Seeing Red Again (Basic Training) Day 53

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 had our PT test for the record.  I believe I improved at least a little in each event. I lost count near the end of both push-ups and sit-ups. I’ll find out for sure when they post the scores.

At the end of our run, one of our guys (I call him PVT Big Black because he’s the biggest black dude in our platoon) got into a little altercation with DS A-Hole. PVT Big Black left it all out there on the run. He was totally out of breath and exhausted. DS A-Hole was asking everyone for their time, so he could record them all. When he go to Big Black, I guess he didn’t hear him or he spoke too soft. DS A-Hole got pissed and started yelling at him. I guess Big Black gave him a look or rolled his eyes, which pissed off DS A-Hole even more. Then Big Black stood up. DS A-Hole later said that Big Black was getting ready to fight (total BS).  You see, Big Black was the guy who almost fought the DSs on the first day. He also got an article 15 for not wearing the correct underwear… multiple times after being warned. Now he got his rank stripped from E2 to E1. He also has extra duty now. DS A-Hole was so pissed he smoked us all once we got back to bay. Everyone was already tired from PT test, so it really sucked. He did a bunch of yelling and screaming and said our platoon is now back in red phase… timed showers, no personal time, DSs in our ass every minute. FML!!! All for one guy! I was so pissed. I’ve been looking forward to a phone call tomorrow. Our cool DS will be here and I was holding our hope that he give us extra time because of what happened last Sunday. (the five minute phone call).

We then marched to Cashetown for some more room clearing drills. We did it without ammo the first time and then used blacks the second time. After that the DSs started moving around the targets and even acted as occupants when we entered. It was cool; except I hate shooting those blanks, they jam all the time. 

We marched back for lunch and did a quick heat dump before we ate. We were in a rush to get down to formation and PVT Wal-Mart left his rifle in the bay… a big no-no. He realized it and ran back up to grab it, but it was gone. When we got back his rifle was in the middle of the bay. It was covered in foot powder and sun screen. It looked like it had snowed on it. The chamber was open and everything! Lots of cleaning for PVT Wal-Mart.

After a brief talk about the importance of keeping your rifle with you at all times, DS A-Hole said, “I’m going to do something I never do.” He said our platoon did so awesome in the PT test that he’s not going to take us back to red, we’ll stay in blue. We had a 90% pass rate and took over 1^st place again by a long shot. Everyone improved their scores, including yours truly. I scored a 57 in push-ups (+5), 45 in sit-ups (+3), and a 14:44 2-mile (25 seconds faster). What’s crazy is everyone did so much better I dropped from 8^th in the platoon to 13^th place with a total score of 232. (13 higher than my previous.) 

So I am happy again! No red phase!!! Our senior DS was then complaining about not having AA batteries and asked if we had seen any. I raised my hand and pointed out that were two next to his butt. (He was sitting on the desk.) Everyone laughed (he was actually looking for 4 boxes of AA batteries). He smiled at me and said, “start pushing”. D’oh, my arms were still dead from the PT test and the smoking we got. When I asked how many, he said, “one for each battery I’m missing… 96!” After about 15 other people started asking if they could do some of them for me. The DS then said “OK, everyone do 20 and get up”. It was funny, but you may have had to been there. 

The next few hours was packing for our FTX-3. We got a packing list of all the required items to stick in our ruck. We also got to go to the PX and purchase anything we need for the FTX. I only purchased bug repellent. I was eaten alive at FTX-2, so I’ll be prepared this time. We were also allowed to get milkshakes while we were there. Now that was awesome! This day may have had some ups and downs, but it sure ended on a positive note!

Random DS Quote: “Oh… it’s in your mouth?” (our senior DS was keeping count of PVT Cock’s sit-ups and he farted. He then asked PVT Cock if he could smell it yet. PVT Cock said “I’m breathing through my mouth drill sergeant.)

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