The Sad Moment

Sooner or later, I was almost finished FAST Division in boot camp.

The time in FAST Division was really happy. That was the first time I felt so happy in boot camp. During the short 2 weeks training, I met so many friends. For example, SHSR DONG, he was Chinese, and came from New York; SHSR YE, he came from Los Angeles, CA; HMSN Song, one my best friends so far, and she came into boot camp with me; HMSR Kim, he was the lucky guy. He just came from Chicago, IL. I love talking to Kim. He was tall and skinny guy. The most funny moment in boot camp was writing letter. Mostly, a lot of Americans people were very interested in Chinese characters. For me, I was interested in Kim's letter-- He was writing Korean letter to his family. That was my first time to see someone writing letter into Korean Language. I felt very curiously.

"So, what was your job before Navy?" Kim was asking me.

" Full time student, and part time for many jobs." I replied.

Kim was sharing his story, and we were all shocked after listening his story.

" I was working a lot of jobs in Chicago. But, one job I never forgot. When I was your age, I saw the news paper was hiring someone to work in hospital. You got pay for 100 dollars per hour. I was very excited and tried to get this job done. However, I regret what I applied for. I was working in Mortuary! My job is cleaning up for the body. Trust me, you won't survive for more than a minute. The smell was bad there, and you saw many bodies over there! They were dead body! And I quite immediately!"

That was one of the best stories I head since in boot camp training. We were all shocked. It felt like the cut scene from horror movies. We loved sharing stories, and sometimes I wrote these funny moments into my letter to inform my family and friends.

The other funny moment in FAST Division was called " China Team". EMFN Yang was a funny guy. He came from Los Angeles, CA too. When we were going to shower, Yang, Ye, Dong and I would made a group to get into the shower room. We were taking shower together, and singing. Of course, since everyone in FAST Division knew each other, we would be shouted " China Team Getting in!". People inside the shower room would be replied, "What, China Team? We were not scared! We were American!"

Finally, the date to say good bye to FAST was eventually come. Some petty officers came into the room, and we were waiting for new orders. I remember the first class petty officer was Indian guy. For some reasons, I did not why he did not like me so much. My friend EMFR Wen said he was a really good guy, and took care of her a lot. I thought because she was a girl.

"Seaman Recruit, you are going to division 008. Your ship date will be tomorrow. Get ready to move!"

I was really upset when I heard that. This was my second moment to feel sad because I had to move into other division. I felt everyone here was so friendly, but now was time to separate again. Fortunately, Dong was going with me. That let me feel better because I got a friend was going the same division. Ye, Wen, Yang, Song, and other people were separated into different divisions. Some people were leaving immediately, some of them were moving next week, and some of them still waiting for new orders.

" Good Luck, My Asian Boy! You are my bro, give me a hug, man! " My "roommate" replied to me. I forgot his name, but I learned a lot about HIP HOP culture from him. He was black, and loved dancing, singing, and etc. He was a funny guy, and I really enjoyed to talk to him.

" Good Bye, China man; Good bye Asian Boy; Good Bye, Mr Asian! Goodbye......."

I believed that was my first time to receive so many good byes at the same time. Suddenly, the room was remaining on silent. It was cold, and quiet. Less than an hour, the new people were moving into FAST Division. Some of them were Chinese too. However, I was not interested to talk to them. I felt sad, and everyone was leaving again.

" No worry, little Boy. We were moving together, right?" Dong replied to me.

" Yes, it was about time to move on."

We finished all packaging, and ready to go tomorrow.

" I want to go home. I am missing my friends."

TO BE CONTINUED........

My words:

  I was so happy so many people were reading my post recently. Some people were asking why I wanted to share the diary. First, I wanted to share it because not so many immigrants to share their experience during the service. Some people did not know why we joined the Navy from oversea. ( I would explain it later in my post) Some comments to say, they did not know who I was, but your post would be famous soon, right? I was so happy to receive so many comments from you guys. Some people was asking my picture. Well, I will share my pictures by the time I receive more than 200 comments on my blog. Please share it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media if you love my posts. I want more people to read it. Thanks a lot!

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"Easy Day" In Navy Boot camp

" Wake up, and prepare for inspection!"

I forgot how many days in FAST division already. I was trying to remember what was stand for. But unfortunately, I could not remember it. It looked like the training day in boot camp could let you forgot the time easily.

"Now, Welcome to FAST division training. Your daily schedule now was learning English."

At first, I did not understand why I should be here. I felt that was shame because I failed. However, the instructor was so nice. He was an old civilian guy. He was smiling all the time. He was explaining how to learn English quicker, and share his experience in military.

" That is OK you guys have been here. We just want to make sure you guys learn faster. We know you are all new immigrants, or some people have the language barrier. We just here to help. "

The daily schedule was studying, studying, and studying. We did not feel any stress like at beginning in military. We were chilling, and tried to meet some new people. It felt like we were back to High School.

" I was from Los Angeles, how about you?" One Chinese guy asking me.

" Yes, I came from Los Angeles, too. Nice to meet you."

Later on, I met so many new people in the FAST division, and I met up my old friend-- the one we met in recruiting station. Her name was song. We were sitting down and chilling. Tried to mention the day before military.

" I was trying to do some medical stuff, that is why I am here. "

Later on after boot camp, we still keep in touch, and her mum always visit our family since we were lived in the same area.

" My name was Kim. I came from Chicago, and I was Korean."

" My name is Truong. I am Vietnamese, and I came from San Francisco."

Many people were starting to introduce themselves. It was getting crowd. Fortunately, the RDC ( Recruit Division Command ) was not here. If he did, I was pretty sure we were doing the IT again.

It was precious memory in FAST division. That was my first time, or maybe the first time in America felt everyone was so closed. Some people were actually nice to teach me how to speak and wrote English. But the most job in boot camp was not writing English. I helped many recruits to write some Chinese to their love, family, or their name.  We had a great time in FAST. I was still wondering if my life would be like this in future military.

Gradually, I had been in FAST Division almost a week already. The FAST Division was only 2 weeks. I was closing my eyes again, and asking myself.

" Can I make it?"

TO BE CONTINUED....

My Words:

Thank you for everyone supports my blog. I just review and see so many comments. Sorry I did not follow up because I am still new to do blogging. I am enjoying to read everyone's comment on my Page. Thanks for supporting me, I will keep updating!

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Dreams

" I want to be a pilot when I grew up; I want to be an artist when I grew up; I wanted to be an scientist when I grew up; I want to be....."

I did not know why. I kept making these "dreams" from my childhood memory. I believe that was only time happened to flash back these moments. I woke up, and I heard a voice was loud and clear.

" Get the fuck up! You have 2 minutes to ready for inspection! Do it do it now!"

I woke up, and still thinking about the dream. I really want to do something when I was a child. Unfortunately, because of broken family, my half-brother was born, and my step-mother. They were almost changed my life. I had my dream but I could not chase for, and now I still did not believe I join the Navy bootcamp. That day had dream was almost 2 weeks in great lakes already. Thanks to god, I could be able to survive for 2 weeks.

During the two weeks, we just basically learned how to fold your clothes, wracks (bed), dressed up, shaving, IT, some navy basic knowledge and history. It looks bored, and scared. You would got yelled by your RDC ( Recruit Division Command) almost every second, and you never knew why they were so mad. Of course, I was one of them. Since I have the big problem about the language barrier, I have to pay attention to others and follow what they did.

" Recruit, what the hell were you doing? Stop looking around and did what you needed to do!"

Fortunately, all american were really nice. They were nice to help me, and talked to me very slowly so I could be understood easily. This was the first time I was in american culture. Los Angeles have too many Chinese people. Some of my friends not even speaking any English. In Los Angeles, we had a joke : You don't need to speak English to survive here. Here is the small Chinatown. Almost every people would understand Chinese.  As a result, some of my friends did not know how to speak, write , or even reading any simple English. I did not understand why, and not even wanted to know the truth.

" Seaman Recruit, come to my office!" Petty Officer shouted.

" From now on, you are going to FAST DIVISION for two weeks. Since your English skill is not good. We are trying to improve your Language skill first and move into the next stage. Do you understand!"

I did believe what they were trying to tell me. For some reasons, my tears were coming out from my eyes. I was crying like a baby boy during that moment. I did not know why I wanted to cry, or just maybe too many failures in bootcamp. After a while, everyone was saying good bye to me, and I moved into the new division.

"Hey bro. You are Chinese?" Someone was in the corner and asking me.

"Yes, I am. " I reply.

When I turn around, I just realized almost everyone here are new immigrants. Chinese, Philippines, Africa, and etc. We were here because we failed the English test.

" I wanted to be a doctor, but I love military guys! They were strong and cool!"

My dreams were repeating again. I woke up at midnight, and looked around. I remembered I love to watch the war movie from Hollywood. In the movie, American Soldiers were brave, and unbeatable. They served with honor. On the other hand, my birthday was China's military birthday too. It looked like my fate. Should I feel happy, or sad?

My eyes were closing, and the dreams won't repeat again in the future.

To be continued.....

My words:

I think I have been post my military diary in the blog for almost a year already. I am glad some people are actually comment on my blog. Although my Blog still get a few views to compare others, I still want to finish it. Thank you for supporting my blog!

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The P Day Week

   “ The Chicago is really cold!”

  That was how I feel when we walked out to airport. I was attracting by Chicago’s street because that was my first time to travel outside the California. The street was cold, but the buildings with light were beautiful. It looked like a country boy has never been to downtown before.

  “What the hell are you doing? Hurry up and get into the bus! Follow the rest people!”

  I got yelled again, and I was pretty sure that Petty Officer was mad because I did not follow his instruction. Sooner or later, we all got into the bus. I was so sleepy due to the long travel.

  “Don’t try to sleep during the bus! Pay attention to the video and you will do the exactly same thing when you arrived to boot camp!”

  Well, I felt so extreme nervous when I saw the video. I forgot the most detail in the video because I was thinking what I should do. The Petty Officers finally shut up and be quiet a little bit. Finally, we arrived to boot camp. The location was in Great Lakes, IL. The P day was beginning eventually.

   “Hurry up! We are running out of time! Just do what I am exactly telling you to do!”

  The P day was not funny at all. The first thing we stood a line with different new recruits. We had to get the sea bag, clothes, shoes, and other general military gear. I could heard the Petty Officer was yelling all the time to tell recruit what to do. Of course, they looked so mean and you would be scared.

 Finally, I got yelled again because I did not understand the order. I got yelled so badly and I remembered my tears just around my eye’s corner. At the same time, some people were laughing because I had had English. I felt so shame, and really want to find somewhere to hide. During the P day process, one of the moments I felt embarrassed, that was changing all your clothes and put into the box to send it back to home. We had around 30 to 50 people in a room to face all military PT gear.

  “You have 3 minutes to change all your clothes! Don’t talk and stop looking everyone around you! Just do what I say, NOW!”

  Everybody just took off all clothes, and hurried up to wear the Navy PT clothes. That was my first time to change the clothes “in public”. Maybe the culture was different from America’s. I asked my friends later on in Navy, we all had the same feelings.

  I forgot how long we had been waiting before we got into the new division. I just remembered my sea bag was full and felt that was so heavy. I saw some female recruits could not handle their own sea bag and pass out; some people was felt asleep and got a bad lesson from other Petty Officer; some people started crying and thinking to go home. My heart was struggled, and did not know how to describe my own feelings at all. I felt nervous and scared since that was my first time to be out of state.

  Finally, we had our division. I forgot my first division number (because I went to other division later on). Luckily, Troy was the same division with me, and we were “roommate” again.

  “You guys are very lucky. It is usually you guys never get a sleep during the P-1 day. Now you have about 4 hours to sleep before we start the new training. Hurry up, lights off and sleep!”

 The Petty Officer turned off the daylight into red-light. I was the top wrack, and looking into ceiling and my sleepy eyes were getting closed eventually.

  “Can I make it?” 

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The P day

about 4 months later, 9/14/2007, it was my so-called shipped day to bootcamp. before the bootcamp, i had been doing a lot of physical training to prepare for it. i did remember i said goodbye to everyone in high school and my best friends before this date. some of my friends still did not believe that i would join navy for sure. they thought i just joking around. of course, they did not understand my situation. i believed i could do it, and i hated to be a loser and lived in a poor environment. i wanted to be rich, and more successful than anyone else after graduated from high school.  in fact, i was worried about myself more than everyone else.

" am i going to war? can i make it? can i make some money to support to my family? can i finish college? can i become a good leader? can i get over the language barrier? can i ......."

too many questions in my mind, and somehow i did not want to face it at all. i never told my mum about it because i did not want her to worry about me too. the date before i went to bootcamp, i stayed with my mum. i did not go anywhere, just enjoyed the dinner with family. during that moment, i just realized my family was so warm, and the food on the table were delicious. i remembered i did not have a good sleep.

the date was finally came, recruiter came to my house and picked me up. my mum looked happy somehow had a little bit worried. i knew no parents want their children to join the arm forces, especially new immigrants. i knew why i chose it, however, i did not know how to face it. the first day i was spending at MAP, the location was in downtown Los Angeles, CA. i spent a night with my roommate, Troy. he was come from korean, and he was really nice to me. he told me he joined the navy because he did not want to run business like his family. his family was pretty rich and he did not have too much worry. i asked him why he made a stupid decision.

" i just want to see the world. i love cooking, and i don't want to rely on my family. i choose it because my family is trying to let me to run business, but i don't. i want to find a way for myself."

after i listened what he said, it just made myself more struggle than used to be.  my heart was jealous. i was jealous because he had a good family. he had a brother and both parents. his parents were running business for a while, and i thought his big brother was doing the same thing like his parents. we were in the same room, but came from different family background. i joined the navy because i wanted to help my family, but he joined the navy just for fun and get more training. i forgot how many hours i was sleeping during that night because i could not sleep at all. i feel so sad, and could not able to describe all the feelings in my heart.

we woke up at 4 am in the morning. after we finished the meal, we made a team and went to airport directly. finally, i had to say goodbye to California. i had to leave and went to my new place for training-Great Lakes, IL.

To Be Continued...........

thank you for everyone who follows my post all the time. i have been trying to update one or two time at least weekly. i know my english is not really good, and have some grammar errors. please feel free to leave a comment and i will correct them. thanks for reading and supporting all the time.

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http://veteranfamily.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-p-day.html

Veteran Blog: Steps To Join The Military

 Recently, I have so many friends join the military. Most of them are joined the US Army, US Navy, and a few to join the US Marine Corps. They join the military for different reasons. Some of them want to get some education assistant for college, and some of them want to support their family and financial situations.

  If you have been made a decision to join the military service, I would say thank you for your service, and you make an excellent choice for yourself. However, since people never think too much when they sign up the contract. Here is some tips:

1.  I did hear so many complaints about the military. 90% people is complaining about Recruiter. I did see some college student to join the military after they graduate. They said the recruiter is laying all the benefit, and they are not true. For example, the recruiter might tell you that you can get a stable paycheck when you stay in military, and you are entitle all these benefits while you are in service. Remember, the recruiter is not all laying to you. First of all, Recruiter's job is recruiting people to join the military service. They carry the mission from the chain of command. They have to finish their job to get a better promotion. If not, they will lose their position, and probably get a really bad look from his boss. For the benefit section, some of the benefit is really up to you chain of command. Here is an example from my military service: When I join the military, it is called the OVERMAN Navy. The barracks are not enough, and sometimes we are hard to get a room to stay. I am lucky to get a room for myself when I am off duty. However, some of the sailors are not even able to get a room, and their chain of command approve these sailors to entitle the BAH to rent a room outside the base; for the advancement, my rate is going down side when I joined the Navy, and even some people cannot advance at all in certain rates in Navy. Therefore, not all the recruiters are laying to you about the benefits and advancement. The military has a lot of new policies every year. It is really depending on your chain of command, and the currently situations.

2. Do some research before you sign up the contract. This is my mistake before I join the Navy. I did not research seriously enough to make sure I understanding all the jobs in military. Some people are regretting when they choose this job. They don't like it, but they have no choice at all. Make sure you are asking your friend, recruiter, or some people who are servicing in military. Do some research by yourself, and make a better choice.

3.  Make a plan for yourself. I can tell you that military is not easy as you think sometimes. For example, people think to join the Navy can see the world. Yes, you can see the world, but most time you will be spending on ship. You will have homesick, and etc. Don't be some sailors join the military without plan. They join the service just want to make some money to have fun. They are spending the money everywhere, and eventually have to face a seriously financial problems. Here is my advise when I am on sea: The TA is free in Navy college. Take one class ( don't take 2 at the same time, it is hard to manage your time) and doing some self study on internet. The Navy college is offer so many programs for sailors who want to attend college. They are all military friendly school unless you decide to choose another school outside the program. They will assist sailors to finish their education as soon as possible. This is one of the great benefits to join the military service. At the same time, bring some books, or hit the gym often to relieve stress.

4. Make a good financial plan. This is one of the important things for service members when they are on active duty. A lot of people spending money around to party, drinking, and shopping. Some people are surviving pay check by pay check. The military offer so many financial and investment program to support sailors. Don't be fool to waste your money and time.

5.  Make sure you understand the contract. The contract is variously sometimes depending on the military situations. Some contract are required you to go to some certain schools. For example, some engineering program are offer the C school after they compete all the training in A school. When I was in boot camp. some recruit are medical crews, and they don't know they required to follow the marine troops. Make sure you ask your recruiter and do research by yourself if you don't know the contract, and also make a copy in case some people lost your service record.

6. Using the benefits while you are in military. The military has so many benefits, like different programs in Navy college, spouse program, and fleet and family support center. People don't know their benefit because they don't ask. Always asking if you are really want to know your entitle benefit.

7. Don't waste your time, and educate yourself. School is boring, and I believe not everyone love going to school. But remember, the military is encouraging service members to go to college to get a better educations. Nowadays, the military is getting focused on service members education. If you do have a degree, it will help you to get promote easier. Although you don't want to stay in military in the future life, the education still can assist you to become successful in the civilian's life.

  if you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will be happy to assist you. Thanks for reading.

http://veteransfamily.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/military-service/

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The Day Become Veteran

  " Recruit, what is your first general order?"

  " Recruit, what is your name?"

  " Recruit, what the hell are you doing here? Push up positions!"

  Yesterday, I have a dream. The dream is about the Navy Bootcamp training. It has been a long time already since 09/14/2007.

  Somehow, I still don't believe the time goes by really fast. The five years service feels like yesterday. I did remember when I was signed up the contract, I was still the high school student. I never imagined that I would join the US Navy before.

  During the navy service, I did learn a lot of lesson in my life. For example, how to make a perfect team work, education, leadership, mental training, and etc. I did appreciate that I joined military service when I was young.

  Now I became the veteran for almost 2 months already. The reason I decide to get out of Navy because I find out something that I really want to do. Be honestly, I did not like deploy too much. I always missing home when I was out of sea.  Homesick is probably the most illness in the world. Although you think your parents are annoying, once you deploy, you are pretty missing these moments. You don't know why you feel sad, why you are not happy, and why you are lost control- because this is homesick.

To be continued..........


http://veteransfamily.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/the-day-become-veteran/

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