Another Sunday (Basic Training) Day 40

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.

I had to wake up very early this morning for Brigade staff duty.  Yesterday I was thinking I had it at 1pm, but it turned out to be 1am this morning. We were woken up 12:30 and had to get our ACUs on. The walk to Brigade headquarters is only about 5 minute walk. PVT Cock and I got there and the guy we were relieving said we could actually use the vending machine. Great, except I didn’t bring any money. Didn’t think I would need money for staff duty. Grrrr. All that we did was sit in two chairs for an hour until our relief came. 

We got to “sleep in” until 6am, which is nice (because it’s Sunday). Went to breakfast and this week we are the last platoon to eat. It sucks because some of the items have been picked clean. 

After breakfast we had to do the 30-30-10 again. (push-ups, sit-ups, & pull-ups). Evidently, the DS thought it was such a great idea we now have to do them after every meal. I don’t mind the exercises, but doing them on a full stomach is rough. 

More cleaning today. We had to even wash some cars. Problem is we don’t have any of the proper supplies. We washed them with some general purpose cleaner. We also cleaned up our CTA area and the bay. After I went to church they started moving all the beds and lockers so they could buff the floor. PVT Homer, I hear was pressing his butt against the window while moving a locker and the entire window broke out and fell down to the CTA below. (that was a big D’oh!!). I guess the senior DS came up and was yelling, “What the hell just happened?” By the time we got back from church though he was cooled off.

After lunch PFC Metal and I were assigned laundry guard. We did our platoons laundry for about 4 hours. A few guys came down to hang out because I don’t think they felt like cleaning in the bay. The PG  (Platoon Guide – aka Platoon Leader…aka Drill PVT) came down and got a little pissed. All of the guys left except one, I guess he didn’t want to take orders from a private. The PG told the DS, Now that guy has latrine duty every night this week from 21:00 – 22:00.

When we came up from laundry duty, we come into the entertainment of the night for our platoon. All the guys who had pictures of their girls put them out and everyone voted on them. They were just finished with tallying the votes and everyone was gathered around. Lots of hoot and hollering, pretty funny.

We were also allowed a phone call today. I was able to talk to my wife and kids for 20 minutes, but it seemed like 5. Another perk to white phase – phone calls on Sundays. We have one more week and then we can phase to blue. That will be awesome!!!

Overheard Quote: “It smelled like a tire was lit on fire and stuck up my ass” (Our PG talking about the gas he had a couple of days ago.)

...and justice for all (Basic Training) Day 33

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 the first fire guard duty, that is probably the best one. It’s from 21:00-22:00 (9pm-10pm). After that you can sleep through the night. To make it better we slept in to 5:45am because it’s Sunday.

They are finally handing out the punishments from the shakedown that happened a few days ago.  Most of the people that had minor contraband are getting a negative counseling statements. That is basically a slap on the wrist. The cracker boy (PVT Brown Noser who got caught with the crackers) will get an article 15 and will actually lose some of his pay. Those ended up being some expensive crackers!! There was a guy who had an empty shell casing who will get an article 15 as well. 

Our cool DS is here right now and he’s playing some good music in his office with the door open… Metallica, Sound Garden etc. It sounds good. We haven’t had the chance to hear any music since we’ve been here. (Unless you count guys singing in the shower).  About a half hour after trying to hear the music through the doorway of the DSs office, he decided to start playing it through the  bay speakers. A wide mix of metal, punk, and rap. I think everyone enjoyed it. A nice benefit with white phase. When you have everything taken away, it’s the little things that make all the difference. 

Went to church again today. Now that we’re in white phase we could go without a DS. We just had to get a count before and after to make sure we had everyone. It’s those little things that make life better here. Not having a DS up your butt even on the way to church is nice. 

We were given the chance to make almost a 45-minute phone call today. That was very awesome! It was awesome to talk to my wife. The last time it was only 5 minutes, so this was much better. I am happy man!

They posted the official PT results. Our platoon is number one in the company. We had 69% pass, the next platoon had 52%, so our DS is excited about that. I was able to knock out 50 push-ups, 42 sit-ups, and a 15:19 2-mile run for a total score of 215. (My previous score was a 207.) After looking at the results I also see that I dropped from 8^th place to 11^th place. I expected this though, as more kids get into shape. I’m just excited I was able to improve in every area. 

Not a whole lot happened for the rest of the day. Get our lockers squared away and get our laundry done. At 19:00 anyone who wanted could go buy a $2.00 Gatorade and drink it downstairs out of the bay (no food or drink is allowed in the bay). 

Random DS Quote: “He said squeezing the trigger is like having sex. You can be premature and inaccurate, or you can last longer and be accurate.” (PVT Cock explaining how the company commander taught him how to shoot.)

Pop Ups (Basic Training) Day 32

A photo of our platoon at the range. The shooter is in the prone position, while
the "coach" is watching the shooter to make sure proper technique is used. Finally
the guy sitting in front of the computer screen can see where the bullet hit and call out
any adjustments that need to be made.

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.

The day started off with a PT test first thing in the morning. This was an unscheduled PT test, just to see if there was enough improvements in the company to phase. (The other half of the equation for phasing in their minds was marksmanship, which we all did well yesterday.) I don’t know my exact numbers, but I think I improved in everything. They should post the results tomorrow I think.

After the PT test we changed really quick (used another field shower kit) and ate breakfast. After that we took off to a new range.  We used real ammo, but there is a computer at each firing station, which will tell where on the target you hit, or where you missed. Instant feedback. I sucked big time when I first went out there. I was sweating and hot,  this made my glasses fog up big time.  I couldn’t see anything. To top it off my rifle was jamming like crazy. I cleaned it well, but evidently I didn’t use any of the oil. (Some DSs tell you use it, others tell you to use very little.) So the DS lubed my rifle quick, it didn’t help with that round, but it seemed to help later on in the day. It was either that or maybe just a bad loaded magazine?? After lunch we shot again. This time at targets that popped up behind little hills. They were 30 meters,  175 meters, and 300 meters away. This time I had a lot more fun. My core was cooled down from the PT test earlier, plus it seemed to cool down outside a little. I had no issues with my glasses, so I could actually see my targets.

After we were done the First Sergeant gathered the company around. He said this last week the company has shown a lot of improvement. We then had a little ceremony where the DSs changed the flags of each platoon from red to white. Yahoo!!! We are now officially in white phase. The DSs will start to give us a bit more privileges. Hopefully that will include phone calls. 

When we got back to the bay, the DSs called a meeting. They told us that our platoon has “duty squad” next week. The DSs picked out 8 or 9 individuals from our platoon to be the duty squad from our platoon.  The DS tried to tell us all that it was a privilege to be in duty squad. I asked a guy in another platoon, who is in duty squad, what kind of privileges he got. He said, “It sucks. I am just a maid. I have to get up early and stay late. There are no special privileges, just more responsibilities.” The duty squad always does the set-up for whatever the company is doing and they also serve the food when we are away from the DFAC (Dining Facility).

The DSs also said that with white phase comes platoon leadership. They assign a PG (Platoon Guide a.k.a. the platoon leader), an assistant PG and 4 squad leaders. They also told each of the squad leaders to pick an assistant. When they were picking squad leaders they actually chose me for the third squad. They asked if I would be able to sound off (I’m normally a quite guy). I said “Yes, Drill Sergeant”. I guess I didn’t say it loud enough. They said, “You’re fired” – LOL! Shortest time being a squad leader ever I’m sure. No worries, my plan was to lay low during basic training. All these positions come with a lot more responsibilities, but nothing else. In my mind it would just e a big pain in the butt!

Another great thing happened today! My battle buddy’s rifle finally got turned back in at the end of the day. Even though my battle buddy is back, he’s not allowed to have his rifle. (Since he’ll be going home soon anyway.) So lucky me had to carry it every moment since he left to go AWOL. I’m so glad to get rid of that thing. It was a real pain in ass at times.

It finally happened, I figured from day one it would, that I would get some sort of old guy nickname. The DSs now call me either “old man” or “grandpa”.

Random DS Quote: “Stop squeezing your ass men…I don’t want to see that shit!”