03/07/10 Sunday
Once again, I am pulling fireguard. Of all the things about basic training I won’t miss, fireguard duty is in the pack at the top. Waking up for an hour really does suck. But I am almost done, just a couple more weeks.
Today was a “do nothing” day. The couple of days of doing nothing has gotten some soldiers in pissy moods. The kid who doesn’t shower (who is getting chaptered out of the Army by the way) was getting all pissed cause another soldier was singing a song about him. This other soldier is a big black guy and Chuckie (that’s what we call the kid who won’t shower) started walking up to him in an aggressive manner and cussing. We had to calm him down before he did something he would regret. Another soldier was taking a nap on the top bunk; his feet were taped to the bunk post. He was laughing about it. Another soldier was making dookie in the bathroom when two other soldiers threw some wet toilet paper at him. Well he wasn’t too happy about that and confronted who he thought did it and threw some of his clothes on the ground. Well the soldier he confronted had nothing to do with it and he himself became mad, so a fight almost broke out there. It was actually pretty comical to watch it unfold. Once things calmed down, the soldier who had TP thrown at him was still pissing and moaning about it. If it were me, I would wait till the guys who did it were dooking and I would dump a bucket of water on them, but that’s just me. Another soldier was showering and his clothes were taken away. He laughed about it, so a joke that turned out in a good manner. Yeah, we pretty much need to get out of this bay.
This week is going to be a busy brutal week. Tomorrow we have the Night Infiltration Course (NIC). We call it “NIC at night”. We high crawl a good distance while live machine guns are shooting overhead. Simulated explosions will be going off and flares shot in the sky. It should be pretty sweet. We will be in the field all day and should be make for a very long day cause we have to wait till it gets dark to do this training event.
I gotta say this cause it is very annoying. Some of you may find it strange hearing this from me, but it really does cause a lot of disruptions: Soldiers constantly farting in formation. It causes instant mayhem around the immediate surrounding area. Soldiers will be leaving formation to get away from the gaseous air. Why soldiers won’t hold it in is beyond me. And it isn’t just male soldiers either, it is females as well.
Sweet just woke up the next fireguard shift. That means I will soon be back in my bunk. I think wakeup is at 04:30, which is sleeping in for us. I guess they figure give us an extra half hour of sleep since we will be getting in late tomorrow night. Mostly I am thinking, one more day down. Good night all…
03/08/10 Monday
Well it is a nice day today, finally. The sun is out, it is warm, no need to wear extra clothing. Too bad the mood in the platoon isn’t the same. We are out in the field practicing buddy fire drills. After about four buddies, Lead DS stopped the training and had a little talk with us. He is annoyed about the people complaing about our leadership. So he fired everyone: PG, APG, and squad leaders. The replacements are people who don’t necessarily display the right qualities for leaders. They like to hang out behind the scenes. Anyways, his response was, “lets see how you like the leadership now”. So not only is it a slap in the face to us as a platoon, but also a slap in the face to the people he promoted. He also said it will stay like this through Victory Forge. That will suck some serious butt if that happens. A lot of us are thinking that the new leadership wont stay and we will be back to normal cause Lead DS is trying to make a point of how bad it can be and how good we had it. That is the consensus right now amongst the soldiers.
After my battle buddy and I did are our practice run, we were in the woodline relaxing cause it was very tiring. Well he fell asleep as did several other soldiers, me included. I woke up cause well I wasn’t very comfy and wanted to study for a potential first aid test coming up. While I sitting there, Lead DS walked up and busted my battle buddy sleeping. The punishment, the whole squad had to high crawl through this sand pit. Yes that sucked very much. Then we had to smooth out the tracks we made with a pull grater with someone sitting on it. That is no easy task either. Finally a day of sweating like crazy due to being smoked.
During lunch we were eating MRE’s and the new APG (who is the toothless female and walked on crutches for five weeks while the rest of us had to take accountability for her gear and weapon) wanted to take off the vest and body armor during chow. Well the minute that decision was made, Lead DS made sure that we all grounded our gear the same way. It was ridiculous how long that took. Once the few soldiers got their crap right, he gave us like two minutes to finish up our chow. Freaking retarded. You know, up to this point we have never taken off our gear while in the field to eat. Then the new APG, who fell out of the first ruck march cause her back hurt, makes the decision to remove our gear cause her back hurt which screwed all of us. Already this isn’t off to a good start with our new leaders. I was able to get most of mine down, but when we were told to stop, some soldiers tried to wolf down a bite or two more, that got us smoked pretty good too.
03/09/10 Tuesday
Well yesterday finally ended. We performed NIC at night. It wasn’t all that cool actually. For one we were sitting around waiting for a couple of hours till it got dark. Once it was dark we had to wait for the other three platoons before it was our turn. Once our turn came up, we walked down into this trench and waited for the work to begin. Once word came, we had to crawl out of the trench and commence in high crawl through the sand. It was pretty cool hearing the 249 SAW blasting overhead. The simulated mortar blasts were a trip as well. The flares lighting up the sky was something to behold as well, but still, it felt like a big letdown. I think I was expecting more of a live combat situation. Granted they cant do too much due to safety issues, but, well I don’t know. You would have to be there to know what I am talking about. The barb wire we had to crawl under was kind of trippy by the way. It was hard to see and as we were crawling under it, it slowly shrunk down so there wasn’t a whole lot of room to crawl. It was pretty easy to get caught in it if you didn’t crawl right. At the end of the crawl we performed some bounding techniques simulating overtaking a bunker. That was about it for NIC at night.
We got back to the company area about 21:45 and Lead DS promptly fired all the new leadership and reinstated all the old leadership. So yes, it was definitely a statement on his part about how sucky it could be. Everyone was pretty happy to get it back to the way it was, except for the few who were complaining. As much as I have complained about the PG on this blog, she really has come a long ways and has improved a lot. I do support her, even though I don’t agree with some things she does. Such is the life in the Army.
03/10/10 Wednesday
Yesterday we performed Omaha, which is more buddy fire drills. A team bounds forward behind cover and fires at pop-up targets. It was pretty cool when we actually got to do it. We had to do a blank fire run and then we did a live fire run. The thing that sucks is all the sitting around waiting to go. It was another warm so when my turn did come, sweat was rolling off me quite profusely. But it was still a good learning experience.
That was pretty much it for yesterday. We cleaned weapons, got mail, ate field chow again, showered and went to bed. Today is going to be a relaxing day. We have our final PT test tomorrow. So we aren’t gonna do a whole lot. Plus we will be preparing for Victory Forge. We have a First Aid test later on, supposedly. I say that cause they keep telling us we are going to be tested on it, but have to be tested. We have battalion pictures, a trip to the PX, and most importantly eating at the DFAC, finally!! The last two days has been nothing but field chow and MRE’s.
I think the first thing I am going to do when I get hour of here is hit up a sushi joint. There isn’t a whole lot of variation in the food here, especially in the field. It is starting to get old, but at the same time, chow is one of my favorite times in the day.
I definitely won’t miss fireguard shift, screw fireguard shift!!
It is gonna be hard avoiding energy drinks when I get out. Before I came in, I averaged one a day. When I first got here I didn’t really crave them, unless I saw a DS drinking one. Once I graduate, guess we will see if I can avoid them (as I type this, I did not succeed in this task. I have partaken in energy drinks again, oops).
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Next set of journal
2/2/10 Sat
So it has been a few days since I last wrote, but we have been pretty busy. As I said, I didn’t get my Hawkeye goal, but I did shoot expert, which I am very pleased about.
Later that night after we got back to the company and 1st SGT tallied up the scored from each platoon, we formed up downstairs to find out who was the best shooting platoon the prize is a pizza party on Sunday, movies and our cell phone (smile face). A lot of people in our platoon didn’t think we would win cause it didn’t seem like we had that may experts or sharpshooters. As the 1st SGT was reading the results, he announced a two way tie for 2nd place, which was 2nd and 4th platoon and the 1st place platoon is 1st platoon, which is my platoon. Freaking right on! I was really surprised we won I there was 6% difference between 1st place and 4th place, so it was really close, but we won it. Granted we can do something to tick the DS’s off and they will take it away, but right now so far so good.
Let’s see what else has happened. Oh, when we came back from BRM, bunks were tossed everywhere. If someone’s bunk looked like crap, it was tossed. Mine wasn’t (smile). Once soldiers fixed it and we left our bay for some other training, a DS went through and checked again. A couple of the same soldiers were tossed again. It really isn’t that hard to make a bed, and make it look good. Oh, the one soldier who doesn’t shower…a DS female saw inside his locker last night and tore him a new one. I guess he has pies of dirty laundry in there. He even started using another locker to store stuff. His laundry bag was stuffed, almost busting the seams after he put his infected clothes in there. This morning when we came back from our PT test, his locker was tipped over, bunk tossed, crap everywhere. It was rather humorous. I don’t think this kid is gonna last. I say that cause he threatened another soldier who has been trying to help him. That soldier is obligated to report it. Other soldiers heard it too. So yeah, that should get him kicked out.
While at the range we were required to keep our bolt locked back. If someone was caught with it forward, instant Article 15. Well I think total I all there were a dozen or so who were busted. I think they only received a counseling statement though, with like three days of extra duty. That kind of sucks.
Yesterday we went to the confidence course. It is, for the most part, a chance to have some fun while also using team building. It is a big course too but we only did five of the obstacles. We ended up only doing three of them before a different company showed up. It kind of sucked, I didn’t get to do the zip line. I did do the one where you climb maybe two stories, then have to slide down this robe, head first, upside down. It was pretty cool. It wears the hands and forearms out real quick.i don’t think we will be going back either, poopy.
I am finally getting over this freaking cold. I was able to get a good night’s rest last night without waking up to cough or cause my throat is so dry cause my nose is all stuffy. I still have a little bit of a cough, but nothing to worry about. We went to the PX today and I bought some cough drops. Hopefully a couple more days and I will be better. Then I can eat the cough drops like candy.
So I learned a nice lesson last night. I kind of already knew it, but in the moment it just slipped my mind. We were in company formation about to get our usual brief for the PT test. Another soldier and I had to go dig through this plastic crate to find something. Well, DS Shortty had his “smokey the bear” had sitting on top of the box and I grabbed it to get in the crate. Well, I wasn’t going to set it on the ground, so I held on to it. Well it didn’t take long till one DS saw it in my hand and old DS Shortty. Well he spun right around, got this look in his eye like I just touched the Holy Grail, called me out to the front where he was at giving the briefing and made me get in the front leaning rest position. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the start of the pushup position. So he asks why I was “contaminating” his hat. I told him I thought it was better than setting it on the ground. Well he asked me that like five more times, each time walking a bit closer to me to where he was right in front of me and then squats down and moves his hat right in front of my face. There he proceeds to recite some stuff as an apology to his hat that I have to repeat. It was stuff he was making up, but still pretty funny. After my “apology” I have to “knock out 25.” So after 25 pushups and staying in the front leaning rest position for a bit, I am allowed to continue on. So yeah, that was in front of the company. Lesson learned . Never touch a DS’s hat, EVER!
Today besides the PT test, which was the first 2-2-2 test, we haven’t done a whole lot. Got haircuts, PX, was issues the M68 “CCO” (close combat optic), which is a red dot sight, and now in a class learning about these and the NVG’s 14. We mounted out M68’s on our M16’s and I think later we get our NVG’s (night vision goggles), which attach to our ACH. Some fun stuff.
Yesterday our bay was issued the M249 SAW, M240B, and the .50 caliber machine gun. We get to shoot all those this coming Friday (smile). The 240B is a beast, but the .50 cal is a freaking monster. Should be fun.
I guess on Thursday we head back to 120th, which is where I spent my first few days at reception, to get our class A uniforms. That means we are getting closer to graduation (smile). Plus I should get my “Expert” badge for shooting on expert (smile).
2/21/10 Sunday
Right now I am at church. What a nice break from the platoon it is. Just before I left, we were given our cell phones for the day (smile). Plus we wrote down our pizza orders. The TV was wheeled out ready for movies. I don’t have my cell phone here with me. I didn’t think that would be smart and my suspicion was confirmed when I asked Female DS what I should do about it and she said to leave it in the bay. No worries, I locked it up and it will be sitting there when I get back. I did talk to Amy for a few minutes though, very nice.
Last night while we were zeroing out M68’s in the bay, DS Lead came in and wanted to have a talk with us about PT scores. Sounded like we screwed those up. He didn’t look happy and we were ready for a nice butt chewing. He read the stats for each platoon and when he read ours, turns out we were the best platoon in PT as well! That’s freaking awesome. DS Lead told us that he didn’t think we could do it, but we pulled it out so by now his serious tone took on a humorous tone. He is always doing that to us. Being all serious and makes it seem like we are in trouble or we suck at something, but then it turns out he is pulling our chains. Pretty funny.
I took some pictures with my cell phone for the few minutes I had it before leaving. I will send them to Amy and maybe get them posted. (Amy writing…never got them, bummer)
Well I got to talk to a few people before DS came in and took them away from us. He is getting back at us cause we kicked his platoon’s butt at BRM. He is the only DS here so he is in charge. He doesn’t want us letting the whole company use our cell phones. Yeah, ok butt hole, we are stuck in our bay, can’t go anywhere. Besides, we were all busy on our cell phones, you really think we are gonna let someone else use our cell phone? Freaking ree-ree. Oh well, I did talk to some people, so I am happy. Well, that’s it for this week.
So it has been a few days since I last wrote, but we have been pretty busy. As I said, I didn’t get my Hawkeye goal, but I did shoot expert, which I am very pleased about.
Later that night after we got back to the company and 1st SGT tallied up the scored from each platoon, we formed up downstairs to find out who was the best shooting platoon the prize is a pizza party on Sunday, movies and our cell phone (smile face). A lot of people in our platoon didn’t think we would win cause it didn’t seem like we had that may experts or sharpshooters. As the 1st SGT was reading the results, he announced a two way tie for 2nd place, which was 2nd and 4th platoon and the 1st place platoon is 1st platoon, which is my platoon. Freaking right on! I was really surprised we won I there was 6% difference between 1st place and 4th place, so it was really close, but we won it. Granted we can do something to tick the DS’s off and they will take it away, but right now so far so good.
Let’s see what else has happened. Oh, when we came back from BRM, bunks were tossed everywhere. If someone’s bunk looked like crap, it was tossed. Mine wasn’t (smile). Once soldiers fixed it and we left our bay for some other training, a DS went through and checked again. A couple of the same soldiers were tossed again. It really isn’t that hard to make a bed, and make it look good. Oh, the one soldier who doesn’t shower…a DS female saw inside his locker last night and tore him a new one. I guess he has pies of dirty laundry in there. He even started using another locker to store stuff. His laundry bag was stuffed, almost busting the seams after he put his infected clothes in there. This morning when we came back from our PT test, his locker was tipped over, bunk tossed, crap everywhere. It was rather humorous. I don’t think this kid is gonna last. I say that cause he threatened another soldier who has been trying to help him. That soldier is obligated to report it. Other soldiers heard it too. So yeah, that should get him kicked out.
While at the range we were required to keep our bolt locked back. If someone was caught with it forward, instant Article 15. Well I think total I all there were a dozen or so who were busted. I think they only received a counseling statement though, with like three days of extra duty. That kind of sucks.
Yesterday we went to the confidence course. It is, for the most part, a chance to have some fun while also using team building. It is a big course too but we only did five of the obstacles. We ended up only doing three of them before a different company showed up. It kind of sucked, I didn’t get to do the zip line. I did do the one where you climb maybe two stories, then have to slide down this robe, head first, upside down. It was pretty cool. It wears the hands and forearms out real quick.i don’t think we will be going back either, poopy.
I am finally getting over this freaking cold. I was able to get a good night’s rest last night without waking up to cough or cause my throat is so dry cause my nose is all stuffy. I still have a little bit of a cough, but nothing to worry about. We went to the PX today and I bought some cough drops. Hopefully a couple more days and I will be better. Then I can eat the cough drops like candy.
So I learned a nice lesson last night. I kind of already knew it, but in the moment it just slipped my mind. We were in company formation about to get our usual brief for the PT test. Another soldier and I had to go dig through this plastic crate to find something. Well, DS Shortty had his “smokey the bear” had sitting on top of the box and I grabbed it to get in the crate. Well, I wasn’t going to set it on the ground, so I held on to it. Well it didn’t take long till one DS saw it in my hand and old DS Shortty. Well he spun right around, got this look in his eye like I just touched the Holy Grail, called me out to the front where he was at giving the briefing and made me get in the front leaning rest position. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the start of the pushup position. So he asks why I was “contaminating” his hat. I told him I thought it was better than setting it on the ground. Well he asked me that like five more times, each time walking a bit closer to me to where he was right in front of me and then squats down and moves his hat right in front of my face. There he proceeds to recite some stuff as an apology to his hat that I have to repeat. It was stuff he was making up, but still pretty funny. After my “apology” I have to “knock out 25.” So after 25 pushups and staying in the front leaning rest position for a bit, I am allowed to continue on. So yeah, that was in front of the company. Lesson learned . Never touch a DS’s hat, EVER!
Today besides the PT test, which was the first 2-2-2 test, we haven’t done a whole lot. Got haircuts, PX, was issues the M68 “CCO” (close combat optic), which is a red dot sight, and now in a class learning about these and the NVG’s 14. We mounted out M68’s on our M16’s and I think later we get our NVG’s (night vision goggles), which attach to our ACH. Some fun stuff.
Yesterday our bay was issued the M249 SAW, M240B, and the .50 caliber machine gun. We get to shoot all those this coming Friday (smile). The 240B is a beast, but the .50 cal is a freaking monster. Should be fun.
I guess on Thursday we head back to 120th, which is where I spent my first few days at reception, to get our class A uniforms. That means we are getting closer to graduation (smile). Plus I should get my “Expert” badge for shooting on expert (smile).
2/21/10 Sunday
Right now I am at church. What a nice break from the platoon it is. Just before I left, we were given our cell phones for the day (smile). Plus we wrote down our pizza orders. The TV was wheeled out ready for movies. I don’t have my cell phone here with me. I didn’t think that would be smart and my suspicion was confirmed when I asked Female DS what I should do about it and she said to leave it in the bay. No worries, I locked it up and it will be sitting there when I get back. I did talk to Amy for a few minutes though, very nice.
Last night while we were zeroing out M68’s in the bay, DS Lead came in and wanted to have a talk with us about PT scores. Sounded like we screwed those up. He didn’t look happy and we were ready for a nice butt chewing. He read the stats for each platoon and when he read ours, turns out we were the best platoon in PT as well! That’s freaking awesome. DS Lead told us that he didn’t think we could do it, but we pulled it out so by now his serious tone took on a humorous tone. He is always doing that to us. Being all serious and makes it seem like we are in trouble or we suck at something, but then it turns out he is pulling our chains. Pretty funny.
I took some pictures with my cell phone for the few minutes I had it before leaving. I will send them to Amy and maybe get them posted. (Amy writing…never got them, bummer)
Well I got to talk to a few people before DS came in and took them away from us. He is getting back at us cause we kicked his platoon’s butt at BRM. He is the only DS here so he is in charge. He doesn’t want us letting the whole company use our cell phones. Yeah, ok butt hole, we are stuck in our bay, can’t go anywhere. Besides, we were all busy on our cell phones, you really think we are gonna let someone else use our cell phone? Freaking ree-ree. Oh well, I did talk to some people, so I am happy. Well, that’s it for this week.
Monday, February 22, 2010
2/9/10 to 2/17/10
2/9/10 Tuesday
Right now I am standing in formation. It is 05:45 and a little chilly. We are preparing for the range again today. They have this setup where you shoot at a target that is 300m away and wherever you hit, it shows up on a computer monitor that is sitting next to you. So that will be cool.
Yesterday t the range was zero day. Everyone had to zero their weapons. I was having a hard time zeroing. My first time up I came close but didn’t meet the standard of 5 out of 6 consecutive shots. The second time I was struggling again. But then I realized my front sight post was bent a little it. So every time I adjusted my elevation, it screwed up my windage (?). once I let a DS know and she fixed it, my final six shots were spot on. That made me feel much better. So I really don’t suck.
Now we are at the range. It looks like it might rain too. Freaking weather! I am starting to feel sick now. There are a lot of soldiers who have coughs and colds and stuffy noses. I am surprised I made it this far without getting sick. They make us stand out in the cold so much and then they wonder why so many people do to sick call. Oh well, hopefully I don’t get much worse. The only way to get any kind of meds is at sick call. And that will take away from training so ya, I don’t want to go to sick call.
Yesterday I was made squad leader for the 3rd squad. That’s cool, but I would still rather get a new PG. she still sucks. One of the two scratchers I wrote about earlier finally left. Well, she went back to where we were for reception. There she will sit for like one to two weeks. And that freaking sucks. Freaking detail work all day. But I guess she gets to go home sooner than me. But I would rather stay where I am at.
We got like four or five soldiers in our company yesterday. Two of them were in their last week of basic but decided to go to the PX for some reason, got caught, and they shipped them to us. So now they have six more weeks. Freaking suckie! That would be so crappy. But, that’s what you get for breaking the rules. Some of the others were recycled because they can’t shoot. Most of those are females. They take this stuff pretty seriously. I was working with one female as a coach trying to help her zero and she wasn’t doing so hot. I actually was helping several females but they weren’t doing so hot. One came close. There is a male in my squad who I was able to help him zero.
So we were at the range for 10 hours today. Most of that time sitting around doing nothing. I did help with some range detail. I was operating the weapons check in/out point and did some coaching. I got to shoot again and zeroed just fine again.
I was freezing my butt off all day today cause I am getting sick. This sucks cause tomorrow we are out here all day too. Hopefully I can get a good night’s sleep tonight and I will feel better tomorrow. I have the body chills right now and being in the cold doesn’t help. Wednesday we don’t have much planned so maybe I will go to sick call then.
So on Sunday there was a group of soldiers who went to church in the classroom that we would sit in for our classes. Well there are some computers in there and two of our soldiers decided to use them. They weren’t on for very long, but long enough to get in trouble. Yeah, they got an Article 15. Freaking ree-ree’s I don’t know why they would think it was ok to get on the computer. But then again these two soldiers will probably get recycled anyways.
2/10/10 Wednesday
Wow, it’s the 10th already. Just yesterday it was the start of February it seems like. That’s good, time is flying by.
We are at the range again today “LOMAH” is what it is called. Location of Misses and Hits. Today we are wearing our gear while shooting. IBA (which is body armor), FLC vest, and ACH helmet. This should be interesting. We will be shooting at 75m, 175m, and 300m targets in three positions; prone supported, prone unsupported, and kneeling. There are sites above 10 soldiers who need to zero, sucks to be them. They are behind and if they don’t zero chances are they won’t qualify. Which means: recycled to different battalion.
Today is sunny but chilly. There is some wind but it’s not too bad. I am feeling a little bit better today. I’m happy the sun is out, wish it were a little bit warmer, but oh well.
The second female who “scratches” herself is gone. And you know what? It’s amazing how much quieter our formation is. Sure people still talk but it is much quieter. It sure is gonna suck for those two whenever they try and get a job or anything really cause whenever their records get pulled, it will show as them having “mental illness.”
Each night we are given soldiers time but ¾ of that is eaten up by standing in final formation to get a snack. Then depending on who the night shift DS is they will do other things like sing some cadence then after that we have to go to our bay and “toe the line” so they can get a body and weapons count. It’s retarded how much time is wasted. It makes writing letters more difficult cause there is no time to write, except on Sundays.
I just got done shooting. I hit 37 out of 40 (smile face). That’s the highest so far in our platoon. Granted it doesn’t really mean anything except I have bragging rights. I guess when it comes to qualifying next week, we will be shooting with all this gear on. Now that sucks. These ACH’s have these straps that run down the side of the cheek and it makes for a very difficult time trying to rest the cheek on the butt-stock. So most of the time I was supporting my head. I guess if I can shoot 37 out of 40 that way I will be ok.
Just got done shooting another 40 rounds and I hit 37 out of 40 again. On the print out though the DS wrote down 27, so I think he messed up. Either way right now I am shooting expert (smile). I bet it changes come qualifying though cause the targets pop up for “x” amount of time which means you can’t take your time. That isn’t till next week though. This round of shooting one soldier in our platoon shot a 38. But he is expected to do well cause he has done ROTC and other stuff with some weapons training.
This round of shooting resulted I more people hitting in the 30’s. That’s good cause DS James says 1st Platoon always does the best in BRM. I don’t know how well the other tree platoons did, but again this was just practice. Tomorrow we get to go back to the simulation. That will be cool to perform in again.
After we arrived at the company we had chow and did PT. the PT here at Basic really is pretty weak. Aside from the running the muscle protection is a big letdown. There aren’t a whole lot of smokings either. DS Byles will tell individuals to “knock out 25” whenever he wants, and it’s actually pretty funny with the way he says it. So yes, it is a must to do pushups and sit-ups on our own.
Got two letters tonight. One from Amy and the other from her parents. That was surprise, but very welcomed. The downside is, it sets me back one more person to write. But this is what Sunday is for. In the letter, Amy’s dad gives me crap and calls Basic “scout camp.” Well, can’t really argue with that. He is also a former Marine (Amy writing: I TRIED to convince Vinnie he needed to go Marine…he wouldn’t go for it) so there is that Marine/Army bashing. I can’t really think of a comeback either which sucks, cause that usually doesn’t happen.
Another thing I wanted to mention; I have said it before that our PG sucks, well doing PT tonight we got to performing pull-ups and she wouldn’t go. She told everyone else to go in front of her. That’s a great leader right there. It finally took DS Byles and a lot of soldiers around her yelling at her to do them. Such garbage. Everyone can’t believe that she is still our PG. she won’t march us, tries to slack on PT, only knows one or two commands, and other things. She just plain sucks. No initiative whatsoever. I hope she fails at BRM qualification so she can go to a different company.
Been hearing some c hatter about a couple females “fraternizing” if you know what I mean. I was wondering why the DS’s gave us a little female speech awhile ago. Pretty funny.
2/11/10 Thursday
Right now I am sitting outside working at the mouse traps. This is simulation the pop-up targets when we qualify. We can only go two at a time so it’s gonna take awhile.
We just got smoked pretty good this morning every Thursday is bed linen turn in but people don’t seem to remember that. We were smoked as a company cause people were taking their time, freaking lame.
2/13/10 Saturday
I am sitting in sick call cause I feel like crap: sore throat, coughing, body chills, fever, ect. I think I finally caught what everyone else had. If anything, I picked a good time to get sick. It snowed yesterday, yes you heard me, snow. Which cut our training short. Today we were supposed to go to Victory Tower, that’s not gonna happen. Then it’s Sunday., which nothing goes on that day. Come Monday it is a holiday; President’s Day, I believe. Which means no DS’s around. I think it is going to be a movie day. So I have three days to get feeling better. I feel a little bit better from last night. I was burning up, but after some good sleep I feel better about the fever. I paid someone $20 to take my fireguard shift so I could sleep. Now here I am waiting to get checked out.
Yesterday we went to the range to practice single and multiple targets. Three targets, one at 75m, another at 175m and the last at 300m. They would randomly pop up and we would cap them. Pretty sweet. Out of 44 shots I hit 42. 22 shots are from prone supported, 11 from prone un-supported, and 11 kneeling the two I missed were from kneeling.
We were back at the company by 13:00 cause that is roughly when the weather was gonna get bad. We cleaned weapons for most of the day. So this one soldier who doesn’t like to shower was chewed out by our lead DS in front of everyone. I guess he hasn’t showered for awhile again. He wasn’t too happy, but what do you expect? He made another soldier go in there with him to make sure he cleans all his hot spots, haha.
So those two soldiers who got on the computer last Sunday, well they definitely got an Article 15. One of the soldiers is the one who doesn’t shower. The other soldier is the one who dropped out of a foot march at the beginning and has a messed up mouth. Her front teeth are all chewed up. Anyways, she has been going to sick call for like the last two weeks cause her knee hurts. Well she is getting booted from the military, but before that happens she has to fulfill her Article 15 punishments. Oh yah, she got another Article 15 cause she has basically been faking her knee injury. When she is in her bay she will walk around normally, without her crutched, but once it is time to come downstairs or a DS enters the bay, bam! She is limping and using the crutches. What a tool. Anyways, so now she has two Article 15’s, which results in lost pay and 28 days of extra duty. Extra duty means she keeps working till 23:59 every night and still gets up with the rest of the company. Sucks to be her and that other soldier.
So far today we are sitting in class going over Troop Leading Procedures. I have a feeling this is all we are gonna do all day. I am ok with that cause I wouldn’t want to feel like crap doing training.
This morning after sick call we marched to chow and while waiting for the chow hall to open up I got really light headed and started to feel all woozy. Guess I was pretty pale too. So yeah, almost passed out. I think all I needed was some food. A couple soldiers helped walk me to the CQ office and then to sick call, again. The doc guy said the same thing: probably just needed some food.
2/15/10 Monday
So when people ask me what I did in Basic, I am going to say: shot weapons, pagils, road marched, gas chamber, and um, had a snow day and spent a day watching movies, like we are today. It’s President’s Day and there are only three DS’s here in the whole company. What a way to spend a day at Basic. We are watching Zombieland right now. Next might be We Were Soldiers or Saving Private Ryan. Relaxin’ Jackson indeed.
When we were first issued our M16’s we were told to always have them on us and if we were not able to take it with us, like sick call or church, then to leave it with a battle buddy and then it is their responsibility. Well when I go to church I handed my weapon off to a soldier next to my bunk (Tears of the Sun is the next movie) Well, all the other soldiers who went to church just locked their weapons in their wall locker. When I came back from church SD Shorty was going on a rampage cause he found out about that. Well, he asked me where my weapon was and if I locked it in my wall locker. I told him I left it with my battle buddy. Dude locked my weapon in his wall locker. So he got in trouble instead of me. LOL. Hey, I did my part. I did the right thing. All those soldiers received counseling statements. Nothing too serious, but it is a mark on their records.
Well, no we are watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Just kidding, We Were Soldiers. I’s like little kids in here trying to pick out a movie. Freaking “I don’t like to shower” soldier was all upset that he got vetoed.
2/16/10 Tuesday
Today is day one of three at the qualification range. We get two days to practice and then the final day is where we make our money. 40 targets (30 prone and 10 kneeling). There are seven targets at various distances that will pop up. Multiple ones will pop us as well. This range is a lot different from the others we have shot on, in the fact that there are more targets, and it’s not open. Each lane has trees lining it casting shadows which make it pretty difficult to see the farther out ones. I was in the first group to shoot. I shot a 34 out of 40, which is sharpshooter, but not expert. I rushed a couple shots and it didn’t help that there was a little breeze which froze my hands while shooting. Either way, I will be able to get expert. I do think I can attain the prestigious “Hawkeye” which is 40 out of 40. Today was a familiarization to the course.
Our platoon is on detail this whole week so we have to provide personnel for the range and serving chow. When I was done shooting I was told to go relieve some of the guys in the warming tent. So for most of the morning I sat in the warming tent. That term is kind of an over-statement. It really isn’t that warm. There is a coal burning stove in this big canvas tent. It doesn’t stay heated very well, but it is better than standing in the cold. Since I am still sick, it was appreciated.
My cold has slowly moved to sinus congestion and headaches. I still cough but not as harsh. It just sucks cause I don’t want to do anything. I want to do what I would do at home: sleep and take meds. But here, I get lack of sleep and some meds. So the cold will last longer, freaking sucks. Perhaps someone could send some cough drops??? (Amy speaking….he’s all better now and was able to buy his own at the PX)
After the range we did a run for 20 mins. That sucked cause, again, I don’t feel good. I was hoping the run would help me feel better, but I didn’t.
2/17/10 Wednesday
Wakeup at 04:00, crap downstairs, I feel like a vice is latched onto my head, and ready to repeat the same thing again today. Hopefully today we will shoot twice. Yesterday they ran out of ammo cause people are still trying to zero their weapon! That really sucks cause they haven’t practiced on any of the other stuff, which makes their chances of success drop severely. Hopefully they can get it. It would suck a whole lot to get sent to another company which is a couple weeks back from us to do BRM all over again. But if you can’t shoot, you can’t shoot. One of the females we acquired a couple weeks ago I don’t think is gonna make it. Poor lady. But she is hitting like 12 out of 40 in qualifying. Ouch!
Just got done with breakfast. When we go to the range, we don’t eat in the DFAC (lunchroom), instead detail gets breakfast for the company from the DFCA and an assembly line is setup. The food is usually ok. Never fills me up and it’s the same thing over and over.
2/18/10 Thursday
Up at 04:00 again, downstairs information by 04:30. Today is linen turn-in. We get new sheets later when we come back from the field.
Yesterday at the range I shot a 32 and 36, so I achieved my expert status with the 36. I am the only on in our platoon yesterday to get expert. Most of the platoon was complaining that it was the range for their poor shooting. Overall our platoon shot lower scores. Really? Blame it on the range? The targets came up the same; it was warmer, so fingers didn’t freeze. I don’t know. I think it is an excuse. I am even shooting sick. Today is the final day to qualify. Up to this point has been practice. So what is shot today is what counts, according to our lead DS. But just about every other DS says it’s the highest of the three days. Sometimes our lead DS will tell us stuff to get us motivated. This is probably on the those times. I am going for Hawkeye today.
11:30
Well, I didn’t shoot Hawkeye, but I did shoot expert. I am still pleased with that. Both times today I shot 36. The second time shooting, my 300m target was seriously covered by shadows. It was very hard to see. Not that I am making excuses, but it was hard to see. Someone in 2nd Platoon shot 40 out of 40, the punk. A good number in our platoon have shot expert. Not sure if our platoon will have the highest BRM. Have to wait till everyone shoots and scores tallied. We still have a handful of soldiers who haven’t qualified. They are close, but close won’t prevent you from getting booted or sent back a couple weeks.
So not that most of us have shot twice, I think we are done; well the ones that have qualified at least are done. We are scheduled to be here till 17:30 What the freak! That’s a long time to sit her on our cans doing nothing.
Right now I am standing in formation. It is 05:45 and a little chilly. We are preparing for the range again today. They have this setup where you shoot at a target that is 300m away and wherever you hit, it shows up on a computer monitor that is sitting next to you. So that will be cool.
Yesterday t the range was zero day. Everyone had to zero their weapons. I was having a hard time zeroing. My first time up I came close but didn’t meet the standard of 5 out of 6 consecutive shots. The second time I was struggling again. But then I realized my front sight post was bent a little it. So every time I adjusted my elevation, it screwed up my windage (?). once I let a DS know and she fixed it, my final six shots were spot on. That made me feel much better. So I really don’t suck.
Now we are at the range. It looks like it might rain too. Freaking weather! I am starting to feel sick now. There are a lot of soldiers who have coughs and colds and stuffy noses. I am surprised I made it this far without getting sick. They make us stand out in the cold so much and then they wonder why so many people do to sick call. Oh well, hopefully I don’t get much worse. The only way to get any kind of meds is at sick call. And that will take away from training so ya, I don’t want to go to sick call.
Yesterday I was made squad leader for the 3rd squad. That’s cool, but I would still rather get a new PG. she still sucks. One of the two scratchers I wrote about earlier finally left. Well, she went back to where we were for reception. There she will sit for like one to two weeks. And that freaking sucks. Freaking detail work all day. But I guess she gets to go home sooner than me. But I would rather stay where I am at.
We got like four or five soldiers in our company yesterday. Two of them were in their last week of basic but decided to go to the PX for some reason, got caught, and they shipped them to us. So now they have six more weeks. Freaking suckie! That would be so crappy. But, that’s what you get for breaking the rules. Some of the others were recycled because they can’t shoot. Most of those are females. They take this stuff pretty seriously. I was working with one female as a coach trying to help her zero and she wasn’t doing so hot. I actually was helping several females but they weren’t doing so hot. One came close. There is a male in my squad who I was able to help him zero.
So we were at the range for 10 hours today. Most of that time sitting around doing nothing. I did help with some range detail. I was operating the weapons check in/out point and did some coaching. I got to shoot again and zeroed just fine again.
I was freezing my butt off all day today cause I am getting sick. This sucks cause tomorrow we are out here all day too. Hopefully I can get a good night’s sleep tonight and I will feel better tomorrow. I have the body chills right now and being in the cold doesn’t help. Wednesday we don’t have much planned so maybe I will go to sick call then.
So on Sunday there was a group of soldiers who went to church in the classroom that we would sit in for our classes. Well there are some computers in there and two of our soldiers decided to use them. They weren’t on for very long, but long enough to get in trouble. Yeah, they got an Article 15. Freaking ree-ree’s I don’t know why they would think it was ok to get on the computer. But then again these two soldiers will probably get recycled anyways.
2/10/10 Wednesday
Wow, it’s the 10th already. Just yesterday it was the start of February it seems like. That’s good, time is flying by.
We are at the range again today “LOMAH” is what it is called. Location of Misses and Hits. Today we are wearing our gear while shooting. IBA (which is body armor), FLC vest, and ACH helmet. This should be interesting. We will be shooting at 75m, 175m, and 300m targets in three positions; prone supported, prone unsupported, and kneeling. There are sites above 10 soldiers who need to zero, sucks to be them. They are behind and if they don’t zero chances are they won’t qualify. Which means: recycled to different battalion.
Today is sunny but chilly. There is some wind but it’s not too bad. I am feeling a little bit better today. I’m happy the sun is out, wish it were a little bit warmer, but oh well.
The second female who “scratches” herself is gone. And you know what? It’s amazing how much quieter our formation is. Sure people still talk but it is much quieter. It sure is gonna suck for those two whenever they try and get a job or anything really cause whenever their records get pulled, it will show as them having “mental illness.”
Each night we are given soldiers time but ¾ of that is eaten up by standing in final formation to get a snack. Then depending on who the night shift DS is they will do other things like sing some cadence then after that we have to go to our bay and “toe the line” so they can get a body and weapons count. It’s retarded how much time is wasted. It makes writing letters more difficult cause there is no time to write, except on Sundays.
I just got done shooting. I hit 37 out of 40 (smile face). That’s the highest so far in our platoon. Granted it doesn’t really mean anything except I have bragging rights. I guess when it comes to qualifying next week, we will be shooting with all this gear on. Now that sucks. These ACH’s have these straps that run down the side of the cheek and it makes for a very difficult time trying to rest the cheek on the butt-stock. So most of the time I was supporting my head. I guess if I can shoot 37 out of 40 that way I will be ok.
Just got done shooting another 40 rounds and I hit 37 out of 40 again. On the print out though the DS wrote down 27, so I think he messed up. Either way right now I am shooting expert (smile). I bet it changes come qualifying though cause the targets pop up for “x” amount of time which means you can’t take your time. That isn’t till next week though. This round of shooting one soldier in our platoon shot a 38. But he is expected to do well cause he has done ROTC and other stuff with some weapons training.
This round of shooting resulted I more people hitting in the 30’s. That’s good cause DS James says 1st Platoon always does the best in BRM. I don’t know how well the other tree platoons did, but again this was just practice. Tomorrow we get to go back to the simulation. That will be cool to perform in again.
After we arrived at the company we had chow and did PT. the PT here at Basic really is pretty weak. Aside from the running the muscle protection is a big letdown. There aren’t a whole lot of smokings either. DS Byles will tell individuals to “knock out 25” whenever he wants, and it’s actually pretty funny with the way he says it. So yes, it is a must to do pushups and sit-ups on our own.
Got two letters tonight. One from Amy and the other from her parents. That was surprise, but very welcomed. The downside is, it sets me back one more person to write. But this is what Sunday is for. In the letter, Amy’s dad gives me crap and calls Basic “scout camp.” Well, can’t really argue with that. He is also a former Marine (Amy writing: I TRIED to convince Vinnie he needed to go Marine…he wouldn’t go for it) so there is that Marine/Army bashing. I can’t really think of a comeback either which sucks, cause that usually doesn’t happen.
Another thing I wanted to mention; I have said it before that our PG sucks, well doing PT tonight we got to performing pull-ups and she wouldn’t go. She told everyone else to go in front of her. That’s a great leader right there. It finally took DS Byles and a lot of soldiers around her yelling at her to do them. Such garbage. Everyone can’t believe that she is still our PG. she won’t march us, tries to slack on PT, only knows one or two commands, and other things. She just plain sucks. No initiative whatsoever. I hope she fails at BRM qualification so she can go to a different company.
Been hearing some c hatter about a couple females “fraternizing” if you know what I mean. I was wondering why the DS’s gave us a little female speech awhile ago. Pretty funny.
2/11/10 Thursday
Right now I am sitting outside working at the mouse traps. This is simulation the pop-up targets when we qualify. We can only go two at a time so it’s gonna take awhile.
We just got smoked pretty good this morning every Thursday is bed linen turn in but people don’t seem to remember that. We were smoked as a company cause people were taking their time, freaking lame.
2/13/10 Saturday
I am sitting in sick call cause I feel like crap: sore throat, coughing, body chills, fever, ect. I think I finally caught what everyone else had. If anything, I picked a good time to get sick. It snowed yesterday, yes you heard me, snow. Which cut our training short. Today we were supposed to go to Victory Tower, that’s not gonna happen. Then it’s Sunday., which nothing goes on that day. Come Monday it is a holiday; President’s Day, I believe. Which means no DS’s around. I think it is going to be a movie day. So I have three days to get feeling better. I feel a little bit better from last night. I was burning up, but after some good sleep I feel better about the fever. I paid someone $20 to take my fireguard shift so I could sleep. Now here I am waiting to get checked out.
Yesterday we went to the range to practice single and multiple targets. Three targets, one at 75m, another at 175m and the last at 300m. They would randomly pop up and we would cap them. Pretty sweet. Out of 44 shots I hit 42. 22 shots are from prone supported, 11 from prone un-supported, and 11 kneeling the two I missed were from kneeling.
We were back at the company by 13:00 cause that is roughly when the weather was gonna get bad. We cleaned weapons for most of the day. So this one soldier who doesn’t like to shower was chewed out by our lead DS in front of everyone. I guess he hasn’t showered for awhile again. He wasn’t too happy, but what do you expect? He made another soldier go in there with him to make sure he cleans all his hot spots, haha.
So those two soldiers who got on the computer last Sunday, well they definitely got an Article 15. One of the soldiers is the one who doesn’t shower. The other soldier is the one who dropped out of a foot march at the beginning and has a messed up mouth. Her front teeth are all chewed up. Anyways, she has been going to sick call for like the last two weeks cause her knee hurts. Well she is getting booted from the military, but before that happens she has to fulfill her Article 15 punishments. Oh yah, she got another Article 15 cause she has basically been faking her knee injury. When she is in her bay she will walk around normally, without her crutched, but once it is time to come downstairs or a DS enters the bay, bam! She is limping and using the crutches. What a tool. Anyways, so now she has two Article 15’s, which results in lost pay and 28 days of extra duty. Extra duty means she keeps working till 23:59 every night and still gets up with the rest of the company. Sucks to be her and that other soldier.
So far today we are sitting in class going over Troop Leading Procedures. I have a feeling this is all we are gonna do all day. I am ok with that cause I wouldn’t want to feel like crap doing training.
This morning after sick call we marched to chow and while waiting for the chow hall to open up I got really light headed and started to feel all woozy. Guess I was pretty pale too. So yeah, almost passed out. I think all I needed was some food. A couple soldiers helped walk me to the CQ office and then to sick call, again. The doc guy said the same thing: probably just needed some food.
2/15/10 Monday
So when people ask me what I did in Basic, I am going to say: shot weapons, pagils, road marched, gas chamber, and um, had a snow day and spent a day watching movies, like we are today. It’s President’s Day and there are only three DS’s here in the whole company. What a way to spend a day at Basic. We are watching Zombieland right now. Next might be We Were Soldiers or Saving Private Ryan. Relaxin’ Jackson indeed.
When we were first issued our M16’s we were told to always have them on us and if we were not able to take it with us, like sick call or church, then to leave it with a battle buddy and then it is their responsibility. Well when I go to church I handed my weapon off to a soldier next to my bunk (Tears of the Sun is the next movie) Well, all the other soldiers who went to church just locked their weapons in their wall locker. When I came back from church SD Shorty was going on a rampage cause he found out about that. Well, he asked me where my weapon was and if I locked it in my wall locker. I told him I left it with my battle buddy. Dude locked my weapon in his wall locker. So he got in trouble instead of me. LOL. Hey, I did my part. I did the right thing. All those soldiers received counseling statements. Nothing too serious, but it is a mark on their records.
Well, no we are watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Just kidding, We Were Soldiers. I’s like little kids in here trying to pick out a movie. Freaking “I don’t like to shower” soldier was all upset that he got vetoed.
2/16/10 Tuesday
Today is day one of three at the qualification range. We get two days to practice and then the final day is where we make our money. 40 targets (30 prone and 10 kneeling). There are seven targets at various distances that will pop up. Multiple ones will pop us as well. This range is a lot different from the others we have shot on, in the fact that there are more targets, and it’s not open. Each lane has trees lining it casting shadows which make it pretty difficult to see the farther out ones. I was in the first group to shoot. I shot a 34 out of 40, which is sharpshooter, but not expert. I rushed a couple shots and it didn’t help that there was a little breeze which froze my hands while shooting. Either way, I will be able to get expert. I do think I can attain the prestigious “Hawkeye” which is 40 out of 40. Today was a familiarization to the course.
Our platoon is on detail this whole week so we have to provide personnel for the range and serving chow. When I was done shooting I was told to go relieve some of the guys in the warming tent. So for most of the morning I sat in the warming tent. That term is kind of an over-statement. It really isn’t that warm. There is a coal burning stove in this big canvas tent. It doesn’t stay heated very well, but it is better than standing in the cold. Since I am still sick, it was appreciated.
My cold has slowly moved to sinus congestion and headaches. I still cough but not as harsh. It just sucks cause I don’t want to do anything. I want to do what I would do at home: sleep and take meds. But here, I get lack of sleep and some meds. So the cold will last longer, freaking sucks. Perhaps someone could send some cough drops??? (Amy speaking….he’s all better now and was able to buy his own at the PX)
After the range we did a run for 20 mins. That sucked cause, again, I don’t feel good. I was hoping the run would help me feel better, but I didn’t.
2/17/10 Wednesday
Wakeup at 04:00, crap downstairs, I feel like a vice is latched onto my head, and ready to repeat the same thing again today. Hopefully today we will shoot twice. Yesterday they ran out of ammo cause people are still trying to zero their weapon! That really sucks cause they haven’t practiced on any of the other stuff, which makes their chances of success drop severely. Hopefully they can get it. It would suck a whole lot to get sent to another company which is a couple weeks back from us to do BRM all over again. But if you can’t shoot, you can’t shoot. One of the females we acquired a couple weeks ago I don’t think is gonna make it. Poor lady. But she is hitting like 12 out of 40 in qualifying. Ouch!
Just got done with breakfast. When we go to the range, we don’t eat in the DFAC (lunchroom), instead detail gets breakfast for the company from the DFCA and an assembly line is setup. The food is usually ok. Never fills me up and it’s the same thing over and over.
2/18/10 Thursday
Up at 04:00 again, downstairs information by 04:30. Today is linen turn-in. We get new sheets later when we come back from the field.
Yesterday at the range I shot a 32 and 36, so I achieved my expert status with the 36. I am the only on in our platoon yesterday to get expert. Most of the platoon was complaining that it was the range for their poor shooting. Overall our platoon shot lower scores. Really? Blame it on the range? The targets came up the same; it was warmer, so fingers didn’t freeze. I don’t know. I think it is an excuse. I am even shooting sick. Today is the final day to qualify. Up to this point has been practice. So what is shot today is what counts, according to our lead DS. But just about every other DS says it’s the highest of the three days. Sometimes our lead DS will tell us stuff to get us motivated. This is probably on the those times. I am going for Hawkeye today.
11:30
Well, I didn’t shoot Hawkeye, but I did shoot expert. I am still pleased with that. Both times today I shot 36. The second time shooting, my 300m target was seriously covered by shadows. It was very hard to see. Not that I am making excuses, but it was hard to see. Someone in 2nd Platoon shot 40 out of 40, the punk. A good number in our platoon have shot expert. Not sure if our platoon will have the highest BRM. Have to wait till everyone shoots and scores tallied. We still have a handful of soldiers who haven’t qualified. They are close, but close won’t prevent you from getting booted or sent back a couple weeks.
So not that most of us have shot twice, I think we are done; well the ones that have qualified at least are done. We are scheduled to be here till 17:30 What the freak! That’s a long time to sit her on our cans doing nothing.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
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.
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.
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