used car lot near the installation. I went to a Toyota dealership about 20 minutes away. I didn't have any great credit and no money for a down payment. In desperation, I called my grandmother to ask if she would co-sign for me to get a car. She did for me. I was very grateful, so I got a lower-priced vehicle off the lot which was a Toyota Echo. When I told my parents, they were like "A what?" They never were big fans of Toyota's let alone seen an Echo.

I needed a good economical car with good gas mileage. The car was around eighteen thousand dollars right off the lot. A four-door automatic sedan that got good gas mileage. And, having a car that was brand new, hopefully, I wouldn't have to bring it to the mechanic shop every month. Although some people have 'new' car trouble.

Getting the car, I also had to get insurance, who would have thought, right! I ran into a few problems with that. I decided to go to the company my parents went through back home, and they allowed me to get insurance until they did a background check and found a traffic accident that I didn't tell them about, which wasn't reported. So, the company dropped completely off from that insurance company four days later. They told me I lied about a ticket that I didn't even know about. I eventually found out what they were looking into. It was an accident that happened shortly after I got my license. I backed up into a parked car which I couldn't see them since they just pulled in behind me once I began to back up. The owner of the car, then apparently damaged their car more, of which my parent's insurance agent could tell. I never thought it got reported, but that insurance company still kicked me off the insurance.

After a long duration process of looking for another company to go through, I finally got the insurance. It was through a more well-known, trusted company that was referred to me that nearly caters to only the military. Plus, it saved me more money off of each month's premiums.

Spending about a month or so in the barracks, I got to move out of the barracks. I had to get an apartment on Ft. Belvoir so I could move my family out there. I could have gotten a place on Ft. Myer, but there was a waiting list of over two months, so of course, I went with the housing at Ft. Belvoir even though the daily commute was about 20 minutes on a good day. Fighting traffic on I-395 could be hours.

While I stayed in the barracks, they named me FNG (Freaking New Guy). So, I ended up conducting errands and jobs that were only for new people like me. I was expecting something similar once arriving here; janitorial work, cleaning the latrines and taking out the trash. Being an errand boy was my initial job. It will be several weeks until I get the on-the-job training that I will need to work the road as an MP.

It took me some time to get adjusted to this atmosphere. Even though I just got out of training a month ago, this was all different to me. I guess this was just another reality check. Here I have responsibilities while having personal space. Still being in the military if you messed up, your time would be taken, and you would be working on your time off. Because of that, it was already difficult. Plus, I had a roommate that wasn't in the same platoon let alone working a different shift. When I was trying to sleep, he was up or vice versa. I was being patient, knowing I would be one of the few soldiers having his own place to stay in instead of the barracks soon enough. My room was set up much like a hotel room. My roommate and I had our beds only separated by almost two feet. We didn't have anything to separate our own space with. Our wall closets were actually built into the wall, so we couldn't create our own barriers.

We didn't even have our own bathroom; the building had a common use latrine with showers. So, we would have to go down the hallway when we had to utilize it.

I felt like an outcast here because everyone was out and about and mostly single. They would go out clubbing and do their own things. I got offered several times to go with them, but I simply declined but appreciated the invites. I am sure that I should have gone out, but I stayed back and just wanted to be with my family. I didn't want to do something stupid and then regret it. Of course, that is all about being self-disciplined, but I didn't want to put myself in a bad position or even be that salty person in the group.

Finally,patiently waiting for my wife to come out, I found out that her son should stayin Kansas just for a couple of weeks so that we could get ourselves settled in.This was a suggestion made by her grandpa. He figured we could take the timefor ourselves and get settled in. We, indeed, took up that offer. I wanted thatlittle boy to come out as soon as possible.