The Real Obstacle Course (Basic Training) Day 22

Me climbing the rope - the 1st obstacle on the course

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 at formation DS Midget came up to me and asked if I shaved this morning. I said "Yes drill sergeant, I shave every morning". I think because he is so small he must be getting a different perspective than all the other DSs. He then started to march us and because his steps are so small, it was a little difficult to keep up with his quick left, left, left.

So the last time I wrote about the obstacle course I was mistaken. The course we did earlier is called “The Confidence Course”. Today we went to the “real” obstacle course. It’s setup with about 8 lanes for people to use. You start off crawling through sand, running a short distance, climbing a rope, going over monkey bars, balancing over a log, and then getting over some small walls. Then the fun began. We had to low crawl for about 30 meters, crab walk for about the same, then sprint to the finish line. Everyone had to go through the course once and then each platoon picked their best 8 people to go for time. I was able to complete each of the obstacles. I’ll tell you that my arms were burning! We have some pretty athletic people in our platoon. We even have a guy who had a scholarship for football at University of North Carolina. Our platoon ended up beating all the others. The closest to us was over a minute behind. This was a big event to win because it’s part of “The Raider-Challenge”. Whichever platoon scores the most points will get more time with their family on family day.

After we finished they took us all to a pipe that was 8 feet off the ground with water pouring out of it. We all got in line and rinsed off all the sand that was caked all over us. We came back and took quick showers and then ate lunch. Speaking of food, I’m a very luck guy. In formation the way we line up for chow, I am always in the front of the line. Since I’m first in line I get a little more time to eat. The food is good, we are just always rushed for time. Later on we had a class on team movement (squad formation and such) then we went out and practiced the movements and formations.

We came back up to find portions of the bay tossed. Our DS was showing the new DS (DS Midget) how and what to look for when tossing a bay. None of my stuff was tossed. I made sure to lock my locker and I take a long time to make my bed when we get new sheets. Once it’s made, I sleep on top of it in my winter PTs and a blanket that they issued us for camping. That way when I get up, I can put away the blanket and just straighten up the bed. Someone left their toothpaste in the latrine so the DSs squeezed out all of it over all the sinks.

We had to clean up our bay and later on clean up the company common area. This includes picking up leaves again one by one. I think we’re going to be leaf picker upper experts by the end of basic. LOL.

We have mail call again today. I think everyone in the platoon got letters except for me. I thought for sure I would have something by now. I was so looking forward to some contact from home. That may be the hardest thing about basic training - being totally cut off from the outside world. I was talking with a few people yesterday and everyone is suffering from the lack of contact with friends and family. Some have even thought about quitting. Having everything taken away from you really makes you appreciate all the little things you take for granted. (Giving someone a call or sending an email…deciding you want pizza and ice cream and wanting to take your time eating it. LOL) Seriously, I think only people who have been to basic or prison may truly understand the way this feels. 

I have stupid CQ duty tonight from 1 to 2 AM...totally sucks!!! I want to sleep through the night for once! Our platoon has fireguard, laundry guard and CQ duty tonight, so there will be 5 people up each hour and everyone in the platoon will be doing something tonight. Nobody is happy.

Random DS Quote: “Some people should not breed” ( a DS was observing Pvt. Home School on the obstacle course)

Overheard Quote: “It’s only gay if you’re touching” (said while we were getting rinsed off two at a time after the obstacle course. 

A photo showing the lanes at the beginning of the obstacle course

A clip from the basic training DVD I ordered. It shows most of the obstacles

on the course and it has people from our entire company going through the course.

Some are a little less coordinated than others.

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.