Barracks

Throughout my time around the military, most of it has been living offpost.  During my earlier years though, it was all onpost as a single soldier living in the barracks.

My first living quarters was basic training- the walls were lemon yellow and for whatever reason there was a random half wall on two sides of the room.  Although it is still vivid in my memory, I didn't spend much time there and when I was there it was to quickly get dressed or crashed out sleeping.  The little bits of time that I was awake was generally to read or write letters home and many times it was having a quick conversation with one of the other females. 

From there I moved into the barracks at Fort Rucker for AIT.  Those were the nicest barracks I have ever seen.  Compared to the barracks at Fort Jackson, everything looked remotely new.  Then again, the 'niceness' of them may have been nothing more than the fact that we were starting to get some of our freedom back.  Even though there were four of us per room, I never had an issues with my roommates.  Even in the mornings between PT and training starting, we worked like a well-oiled machine with all of us taking showers and getting ready.

Then came by last stop in actual barracks and that was Fort Hood...  I no longer had drill sergeants coming to check my room and we weren't stacked on top of each other, but I think my most interesting times were during my stay in those barracks.  My first roommate was a friend who had been in AIT with me, but that was shortlived as she was married and her husband was coming down in the next few weeks for them to find a place to live offpost. 

My next roommate was a challenge, within a week of reporting to the post from her AIT they found out she was pregnant.  Since she was taking that 'opportunity' to chapter out of the Army, most of her leadership wasn't too concerned with her doing PT.  She would come down to formation then be released to go back to her room.  By the time I would get done with PT and head back to my room, she was passed out again and often times had bed partners.  These bed partners weren't other people, but food.  Most mornings she would have an open package of hot dogs and some mustard or ketchup in the bed with her - other days it was other random types of food.  For days on end, she would fall back asleep after PT and wake up in enough time to throw her uniform on and head in for work call.  Yes, that is correct - no shower...  so it wasn't long before our room started smelling of hot dogs and body odor.  I put up with it for awhile before I said something and she acted like it was no big deal.  So one day when one of my supervisors came to inspect my part of the room, he noticed the smell and reported it to her chain of command.  It wasn't an issue for much longer though, because her chapter paperwork went through and she was separated from the Army.

My last roommate was only my roommate for about a week before I moved offpost.  I didn't get to know her very well since I was only really there to move my stuff out, but as is typical with the Army - I ran into her in Germany when she was assigned to the same unit as I was.  Funny thing - she had married a soldier from another battalion within about two weeks after we arrived back from our first deployment and I married a soldier within our battalion about six weeks after we arrived back.  Both of us and our husbands all ended up being in the same unit.

Although, barracks living isn't the ideal place to live, I did have a lot of fun when I lived in the barracks.  There was the opportunity to get to know the people you worked with much better.  One of the girls I was roommates with in AIT became a very good friend.  And while we were preparing for deployment, being in a place like that with the people you are deploying with really gave me a chance to see some of their true colors before having to deal with it when we were deployed.  As with anything in the Army, I think it's all what you make of it.