Even Uncle Sam is a dirty old Uncle!

[ NYTIMES ] Army Acts to Curb Abuses of Injured Recruits (I prefer Michael Moore's layout of the story better.)

Read the story and know that it is true. Although I'm not proud to admit it, I was once in the Physical Training and Rehabilitation Program at Fort Jackson, S.C during my brief stint in the Army. I've seen this; I've experienced this. I have "weak knees". If I turn too quickly, run too hard or sometimes even just walk, my right knee buckles and I go down in a pile of writhing agony. The first time it happened was when I was working at Big Y in 1996. Looking back, I should have told a manager about it and had it looked at on their dime but I never did. During my couple of days of reception at Fort Jackson, my knee gave me problems again. We were practicing for some ceremony and, of course, some of the kids were screwing around. Since we had already done the initial physical testing, the drill corporals (as we called them) we allowed to "smoke" us. The entire auditorium was smoked. They told us to stand then sit quickly. It was too much stress and I went down hard. I was sentenced to FTC, the Fitness Training Company. (If you check out the link, let it be known that -I- didn't have an arcade while I was there.) When I was put into the program, the sol that slept on the lower bunk had been in there for six, working on seven, months. Sol? Yeah, that's what our bitchy drill sergeant, Staff Sergeant Huff, referred to us as because we weren't considered real soldiers in her book. He was there for an injury he received during blue phase of basic. He was there for the entire duration of my enlistment, also. Hell, for all I know, he could still be the inhabitant of that bottom bunk! I was there for a little over two months then I was discharged with a one-way bus ticket home. My knee problem never allowed me to meet the running requirement, I'm sure if I pushed I could have made it but I knew better. Being in the Army or the armed forces in general are life long dreams for some people. A few of my buddies tried to push themselves too far and they received some pretty harsh injuries. I could tell a few stories but I don't feel this site would be an appropriate venue. My experience in the army gave me what I was looking for, even though I didn't get to experience it more. I grew on the inside. I'm not sorry that I enlisted, but I'm sure as hell glad that I made it out.