Crush the Earth

The colonel ambled slowly to his seat at the front of the room and sat down heavily.  "Whooooo," he sighed in a mysterious, slow exhalation.  He peered out at the 25 of us.  "What a terrifying conglomeration of lieutenants...the force of which would surely crush the earth."  Well, he was partially right.  We were, after all, mostly lieutenants.  Most of us have only one year of medical school under our belt.  As far as the Air Force goes, we may be officers, but we're still pretty low on the totem pole, especially once you consider that most of us have only had our 5 weeks at COT as military experience.  Still, we could already tell that this would be much different from COT. Four colonels later (all within one morning of classes), we knew that this was much different from COT, my first definitive proof that Capt Raley really wasn't lying when she promised that the operational Air Force would be nothing like that first month of training.  Also within one morning of class, I had made up my mind: I want to be a flight surgeon.  If all that they told us this morning is true (which, I suppose, I will be able to find out in the next 2 weeks), then I can't see anything about aerospace medicine that isn't completely exciting, entirely satisfying, and totally what I want to do.  I won't give away any of the upcoming training, but suffice it to say that the 2 weeks will not be enough for me.  It is just a taste, and it will taunt me until I can complete the final 4 weeks in my fourth year of medical school.

In the meantime, my observations of Brooks: This is a strange, strange base.  It used to be called Brooks Air Force Base, but it is now being slowly taken over by the city of San Antonio (as the Air Force slowly moves out); it is now called Brooks City-Base.  Soon it will no longer exist.  Apparently it used to be a thriving base, the headquarters of USAFSAM (pronounced, as I've found out, as you-saff-sam -- the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine).  The golf course, according to one of the colonels, used to have the highest concentration of generals in the entire United States.  Now the golf course is overgrown.  The base is nearly empty.  All of the bases in San Antonio are gradually combining into one super-base.  USAFSAM will soon relocate to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, so we are one of the last classes to experience it here at Brooks.  Personally, I'm happy.  I'd rather be in Texas than Ohio.  However, when I go back to complete AMP 201 and 202 in my fourth year, I concede that it will be better to be on a larger base, especially given that those combined will be a month long.

Living on an empty base has its challenges.  Unlike COT, we do not eat at a dining hall.  We are expected to provide our own meals.  Luckily, the base is small, and there are several restaurants and stores just outside of the gates.  A few of us went to H-E-B this evening to buy breakfast and lunch-making materials after having to (quickly) scrounge for lunch during our 20-minute break today.  (This is not normal; today was just a tightly scheduled day because of all the administrative things we had to do -- picking up books, filling out forms, getting blood drawn, the usual).  This evening, I went for a run with one of my classmates.  We quickly came to the edge of the base and simply turned around again.  It's not a big base.  Tomorrow, some of us are planning to make a trip to Lackland AFB (our neighbor base, the one where all the new AF recruits go for boot camp) primarily to go to AAFES.  Don't ask me what the acronym means.  It's where we buy uniforms. I'm hoping to pick up some princess-cut blues shirts because a.) I would be happier not to have to tuck my shirts in, and b.) I want my blues -- you know, the uniform that's supposed to look really sharp -- to actually fit rather than be several sizes too big.  Let's just say that Maxwell had some supply issues last year.  Anyway, we're planning on leaving right after class without changing out of our uniforms.  Call us sadistic, but we're looking forward to seeing if any of the new recruits who may be wandering around are going to freak out seeing this "terrifying conglomeration of lieutenants" walking by.

And now, for my final thought, here is my rental car:

Bright red Chevy HHK, the ugliest car in the world