Day 68

02 July 2009  (Day 68)

This morning I woke up around 0300 to wash the crust out of my eyes and put more drops in them.  I went back to sleep and awoke with the rest of the platoon at 0450.  We shaved and brushed our teeth, cleaned the bay, went downstairs and got our nutrigrain bar, came back upstairs to finish cleaning, grabbed out weapons, and then formed up downstairs again to go to PT.  Today's PT was one of the best PTs in a while.  I was hurting from pushing myself yesterday and from the extra 2 miles worth of sprints (1/4 - 1/2 mile at a time) in between workouts and pushups!  We ended with the 25 ft. rope, which I was surprised I had enough energy to make it to the top today!  I was beat!  We then formed up and headed straight to breakfast.  After breakfast, we came up to the bay, took showers, and got ready for today's training by changing into ACUs and laying out our full battle rattle (including elbow and knee pads) on our bunks.  Today we are shooting the M249 machine gun and the M240B "SAW" (Squad Assault Weapon) both in the afternoon and at night with the NODs and laser sights, so our buses won't get here until 1200.  While we were waiting for transportation, a few people were called into the drill sergeant's office to be given their slips for a restart.  A few people didn't pass their PT test yesterday, so they will no longer be training with us.  Again, I'm thankful that I'm not in that position, so it's more motivation to keep working on my pushups!  Most people were falling asleep, so a drill sergeant said it was mandatory nap time, and for everyone to get in their bunks.  I was a bit confused because this has never happened before, so everyone hopped in their bunks while I went to use the latrine.  No sooner had I opened the latrine door, another drill sergeant came in from third platoon, and then I knew we had been set up.  A minute later, a second platoon drill sergeant came in and the same thing happened, so we did five minutes of exercises or so.  Let's just say there's no such thing as mandatory nap time at basic training!  After this fun, we got our ATM cards back to withdraw money for platoon t-shirts, the infantry museum, and IMAX theater tomorrow, and haircuts next week.  Only about half of the platoon got to use it, so those who didn't (including myself) will hopefully get to use it tomorrow!  We then headed up to the bay and got our stuff together and moved down to the formation area to put our gear on and wait for our 1200 transportation.  The buses came and so we headed to the range.  When we got there, we ate MREs, and then we were broken up into two groups-- one group had a class over M240B and one over the M249.  Each class was about 20 minutes, and it was just a repeat over what our drill sergeants taught us on Monday.  When classes were over, we lined up on the firing line and shot 100 rounds on each weapon (which lasted a couple of seconds).  It was fun, but nothing to get all excited about.  I like my M4 better, just because I like taking the time to skillfully aim and fire one shot, as opposed to mowing down targets with a bunch of shots.  After everyone shot, we picked up the brass on the range and then had dinner, which was catered.  After dinner, our platoon worked on some D & C while the other platoons sat around.  It was my idea to practice our weapon movements, and at first people were complaining, but I just want our platoon to look good!  I then volunteered to help clean the weapons we shot before dinner, which took a couple hours and almost up to the time we had the first night fire.  The night fire was really hard to aim, mainly because of all the smoke and dust, the laser couldn't be seen to aim on the targets.  At least we had a tracer round every five shots, which is a round that lights up (like a flare), and so at night you can see it go down the range.  After everyone shot, we took all of our gear off, the lights at the range came on, and we picked up the brass again.  After all the brass was picked up, we were searched and put our battle rattle back on.  We policed the area for trash and got ready for the buses that came at 2300.  We came back to the bay, took showers, and went to bed.  The best part of being back was our PG telling us that our wake up wasn't until 0700!  We hadn't gotten to sleep in past 0600 since we've been here, and the sun would actually beat us getting up for once!