Day Zero, Zero Week: Just the Beginning

Motivation

You can’t compare yourself to your competition. That only puts you on their level. To win you have to be above your opponent.

My Path

Today I arrived in Quantico, VA to report to TBS. At first I had the same butterflies in my stomach that I experienced each time I went to OCS, but they subsided as soon as I checked in with the Officer of the Day (OOD) and my Student Platoon Commander (SPC). At that moment I realized that this would be a far different experience than OCS.  Rather than crazy platoon staff babysitting us, we will be in complete control of ourselves. While liberating, it adds much more responsibility.  Bring on the responsibility!

I arrived just after 1230. The OOD informed me that I was in Echo Company (Technically Mike Company at the moment) 6^th Platoon. I met my SPC and she gave me, and two other Second Lieutenants (2ndLt), a quick brief of what to accomplish for the day. I met my current roommate during this brief (At the completion of Zero Week, there may be changes to the platoon rosters). We headed up to the second deck to create a Marine Online account, and then made our way down the hall to pick up our publications (pubs) that we will be reading and referring to during the period of instruction (POI). The next stop was Haas Hall, my Student Officer Quarters (SOQ) to secure my room. I’m all the way up on the 4^th deck. Pros: Some phone service (I use the word “some” very liberally); Cons: Lots of stairs to climb. I will say that I was very impressed with the size of the room - shower, toilet, 2 sinks, refrigerator, freezer, microwave, and very open. After changing into my cammies I headed over to the data entry building to fill out some forms with basic information. These questions will probably be repeated throughout Zero Week to ensure that everything is accurate. Once I finished up there I made a few trips from the car up to my room to start moving in. This was interrupted by an introductory brief held for the entire company around 1700. I was able to grab some evening chow by 1830 and then make a few more trips up the 4 flights of stairs. The night was wrapped up with a trip to Walmart and unpacking a bit more.

Tomorrow begins at 0530 and we will be doing much more administrative work throughout the day. We’ll see if make it in and out of the chow hall between 0500 and 0530. It may be pushing it. As things pick up I’m sure there will be more interesting information and reflections. I’m writing this as a Word Document for now as we do not have the Internet set up yet.

WOD

Several trips up and down 4 flights of stairs with unknown loads for time. No less than 8 rounds. 3-2-1-GO!

Ok, maybe not for time, but it was still a pretty good workout. Hopefully I’ll get a real workout in tomorrow.