By the time I actually fell asleep last night, it was midnight, but I still got 6 hours of sleep! My natural sleep clock woke me up at 0430, 0500, and the yahoos who got up to get ready at 0530 woke me up, but I enjoyed my sleep! At 0600, the lights came on. I got ready and changed into ACUs, and headed downstairs for first formation. We got our granola bars and then headed back upstairs to clean the bay. When we finished with the bay, it was time to go to breakfast, so we ate breakfast and headed back upstairs to get our gear. We marched out to the buses and went to the same range that we were at yesterday. I was in the 8th group to shoot on lane 6 (Malone Range IH), and shot a 30 out of 40, so I went to the table and got pinned by our company commander (Captain Flook) with the sharp shooter badge, so I felt good about qualifying with the best score I've shot over the last couple of days! Also, I was wrong about the breakdown, 23-29 is marksman, 30-35 is sharp shooter, and 36-40 is expert, so I just made sharp shooter! I am glad I got what I did because my optic wasn't zeroed in, so I had to shoot high and to the left on the farther targets. I think I did pretty well at readjusting my poorly-zeroed weapon. After I walked back to our waiting area, we put on our ACH covers (which is all digital camo, so we no longer have to wear our plain, olive green helmets, but look all cool in digital camo covered ACHs!). After we got our covers on, it was time for lunch, and I got a chicken tortellini MRE. I had never had it, but it had a chocolate pudding mix in it, which apparently is really good. I had someone ask me for it, but I didn't want anything he had for a trade, so he offered me $3 for it, so I said sure. When he reached to get his money, he had $4, so he paid me $4 for it (he claimed he didn't want to have just an extra dollar to keep track of). After lunch, it was just more down time waiting for those who hadn't qualified yet (or failed to hit at least 20 out of 30 targets), so I just spent time socializing with the guys in my platoon. We had seven expert shooters (Spence hit 36), and a dozen sharp shooters or so. Salado had a tough break, missing the sharp shooter cutoff at 28 targets hit. I don't know how many people didn't qualify at first, but it was at least 11 or 12. By the end of the day, everyone was able to qualify from our platoon, so we were told we got a pizza party later for the day's success. We finally were told to form up, and we did the usual protocol (put all gear on the ground, clean and police the range, have a drill sergeant search us, and then put all our gear back on and wait for the buses). The buses arrived early so we loaded them, came back to the bay, and then got a chance to take a cold shower! After showers, we changed into summer PTs and cleaned our weapons until dinner. At dinner, I got a brownie because it was a catered meal (I don't think we were supposed to be back as early as we were), so I waited to see if anyone wanted it. The same guy who bought the chocolate pudding said he wanted it, and because he did give me the extra dollar earlier, I let him have it. It's funny how eager everyone is to pay for sweets, even at such over-priced rates. I'm not about to eat them, so if people want to buy them off of me, then I am fine with that! If I didn't learn anything at Basic, then at least I had hands-on experience with supply and demand. After dinner, we came back up to the bay for a little while, and then we had to go outside to do some area beautification. I was part of the group to police the area and pick up trash, then when we were finished with that, we pulled pieces of grass that stuck way above the rest (there is some type of grass that seems to grow really tall overnight). After we finished, we came upstairs for free time! We were then called downstairs at 2010 for final formation and our pizza party. I chose not to eat anything! People were trying to get me to eat it, but I felt I didn't need the calories, plus the pizza was cardboard and looked like they heated it up and gave it to us, so I wasn't too sad about my choice... I'm here to get fit! After the pizza was out, we had a mail call! I received a letter from my dad, Grandpap, and Brittney! I read them while the rest of the mail was being passed out (and the article about the Colts' new rookie). Afterwards, it was time to go to bed, so I went upstairs and fell asleep a little after 2200!
19 June 2009 (Day 55)
Today we woke up at 0500 to get ready and do PT. PT was easy, and not really PT, because we have a PT test tomorrow, so we just did warm-ups and stretches. Once we were done, we came back to our barracks, changed into ACUs, and went to breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to our bay, got our FLCs and ACHs, and went downstairs and formed up. When all of the platoons were downstairs and ready, we marched down the road and loaded the buses. We came out to a range and conducted ARM 4 (Advanced Rifle Marksmanship 4), which was moving targets! This was awesome! Little green figures would pop up and roll along tracks, and if you hit it, they would pop down. We paired up with partners and had to do magazine changes and everything. It was like playing Duck Hunter, but using real M4s and live ammo! It was by far the best thing we have done at Basic, training-wise! My partner and I hit 36 of 40 targets, but we thought our lane had some malfunction. When we were done, we joined up in groups and studied our first aid and chemical warfare training, so that we would do well on our week 6 tests tomorrow. After everyone shot, we grounded all of our gear and waited in the bleachers and each platoon's best two shooters were on a team and had a shoot-off. First and third platoons tied for first, so there wasn't a winner (no surprise there), and so we went to the range and picked up all the brass. When we finished, we had a shakedown and then ate MREs. We waited about an hour for our transportation and when the buses arrived, we loaded them and went back to our barracks, took a nice cool shower, and then sat around cleaning our weapons and reviewing for tomorrow's tests. When I was looking in my locker for my other note pad (I have one I keep in my locker that has 200 sheets, which I use here, and then another one with 100 sheets that I take out in the field with me), and noticed I had June 15th's entry still. I forgot to mail it home with June 16th and 17th, because we went out bivouacking, so I forgot about the 15th being written and not sent...oops! I will send it out tonight with yesterday's and today's journals! So we went to dinner, and afterwards, came back up to the bay. We were then told that today's competition wasn't a tie, but that first platoon won, so everyone in the platoon who trained today got a 10 minute phone call! I waited for my turn, and I called Brittney since I talked to my parents longer last weekend. I spent almost three minutes trying to make the call, because the Wilson family was letting Brittney's brother, Jerry, have friends over for a birthday party, so she was in the pool when I first called. She answered the second time I called, and we got to talk for about six minutes before my time was "up" (I had only been on for a total of nine minutes, but oh well). It was awesome to talk to Brittney for those six minutes, because those are six minutes that I got to talk and hear her voice! It was tough to hang up, but great things are always hard to let go of/say goodbye to (and I am not letting her go at all!). I came back upstairs and it was almost time for final formation, so I got ready and then headed back down. We got our milk and read the rules for tomorrow's PT test. We then got mail (a letter from Dana, and a letter from Jody Winko). I quickly read them and then went to sleep. Wake up is at 0330 and I have the last fireguard shift...BLAH! Goodnight!
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