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.
This
morning we woke up at 4:00am and had to be in formation by 4:30 for PT
test. We all got in lines and took turns doing push-ups and sit-ups for 2
minutes each. A DS scores you, if you have bad form that repetition
will not count. I did ok 47 push-ups and 41 sit-ups I think. (I have to
wait for the official score to be posted.) Next up was the 2-mile run.
It was pouring down rain along with thunder and lightning. Because of
the lightning warning we were unable to do the 2-mile run. Instead we
went and cleaned the barracks. We also ended up getting smoked as a
platoon because the DS saw two Fire Guards with their PTs on underneath
their ACU uniform. This is a big no no. There’s no mixing and matching
uniforms. So the two that got caught had to stand and watch everyone
else do push-ups, v-ups and a number of other exercises.
After
breakfast, we went to a total of four different classes by platoon
switching every 50 minutes or so. All classes had to do with our weapons
cleaning, loading, fixing jams, and firing positions. We then had lunch
(MREs). The DS collected all the contraband (candy) as usual. We found
out where it all goes… he takes it home to his kids. LOL!
We
were in our bay cleaning and we’re told that we are going to do some
combat movement training. We had to put on our vests and helmets and to
report to formation. When we got there we marched to the PT Field (the
big sandbox). The first combat movement we had to do was a low crawl.
It’s basically just dragging yourself through the sand. You can’t lift
your head off the ground or any part of your body. This wouldn’t be a
huge deal, but we were in the sand and it had been pouring down rain all
day. After that we all did the high crawl. This is very similar to the low
crawl except we can use our elbows. Halfway through this crawl the event
was cancelled due to lightning. Everyone was covered in sand from head
to toe. When we got back we were given two hours to clean everything up.
After getting smoked, because we took too long getting up to the bay
with all our sandy equipment. We swept up the floor multiple times and
each time we would get enough sand to create a small beach. Before we
did all the cleaning, but after we took a shower, we were smoked again
pretty bad. What sucked is that we were all nice and clean and we had to
do all kinds of exercises on the dirty sandy floor.
We
have one cool DS. He is always helpful and tries to teach us stuff. He
gives us a lot of practical examples and stories from when he was
deployed. We also have one DS who is just basically an ass all the time.
Our head DS can be cool sometimes, but most of the time he’s an ass
too.
One
more week of “Red Phase” the last day of red phase is the gas chamber!
Not looking forward to that. I am looking forward to changing to White
Phase. Each phase change is suppose to allow more privileges and in
white phase we actually start shooting our weapons.
Random DS Quote: “I’ll give you midnight snack…open your mouth”.
Hew
its amazing thinking of you up at 4am on a regular basis lol, i remember you sleeping more than any person i ever knew when we were younger!!! i think getting up at 5:45ish this last year at work really helped you..anywayz....
Sunday, May 2, 2010 - 12:03 AM
Brandon
Yeah...it's really funny now thinking that sleep until 6:00AM is "sleeping in". I've actually become used to it.
Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 06:34 AM
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