WTC: Nine Days and a Wake-Up I'm writing from the post library this Sunday. This library is wonderful, and the staff are friendly and helpful. I believe that I made out well today: to wash and dry a load of laundry at the public laundry facilities here costs $2.00. I offered someone in my platoon the cost of doing their laundry if he would also do my laundry, so I was able to not worry about laundry and enjoy the day. Laundry is one of the biggest concerns here in WTC, since the number of washers is terribly inadequate for the number of soldiers in the battery. People here will remove your wet clothes from a dryer so they may use it instead--the situation is cut-throat. A terrible ice storm moved up our WTC ship date by one day. After we got to WTC, it deprived us of power and some days later put us on water restriction. That was okay; we sat around in the dark, missed a few showers, and ate MREs. In the first three or so weeks of training, we took the diagnostic physical fitness test, completed CLS, qualified on the M16A2, and did the 3K and 5K ruck marches. No problem. The unavoidable inconveniences and the training program are not what make WTC a hellhole; people are. As the subject of this email indicates, I am actually counting the days before this course is over, and it's because of the people here. I have written about the quality of people in this course from what I observed of them in Reception. My experiences in WTC have only reinforced those first impressions. This training environment is no place to ask questions or to offer advice--the former marks you as a complete idiot while the latter marks you as a know-it-all. There is an overabundance of unassigned leaders and soldier paragons in WTC. Most of the talk in formation is among those who are trying to tell others what to do, or are complaining or gossiping about others. We have some class-acts who have unscrupulously and singlemindedly connived their ways into student leadership positions, and their leadership has only helped to make WTC the warm, friendly place that it is not. And the backstabbing. I will only say that I have been thrown under the bus more than once. I cannot wait to graduate.