Last night, I finally had my first CQ shift, which is normally two hours, but because we had a PT test in the morning, we split the shifts into one hour shift, so everyone would lose a little sleep rather than a few people losing more! Also, apparently a couple more people were caught with chewing tobacco, so we had to double our CQ shift (8 people per shift instead of four), so I got lucky! When I was woken up at about 2250, I changed into my ACUs and went downstairs. For my shift, my cleaning duty was taking apart and cleaning an M240B machine gun. We shot blanks out of them the last few days, so they were dirty and covered with carbon. This was very useful, because I had an hour to myself to take apart, study the parts and how it fits together, and then put it back together and do a functions check! I finished with everything with a few minutes to spare, so I took the weapon upstairs to our bay and got replaced by the next shift. I then changed back into PTs and fell asleep, not getting up until our 0400 wake up. When I got up, I brushed my teeth, hydrated, and stretched out. I prayed about every five minutes for God to help me do well, as long as He wanted me to do well. We went downstairs and got in a testing line for my turn to do pushups. I continued to pray up to the point when it was my turn to get on the mat. Forty-two was the number that I had to get, but my personal goal was forty-five! I cranked out the first twenty with ease, but the drill sergeant kept telling me to go lower. I lost track of my count, took a breather (still in the front leaning rest position), prayed yet again, and slowly kept knocking them out. My last pushup I had muscle failure and collapsed to the floor. I looked up at the drill sergeant, and he said... forty-six! That was one more than I thought I could do. Thank you, God, for answering my prayer!!! I knew I had this PT test after that! Sit-ups, I knocked out sixty-eight (nine more than last time), and my two mile run, I cut almost another minute off, with a time of 14:12! We marched back to the bay from our run, and had a catered breakfast in our formation area. After breakfast, I went upstairs and calculated my PT test score; 46 pushups = 66 points, 68 sit-ups = 84 points, and 14:12 two mile run = 83 points, for a PT test score of 233!!! Hello, turning blue ceremony and family day on August 13th, and hello going home after graduation on August 14th!!! Seriously, keep praying, because I honestly believe I couldn't have passed my PT test without Him! If that was the reason for me enlisting, I pray ten times more than I used to, even though I have always been a firm believer in the power of prayer, this has been a huge "in my face" experience that shows me prayer works! While most guys are here cussing and counting down the days to drink or smoke again, I feel that I have grown closer to Christ and have become a better Christian because of this! I didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but it's what has been weighing on my mind.
So anyway, I changed out of my sweaty PT uniform and into clean ACUs. We straightened up the bay and got ready to go to the confidence course (where we went in week one that had the four floored tower and was like a C.O.P.E. course). At about 0830, people started falling asleep, and by 0900, I was one of three or four guys still awake, looking our for when a drill sergeant would come in. I set out on re-reading my letters from yesterday and responding to a couple of them. The drill sergeants came back up around 1100, so those who were sleeping got a good nap in. The drill sergeants then assigned some details to a few guys in the platoon, but I didn't get any jobs. Also, Richardson and Rand (the last two guys from the cell phone incident in week three) were finally told that they were going home, so they got their personal bags back and will be leaving within the next 24 hours (Rand today, Richardson tomorrow). We then went to lunch, and when we finished eating, we formed up downstairs and headed to the confidence course. I don't know what got into the drill sergeants, but it turned into week one again. We double-timed (ran) the mile there in our combat boots, got smoked for not sounding off "loud enough," and got smoked between every station on the course. The tall stations that we only did last time were closed for maintenance or something, so we did balance logs, rope swings, a monkey bar ladder, and back crawls. It was high speed, but we had to do flutter kicks, pushups, mountain climbers, and anything else that the drill sergeants wanted to get creative with. Just as we finished, it started pouring down rain. We were all soaked through in a matter of seconds, so the best way to get out of the rain is to... double time back to the barracks! It isn't fun running in soaking wet ACUs and combat boots, but I sucked it up, prayed for it to end soon (which 30 seconds later or so, it stopped raining... weird!), and made it back to the barracks, where we changed out of our nasty clothes, took a shower, and put on dry, clean summer PTs!!! I decided it was a good time to do laundry, so I started a load before we headed to dinner. After dinner, I swapped my clothes to the dryer, and went over to fourth platoon's bay to weigh myself. I haven't changed weight (still 206 lbs.), but since I was there, I went ahead and worked out a little with a couple of guys I know. I then went back to the laundry room, grabbed my clean clothes, and went upstairs to put them away. When I was finished, I sat down on the floor to relax and continued to write letters while listening to music on our platoon's radio. We then got called down for mail call, where I got another letter from Brittney and a postcard from my dad. I went back upstairs to continue writing, until it was time for final formation at 2030 (form up 10 minutes early...2020). Our drill sergeant was on duty tonight, but was away picking up people from our company at the hospital. We ended up waiting around in formation for 35 minutes until he got back. He got a final count, and we were released back to our bay. We had about five minutes until lights out, so I grabbed my flashlight (with a red lens) when lights were turned off and finished a letter to Brittney and this journal entry. It's 2125, so I'm dropping this off to our mail box on the fireguard desk, and hopefully will enjoy a full night's sleep. Remember to keep praying, because God does answer prayers!
24 July 2009 (Day 90- 21 days to go)
How great does a full night's sleep feel...AMAZING! We had a 0500 wake up, and I took my time getting ready. We were just about to head downstairs for whatever (PT was a mystery) at 0600, when those who were already downstairs came back up, telling us to change into ACUs. We changed as quickly as possible, and then headed downstairs for first formation. Duty squad set up tables to enjoy a UPU breakfast, but five minutes later, they took the tables down, because we had a 0730 breakfast time in the D-Fac. For unknown reasons, we stayed in formation until it was time to go to breakfast! We went to breakfast, where I enjoyed lots of fresh fruit and some powerade! After breakfast, we came up to the bay and did a weapon inventory. Since we have had people come and go due to medical issues and getting in trouble, we have more weapons than we do people. All extra weapons were taken downstairs and checked into the armory. I then wrote a letter back to Angela and the Barnett family, and then was assigned a work detail outside that took about two hours. My job (with about fifteen other people) was to take all the sandbags out of the trailer, count them, and put them in bags of ten (nine inside of the tenth one). The drill sergeant thought we would have around 4,000... but instead we had nearly 7,000! While I was outside, other groups cleaned weapons, cleaned out the deuce, and did paperwork tasks for the drill sergeant. I got replaced around 1100, after we finished stacking all the bags after the count, so the next group finished cleaning out the trailer and had the task of fitting all 7,000 sand bags back into the trailer! At 1200, it was time to head downstairs for lunch, which I had another chicken and noodle MRE! After lunch, it was a pretty easy and relaxing day, which I spent most of it taking small cat naps. We had a mail call, and I got another letter from Brittney and another postcard from my dad. My family is on vacation with the Parks and Barnett families, so the postcards have been nice visuals of where they have been! We then got reassigned weapons. I was originally going to be the M240B gunner, but due to lack of weapons, I am now an assistant gunner to Prohovich (a re-class soldier who had been stationed with an infantry unit and trained in nuclear biological chemicals for the last two years). So, now my job as Prohovich's AG (assistant gunner), we'll be bivouac buddies, and I will carry about five pounds of ammo for him, as well as an extra barrel (when you shoot 950 rounds per minute, the barrel gets too hot and needs to be changed out to cool down). But that is only for now- there is still one M240B to be assigned, and I may or may not get it. Being on B (bravo) team, I have a better chance of not getting it, because A (alpha) team is the first team in and has more fire power. Time will only tell. The platoon made a final PX run to buy any items people needed for a week out in the field. I am pretty much set, so I didn't need anything. I then spent some time with the M240B in our bay, still wanting to get familiarized with the weapon. After I got tired with that, I went back to writing until dinner at 1800. After dinner, good ole A company was at it again. We had returned up to our bay after eating, when someone came up and told us we had to go downstairs for formation. Great, now what happened!?!? We got downstairs and found out that someone had gotten ahold of someone's ATM card, withdrew $1,500 from the account, and was being held by the drill sergeant and captain in the office, waiting for the MP (military police) to arrive. The police arrived, filled out some paperwork, questioned the victim, and patted down and searched the guilty individual. The MP ripped the American flag patch off of his shoulder, put handcuffs on him, and walked him out the side in front of the entire company, which had taken a seat to watch the entire ordeal. He was placed in the backseat of the MP car, and we were then dismissed to return upstairs and take showers. Towsend, the ex-swat cop, held a class up in our bay on how to search a detainee, which I paid a little attention to from the end of my bunk writing. I then hopped into the shower, then changed into summer PTs. At 2030, we went downstairs for final formation. We waited around until 2050, because the MP, captain, and drill sergeant were talking with fourth platoon, and when the drill sergeant finally came down, he said that fourth platoon had returned back to red phase, and that he doesn't want any trouble from any other platoons tonight or they too will be going back to red phase! We were sent back upstairs with the orders to go straight to bed, so I did just that. I have a fireguard shift from 2400-0100, so I'm glad people didn't stay up chatting! Hopefully everyone does what they are supposed to do tonight!
(Later that night- 2245) I was woken up to the sound of the drill sergeant's voice and the lights on...to be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment