The Army is very big on accountability. They like to know where you are and what you're doing at all times. This is the primary function of formations, so we can count all of the soldiers and put out important information. There might be some other purpose, but if so, I haven't really noticed it in the last two years.
On Friday morning, I took advantage of an opportunity to tag along with two friends (one of them being my sole remaining classmate) to go to a Real Actual Coffee Shop in town to get good coffee. I have not had good coffee--or even Starbuck's--in several months. This is an unforeseen consequence of not having a car. They assured me that if we left at 0600, we would have time to drive there, get coffee and bagels (or whatever) and be back in plenty of time for the 0645 accountability formation.
[There was no PT at 0415 because we were doing the obstacle course that afternoon. Yes, this is important to the story.]
I will cut this part short a bit. Executive summary: The coffee was very very good, but tragically, I had to drink it way too fast and burned my tongue. We were also just arriving to the formation as they were preparing to march to class, having missed accountability and (it seems) one minor bit of information they put out about the O-course. Since I do not make a habit of being late to formation, and haven't done anything else terribly stupid lately, I did not expect much in the way of consequences. I was mostly correct in this.
As we're marching to class, my classmate and I note the presence of blood drive trucks (well, modified RVs). "Hmmm," we think, sharing a significant look. The Army is very big on encouraging blood donation, since we tend to use so very much of it. Additionally, it has been beaten into my head that as I am type O-, it is my sworn patriotic duty to give blood whenever opportunity arises. The key fact here, though, is that traditionally, people who give blood are exempted from PT activities for the remainder...