Being in-processed to death

So yesterday and today I... did more in-processing. It's a little insane.

Yesterday we had our Class A (green service uniform) uniform inspections, to make sure we're all squared away for our DA (Department of the Army) pictures next week. So we show up, get our TB skin tests placed (no, that doesn't have anything to do with uniforms, but it happened), and sat around with rulers and uniform guides making sure things were straight and properly aligned to the buttons and seams. Then, we all stood in company formation (that was entertaining, getting 65 or so interns into a company formation) at attention while a first sergeant and three lesser-ranked sergeants walked up and down the ranks with their own rulers and making adjustments. It was all sorts of fun. Then we changed back into our ACU's (Army Combat Uniform; camouflage) and went back to the auditorium to be in-processed some more.

Today it was more of the same (only without the uniform inspection). There's an all-morning mandatory training for everyone in-processing into Walter Reed, regardless of rank or position, so that's where we were. They were pulling us out four at a time to meet with personnel about making sure we had all the proper documentation to calculate time in rank (pretty easy for me; captain with zero years in rank. Other people, those who had service before med school, were quite a bit more complicated). Then a few of us snuck out (after going over the Army's regulations on HIV in great detail while at Madigan, I didn't need the dumbed-down lecture about) and got our new CACs (Common Access Card; combination Army ID and key to computer systems). I like the picture on my old one better, but I'd rather have the rank of my new one :)

I actually got to take off early today (around 12:30), because the class was scheduled for BLS (Basic Life Support? I have no idea; we just call it BLS. It's pretty much just CPR). Anyway, I'm current on that, so I didn't have to stay (yay). No such luck tomorrow, though; it's ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support), which expired two months ago. I'm glad for the refresher though; I'll probably have to use it quite a bit in the ICU when I start there in July.