Reception Stories

Well it's been a few days and I'm stuck in reception. At first the other guy I rode down with got directions that took us to the Headquarters at OCS, I kept saying we needed to go to a place that would issue us our uniforms, boots etc....but he insisted. We got there and were told to head over to 30th AG, the reception battalion. We finally got there at nearly 11pm after getting lost several times (no post map, and we had to leave the main post and get back into a small section "Sand Hill"). We waited around 20 mins while someone took our paperwork, then when the Drill Sgt. came back I asked about the long weekend and the length of the processing time. Bad News... They will not restart in processing people until Wednesday and it will take 4 days. I need to report on Sunday to make it into the class I am scheduled for. That gives me 3 days. As you can see the math won't add up to a positive number. If everything goes exceptionally smoothly we may be able to finish in 3 days so I have spent the weekend getting all the items on my packing list so when the time comes I am ready and any holdup will be on them.

The reception area is not that bad for prior service. We are all stuck in an open bay barracks but so far it is very laid back. We have people from every branch of the service here, Marines, Navy (lots of Navy) and a few Air Force. About 1/2 are going to OCS with the rest doing 18x-ray contracts (guaranteed shot at Special Forces), 11B (Infantry!!), and some people coming here to be stationed (including a very annoying female PFC who just doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut).

Cellular reception is spotty here with Sprint and their high-speed network is not available. Others with Nextel(sold in the PX here for some reason), T-Mobile, and AT&T report the same. I have not seen anyone with Verizion but their map says this area has good coverage. You might have to go outside and stand in a particular area to get good reception. But I have found a program that lets me tether my palm to my laptop for an internet connection with using only the data from my phone avoiding the laborious extra fees that most carriers like to tack on for using a computer.
http://www.junefabrics.com/pdanet/