Shelby Sucks

Camp Shelby was a shithole. Mississippi, in general, sucks pretty hard. First of all, we flew into Laurel-Hattiesburg on a prop plane. I mean, really? A prop plane? There are only two types of destinations that mandate a prop plane: either a tropical paradise with a dark, twisted secret that awaits unsuspecting, 20-somethings on holiday, or an island with wild dinosaurs. Anyhoo, getting back to Camp Shelby and the National Guard. Ate. The. Fuck. Up. All senses of military pride and discipline/standard go right out the window. There was a 40-50 year old SSG smoking a cigarette in formation for Christ's sake. Don't even get me started on the slack-jawed, rock chewing, inbred mouth breathers running around there. I once said that Paradise (a really shitty strip joint in San Antonio) was the place where strippers went to die. Camp Shelby is probably where guardsmen go to die. They had a decent gym, but everything else sucked. I am so glad that I am leaving there. I guess that we were supposed to report to Camp Atterbury, but there was an issue with HRC and orders. Whatever, two days in MS was enough. Oh, one more thing. There was only one cab per cab company running in Hattiesburg. It took us about 2-3 hours to get from the hotel to Camp Shelby. I lied: one more thing. There was this one cab driver working the airport area when we flew in Saturday night. I think his name was Tony or whatever. He's some guy from Ghana who rips people off with exorbitant cab fees. I knew that we were in for some trouble when he pulled up at the airport. He was disheveled, unkempt, and his eyes were coked out. Barely commanded a grasp of the English language also. Long story short, he barreled down the highway at 70 miles an hour, swerving all over the road. He also didn't run the meter. He totally ripped us off, but we didn't really contest the charge. I personally didn't want some crack fiend with a cab in a strange town upset with me. I'm starting to ramble now. I've been up since 0200 and been sitting at the airport since around 0430. The cadre at Shelby had us wake up super early so that they could give us our order amendments and shuttle us to the airport at Gulfport. I think I'm going to sign off now and find some coffee. The flight to Memphis isn't until 1120 and we have to catch a layover flight to Indianapolis afterward.