Benning

December 10, 2007

I finished my 3rd day of CRC processing here at Ft. Benning. This place and experience are, so far, like nothing I’ve done before. There are roughly 400 people here processing through in my flight. There are some military personnel, but mostly civilian government workers and a TON of contractors working for private companies…of which I am one. I am surprised at the many different walks of life here. I assumed that this process would be made up of more people like me going to Iraq for some kind of security job. But the truth is that I have met computer geeks, security specialists, cooks, truck mechanics, aircraft mechanics, doctors, nurses, linguists, analysts, engineers, secretaries, and of course, soldiers. And they are going all over the world to work; Iraq, Kuwait, Honduras, Cuba, Jordan, Columbia, to name just a few. Oddly, my two partners and I are the only 3 guys here going over to do corrections or police work. I shouldn’t be surprised by my ignorance, but being the kind of person who knows it all…I am, frankly, stunned.

So I have been getting a crash course in “The Army Way.” There is everyone else’s way…and then there’s “The Army Way.” All you who’ve served will know just what I’m speaking of. I thought being a state worker for all these years would have gotten me prepared for all this “hurry up and wait” stuff. But I truly had no idea. I will say though that I have eons more patience than a lot of the other civilians here, (the soldiers know the score and just shuffle through like cattle.) There are so many people who absolutely hate being told what to do, and rebel hard against these soldiers here processing us through. Some people are truly just stupid. There is so much to be said for simply keeping your mouth shut and just doing what you’re told. I give these soldiers a lot of credit for keeping their cool and being patient with the idiots. I guess though that when they process 15,000 people a year, (which is how many they’ve done so far in 2007), through here they must certainly be considered “pros”. They do, after all, embody “The Army Way.”

I got my name on the list to fly out on Friday. It still kinda seems unreal to me that by this time next week I’ll be in the Middle East. But I’m excited just the same. And it’s still very surreal to think that I won’t be home for several months. My mind plays tricks on me and makes me think this is all just a vacation or short stay away from home. But I bring myself back to reality from time to time and remember that I won’t be going home to sleep in my bed at the end of the week, or I won’t be seeing my loved ones for some time. I have been trying to train my brain to think of every day as just another day “on the job”, and that that job is as an International Corrections Advisor. It’s very foreign, and therefore still unknown and scary. I got my Civilian Contractors Card today, issued officially from the US Dept of Defense. It is one of two of the biggest steps of this week, (Medical clearance being the other.) Without this ID card I couldn’t go to the “Theatre”, (as everyone around here keeps referring to it.) I feel very involved now and proud of myself. It’s silly, I know, but I can’t help feeling it. I am now a part of something so much bigger than my old life in Idaho. Thousands upon thousands of Americans have gone to Iraq since the war began in 2003, and now I am one. Complain though I may about the chow, or the long lines, or the waiting, or the sleeping quarters, or the lack of sleep, or missing my family, (but not the money!), it still is overshadowed by a strong feeling of pride.

-Jim Franks