Middle of Nowhere, Louisiana

Fort Polk, Louisiana is, suffice it to say, not centrally located. The airport is about the smallest I’ve ever seen (though not too small for free wifi!) We flew from Atlanta to Alexandria, Louisiana, which is about two and a half hours due south of Shreveport and three odd hours west of Baton Rouge. The base is a solid 50 minute drive from the airport, down a two lane road through the middle of the country. I would have loved to have stared at the scenery, but the guy sitting next to me on the bus had other plans for my time.

He’s a Navy reservist and ninth grade social studies teacher. He’s headed to Balad for a year on his last mobilization tour of his 24 years in the Navy. He’s from Jacksonville, Florida and I could tell you all about him, but frankly he wasn’t that interesting, though that was a great indication of what I’ll be up to here at Combat Skills Training.

I’m training with people from all braches (so different from my day job), plus many of the people who are here seem to be in the Guard or Reserves, which is even more interesting. For now I’ll focus on the world’s longest bus ride, while this guy was talking my ear off about how he went to a Dodger’s game yesterday, and before that he was driving down Pacific Coast Highway because the Navy sent him to the mobilization center near Los Angeles and he had way too much spare time. Be proud that I didn’t kick him. Trust me, I wanted to.

I was glad to see the Fort Polk sign showing that we’d arrive at the base (mostly because that meant he had to stop talking!) I’m living in “Tiger Country” which is basically a trailer park. That humor isn’t lost on me. Yes, we have flushing toilets, running water, air conditioning (I was stunned), and everything else that I would never expect at Army training.

The Dining Facility serves rubber chicken for all meals, and can seat some 400 people, there’s a pop-up gym, a mail room, an MWR tent (with free wifi) and a little “troop store” that sells emergency items (like uniform parts and Skittles) for a few hours a day. That’s all within crawling distance from my room.

I’m lucky to be a “senior officer” here, which means (for now) I have a six person room all to myself. I live in the bottom bunk in the back corner and it’s just as peaceful as can be (for now). It’s not an open bay full of 50 girls like I had feared. There’s hot water in the showers, and there are individual shower stalls. I mean, you might be laughing, but I really thought I was coming to live something awful like Full Metal Jacket or G.I. Jane and so far, that’s just not the case.

I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed that I’m not roughing it a bit more. Now I trust the Army will make sure I eat those words here very shortly…