Feb 1 to Feb 6

2/1/10 Monday
Today started out with a PT test. It was a 1-1-1 assessment. One minute pushups, sit-ups and one mile run I improved all across the board. Did 45 pushups, 32 sit-ups and the 1 mile run in 8:23. I am feeling pretty good about the PT tests. The cool thing about the PT tests is when the final one comes around I will be 32 which puts me into a new category so I don’t have to do as many reps or run as fast, lol =)

After the PT test we had chow and then had to gather our gear for our road march out to the land navigation field for an overnighter. The march pretty much sucked. My heels are killing me. The blisters are gone but it’s the sore spots as the skin heals that is killing me. So that part sucked. Anyways, the march was 3 miles. About half way through the first mile we encounter an incline and I don’t know why this time it was killer but it smoked me good. I was sweating pretty badly. My eye-pro (safety classes) started to fog and wouldn’t clear up at all. So the rest of the way I was rubbing my eye-pro with my fingers so I could see. Finally we arrive to our land now. We placed and set up our sweet one-man tests. I like these I may need to get one. Anyways after that half the company went on their land now course and the other half practiced rifle drills.

Lunch was MRE’s. Those are quite tasty. I got the beef stew.

On our land now we had five points we needed to find that we plotted yesterday and we had three hours to do it. It was pretty easy. We got the first spot wrong but we were able to get it right on our way back. We were in teams of four.

Once everyone returned we had dinner and then night land now. That was pretty cool. We were in squads for that because the DS’s didn’t want us to get lost. And we only did three points instead of the five.

Now here I am in my sleeping (bag), nice and toasty. I didn’t pull fireguard =) so I should be able to get a good night’s rest. I am waking up at 04:20 to pack my crap. March back pulls out at 05:30.


2/2/10 Tuesday 09:30
Right now we are back at the barracks getting out feet checked. A lot of people have blisters and whatnot. The thing I am doing is wearing two pairs of socks. DS Byles wants me to wear only one pair of sock and then check my feet after a week. Now that I am only wearing one pair, it does feel better.

Anyways, the march back wasn’t as bad, except my busted feet. We were up at 04:45, broke camp, got a Vicksburg snack (which was a granola bar), and came home. I was pretty toasty in my bad last night, which was nice. But, I am starting to dream about basic training. Like last night I dreamt that DS Logan was yelling at us to get in formation but it was 01:00. So I am furiously trying to find my flashlight to get ready, but then I realize how quiet it is so I realize it was a dream and went back to sleep. It happened like two or three more times last night. It also happened last week too. I spring out of bed and start undoing my lock, then realize it was a dream. Yeah, it sucks.


2/3/10 Wednesday
The remainder of yesterday consisted of BRM drills in our Bay and weapons maintenance. It was a nice way to end the day. We did some PT at night as well. The DS will be pretty coo at times. They will joke around with us every now and then. It makes it fun. We had a platoon sound-off after PT. We had a garbage bag full of mail that DS Byles said if we want it, we will win this. The phrase we had to say was, “Motivated, motivated, downright motivated! Oh! Ah! I wanna kill somebody! Ooh aah! I wanna kill somebody! Shoot ‘em in the head! Shoot ‘em in the head! OOO-AAAHH!” We say that anytime a DS asks us if we are motivated. It’s pretty cool. So we won. Whenever it comes to competing with other platoons, we usually win. But some reason our platoon still can’t quite get it together. We are a lot better, but still a few issues to work out.

I got six letters yesterday =) After the 2nd letter, we had to start doing pushups: 10 pushups a letter, so I had to do 40. A female in our platoon received 24 letters. Lucky her, LOL!

Today we are doing more training with our weapons. We just did a simulation where we go into a room, there are realistic M-16’s hooked up to computers and we shoot at a target that is projected 25 M. It’s pretty cool. The weapon recoils as if you were actually shooting it. Once done the computer shows where you shot, if you grouped, your trigger squeeze, what your weapon does before and after you pull the trigger. It is pretty high tech. I grouped first try. My weapon doesn’t hardly move before the shot and a little bit after. Defiantly neat to see how your mechanics are.

After that we had show and did some concurrent training. More or less we did drills to get into a prone shooting position and changing magazines quickly. Plus stuff to help our mechanics. It was a nice day to be outside. I actually got a little sun. The weather here is freaking annoying. One day its nice and sunny, but then the next two or three it’s cold and rainy.


2/5/10 Friday
Today is going to be a shooting day like yesterday. We will be at the range all day. Yesterday was more grouping. I was able to group pretty quickly. So for the rest of the time at the range it was a whole lot of sitting around. It didn’t help that it was cold outside. There are no buildings, just a warming tent with a coal burning stove. We could only stand inside for like 1 minute then out we go. Luckily it didn’t rain, just cold.

Today though is 100% chance of rain. Oh goody. Once we get to the range and the first shooters commence shooting, it starts to rain. We arrive at the range at like 07:00 so the cold morning plus rain really made it miserable. We are scheduled to be here till 15:00 =( The humidity doesn’t help. The cold cuts right through the clothes and to the bone I was moving onto zeroing but after my first six shots, the call was made to cancel shooting and head back to the company. Sweet! A lot of privates moved faster today than on their PT run.

Once back at the company we were told we are going to take our red phase test today. Since today is our last day in red phase, we need to pass to go to white. The test wasn’t bad. I knew a lot of the stuff. Some privits (yes Amy I spelled that right) did crappy. There was one acronym, “SAPR” that I got wrong. Mainly because DS James was calling us “SAPR’s” earlier in the week, which stood for “sorry ass privates,” so that’s what I put. Well, it actually stood for “sexual assault prevention and results.” Oops! Haha! I think I did really well on the test. Guess I will find out later.

After the test we were pretty much done for the evening. The DS’s were leaving for a military ball so we were done at like 17:00. Had to do some barracks maintenance. Then some free time. Actually we got to make a quick phone call. I got a hold of Amy =) That was nice. At the same time it makes me a little homesick. But that soon passes once I got off the phone and have to perform duties and come back to a room full of men.

Back at the barras I wrote a letter and organized my wall locker. Got some of my laundry back from the laundry service. Then I went to bed.

2/6/10 Saturday
Today was pretty un-eventful. We were gonna do combatives but it was pretty much like a Sunday. The main thing that took place today was the “passing of the phases.” Two platoons in our company officially advanced to white phase, the other two are stuck in red phase for another week. Our platoon and one other advanced. That is nice but a little bit of a surprise. We have gotten better at a lot of things, and compared to the other platoons we are further along, so that’s good. As a bonus we get to watch the first half of the Super bowl tomorrow =) DS James, our platoon Drill SGT is the guy in charge of the company tomorrow so I bet he lets us watch all of it. The reason they won’t let us watch it all is because it will be late when it is over and we need our sleep. Guess we will see.

We graded our red phase tests today as well. Only five people passé out of 45. I am one of them =) So I don’t have to retake it. Tomorrow all the failers have to retake, haha. Well, it isn’t that funny cause it’s my team, but still, some of these people are border retards. Anyways, I am helping some people study, so I will be back.

Well, the rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We formed up outside for a “Vicksburg snack” and some briefing about tomorrow. There was another company in the platoon area next to ours sounding off and it was hard to hear our DS so we had a little sound off competitions. It was pretty cool. It’s little things like that that make being here that much more enjoyable.

Well, I think this is it for the week. Tomorrow is Sunday, not a whole lot goes on, and so I probably won’t write.