Basic Training Graduation and Day One at Fort Riley

Well, it took me longer to get to this post then expected, I was having issues with the site and how it looked. I think I fixed it, but we will see.

Funny, I cannot remember the exact date that I graduated basic, although if you would have asked me 10 years ago I could have told you the exact date and time. I know it was in November 1990, I believe after Thanksgiving. We had our graduation ceremony, and then my mom and dad took me to the hotel and we had KFC for dinner. The next day, we went to Mammoth Cave and, I believe, flew home the next day. I took a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, of leave and then left for Fort Riley Kansas.

I may as well tell the story of getting to Kansas, since this post was rather short. So, I fly into Kansas City and change plans and get onto a little tiny puddle jumper. We take off and after flying over nothing for little while, we landed in Manhattan, KS. No kidding, as we are taxiing to the gate (more like a small building) a tumbleweed blows by. At that time, I really start thinking “what the hell did I just get myself into?”.

We got off the plane, grabbed our bags from the, um, bag claim rack (no moving belt here) and got our ride to Fort Riley, KS. After getting to our reception station and checking in, the Staff Sergeant working the area told us to be in formation the next morning at 0630. So, here I am with a few guys I knew from basic training and we are thinking, now what? I asked the Staff Sergeant, are we allowed to go to the PX? He said, he didn’t care where we went, as long as we were back by 0630 formation the next morning. You see, this was a bit hard to grasp because for the last 4 months or so, the only exposure to the Army we had was basic training which was very structured and limited on what we could do. I think in the 4 months I was in basic, I got to go to the PX 3 times and now I was free to do whatever, awesome.

Long story short, we went to the PX.