Instructions for Training--in Uniform

I went to the Corps area Wednesday so that I could log in. I took note of the things that I had to bring, reminders on how to behave, and a new batch of anthologies to remember. I think I sat on the logbook for 10 minutes or so... It was shorter than the number of minutes I waited to be able to sit because of the length of the queue waiting to be able to read the instructions.

There were about five of us waiting. Noting that there were really a lot of things one COC would have to copy, some of us who learned who the others are just copied from the others. There are others, however, who played safe--they did not let us copy. I thought then that they were selfish sons-of-rebellious-women (hehehe), but I learned now that they were just playing safe and following orders.

(I didn't try to copy, though, because I myself was afraid then.)

While waiting, of course, everyone of us has to "stick to the wall." I don't know why that was the case... I thought then it may be due to avoid crowding the narrow hallway of SSWC. (Another idea that came to my mind was that it was a way to clean the walls--with our sleeves.)

While waiting, even though there were no cadet officers in the area (or at least, there was no one obvious who was there), I was afraid to look other than the nape of the person in front of me. We all also stood in attention, even though we had the idea that no one was watching us.

(Later, my batchmates and I learned that even though there was no cadet officer watching us, the security guard--who was a close friend of the cadet officers--was watching us, but he did not report on us to the cadet officers.)

One of my classmates also told me during one of our past training days that the SSWC used to be a building that was condemned but re-used. I learned later that it was just either a joke or unverified report from a reliable person. SSWC was a building from the Environmental Management Bureau that was then used for the Department of Physical Education.

(The building, during the time of this event, however, was already condemned for use.)

After about 30 minutes of waiting, I got to the seat. I walked in full attention, then faced about, and sat properly (without the "Sir, Thank you, Sir!" of course). Then, I sat down. As per instructions, I used only four inches of the closer edge of the seat, sat up straight, knees together, and the non-writing arm on top of my knees.

After the usual bull$h1t essay encouraging us (which, unfortunately, I never got to read other than the first entry), I went to the things I need to copy.

The first part is the essay... It served to encourage us, tell us that we were doing the right thing, but we needed to improve, that we were this now and we would be that by the end of the training... things like that.

The second part of the entry is the detailed training instructions. It included the date (in military format) and time of the training and location.

It included the type of uniform to use. It told us that we were to use the Full Tropical Fatigue Uniform (TFU), otherwise known as Type-A TFU. We didn't have it by then, but the instructions told me later that it would be available by Friday so we have to return on Friday to get it.

We were instructed to bring the usual things: red pen, black pen, thickler notebook, regular notebook and properly folded white handkerchief (These were part of our uniform, it seems.).

After this part, there were a lot of new things--mainly because we would have to use the uniform now.

The instructions included drawing of the TFU, with the expected place of folds in red ink. The person who wrote the instructions did a good job with this.

The upper garment has four pockets (Please don't ask me what type of pockets they are.) in front. The drawing has the sleeves spread out to show where the UP and Army Reserve Command patches are expected to be. It also shows the namecloth on the left side of the upper garment (During this time, the name is placed on the left side of the body, just above the level of the heart.). The Army cloth is on the right.

Interestingly, above these two clothes are vertical lines--red lines in particular, indicating they are folds or marine press. They also go down below the upper pocket (which, for reference, let us call "breast pocket"), going to the lower pocket, and then bypassing the lower pocket itself, down to the lower edge of the upper garment.

It would seem like a challenge to do this.

The next illustration shows the back of the upper garment, with three vertical folds--one in the center, and two on each side, about the vertical line of the lungs.

The illustration of the lower garment showed vertical folds.

The instructions also indicated that we have to charolle our boots and shine the buckle inside out.

And lastly, there was again a new batch of anthologies to remember.

Friday--get the uniform.