Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone is enjoying their day off, because I don't have it off (or completely off). We woke up and did the usual routine -- made bed, used latrine, brushed teeth, shaved, cleaned bay -- and formed up downstairs for PT. Today's training was an ability group run, which we only ran a little over a mile. Last time we ran in groups, I was sick, so I couldn't keep up. Today, I was able to stay with my group, which felt really good. We were told about an event we have at the end of Basic called The Eagle Run, which is a 5 mile run that has to be completed in 40 minutes (8 minute mile pace). I have some work to do! After we ran, we came back to the barracks and changed into ACUs and went to breakfast. After breakfast, we marched down the street where we got to fight with pugil sticks! We had a short brief on the proper way to fight and use them before we broke off into platoons and had miniature tournaments. The idea behind the pugil stick is that one end (black) is the buttstock of your weapon, and the other end (red) is the bayonet. So using the pugil sticks helps train as if we are using a rifle. Anyway, the platoon was broken into weight classes, and I was in the heavy weights (200 lbs. and over). I won my first fight. I had two really good head shots that sent my opponent to the ground each time. I would then "stab" him with my red end, earning me points for the win! the second round, I started out okay, but I got stood up when my pugil stick got tangled, so my chest was exposed and so I lost with a jab to the chest. I am not upset or anything, because the winner has to go against the winner of 3rd platoon. Once all of the winners were declared for each weight class, we marched back to the barracks and got ready for lunch. After lunch, we went across the street to our PT field to have the tournaments. We went the winners of our platoon's tournament to the company championships, which none of them won. I can't complain, though, because I couldn't have done any better. It rained during half of the fights, so we got a little wet, but right when we finished and made it back to our barracks, a really good thunderstorm rolled in. At 1500 (3:00 pm), we had a moment of silence for Memorial Day. We then had a couple of hours in the bay, but they weren't very relaxing. Apparently, two of the guys in our platoon were doing impersonations of another drill sergeant, so he came to our bay and had them do the impersonations for everyone. Of course we got smoked for it, and were told it was too early in Basic for that, and that because of their stupidity we had fire guard 50/50 all night (which is half of the platoon up for an hour, and then the other half, all night long - or four separate one-hour shifts). After a good smoke session, we went to dinner, where we were told that as a company there was to be absolutely no talking. Of course a few people talked, so we had to get our e-tool (Entrancing tool - or small folding shovel) and go outside in the rain and trim up the sidewalks. Once we were outside for about 15 minutes, we were called back in. The reason for the "no talking" was that we were treated to a movie! We got lucky and got to enjoy our evening watching Underworld, a movie about the war against vampires and lichens (werewolves). It was just nice to relax and be entertained. After the movie, we were told we had regular fireguard, which was a relief. I still had a shift from 2330-0030 (11:30-12:30), but that is better than every other hour! Hopefully tomorrow is mail call, since Sunday we didn't get mail, and today was a holiday!
26 May 2009 (Day 31)
One month in...two and half to go! Also, family day is in 45 days! Just thought I would share the good news!!! As for today, we woke up and did PT. PT wasn't too bad today, but I still got a really good workout in. We were on a hill, and we did push ups going downhill and sit ups going uphill. We did at least a hundred of each, but we broke it up and changed out with our partners, who counted and held our feet for sit ups. I enjoyed it, and I can feel and see the difference that PT and "corrective training" have done for me! After PT, we came back to the bay, cleaned up and changed (the worst part about PT is we work out in sand), and then headed to breakfast. Breakfast was the usual food. I had eggs, ham, hash browns, an apple, and fruit salad. We then had a class over NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical). We learned how to use our gas mask, and then had 25 drills or so, needing to have it on and secure in 9 seconds or less. I got it on in time each drill, and didn't "die" like some of the others. We were told then that we would be going to the gas chamber sometime next week! That should be interesting. After class (around 1100), we went back to our bay to clean (again), and do weapon maintenance until lunch. After lunch, we came back to the bay and cleaned up a little more, until we were told to start packing our rucksack for a road march tomorrow. While we were packing, the drill sergeants from 1st platoon (mine) and 3rd platoon came up with a plan to swap our "bad apples" (the people in the platoons who want to be "individuals"). So we got rid of our trouble makers and replaced our two with two of third platoon's. Basically, this is the last straw for all four of them. If they don't straighten up, they will be restarted! Anyway, then we had a class in our bay led by our drill sergeant for first platoon about hand grenades. Apparently, we are going to the hand grenade range tomorrow. After our class, we finished packing for the rucksack road march. We had more time then to specifically clean our weapons, until we got smoked for people not having their IDs on them this morning (not me though, I had everything that is required!). We only got smoked for about 20 minutes before we had to get going to dinner. Getting smoked is becoming less frequent, and easier. Both are good things! After dinner, we came back up to the bay and cleaned it again until we had the drill sergeant on duty mess with us by making fun of last names and the way we looked. It was mostly light-hearted and meant for fun, but some of it was a bit much. Oh well, we then got showers and went downstairs for final formation. We came back up to the bay and went to bed! I didn't have fireguard, so I get a full 7 and a half hours of sleep!
27 May 2009 (Day 32)
Last night was the best sleep I have gotten in about 2 weeks. I did not wake up once for anything, and slept from about 2115 until 0445 (9:15pm-4:45am). It was great to not wake up throughout the night. A big part of that is I haven't taken any naps during the day. I just might have to sneak one in today, because I am still pretty tired! Oh well, the day still goes on!
As for what we did today, we went and threw hand grenades. To get there, we did a 2.25 mile road march. It wasn't too bad getting there, but on the way back we had quite a few people drop out...I am getting ahead of myself though. So back to the grenade range -- we arrived and the grenade cadre organized us to teach us about the different types of grenades and the purposes of each. The cadre caught everyone off guard when the grenades they were demonstrating with had blanks in them and went off! It was amusing and made me more interested in the day's activities (besides the fact that owning and using grenades is illegal, so very few people actually have the chance to throw a real one). Anyway, after we had our class we broke off into platoons where we were issued our own practice grenade to throw. After everyone went through the motions a couple dozen times, we actually got to throw our grenades (got to do it twice) for practice. It was fun to throw them and watch them go BANG! When all of the platoons finished practicing, it was time to qualify for the use of live hand grenades. When it got to be my turn, I was so focused on the technique and making sure I qualified that I watched my practice grenade soar over the wire and THEN ducked down to the "safety" of the mock range pit. My throw was good, so that was a good thing, but my "hesitation" to duck, as they called it, meant that when I went down range, I could only throw one live grenade instead of two. I spent a few minutes beating myself up mentally, but when I found out it didn't affect my grenade qualification I felt a little better about it. So as a company, we went down to the live range and got to throw our grenades. I only got my one grenade to throw, which went over the wire and within range of our target, so I didn't need the second try anyway! Once we were finished, we headed back to our staging area and ate lunch. Afterwards, we got our papers that we had to carry around with us from station to station, and got tested on various items. Our first station was throwing the grenade 35 meters and coming within 5 meters of the target (or within the "kill zone"). After that, we moved to the station where we had to high crawl up to a bunker and check, then throw a grenade inside. After that, we moved to the next station, and had to throw a grenade 25 meters into a trench and take out "the enemy." Lastly, we went to a station where they had different grenades on a table, and had to correctly identify what type of grenade each one was. And then the purpose of it (ie - smoke grenade, which is yellow, is used to signal), I am proud to say that I successfully passed all stations, which should mean come graduation, I will earn the expert grenader badge to wear on my class A uniform (oooh, ahhh!). When the whole company finished, it was time to put our rucksacks back on and head back to the barracks. We had been wearing full battle rattle all day. On the way back, we had a lot of people fall out of formation, and at least five people were sent to the hospital. Another dozen people had to ride back in the truck because they fell out as well and couldn't finish the road march. I have to give credit to my backpacking experiences and that I know how to plan ahead for treks. Drinking water all day is key. Most people were just getting dehydrated, but then again, the Army has a standard road marching pace of 4 m.p.h. (or marching with a full rucksack one mile every 15 minutes). A good stride when I went to Philmont a couple of years ago was 3 miles in one hour, but usually we only did 2 miles in that time. The pace really is killer, but like most things, hopefully my body adjusts and I will be good to go for our twelve miler at the end of training (which has to be done in 3 hours!). We finally got back to the barracks, where we rushed to get chow (we were 30 minutes late because we stopped so long along the road to medivac our wounded out! Dinner tasted good (pot roast), and I made sure to eat lots of fruit. After dinner, we unpacked all of our gear after a nice long refreshing shower. All of our gear was just sweaty and nasty, so we left it to air out and set up a couple of fans to move air around because of the gear being gross. We didn't have to wear full battle rattle during fireguard tonight, which I have from 0400-0500 (last shift). It is about quarter 'til 10:00, so I am going to sleep! We didn't get mail again today, so hopefully we get a mail call tomorrow!
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