Day 2

[Merciless pounding on the door] “WAKE UP!! YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO BE OUT IN THIS HALLWAY!!!!” That was what greeted me at 0430. For those readers with a Yeshiva background, think of the Vecker from HELL!! I jumped out of bed, threw on my clothes, washed my hands, and stood in the hallway… while I wasn’t the first one out, at least I wasn’t the last. We were allowed to come back inside to brush our teeth, shave and grab all of our important documents… did I say we were given four minutes? We stood at attention in the hallway for another five minutes waiting for stragglers, and then were marched on to the parade ground. We all stood in front of the reviewing stand, where Lt Col Ackerman (Jewish??), the commander of COT, addressed us. At the end of his words, a blue line of lights appeared at our feet and we told to step across it, symbolizing our stepping “into the Blue,” into the world of the Air Force. We filed into the bleachers, where we were given a boxed breakfast - and almost all of it was kosher! NutriGrain bar, box of cereal (Rasin Bran Crunch, thank you very much), an apple, milk, orange juice… biggest breakfast I’ve had in a year! Then we lined up to pick up our MRE’s for lunch (we would not be dining in the DFAC), which is when I discovered they had no Kosher MRE. More on that later.

The rest of the afternoon was my first lesson in the great military tradition of “Hurry up and wait.” We went to have our blood drawn, filled out emergency survivor forms (who gets the insurance and my body should I die. Good morning to you, too!) and then… unrinalysis. I stood in line for over two hours (reading the study manual, of course - See Day One) to get my bottle. Then, I had to be escorted into the rest room where an officer had to watch me do my “bidness” into the jar. That’s right, he actually said, “Angle towards me so I can see what you are doing.” Dude! You can’t use your imagination?? It was 1045 when I was done, and I finally got the courage to ask someone if I could do my morning prayer services. They immediately got me over to the chaplain’s office, and we had a wonderful chat. I was allowed to go back to my room and get my Teffilin, and I brought them to the private “devotional” room (RAC – Religious Accomodation Center). It was great! They had a “Jewish” box, with ArtScroll siddurs and Chumashim, kiddush cups, havdalah sets – they even had a pair of REALLY nice Tefillin!