Happy birthday to me!!! Kind of bummin' that I can't spend it with the family, but lucky for me, the drill sergeants made sure I stayed busy! I started my birthday early in the morning with a fire guard shift from 0100-0200. I went back to sleep after my shift was over, and then woke back up at 0500 to get ready for the day. We were told we were going on a 12 mile road march, but we only went on a 4 mile road march (2 miles to the training area, then 2 miles back to the barracks). At our training area, we learned about land mines and IEDs (Improved Explosive Devices). Anyone who had gone through basic training prior to 2006 or so never had and IED course, but because of the daily threats, we were taught how to identify them and what to do. Basically, IEDs are explosive devices that can be rigged anywhere (in potholes, abandoned cars, behind guard rails, etc.), so they are hard to find. Most are radio controlled, and are set off when troops pass by a lookout, and others require a certain amount of weight to be activated. My group started in the classroom and learned about IEDs and watched videos of them going off. After the classroom, there was a mock street that we had to patrol down and find the IEDs. One kid on the other side of the road stepped on a "land mine" (which popped loudly and puffed smoke), so people took it more seriously after that. It was a well-ran course and I felt I learned a lot from it. We then marched back to the barracks and ate an MRE for lunch. We cleaned up our area and came upstairs to take all of our battle rattle off. When we got all of our gear off, we had a few minutes to ourselves before we had to head downstairs to go fill out a survey over substance abuse (alcohol, drugs, etc.). It was pretty boring, and I thought it was a waste of time. Oh well, we came back up to our bay and our drill sergeants had a project for us. Apparently the last group who went through had a red rectangle that went around the bay (32 laps equaled a mile or something), so our job until dinner was to scrape and clean the tile so that you couldn't tell it was ever there. My back hasn't stopped being sore since I have been here (from being in the position of attention all the time), so being bent over working really hurt. We rushed to get the floor mopped, and then we went to dinner. After dinner, we came back up to the bay to clean and organize our wall lockers. Some people are having weird reactions to the shots we got yesterday, so everyone had to have their temperature taken. After those who had a high temperature left, we had some personal time (of which I got to update today's journal). Our drill sergeant came back in and told us to get downstairs for final formation. After formation, we got showers really quickly, and then started to head to bed when we had a mail call! I received letters from Grandma Sease, my dad, Devon and Deanne, two from Grandma Reinbold, and one from Brittney. Thank you all for the letters! They were great to get on my birthday! Also, as a present, Grandma Reinbold sent address labels for me of my address here. They will come in handy because I was starting to get tired of looking up my address here, and started to put my home address again. Now, I just slap on a sticker and mail it! Thanks for those, Grandma!!! Anyway, it is almost 2200, so I am heading to bed. Love you all!
23 May 2009 (Day 28)
It was nice getting a full night's sleep last night, and not having to pull any sort of guard duty or detail. I got lucky though, because everyone is assigned a roster number, and so your number just gets recycled over and over (start with 101 and goes through 157, and then starts back at 101). Well, last night the last person to go was 146, and I am 147, so I will have first fire guard shift tonight. Anyway, we woke up at 0430 to clean the bay and get ready for today's activity. At 0600 we had first formation, and so we did another 1-1-1 (1 minute of push ups, 1 minute of sit-ups, and run 1 mile). The push ups are the toughest, because you have to keep the right form when doing it. Last time I only correctly did 18, and this time I did 26! As for sit-ups, I cranked out 37 in 60 seconds. And finally, my one mile, I improved by more than 30 seconds at 8:07! I am just glad that I passed all minimums and won't be recycled. After we got back from running, we came upstairs and changed into ACUs, without patches, jewelry, and wearing tennis shoes instead of boots. Today we are learning Army combatives and then learning about a machine gun. But first, after breakfast, we learned Army combatives Level 1. I am not very good at it, but if I take it slow, I do alright. We have a total of 4 levels, and then a tournament on June 6th. I am not looking forward to that. Haha! They will be cool little fighting skills to learn. I felt like Devon and Deanne doing their karate thing, but I am sure they could take me down pretty easily. After about 2 hours of training, we came back upstairs and dressed in correct ACUs. After we changed, we cleaned the bay again (we do that a lot if you haven't caught on). Anyway, at 1230 we went to lunch, and afterwards we had our class on the M 240 B and M 249 AR. Basically, the M 240 B weighs about 32 pounds and shoots up to 1000 rounds in 30 seconds, and the M 249 AR weighs about 25 pounds and has the same rate of shooting. Both have their reasons and purposes, but I don't really care to use either one. Again, I will learn what I need to graduate, but I do not have that kill mentality, just the instinct to stay alive and grow old with a wonderful family. After our class, we came up to the bay to straighten things up and to change out of ACUs and into summer PTs. We had about two hours to ourselves before dinner, so I took the time to get in about an hour long nap. In earlier journals, I used bays and barracks slightly incorrectly. I have been meaning to explain the difference, so here it is: I sleep in a bay with my entire platoon, and then all the platoons stay in the same barracks. Those who have written to me know that I currently live on Treadwell Dr., so as you may guess, I live in the Treadwell barracks. Each company (A-F, pronounced alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, and foxtrot companies) have their area at the Treadwell barracks. So since I am in A Co. (Alpha company), and in first platoon, we have our own room, known as a bay, in the barracks. I hope that was somewhat more clear. Anyway, after dinner we got showers, which was earlier than normal (1830, or 6:30 pm). We had the rest of the evening to do what we wanted to do, so I updated today's journal and wrote a few letters (which will be mailed out on Monday). I have first shift fire guard tonight, so I will have to get in full battle rattle in a bit. At least I got a nap in earlier! Love everyone, and can't wait to see you all! Devon, I hope you had a wonderful graduation party, and again, congratulations!
24 May 2009 (Day 29)
After today, I have 81 days left! I just can't get hurt and I have to stay healthy!!! Salado, my battle buddy from Hawaii, is a personal trainer, so he has been helping me with push ups and helping me work hard to get in shape. Spence, my battle buddy from Boston, has been helping me with the different weapons we have, and learning how to use them. We had some free time before breakfast, so it was nice to work on my trouble areas. Breakfast was quick, because church was at 0830, which put breakfast at 0800. We arrived at church late, which was really packed, and we got to sit in some back hallway (or those who are familiar with FUMC, it was like sitting in the coat room or that back hallway). I didn't care for that, so I got up and stood by the doors in the back. As luck may have it, there were two open seats, so I was chosen to go and sit inside the chapel. Today's sermon was about being a Christian, and needing to be that visual evidence that there is a God out there, and He is an awesome and loving God. After church, we came back to our barracks and hung out in the bay. I did a little writing in the journal, but mostly sat around and talked to a few of the guys and compiled stories of what we have heard about Basic and what is to come in future weeks. We went to lunch, and then it was back up to the bay to sit even more. I was really hoping that we would get a phone call this weekend, but next weekend will be the end of red phase, and we will move into white phase, where we might get the use of our cell phones (but probably not). So let's see, with over 8 hours today of downtime, where we did nothing but sit around, what do I have time to further explain? How about meals? The place we eat is called the "D-FAC" (short for Dining FACility). We stand in line and grab a pre-made tray of food. Once we have our tray, we get drinks, and then move to the salad bar. For breakfast, there are different fruits on the salad bar, and then for lunch and dinner there is salad, cottage cheese, jello, and other items to add to salads or the main course. Because we are a low stress, high speed group, we have a little more time to eat meals. When the last person from our platoon sits down, we have 10 minutes to eat. When we are done eating, we take our trays up and form up out in the hallway. As long as you keep looking at the food on your tray and don't talk to anyone, everything is fine and the drill sergeants leave you alone to eat. All the meals are that structured when we eat in the D-FAC. If we are out training, we eat MREs. If you write me and have questions about things, I will answer them in future journals. But after doing nothing all day, we went and ate dinner at 1800 (6:00 pm) . After dinner, we came back to the bay and took showers. When I finished, I went downstairs and did my laundry. When I came upstairs after loading my clothes into the washer, fire guard had been posted, and I don't have it tonight (but I will have it tomorrow). I put my laundry in the dryer, and then we had final formation a little later. After final formation, I gathered up my laundry and then it was time for bed! Tomorrow, we are doing ability group 2 mile run, and then pugil sticks as our daily instruction. I am actually glad my Sunday is over, because although it was relaxing, it just got really boring. I wrote just about everyone through the week, so I know now to write less during the week, and more on Sundays. (Eh, I like writing to family too much, so I might still just write the same!)
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