Gordaen’s Blog

I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of creative writing; I’ve always dreamed about how great it would be to publish a novel of some sort. As a means of getting back into the habit, I started to write down random memories that I have, which let me practice writing while also helping to solidify those memories. It’s been pretty amazing how detailed some of them are (particularly those from the military).

Some of the writing has actually turned out to be relatively good, so I thought I’d share a bit here (though maybe I am biased since they are my memories). The part I’m going to share is essentially a three part story, so I’ll split it into three posts published at 8:00am (Pacific) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I’m going to call the story overall “Elbows” (which will make more sense after you read it) and each part will have a subtitle to go with that. I’ve never been good with names…

“Elbows” takes place during basic training in late August, 2001 at Lackland AFB, Texas. The first part is really just a setup to explain why the other two parts happened. The overall story is a chronological series of memories from basic training, so there are some terms that most people probably won’t know.

• 341 - Air Force form 341, a small disciplinary form filled out by trainees and carried on them at all times so a TI can just say, “Give me a 341″ and the TI only has to write in what the trainee did wrong. Having 341s pulled could result in “recycling,” which meant the trainee would spend a week or more additional time in basic training. Essentially, 341 = bad.
• crawl - a low-crawl is when you are all the way squished against the ground, elbows to the side with hands ahead, and one ear to the ground to keep the head down; a high-crawl puts the elbows underneath instead of to the sides (see images for low-crawl and high-crawl for a better idea)
• flight - Air Force term for a group of people (2+ elements makes a flight, 2+ flights makes a squadron, etc.), typically flights consisted of about 50-60 people in basic training
• M16 - the primary rifle of the United States military
• MRE - meal, ready-to-eat, essentially a field ration; see the Wikipedia MRE article for more info
• PT - Physical Training, the daily exercises (running, pushups, sit-ups, etc.)
• TI - Training Instructor (the Air Force equivalent of a Drill Sergeant)
• Trainee - the (often degrading) term used to describe the people who are going through basic training

I actually eliminated the use of a lot of military terms to try to make the story more accessible to people who haven’t gone through the experience, but you can let me know if I left anything in that isn’t clear. I tried to limit the use of swearing, but I felt it necessary in some places. Constructive feedback is appreciated.