Friday, March 19, 2010
UPDATE
Vinnie is home March 27th!!! He will be posting his journals from his last couple weeks then. Check back at the beginning of April! Ah! I love my little teeper!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Week 8
3/1/10 Monday
Here I am sitting at the desk in our bay waiting to find out what to do next. Wakeup was at 04:00, had to have our gear downstairs by 04:30. Today I know for sure that I am shooting again. They picked 11 soldiers from each platoon to represent the company cause we are competing with some other companies so they picked all the ones who shot expert. We are gonna zero again and then go to the qual range again. Should be pretty exciting.
Now that it is March, it is going to be very hard not counting down the days. At the same time, each day is a day closer to coming home.
***later***
Well I am sitting on my rucksack waiting for our ride to get here to the range. We re-zeroed our weapons earlier and I had to make some changes to my elevation. We shot slick which means no gear on. After zeroing we had MRE’s and then proceeded to the qualification range. The same one we originally qualified on.
We were the last company to go. As the other soldiers were coming back to the bleachers we would ask them their scores. Well, a lot of them weren’t too hot. So we thought we had this in the bag. A lot of the excuses they gave us is that the targets weren’t dropping, which is legit. If the targets are all shot up, they won’t register if it’s hit. But we were chalking it up o the fact that they suck.
Now it’s our turn to shoot and I get up, do everything as before, and sure enough, I start missing a few. Now I know I hit some of the ones that didn’t fall, and yes I am using the same excuse, but when every single soldier in the battalion shoots crappy, something isn’t right. It very well could be the fact that we re-zeroed, plus we were shooting slick while zeroing, but when we were shooting the qual targets, ,we were in full battle rattle, but across the board, the results were poopy. I shot a 31, still a sharpshooter, but not my expert. I still get my expert badge by the way.
After that was done we hopped on a LMTV (I believe that is what it is called) and came to camp. We had chow and then the 11 of us from our platoon set up our tents. We practiced some MOUT drills for a bit, mail was handed out, then bed time. The weather was a little chilly and we were told that tomorrow it is gonna rain all day and snow the next. Oh freaking goody. But then again, I have learned to take everything the DS’s say with a grain of salt.
I had fireguard at 21:00 tonight which in the field we walk back and forth along the tents policing. The other soldiers that was with me, whenever we got to our end of camp we would chuck pine cones at the tents in the next camp, 3rd platoon I think is who they were. Down here in SC the pine cones are freaking huge, so they would travel. I don’t think we hit any tents, but it helped to pass the time.
3/2/10 Tuesday
Well let me start out by saying that today was pretty miserable. Like when I think of basic training or the Army itself, today is what I picture. The day actually started out ok, wasn’t too cold, but as it progressed, freaking cold and rain. It seriously sucked. The only solace I have is knowing that all the other soldiers were going through it as well.
We were at the MOUT (Military Operation of Urban Terrain) site practicing the clearing of houses and also throwing grenades and for most of the time; water was falling from the sky. It would drizzle, stop, drizzle some more, then rain then stop, then it just continuously drizzled. The whole time we were outside. While waiting to go through a scenario on one house by squads, all the rest of the squads were behind the building spooning for warmth I am not even joking either. We weren’t lying down; we were standing and smashed up on everyone. We would rotate around so people who were on the outside could move to the middle. After awhile it got pointless so we would do some pushups or run around. It helped.
Our squad ended up not doing that particular scenario cause time was up and we needed to rotate to the practice grenade toss. That was a little fun, but was over quickly. We weren’t throwing any kind of live ‘nade, just dummy ‘nades.
The time came for us to move back to camp. We had quite a bit till the busses showed up, so DS Lead decided to PT us. We go running all around the complex, with our rucksacks. That sucked too, but at least we were warming up. Then he proceeded to make us do sprints, shuttle runs, lunges, and then high crawl all in our rucksack. It sucked. He wasn’t doing it to punish us, he was killing time and giving us a workout.
Once the busses arrived and we got back to camp, we changed clothes and cleaned weapons in our tent. It was nice to get back to camp and change clothes. After the PT earlier no one was cold anymore. But after we changed and were sitting around, we got cold again. Chow was a joke, all I was looking forward to was getting back to the tent in my sleeping bag. You would think being from the UT/ID area, the cold wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I mean, it rarely snows here all it does is get cold. Well for one the cold gear we are issued is crappy. It is good when it is chilly outside, but cold, and the wind blowing that just eats right through the clothes to the bone.
Anyways, we did go back to our tents and started packing whatever we didn’t need. It really turned into a go to bed early time. This whole time it is drizzling rain, so yes, the sleeping bag was a wonderful blessing. In the middle of the night I woke up needing to urinate really bad. Well, I know it was cold outside, my sleeping bag was warm, I could still hear rain drops on the tent, so I just unzipped the door, rolled over, and tinkled out the tent while still half way in my bag. Stupid weather.
3/3/10 Wednesday
Well holy crap is it good to be back in the bay and a nice hot shower. My feet are shredded from that road march. We marched about 6.7 miles and turns out my feet are not quite acclimated to the boots. The spots where I had blisters at the beginning of the cycle, ya, got ‘em there again. Only this time bigger. I also got one on my small right pinkie toe and on the ball of my right foot. Yes, it sucked. But I didn’t fall out. My legs were cramping, back sore, shoulders aching, but still continued on I was sweating like crazy. I think that rucksack weighted about 100 lbs.: sleeping bag, tent, couple days worth of clothes, PT shoes, wet weather gear, and some other miscellaneous items, yes it was very heavy. Going uphill sucked. But the feeling of the platoon as a whole was joyful we just completed another road march for graduation. Sure we were busted, sure some of us threw up (not me), yes it was tough and our clothes were drenched in sweat, but we made it. We lost a few along the way, but it was the usual people plus one or two more. Of the four platoons, the amount of people who fell out could make another platoon, which is about 35-40 people. Not sure what is going to happen to them, perhaps a counseling statement or they have to do the march again.
The day started out at the grenade qualification range. There were seven different stations we had to run through with a battle buddy and throw grenades to land in a certain radius. If seven out of the seven were achieved, then that person is an expert. The first station is thrown from a fox hole and the target is 35 meters away. A whole lot of people didn’t make it, but throwing a ‘nade that weights two pounds or so, from a foxhole, is a little tricky. I made it though, no problem. It was funny watching some soldiers throw them. They would throw them right in front of their position and it rolls like 3 meters or so and the fuze blows. Pretty funny. It that happens at the live range on Friday they are going to get screamed at.
The weather was actually pretty decent today. The sun would come out for a bit, then hide agai behind the clouds and so forth. It did snow a bit last night as well, but it wasn’t too cold. When we marched home it was nice weather. If it was any warmer it would have sucked cause as it was, I was soaked with sweat. The crappy thig about it being a little o the chily side is whenever we stopped, I would cool down real quick.
Anyways, we rolled into the company area around 19:00. Had to do a couple things before we were released for personal time. The first thing people did was rush the showers. When I finally got a shower it was the best feeling. The only crappy thing is I had fireguard shift tonight. It was the first shift though, so no big deal. Once my shift was over, I had no problem falling asleep.
3/4/10 Thursday
Today is Post Detail. Our company is assigned certain things to do around the base, like cleanup, recycle, and other stuff. The group I am with, we walked across the street to this building where they teach and train people how to give polygraphs. We are the test dummies; they practice on us. So we are sitting in this room, watching movies, waiting till our name is called. Pretty tough day. But it is a nice way to recover from a butt kicked day yesterday.
3/5/10 Friday
Three weeks left! Two weeks of training left, but the total time is tree weeks. We are preparing for the grenade toss today. This is one of three events left that I need to graduate. The other two are the final PT test and Victory Forge. I tell ya what, if the weather for Victory Forge is going to be anything like it was for this three day FTX, it’s gonna be a miserable four days.
It is hard to believe that the end is coming. It really does seem like yesterday I was getting off the plane and arriving at the 120th. Good riddance. I can only imagine what OCS will be like. I have heard lots of different things. Guess I will see when I get there. Ok, time for breakfast chow. One of the best times of the day.
***Later that day***
Well the grenades are tossed. A whole company received a briefing, did the practice toss, waked to the range and threw live ‘nades. All done by 12:00. We are scheduled to be here till 15:30. We just finished chow and now we are just sitting here.
The ‘nade toss was, um, all right. Kind of a letdown actually. We are lined up, get our two ‘nades, run out to the bunker, the cadre member takes the ‘nades and then hands them to us one at a time, we flip the clip, pull the pin, throw the ‘nade, duck, and boom. That’s it. It is a loud explosion though and it will mess you up. I didn’t get to watch it though cause, well, if you did, you would get shrapnel in your face. And that was it. Well I am done for now.
So we ended up hanging out for a couple hours; BS’ing with the DS’s…mostly DS Shortty was telling us stories in his colorful, spastastic manner it was pretty funny.
The busses arrived and back to the company we went. Once there we grounded most of our gear and did a little pugil training. Pugil training is there to reinforce our bayonet training, but since here at basic training we no longer do bayonet, we just pretended. We are told we will still do pugils, which is cool cause beating the crap out of people is always fun.
After chow we ran for PT. my chewed up feet definitely like the PT shoes a lot better. I hope they are healed Friday of next week. That is the day we step out for Victory Forge. It’s gonna be a long week if they are not. It still amazes me how many people walk during the runs. Every time I see someone walking, I think, “new start,” which means that person failed the PT test and they are more than likely going back to the beginning. You are actually given a 2nd chance if you fail the final PT test, they test you on family day and so the families come and watch/support the soldier who failed. If he passes, great! It not, well the family just wasted a lot of time and money cause that soldier is getting “new started.” Pretty poopy.
3/7/10 Sunday
Today is Sunday, probably the best day of the week. It is the day we do nothing but eat, write letters, take naps, and sit around talking about home, sports, things we miss, GF’s, fiancées, pretty much girls in general.
Anyways, yesterday was a very relaxing day. We had PT in the morning, but after that it was blue phase counseling for the rest of the day till 15:00. All blue phase counseling is, is people meeting with one of the DS’s and they tell us how we are doing. I met with our lead DS and he said that I am in the top 10%. That was freaking awesome to hear. He also harassed me a bit about going to the officer side instead of staying enlisted cause he thinks I would make a good NCO. We also talked a bit about OCS and what goes on there. He didn’t know much but said he would talk with the captain and try setting up some kind of meeting to talk with him about it. That will be cool. So yeah, top 10%, that is pretty rad.
The DS’s also let us use our phone for almost an hour. Talked to Amy and my mom. Mostly Amy and while I wastalking to my mother, DS Shortty made us turn them in.
I found some entries I forgot to mail home. They are from back in Feb 15-17th or so. Go back and read them.
Here I am sitting at the desk in our bay waiting to find out what to do next. Wakeup was at 04:00, had to have our gear downstairs by 04:30. Today I know for sure that I am shooting again. They picked 11 soldiers from each platoon to represent the company cause we are competing with some other companies so they picked all the ones who shot expert. We are gonna zero again and then go to the qual range again. Should be pretty exciting.
Now that it is March, it is going to be very hard not counting down the days. At the same time, each day is a day closer to coming home.
***later***
Well I am sitting on my rucksack waiting for our ride to get here to the range. We re-zeroed our weapons earlier and I had to make some changes to my elevation. We shot slick which means no gear on. After zeroing we had MRE’s and then proceeded to the qualification range. The same one we originally qualified on.
We were the last company to go. As the other soldiers were coming back to the bleachers we would ask them their scores. Well, a lot of them weren’t too hot. So we thought we had this in the bag. A lot of the excuses they gave us is that the targets weren’t dropping, which is legit. If the targets are all shot up, they won’t register if it’s hit. But we were chalking it up o the fact that they suck.
Now it’s our turn to shoot and I get up, do everything as before, and sure enough, I start missing a few. Now I know I hit some of the ones that didn’t fall, and yes I am using the same excuse, but when every single soldier in the battalion shoots crappy, something isn’t right. It very well could be the fact that we re-zeroed, plus we were shooting slick while zeroing, but when we were shooting the qual targets, ,we were in full battle rattle, but across the board, the results were poopy. I shot a 31, still a sharpshooter, but not my expert. I still get my expert badge by the way.
After that was done we hopped on a LMTV (I believe that is what it is called) and came to camp. We had chow and then the 11 of us from our platoon set up our tents. We practiced some MOUT drills for a bit, mail was handed out, then bed time. The weather was a little chilly and we were told that tomorrow it is gonna rain all day and snow the next. Oh freaking goody. But then again, I have learned to take everything the DS’s say with a grain of salt.
I had fireguard at 21:00 tonight which in the field we walk back and forth along the tents policing. The other soldiers that was with me, whenever we got to our end of camp we would chuck pine cones at the tents in the next camp, 3rd platoon I think is who they were. Down here in SC the pine cones are freaking huge, so they would travel. I don’t think we hit any tents, but it helped to pass the time.
3/2/10 Tuesday
Well let me start out by saying that today was pretty miserable. Like when I think of basic training or the Army itself, today is what I picture. The day actually started out ok, wasn’t too cold, but as it progressed, freaking cold and rain. It seriously sucked. The only solace I have is knowing that all the other soldiers were going through it as well.
We were at the MOUT (Military Operation of Urban Terrain) site practicing the clearing of houses and also throwing grenades and for most of the time; water was falling from the sky. It would drizzle, stop, drizzle some more, then rain then stop, then it just continuously drizzled. The whole time we were outside. While waiting to go through a scenario on one house by squads, all the rest of the squads were behind the building spooning for warmth I am not even joking either. We weren’t lying down; we were standing and smashed up on everyone. We would rotate around so people who were on the outside could move to the middle. After awhile it got pointless so we would do some pushups or run around. It helped.
Our squad ended up not doing that particular scenario cause time was up and we needed to rotate to the practice grenade toss. That was a little fun, but was over quickly. We weren’t throwing any kind of live ‘nade, just dummy ‘nades.
The time came for us to move back to camp. We had quite a bit till the busses showed up, so DS Lead decided to PT us. We go running all around the complex, with our rucksacks. That sucked too, but at least we were warming up. Then he proceeded to make us do sprints, shuttle runs, lunges, and then high crawl all in our rucksack. It sucked. He wasn’t doing it to punish us, he was killing time and giving us a workout.
Once the busses arrived and we got back to camp, we changed clothes and cleaned weapons in our tent. It was nice to get back to camp and change clothes. After the PT earlier no one was cold anymore. But after we changed and were sitting around, we got cold again. Chow was a joke, all I was looking forward to was getting back to the tent in my sleeping bag. You would think being from the UT/ID area, the cold wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I mean, it rarely snows here all it does is get cold. Well for one the cold gear we are issued is crappy. It is good when it is chilly outside, but cold, and the wind blowing that just eats right through the clothes to the bone.
Anyways, we did go back to our tents and started packing whatever we didn’t need. It really turned into a go to bed early time. This whole time it is drizzling rain, so yes, the sleeping bag was a wonderful blessing. In the middle of the night I woke up needing to urinate really bad. Well, I know it was cold outside, my sleeping bag was warm, I could still hear rain drops on the tent, so I just unzipped the door, rolled over, and tinkled out the tent while still half way in my bag. Stupid weather.
3/3/10 Wednesday
Well holy crap is it good to be back in the bay and a nice hot shower. My feet are shredded from that road march. We marched about 6.7 miles and turns out my feet are not quite acclimated to the boots. The spots where I had blisters at the beginning of the cycle, ya, got ‘em there again. Only this time bigger. I also got one on my small right pinkie toe and on the ball of my right foot. Yes, it sucked. But I didn’t fall out. My legs were cramping, back sore, shoulders aching, but still continued on I was sweating like crazy. I think that rucksack weighted about 100 lbs.: sleeping bag, tent, couple days worth of clothes, PT shoes, wet weather gear, and some other miscellaneous items, yes it was very heavy. Going uphill sucked. But the feeling of the platoon as a whole was joyful we just completed another road march for graduation. Sure we were busted, sure some of us threw up (not me), yes it was tough and our clothes were drenched in sweat, but we made it. We lost a few along the way, but it was the usual people plus one or two more. Of the four platoons, the amount of people who fell out could make another platoon, which is about 35-40 people. Not sure what is going to happen to them, perhaps a counseling statement or they have to do the march again.
The day started out at the grenade qualification range. There were seven different stations we had to run through with a battle buddy and throw grenades to land in a certain radius. If seven out of the seven were achieved, then that person is an expert. The first station is thrown from a fox hole and the target is 35 meters away. A whole lot of people didn’t make it, but throwing a ‘nade that weights two pounds or so, from a foxhole, is a little tricky. I made it though, no problem. It was funny watching some soldiers throw them. They would throw them right in front of their position and it rolls like 3 meters or so and the fuze blows. Pretty funny. It that happens at the live range on Friday they are going to get screamed at.
The weather was actually pretty decent today. The sun would come out for a bit, then hide agai behind the clouds and so forth. It did snow a bit last night as well, but it wasn’t too cold. When we marched home it was nice weather. If it was any warmer it would have sucked cause as it was, I was soaked with sweat. The crappy thig about it being a little o the chily side is whenever we stopped, I would cool down real quick.
Anyways, we rolled into the company area around 19:00. Had to do a couple things before we were released for personal time. The first thing people did was rush the showers. When I finally got a shower it was the best feeling. The only crappy thing is I had fireguard shift tonight. It was the first shift though, so no big deal. Once my shift was over, I had no problem falling asleep.
3/4/10 Thursday
Today is Post Detail. Our company is assigned certain things to do around the base, like cleanup, recycle, and other stuff. The group I am with, we walked across the street to this building where they teach and train people how to give polygraphs. We are the test dummies; they practice on us. So we are sitting in this room, watching movies, waiting till our name is called. Pretty tough day. But it is a nice way to recover from a butt kicked day yesterday.
3/5/10 Friday
Three weeks left! Two weeks of training left, but the total time is tree weeks. We are preparing for the grenade toss today. This is one of three events left that I need to graduate. The other two are the final PT test and Victory Forge. I tell ya what, if the weather for Victory Forge is going to be anything like it was for this three day FTX, it’s gonna be a miserable four days.
It is hard to believe that the end is coming. It really does seem like yesterday I was getting off the plane and arriving at the 120th. Good riddance. I can only imagine what OCS will be like. I have heard lots of different things. Guess I will see when I get there. Ok, time for breakfast chow. One of the best times of the day.
***Later that day***
Well the grenades are tossed. A whole company received a briefing, did the practice toss, waked to the range and threw live ‘nades. All done by 12:00. We are scheduled to be here till 15:30. We just finished chow and now we are just sitting here.
The ‘nade toss was, um, all right. Kind of a letdown actually. We are lined up, get our two ‘nades, run out to the bunker, the cadre member takes the ‘nades and then hands them to us one at a time, we flip the clip, pull the pin, throw the ‘nade, duck, and boom. That’s it. It is a loud explosion though and it will mess you up. I didn’t get to watch it though cause, well, if you did, you would get shrapnel in your face. And that was it. Well I am done for now.
So we ended up hanging out for a couple hours; BS’ing with the DS’s…mostly DS Shortty was telling us stories in his colorful, spastastic manner it was pretty funny.
The busses arrived and back to the company we went. Once there we grounded most of our gear and did a little pugil training. Pugil training is there to reinforce our bayonet training, but since here at basic training we no longer do bayonet, we just pretended. We are told we will still do pugils, which is cool cause beating the crap out of people is always fun.
After chow we ran for PT. my chewed up feet definitely like the PT shoes a lot better. I hope they are healed Friday of next week. That is the day we step out for Victory Forge. It’s gonna be a long week if they are not. It still amazes me how many people walk during the runs. Every time I see someone walking, I think, “new start,” which means that person failed the PT test and they are more than likely going back to the beginning. You are actually given a 2nd chance if you fail the final PT test, they test you on family day and so the families come and watch/support the soldier who failed. If he passes, great! It not, well the family just wasted a lot of time and money cause that soldier is getting “new started.” Pretty poopy.
3/7/10 Sunday
Today is Sunday, probably the best day of the week. It is the day we do nothing but eat, write letters, take naps, and sit around talking about home, sports, things we miss, GF’s, fiancées, pretty much girls in general.
Anyways, yesterday was a very relaxing day. We had PT in the morning, but after that it was blue phase counseling for the rest of the day till 15:00. All blue phase counseling is, is people meeting with one of the DS’s and they tell us how we are doing. I met with our lead DS and he said that I am in the top 10%. That was freaking awesome to hear. He also harassed me a bit about going to the officer side instead of staying enlisted cause he thinks I would make a good NCO. We also talked a bit about OCS and what goes on there. He didn’t know much but said he would talk with the captain and try setting up some kind of meeting to talk with him about it. That will be cool. So yeah, top 10%, that is pretty rad.
The DS’s also let us use our phone for almost an hour. Talked to Amy and my mom. Mostly Amy and while I wastalking to my mother, DS Shortty made us turn them in.
I found some entries I forgot to mail home. They are from back in Feb 15-17th or so. Go back and read them.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Feb 22 to Feb 27
2/22/10 Monday
This morning started out with a early wakeup at 04:00. Our first formation was at 05:30, then another one at 06:30 for chow. So once we were up, we had 1.5 hours till first formation, what the freak?! Usually we would wakeup at like 04:30, but this DS likes to mess with us so he does whatever he can to make things miserable, like take away our cell phones. Granted Basic hasn’t been miserable, but because this particular DS had his Basic during Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and he didn’t get any phone calls or wasn’t able to watch a movie or the Superbowl, he takes it out on us.
Anyways, this morning it was raining a bit, but it isn’t cold. That’s nice cause I can deal with the rain as long as it isn’t cold. After chow it really started to pour rain. Great! Foot marching in down pouring rain. Well, it stopped before we marched out. We didn’t march very far, lie two blocks. Once we grounded our gear it really started to rain again. Then some lightning streaked across the sky and the next thing we know the DS really started getting antsy and trying to get us under some cover. So now two platoons are sitting inside the EST rooms waiting it out. Oh yea, that’s what we are doing today, EST training again. But this is for close quarters, smaller than 25m. we will be working on controlled pairs. Should be fun, if we ever get to it. Silly rain.
Well it finally stopped raining and we commenced I playing video games. Not really video games, but simulations. This training was for standing up and nailing targets at 10m and then at 25m. after we were done with that, and after chow, we did night simulation fire with night vision goggles. Now that was pretty cool. When the weapon was switched to semi, we could see the laser that is produced from the imitation M-16’s. it was pretty cool. The targets were only visible through the NVG’s. Everyone else who was waiting to shoot sat in the dark and couldn’t see anything.
We got back to the company and changed into our PT’s cause we had PT after chow. Once chow was over, we cleaned weapons for a while till it was time for PT. well they ended up canceling it for some reason. So then we just sat there more and the DS handed out mail. Later most of the bay did PT on our own. Yup, a kinder, gentler Army.
2/23/10 Tuesday
Today was a day spent at the range practicing the ready-up drills, shooting behind barriers, and then patrolling. It was funny cause at the beginning of the briefing, one fo the DS’s said that we will never do this again unless we are a certain MOS, like Infantry. It was pretty fun. Most of the shooting was done in controlled pairs. When we were shooting from behind the barrier, we were able to unload as fast as we wanted. We also did the barrier with a buddy. That was pretty sweet too. I was on the left of the barrier so my spent brass was flying to my buddy on the right. Good thing none of them went down his collar.
After the range we rode the buses back to the company, had dinner, then cleaned our weapons. I tell ya, these M-16’s get dirty super quick. It is pretty annoying, but at the same time we are allotted quite a bit of time to clean them. DS female went over the rest of our training for the upcoming month. It is going to fly by very quickly. Tomorrow we get fitted for our Class A’s. So back to the 120th we go. The beginning of this adventure next week we toss hand grenades and have a three-day field exercise.
2/24/10 Wednesday
Well here I sit in some bleachers again. We are at the range doing combat shooting behind a barrier switching from standing, kneeling, and prone, earlier this morning DS Shorty had us remove our M68’s and turn them in. I figured cause we were done using them, but after our first round of shooting, I think it was cause he know that they aren’t perfectly zeroed like our iron sights. I say that cause they (other DS’s) just got done calling people up to re-shoot and ¾’s of our platoon is sitting here while ¾’s of the other platoons are out shooting. We were shooting at targets like on qualification day, 50m, 75m, 100m, 200m, 250m and 300m. They pop up and go down after like 15 seconds. So yup, we are gonna thank DS Shorty for making us take those optics off.
Well our record of consecutive nice days came to an end today. I think we had four days. It isn’t too cold today, but it is cloudy and sprinkling. We will be here for another two hours or so.
Another soldier just told me I look like I have lost a lot of weight =) Tomorrow when we go back to the 120th for our class A’s, I hope I can trade in two trousers for some smaller ones. Mine fit really baggy now.
2/25/10 Thursday
This morning started out very interesting. We were in formation turning in laundry when a couple ambulances showed up with some police and a little fire truck guy. Oh, this was the company next to us by the way. Well after we turned our stuff in we were sent up to our bay and told to stay there till told to do otherwise. The DS’s that were there were in a frenzied state. After a bit Ds female came up screaming telling us to open out wall locker and all out personal drawers. We had to dump everything. It became apparent that she was looking for bullets. It is believed that a soldier had an incident with his weapon or something along that line. She ended up just taking our blank rounds that were issued to us earlier.
We had motor movement back to the 120th and 06:30. Arriving back at the 120th is like re-living a nightmare. At least this time it is to receive our class A’s instead of processing. It’s funny to see the other soldiers who are noobs though. Carrying around a big ziplock bag with their records in it. Some of them wearing their boots with PT’s. Definitely not fond memories. I can remember the few days I was here quite well. I remember seeing other soldiers getting fitted for their class A’s, then someone telling us they are in week six and then thinking, “this sucks. I am never gonna see week six. It is so far away.” Now here I am breaking the hearts of other soldiers.
Right now I am sitting in a room full of guys who are changing in and out of their uniforms for inspection by the DS’s. All they are doing is making sure our stuff fits properly. It is mass chaos though. Soldiers are wheeling in trousers and dress jackets from alterations to hand out soldiers are changing, soldiers going in and out of a room to be inspected, clothes everywhere. It’s crazy. I am surprised more soldiers don’t loose their stuff. I think all this stuff costs around, well I don’t know really, but a guess, maybe $500 or more. Who knows though.
Earlier while waiting in line for trousers some soldiers from 3rd platoon starting talking crap about how much better their platoon is and how much cooler their DS’s are. Seriously guys, we beat everyone at Fit to Win, you came in last for BRM, and this last PT test you sucked too. Oh, but wait, they sang cadenance better. OK butt breath, whatever you gotta tell yourself. It was kind of funny, freaking young punks.
So I don’t know what we are gonna do for the rest of the day. Well, for the next three hours. We aren’t scheduled to leave till 18:00, it is 15:00 right now
2/26/10 Friday
Well it is 0:05 and I am pulling my rotation of fireguard. This sucks sometimes. Well, all the time. I am sure if it was a different shift it wouldn’t be so bad. I should be happy it is only an hour instead of two.
So about that incident I mentioned earlier with a soldier in the company next to us. I was right. He committed suicide. Once we got back from the 120th, our Captain and 1st SGT had a briefing to inform us of the incident. They didn’t go into details, just that he/she took a live round and shot themselves. That’s pretty crazy! Something bad had to have happen for someone to do that. Something back home, cause honestly, basic isn’t that hard. It really isn’t. Anyways, we are on blackout till the family is contacted. Blackout means it won’t be made public knowledge and NO soldiers are allowed any phone calls. Pretty crazy stuff. I can only imagine what is going through that company of soldier’s heads right now…or the bay he/she lived with.
Our company received three soldiers yesterday from the medical company. I guess these three jacked themselves up, had to camp it out at med quarters till they were healed and then booted to a different company to finish training. There are two females and one male. Sounds like they were stuck at med quarters since Nov of last year! Now that is poopy pants. The two females looked like they were in shell shock. Granted if someone new like that comes to the company the DS’s are gonna harass them a bit, but holy crap, ease up! The male soldier is 39! He got his butt kicked by the economy which is why he is here. That’s crazy too, 39 years old. Good for him though.
That reminds me; we got two other soldiers earlier this week as well. These two were recycled back cause they missed a significant training event, like Omaha, which is around the 8th week. Now how can you go eight week and then miss a training event like that? It blows my mind what happens to these soldiers. Nine times out of ten they bring it on themselves.
Well that’s about it for now. I am gonna do some sweeping. TEEPER.
2/27/10 Saturday
Well here it is Saturday, we are all busy getting our gear together for our 3-day FTX (Field Training Exercise). I have no idea what we are doing, all I know is that my rucksack is freaking heavy right now. It is definitely going to suck on the march. Like a lot.
Yesterday we did U.S. weapons training. We shot the M2 .50 caliber machine gun, the M240B and then M249 Saw. We also shot dummy rounds out of the AT-4 and the M203 grenade launcher. We watched live demos of a claymore blowing up, on AT-4, and the M-203. All three were freaking sweet. The claymore is not like what it is in Modern Warfare. If you are on the receiving end of a claymore, you will be effed up. There is no jumping over it, or shooting it from like 10m away, you will perish.
The AT-4 was freaking sweet as well. That sucker has some “umph” in it. You know it can penetrate 14” of steel. You do not want to be behind that sucker when someone launches that. You will loose your face.
The M203 grenade launcher was cool. Pretty much just like on Modern Warfare. It makes that little “thump” sound and then it blows up and makes a very bad day for someone.
Shooting the three different weapons was fun, but we didn’t shoot a whole lot. 50 rounds in the M240B and M249, 25 rounds in the M2 .50 caliber. That thing will chew up so much stuff. It is a pretty heavy weapon, 110 pounds with the tripod mount, 150 pounds. It’s max range is over four miles too! Yeah, it’s a pretty sweet weapon.
So, yes U.S. weapons was pretty fun. I wish it was a little warmer that day. It was deceiving earlier in the day cause we went running and it was chilly but you could tell it was gonna get warmer. Then the sun came out, but once we got to the range, there was a slight breeze that cooled everything down, very lame. But it’s over now.
This morning started out with a early wakeup at 04:00. Our first formation was at 05:30, then another one at 06:30 for chow. So once we were up, we had 1.5 hours till first formation, what the freak?! Usually we would wakeup at like 04:30, but this DS likes to mess with us so he does whatever he can to make things miserable, like take away our cell phones. Granted Basic hasn’t been miserable, but because this particular DS had his Basic during Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and he didn’t get any phone calls or wasn’t able to watch a movie or the Superbowl, he takes it out on us.
Anyways, this morning it was raining a bit, but it isn’t cold. That’s nice cause I can deal with the rain as long as it isn’t cold. After chow it really started to pour rain. Great! Foot marching in down pouring rain. Well, it stopped before we marched out. We didn’t march very far, lie two blocks. Once we grounded our gear it really started to rain again. Then some lightning streaked across the sky and the next thing we know the DS really started getting antsy and trying to get us under some cover. So now two platoons are sitting inside the EST rooms waiting it out. Oh yea, that’s what we are doing today, EST training again. But this is for close quarters, smaller than 25m. we will be working on controlled pairs. Should be fun, if we ever get to it. Silly rain.
Well it finally stopped raining and we commenced I playing video games. Not really video games, but simulations. This training was for standing up and nailing targets at 10m and then at 25m. after we were done with that, and after chow, we did night simulation fire with night vision goggles. Now that was pretty cool. When the weapon was switched to semi, we could see the laser that is produced from the imitation M-16’s. it was pretty cool. The targets were only visible through the NVG’s. Everyone else who was waiting to shoot sat in the dark and couldn’t see anything.
We got back to the company and changed into our PT’s cause we had PT after chow. Once chow was over, we cleaned weapons for a while till it was time for PT. well they ended up canceling it for some reason. So then we just sat there more and the DS handed out mail. Later most of the bay did PT on our own. Yup, a kinder, gentler Army.
2/23/10 Tuesday
Today was a day spent at the range practicing the ready-up drills, shooting behind barriers, and then patrolling. It was funny cause at the beginning of the briefing, one fo the DS’s said that we will never do this again unless we are a certain MOS, like Infantry. It was pretty fun. Most of the shooting was done in controlled pairs. When we were shooting from behind the barrier, we were able to unload as fast as we wanted. We also did the barrier with a buddy. That was pretty sweet too. I was on the left of the barrier so my spent brass was flying to my buddy on the right. Good thing none of them went down his collar.
After the range we rode the buses back to the company, had dinner, then cleaned our weapons. I tell ya, these M-16’s get dirty super quick. It is pretty annoying, but at the same time we are allotted quite a bit of time to clean them. DS female went over the rest of our training for the upcoming month. It is going to fly by very quickly. Tomorrow we get fitted for our Class A’s. So back to the 120th we go. The beginning of this adventure next week we toss hand grenades and have a three-day field exercise.
2/24/10 Wednesday
Well here I sit in some bleachers again. We are at the range doing combat shooting behind a barrier switching from standing, kneeling, and prone, earlier this morning DS Shorty had us remove our M68’s and turn them in. I figured cause we were done using them, but after our first round of shooting, I think it was cause he know that they aren’t perfectly zeroed like our iron sights. I say that cause they (other DS’s) just got done calling people up to re-shoot and ¾’s of our platoon is sitting here while ¾’s of the other platoons are out shooting. We were shooting at targets like on qualification day, 50m, 75m, 100m, 200m, 250m and 300m. They pop up and go down after like 15 seconds. So yup, we are gonna thank DS Shorty for making us take those optics off.
Well our record of consecutive nice days came to an end today. I think we had four days. It isn’t too cold today, but it is cloudy and sprinkling. We will be here for another two hours or so.
Another soldier just told me I look like I have lost a lot of weight =) Tomorrow when we go back to the 120th for our class A’s, I hope I can trade in two trousers for some smaller ones. Mine fit really baggy now.
2/25/10 Thursday
This morning started out very interesting. We were in formation turning in laundry when a couple ambulances showed up with some police and a little fire truck guy. Oh, this was the company next to us by the way. Well after we turned our stuff in we were sent up to our bay and told to stay there till told to do otherwise. The DS’s that were there were in a frenzied state. After a bit Ds female came up screaming telling us to open out wall locker and all out personal drawers. We had to dump everything. It became apparent that she was looking for bullets. It is believed that a soldier had an incident with his weapon or something along that line. She ended up just taking our blank rounds that were issued to us earlier.
We had motor movement back to the 120th and 06:30. Arriving back at the 120th is like re-living a nightmare. At least this time it is to receive our class A’s instead of processing. It’s funny to see the other soldiers who are noobs though. Carrying around a big ziplock bag with their records in it. Some of them wearing their boots with PT’s. Definitely not fond memories. I can remember the few days I was here quite well. I remember seeing other soldiers getting fitted for their class A’s, then someone telling us they are in week six and then thinking, “this sucks. I am never gonna see week six. It is so far away.” Now here I am breaking the hearts of other soldiers.
Right now I am sitting in a room full of guys who are changing in and out of their uniforms for inspection by the DS’s. All they are doing is making sure our stuff fits properly. It is mass chaos though. Soldiers are wheeling in trousers and dress jackets from alterations to hand out soldiers are changing, soldiers going in and out of a room to be inspected, clothes everywhere. It’s crazy. I am surprised more soldiers don’t loose their stuff. I think all this stuff costs around, well I don’t know really, but a guess, maybe $500 or more. Who knows though.
Earlier while waiting in line for trousers some soldiers from 3rd platoon starting talking crap about how much better their platoon is and how much cooler their DS’s are. Seriously guys, we beat everyone at Fit to Win, you came in last for BRM, and this last PT test you sucked too. Oh, but wait, they sang cadenance better. OK butt breath, whatever you gotta tell yourself. It was kind of funny, freaking young punks.
So I don’t know what we are gonna do for the rest of the day. Well, for the next three hours. We aren’t scheduled to leave till 18:00, it is 15:00 right now
2/26/10 Friday
Well it is 0:05 and I am pulling my rotation of fireguard. This sucks sometimes. Well, all the time. I am sure if it was a different shift it wouldn’t be so bad. I should be happy it is only an hour instead of two.
So about that incident I mentioned earlier with a soldier in the company next to us. I was right. He committed suicide. Once we got back from the 120th, our Captain and 1st SGT had a briefing to inform us of the incident. They didn’t go into details, just that he/she took a live round and shot themselves. That’s pretty crazy! Something bad had to have happen for someone to do that. Something back home, cause honestly, basic isn’t that hard. It really isn’t. Anyways, we are on blackout till the family is contacted. Blackout means it won’t be made public knowledge and NO soldiers are allowed any phone calls. Pretty crazy stuff. I can only imagine what is going through that company of soldier’s heads right now…or the bay he/she lived with.
Our company received three soldiers yesterday from the medical company. I guess these three jacked themselves up, had to camp it out at med quarters till they were healed and then booted to a different company to finish training. There are two females and one male. Sounds like they were stuck at med quarters since Nov of last year! Now that is poopy pants. The two females looked like they were in shell shock. Granted if someone new like that comes to the company the DS’s are gonna harass them a bit, but holy crap, ease up! The male soldier is 39! He got his butt kicked by the economy which is why he is here. That’s crazy too, 39 years old. Good for him though.
That reminds me; we got two other soldiers earlier this week as well. These two were recycled back cause they missed a significant training event, like Omaha, which is around the 8th week. Now how can you go eight week and then miss a training event like that? It blows my mind what happens to these soldiers. Nine times out of ten they bring it on themselves.
Well that’s about it for now. I am gonna do some sweeping. TEEPER.
2/27/10 Saturday
Well here it is Saturday, we are all busy getting our gear together for our 3-day FTX (Field Training Exercise). I have no idea what we are doing, all I know is that my rucksack is freaking heavy right now. It is definitely going to suck on the march. Like a lot.
Yesterday we did U.S. weapons training. We shot the M2 .50 caliber machine gun, the M240B and then M249 Saw. We also shot dummy rounds out of the AT-4 and the M203 grenade launcher. We watched live demos of a claymore blowing up, on AT-4, and the M-203. All three were freaking sweet. The claymore is not like what it is in Modern Warfare. If you are on the receiving end of a claymore, you will be effed up. There is no jumping over it, or shooting it from like 10m away, you will perish.
The AT-4 was freaking sweet as well. That sucker has some “umph” in it. You know it can penetrate 14” of steel. You do not want to be behind that sucker when someone launches that. You will loose your face.
The M203 grenade launcher was cool. Pretty much just like on Modern Warfare. It makes that little “thump” sound and then it blows up and makes a very bad day for someone.
Shooting the three different weapons was fun, but we didn’t shoot a whole lot. 50 rounds in the M240B and M249, 25 rounds in the M2 .50 caliber. That thing will chew up so much stuff. It is a pretty heavy weapon, 110 pounds with the tripod mount, 150 pounds. It’s max range is over four miles too! Yeah, it’s a pretty sweet weapon.
So, yes U.S. weapons was pretty fun. I wish it was a little warmer that day. It was deceiving earlier in the day cause we went running and it was chilly but you could tell it was gonna get warmer. Then the sun came out, but once we got to the range, there was a slight breeze that cooled everything down, very lame. But it’s over now.
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