Day of Rest (Basic Training) Day 12

A close up of our "Kill Zone" All the painted area was off limits,

we had to walk around it.

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. His writing at times can be a bit difficult to determine his words... bare with me, I do my best, especially with army terms.

Today is Sunday, the only day we don’t have training – not even a workout (unless we piss of a DS and get smoked). We got to sleep in until 5am, but I had and hour of fireguard shift from 2-3am. The fireguard shift is basically a cleaning detail in the middle of the night with different tasked for each hour. (pretty much the same as in reception, but the DSs check a lot more on the work you’ve done) My job was to finish mopping the floors. Once back in bed I was out very quickly.

Breakfast was a rushed ordeal. I have had biscuits & gravy everyday since I’ve been here! I think I’m going to have to mix it up a little. I went to church today. It was really nice to get away from everything and do something different. I haven’t been to church since my ex-wife left me years ago. The start of the first song, I had a flood of emotion was over me. A few tears even rolled down my cheek. I think instead of making me a stone cold killer, the Army is turning me into a soft mushy emotional guy. Since I’m pretty much completely cut off from the rest of the world all I do is think about family and of course try to memorize everything else they are throwing at me. The service was good and it was nice to see some of the other guys I met in reception there. We even had a few minutes to socialize before the service, which doesn’t happen any other time. 

When we got back we were all rushed through lunch. The last guy in line said he only got two bites and a drink before we were forced out. It’s funny because there are all these nutritional posters and stuff, but we are always forced to eat so fast it can’t be healthy. 

Right now I’m on laundry duty. Our platoon decided to have two people do laundry for an hour and keep switching off. We just do whatever bag is next in line and go. So far I’ve only watched machines run and write this letter. We have the 1-1-1 test tomorrow which is an evaluation of our fitness test. I wonder how out of shape I’m in after doing no running since before reception. 

When I mentioned that we didn’t do any training, that didn’t mean we were not busy. The DS had us cleaning all kinds of stuff. The craziest thing was picking up all these tiny leaves from the ground by hand. There were no rakes available and it was in a courtyard with rock and pebble areas where we couldn’t use a broom. So the whole platoon had to puck up all these tiny leaves one by one. The barracks also got cleaned from head to toe. It's all just busy work to keep everyone doing something.

Me and a couple of guys who were unable to connect on the phone with people were allowed to try again. This time my wife answered, but about half way through she couldn’t hear me anymore. I had to go to another pay phone and try again for my last few minutes. It was awesome to hear her voice, but when I got off the phone tears just started streaming down my face. What the hell! I had to go back up and get in formation at my bunk. I couldn’t pull it together quick enough and a few tears still made their way down my cheeks. Everyone seemed to understand, surprisingly, even the DS. Tonight we got 1 minute showers and we all thought that was awesome. LOL . Crazy how your perspective can change here.

Random DS Quote: “When I talk to you in the shower, don’t turn around and go to the parade rest position and have your dick pointing right at me.” (Every time the DS or any other NCO talks to us, or we talk to them, we have to stand in parade rest position. In parade rest, you stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands behind your back. The DS came in and was telling the last guy how much time he had. The guy quickly jumped and turned toward the DS and snapped to parade rest position. Everyone couldn’t help laughing when the DS told us this.)


Anonymous
 
 
I am ready to find out what has gone on over the last week...I need my fix.
 

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - 04:13 PM