Arrival in Quantico takes you through two checkpoints to get to the Academy, one through the Marine Corps initial checkpoint and the other about 5 miles into the base. As soon as I pulled into the Academy parking lot and got out of my car I was greeted with the sound of constant gunfire in the distance as the Academy is near one of the USMC ranges. Actually sounded kinda cool. The explosion about 5 pm was a little different. Evidently the USMC routinely detonates unexploded ordinance that was found buried on the running trails about two years ago. The explosions usually rattle the windows. No big deal to the people assigned here.
FBI agents in training helped bring suitcases and other things up to the NA students assigned rooms. There is a dorm under renovation so just about every available room at the NA is being assigned so no single rooms for NA students. I ended up on the 7th and top floor at the end of the hall. Good location away from the sound of the elevator but not so good and "taking the stairs" to the 7th floor won't be happening too many times. Rooms are seperated by a bathroom, so that means four men share a bathroom...luckily, our suitemate has the only room where a second person is not assigned, so that makes sharing the bathroom and showers easier to manage
My roommate is a police Lieutenant from Virginia. Nice guy, and best of all he doesn't snore. Thank god. The guy directly across the hall is from Green Bay (in charge of security deployment at Lambeau Field) and was on suicide watch after the Packers lost on Saturday night (that would be a joke) to the 49 ers. There are four guys from Wisconsin, two from around Madison, so it's hard to talk Cornhusker smack after the beatdown in the B1G championship game.
There are 269 people in the class, with 29 international police officers from as far away as Cambodia, The Philippines, South Korea, the Ukraine, Aruba, and the Republic of Texas. It's a pretty impressive group.
Every student has to take 5 courses plus the Fitness course. Today was the first day of classes as well as the initial PT assessment. The classroom courses seem like they'll be interesting and educational. I have a Forensics class that looks like it will be awesome The PT assesstment today included height/weight/blood pressure and other measurements.
We were timed in a one-mile run to set a fitness baseline. Since it was raining outside, obviously we ran outside. Running in 35 degree rain with shorts and a tee shirt isn't advisable. I figured Virginia
cold was't as bad as Nebraska cold...mistake. Preparing physically a year in advance does have its benefits for us more experienced (ie: old guys) coppers. I was pleased with my mile time as I matched the 32 year old guy from Wisconsin by running a sub-nine minute mile (8:39 for me, 6:35 for him...both under 9 minutes right??).
The cafeteria food is pretty good. There's a wide selection of choices available. It's only week one and the food choices could get repetitive and old, but complaining about the food would be nit-picky.
There won't be many pictures of NA activity posted on this blog The FBI has rules about what can and can't be photographed. There are active agent recruit classes in training as well as some people in our class who have secret-squirrel jobs that could be compromised with photos.
That's it for now.. Time to do laundry. Yes dear, I'll seperate the white clothes from the darks and use fabric softener!
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