Pizza Party - (Korea) Day 163

Special K ordering our 9 pizzas at one of my favorite places in Korea..."Pizza School"

Work call this morning was at 0730. We setup for an early meeting in the top secret conference room and then setup for another meeting in the secret conference room. The morning schedule was a little busy, but there were no meetings planned the rest of the day. We have a PT test planned for tomorrow morning, so I've been drinking water like a camel all day. I've always been told to hydrate well before a PT test, so I"m doing my best to do so. The problem is that when I have to go pee it hits me like a freight train and my bladder feels like a dam that's about to burst. Each trip to the bathroom brings with it great relief, then the cycle starts over again.

Our office decided to buy pizza and have sort of a pizza party lunch with our sister offices. We weren't celebrating anything, I guess it was just for the heck of it. Special K and I headed off to Pizza School which is located about a block away from post. They have a number of pizzas for only 5,000 Won which is a little less than $5, so we bought 9 of them. We then headed to a shoppette on post to get soda. On the way back in Special K realized that he left his ID card in his computer. We had to pull over at the gate and he had to get out and input his social security number into the system. Once that is done, his picture comes up and the guards allow him to enter. We then headed to the office so he could get his ID, then to the shoppette for the soda. By this time the pizzas were done, so we went back and picked them up.

We had lunch in our conference room with the lights dimmed and season 1 of "The Unit" playing on the big screen. We had most of our office, our admin office, and a KATUSA from our supply office there to join us. I ate a lot, I can't resist the spicy chicken pizza. I ate so much that I don't think I'll be eating dinner.

After lunch I worked on some SkillPorts for a bit, then our sergeant said once we cleaned the conference room and the office we could leave. When we were on our way out the door he said tomorrow's PT test was cancelled. All I could think was crap…all that water I drank and all the hurried trips to the bathroom were for nothing. Also I can't turn in my leave requests until I pass the PT test, so I would rather do it sooner than later.

I got to my room a little after 1500 and actually had a chance to video chat with my wife for a while which was nice because I didn't get a chance in the morning. I then rested for a bit on the verge of taking a nap, when my phone rang. It was my sergeant telling me the PT test is back on for tomorrow. Holy cow…make up your mind. I better start drinking some more water…

I did my schoolwork and then watched a new mini-series that I borrowed from my sergeant. It's called "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena". I guess it's a prequel to "Spartacus: Blood and Sand". So far it's pretty darn good. Similar to the mini-series "Rome" it is a mixture of "The Gladiator", The History Channel, and soft porn all rolled into one. Lots of nudity and blood and guts…what more could a guy ask for. There is only 6 episodes and I watched 2 tonight. I can't wait to see them all.

Special K demonstrating a choke on a ROK soldier from our sister office

Obstacle Course (Basic Training) Day 17

Me on the first stage of "The German Wall". This is the only one with a rope.

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.

Last night I had Staff duty at the battalion headquarters from 23:00-24:00. Staff duty is basically sitting in a chair with your battle buddy waiting for someone to call on the phone or radio. It was uneventful until the end of the shift. Someone actually called and my battle buddy (I’ll call him PFC Metal, cause he likes metal music) answered the phone. The paper with the script of what we are supposed to say got mixed up with the radio script and he said the wrong thing. The DS was there and got pissed off. The problem is that we weren’t shown anything except the radio script. Just an hour out of my sleep schedule, but wake up was at 6am - that is really sleeping in!

After breakfast we went to obstacle course as a company and broke into our platoons to do each of the obstacles, The first one we did had a long rope we had to climb up and then we had to cross a number of 4x4s that were spread about 2 feet or so across. After that we had to climb a ladder up even higher to get over a beam and then climb down. It was way up there, so it was a bit scary! I would say about 1/3 of our platoon were able to make it up the rope. (I was one of them). If you didn’t make it, then you would have to do 10 push-ups and climb a ladder shortcut to the top.

After all platoons finished the course, each platoon picked their best team of four people to compete against each other on “the German Wall”. This event has your team of four first climb a slanted wall with a rope. After that you have to get up and over 4 other walls that progressively get taller and there are no ropes, you can only use each other to get up and over. Our platoon’s team came in second, only 3 seconds behind 1st. It was a fun time, they had toned down the course a little, not letting us go to the top on some of the obstacles, but all in all I had a good time. 

The rest of the day consist of marching down to another training area where we had 4 outside classes. These classes ranged from handling captured enemy to escalation of force. It was hot so everyone had to hydrate as much as possible. Every break there would be a mad dash to the woods where everyone would go pee. That was a pretty crazy sight. I would be standing there peeing and  everywhere I looked there was a person peeing in the woods.

When we got back we showered. I got mine done fast, my reward was getting a “special” duty assignment. Me and PFC Metal had to assist a supply sergeant with returning all of Pvt. Jacket’s gear. We had to sit and wait and wait, then finally carry all the stuff to a big warehouse. They checked everything back in and then we were free to get back with our platoon. We are having the 2-2-2 PT test tomorrow morning. 

Random DS Quote: “Stop grabbing your nuts! Did you get poison ivy down there or something?” (this was said while we were “towing the line” – standing at attention at the end of our bunks while the DS is talking to us. My battle buddy for reasons unknown cannot keep his hands off his junk)

4th platoon managing one of the obstacles on the course

(Use 4 people and get up each stage only using each other)

4th platoon on "The German Wall" (Use 4 people

to get over each wall using only each other)

A clip from the DVD I purchased from basic training. It shows most

of the challenges we did through the course. There is a lot of 1st platoon

shown going over the German Wall portion, the rest is a mix of the entire company.

Beat the Heat Drill Sergeant - Reception Day 6 (Basic Training) Day 6

A photo over each of the urinals I thought was kind of funny. You

watch your pee come out and compare the color of the chart above

the urinal to see if you are adequately hydrated.

 

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. 

This morning I had a fire guard shift - woke up everyone at 3:45 instead of 4:00am because we were told to report down in the classroom at 4:45am. When we got down there the DS’s seemed a little confused as to what and where we were supposed to go. After a bit of discussion they lead us all to the medical for guess what?… more shots! (with a couple of nasal sprays as a bonus) We got there before they opened and had to sit in a line on the floor in the hall ‘till they came and opened the joint. I’ve heard stories of people passing out, but after all these shots we’ve had, nobody has passed out yet. I think I may be immune to all diseases known to man now. LOL! 

Breakfast was after that, then we headed back to classroom 1 where the cadre (these are all the processing sergeants and staff) helped out everyone who had issues with their clothing or boots and such. We then headed out to a field where we practiced some of the basic movements such as “attention” and “about face”. It was warm here at Ft. Benning, so at certain intervals the DS would have everyone stop and drink. (We all have to wear these things called camel-baks. These are small back packs that we can fill with water, they have a tube that comes around the front with an adapter you can suck the water out of. This is part of our required uniform whenever we go outside here at basic.) So the DS had everyone shout “Beat The Heat Drill Sergeant, Beat The Heat”. After a bunch of those we would start practicing again. Lunch came and went, then the DS divided our bay up almost down the middle and had us all move to classroom 2. We were then informed we would be going down range (to basic) on Thursday for sure and that half this bay would most likely be "A Company". I sure hope so because there are some real jokers on the other side. One of those jokers I’ll call “Pvt. Pusher”. He likes to push everyone’s button, he's an agitator and doesn’t take anything seriously. He’s always doing something stupid in formation. That’s going to get him and his company in a lot of trouble.

Later the DS was telling everyone to drink, when he saw not everyone was drinking he said “open your mouth and suck on it, I wanna see everyone with the tube in their mouth.” Of course he saw someone who didn’t listen and we all had to get in “front leaning rest position” (there is no rest for that position). We also had the tube in our mouth while he made us start doing push-ups. People started coughing and choking. Luckily we didn’t have to do too many.

After dinner, bay leaders had to report to the DS office. This kind of sucked because it took forever and it was eating up my personal time. Finally we found out we’re getting an inspection at 4:45am tomorrow. We also have a list of items that everyone needs to have in their duffle bag. Tomorrow may be interesting.