Word: chowed
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...torture, a purgatory out of Kafka, not Orwell, where the absence of directions becomes the scourge, and the authority becomes something you start craving, asking for. Was that the plan all along? Was all the rigid neglect of this Army Reception Battalion, all the days and weeks lost in chow lines and idle formation just a way of whetting our appetite for action...
...mostly, we were bored. We paced in our sweat suits from formation to formation and chow line to chow line, getting an errand done here and there and enjoying the occasionally "serious" outing (try putting two platoons in a classroom for a chlamydia lecture and then telling them to be quiet). We weren't allowed to run it off - there were no drill sergeants who would supervise us, and we might get hurt out there. We were government property now, after all. Meanwhile chow at 05:30, chow at 11:00. Chow at 16:30. Full, free meals...
...purpose of our current limbo at the Arms Reception Battalion - in three to five days, before moving on to the real thing, boot camp. That now seems a vain hope, and it seems unlikely we will have completed Basic by Christmas. I talk to two privates at dinner chow who've been here for three weeks since processing; they're still waiting to move on.?The current?in-the-wind estimate for the 13th Platoon is two weeks from today...
...perhaps three a day. Today was the issuing of Army t-shirts and a laundry bag, the taking of blood and the X-raying of teeth.? Tomorrow, we hear, will be haircuts and dealing with pay issues, possibly even the issuing of BDUs (fatigues). Standing in line for chow takes hours. Standing with the platoon at parade rest: more hours. We stand and sit and idle for hours and hours, supposedly as part of a grand military ethos...
...feel about the fact that many of the most popular Asian films here are martial arts related--Chow Yun-Fat or Jackie Chan? Is therea need for more artistic endeavors...