We crossed the Mobile AL bay. Went through a tunnel and saw a Naval ship.
Along the way, we ate food supplied by the Girl Scouts, including their cookies.
We arrived at Camp Shelby, and the bus grew very quiet. It looked like an internment camp. Lots of concertina wire, barracks squeezed tightly together, dusty roads. No civilian clothes allowed, even when off duty (except for the first formation, when the Army Reserve soldiers joined us before their bags arrived). We walked everywhere, unless going to an official appointment, then crammed into very old busses. Our barracks were open bay, and no bathrooms. We had to walk to another building for bathrooms or running water.
The morning after we arrived, we had breakfast at 0400 hrs. Then off to our first test, a urinalysis to check for drugs (one soldier failed). Then we went to our Soldier Readiness Program (SRP). There they check our files and medical readiness to deploy. This took several days. In the evening, I discovered just how old I am. One of our female soldier's used a hair dryer the likes I have never seen.
While at Shelby, we had classroom instruction and hands on training (such as for map reading). The classroom instruction was long and dull, as you can see on everyone's faces.
I also sent more pics of the concertina wire that is everywhere here.
The photo of "main street" is one of the many long roads we walked down to get from our barracks to anywhere else on post, like the PX (store), barber shop, etc.
Our last day in MS we were bussed out to a park on a pond for dinner. Some BBQ was brought out, but it was from the chow hall so we had been eating the same stuff all week, anyway. The only good thing was at the last minute we were permitted to wear cililian clothes. This is the last time (8 June), that I have been in "normal" clothes.
The next day, we loaded in a bus for Gulfport MS.
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