Clean, Clean, Clean (Basic Training) Day 19

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 was on Fire Guard duty from 3am to 4am. Fire Guard is one of those things nobody likes to do, but everyone does it at least a few times a week. What makes it worse now is the DS changed some of the rules because there were some problems with people getting up on time and the previous uniform incident. Now fireguard has to be woken up 1/2 hour before their shift instead of 15 minutes and we have to be in full ACU uniform instead of our PT uniforms (shirt, shorts and sneakers)

As another punishment...we had to get up at 5am today instead of 6am like the rest of the company. I’m still pretty sore from all the smoking we got yesterday along with the PT test. I’m glad Sunday’s are a day a rest from training and PT. My big toes are numb on the outside of each. There are few others that are having the same issue. Something with these boots we wear is pinching a nerve or something. I’ll be in sneakers most of the day today except for church. We have to wear the full ACU uniform to church service.

Just like last Sunday, no training. That does not mean we will be doing nothing. We have to deep clean our bay. We’ll be moving all the beds and lockers so we can buff out the entire floor. We also had to deep clean the bathrooms and courtyard area.

Went to church, that was a nice little get-away from cleaning since 5am. The service definitely wasn’t long enough though. There were a lot of people there, we had to use the overflow seating.

It seems every muscle in my body is sore today. I think the worst was what the DS called “the Indy 500”. We had to take a step (with hands on our head the whole time) and squat to the ground, get back up and take another step alternating legs and squat again. We had to do 4 laps around our bay. When I walked down our stairs this morning my legs felt like jello. 

The pink eye has spread, There is one more confirmed case and another suspected case. The bad thing is that they are both right next to my bunk. I’ve been trying to wash my hands even more and use hand sanitizer any time I think of it. Hopefully I will not catch it!

During all the cleaning one guy went into the stall in our bathroom and actually fell asleep. LOL. He said he woke up with his head on the toilet paper. Sleep deprivation is affecting everyone. While in church, I looked down my row and beside me everyone was asleep except for two people. There are no DSs there to make you get out of your seat and do push-ups.

Everyone is talking about what they want to go eat once they get out of here. The food here isn’t too bad, but there is no time to eat and enjoy it. It is also a bit healthier for the most part - no fast food type items. All the talk about everyone’s favorite foods made me hungry. I could go for pizza and an oreo blizzard right now. mmmmmm. 

We were given this week’s schedule, Land Navigation another obstacle course and the dreaded gas chamber are all on the menu. 

Update on the guy who had to go to the hospital in my platoon. He got a bad spider bite on his butt and I guess it got infected too. He’s back with us, just on bed rest with medication. I guess I’ll call him “Pvt. Spiderman”. Other nicknames…”Vin Diesel” (a guy who’s voice sounds just like him); “Douche” ( a guy who’s real last name rhymes with douche...formally known as “Boston”. 

Shoot’em in the head…Shoot’em in the head…Kill ‘em…reload and shoot’em again.

Tonight was very laid back. For the first time since starting basic. After dinner we finished up the few things we had left to clean. Our DS left early because something came up. The other platoon’s DSs checked in on is from time to time. We double checked with one of them to make sure we could shower and he said yes…shower whenever you want, just make sure it’s done before 21:00 (it was only 19:00). So I quickly grabbed all my stuff and took a long hot shower. Very awesome!

During the time the DS was here he ran into someones fart. He asked who did it and when the guy raised his hand he said “drop” (aka push-ups). While the guy was doing push-ups he said “Don’t talk our of your ass you” LOL.

Overheard Quote: “in Cadence…Push!!!” (in the latrine (bathroom) all the stalls were full and a guy was trying to get things moving)

mahaffey
 

I remember that quote that was to funny
 

Monday, March 7, 2011 - 04:50 AM

Lightning May Strike Once (Basic Training) Day 18

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

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.

Things That Go Boom (Basic Training) Day 16

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.

After we wake-up in the morning we have formation. (Basically we all get in line in a certain order every time, during this period the DS make make some announcements, but the main purpose is basically to get everyone gathered and accounted for. Each DS let's the 1st Sergeant know the status of their platoon. After formation we do some PT (physical training). All exercises are new, even to the DSs. They are pretty easy to do but its freakin' cold in the morning and we have on shorts and a shirt. We also get to lay down in the wet grass for some of the exercises...brrr.

After breakfast we headed to a semi with a trailer that we all sat in, very similar to a bus…but a semi.  We took off to the explosive ordinance section. We learned all about grenades, RPGs, IEDs and much more. We got to watch (and feel the blast) of a real claymore. That was pretty impressive, it was quite aways away. During this time everyone was all dressed up like army men, complete with helmets, backpacks and vests. The vest holds a canteen and I forgot to put mine in. I was sweating bullets. My neighbor in the bunk next to me forgot his hat once and was given a "negative counseling statement". This is basically like getting written up at a normal job. It goes in your file and if you get too many you can get in some big trouble (article 15 was mentioned). The DS told him if he doesn't mess up again, he will shred it so there will be nothing on his record. So anyway I was pretty scared that one of the DSs would notice, but luckily none did.

After lunch we headed back and went to the "PT Pit" (Imagine a giant sandbox). There is a normal size running track and everything in the middle is just a big sandbox, so it's bigger than a football field. We learned all the different ways to carry a wounded buddy, by yourself, with help, and with a stretcher (up to 4 people). We then had to practice each move with a partner in the hot sun and sand. I ended up with a little 140 pound guy, it was easy for me, but he really had a tough time trying to drag me. LOL (We ended up switching after that LOL). One of the carries was a low carry that we did on all fours literally dragging the guy through sand. That was the toughest and when we were the one getting dragged, sand got everywhere.

One of the guys in our platoon fell out. I guess he wasn’t drinking enough water. They ended up taking him to the hospital. He isn’t back yet, so his condition is unknown. The DS said tonight that they are hoping to graduate 20 of us (our platoon started at 35). Stuff always happens along the way and people just don’t make it. 

Mail call again tonight, nothing for me. I’m guessing it may take a bit longer coming from across the country. Another nickname “Pink Eye or Pinky” a guy who got pink eye. The DS was pissed. Told us all to stop touching our eyes. We also had to bleach the entire bay. 

Today was actually a pretty cool day. I liked actually doing something. Tomorrow we have the obstacle course. That should make for a better day too. 

Random DS Quote: “Stop smiling… Stop talking…Shut your holes!!!!” (on the bus trip today.)

Private Jacket (Basic Training) Day 15

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'm going to start talking a little about food. Every meal is extremely rushed. The food is pretty good, but we have no time to enjoy it. We are also not allowed to look anywhere except our trays while we are shoveling it in. Also there is absolutely no talking. Because of the danger for heat related injuries, we are all required to get three glasses of liquids with each meal. (2 powerade and 1 water). For breakfast before when were done the DS yelled out that we had to get an additional glass of OJ and a glass of milk when we finished out food. I almost threw up. 5 glasses of liquids in a short period of time is a little too much. Everyone wasn't feeling  to well after that.

We finished the rest of our 1-1 assessment test. One minute each for push-ups (1 did 37) and sit-ups (I did 27).  The real test has 2 minutes for each event. I just weighed myself and I am 190lbs. Thought I might have gained more since we didn't do anything in reception. 

Later on in the day we were given a briefing by the brigade sergeant major. We then had a briefing from the Army's version of NCIS, they are called CID. They are actually active duty army, but they don't have to wear the ACUs or even have their hair cut to the same regulations as the normal army. Their message was basically – don't do drugs. After that we had a few more classes,  those classes take all my concentration to stay awake in, people are constantly getting smoked left and right for falling asleep. 

Now I'm going to tell you a little about some of the folks I'm with here. I've talked before about PVT Home School. Unfortunately, He's in another platoon now. I know he would have provided a lot of writing material. LOL. I did talk to someone in his platoon though and I see him here and there. I think he got the best platoon for him. I guess they don't get smoked as much and their drill sergeants don't even yell that much.

There are finally some nicknames that the DSs have started using. "Lurch" - a really skinny guy,  so tall he changed the light bulbs in our bay while just just standing on the floor. "Golden Gloves" - a guy who won the golden  gloves boxing championship. (He's also the guy who jumped to the parade rest position when in the shower as the DS was talking to him.) "Boston" - a guy from Boston with an accent and all. Then there's this guy I'm going to call Pvt. Jacket. I've been going to write about him earlier, I've have actually written my wife about him. This guy messes up quite a bit and he's on the chubbier side. He reminds me a lot of the guy in "Full Metals Jacket" that kills his DS and then kills himself. All the DSs picked up on it right away and would attack anytime he messed up. We had, a few days ago, a class on heat injuries, because it get so hot here and we are doing a lot of physical activities. They went through all the symptoms and then later that day Pvt. Jacket started saying he was having these symptoms.  The DS took his temp (98.6). Then had him just sit and drink water wherever we went and  whatever we did all he would do is just sit and drink water. He went to sick call another day. Then we had a class on suicide and what to look to look for. Next thing I know Pvt. Jacket is now on suicide watch. His bed is in the middle of the bay and there has two guards besides the fireguard to watch only him. He can't even take a poop with the stall door closed. A few guys had to go through his locker and remove anything he could hurt himself with. He'll be shipped off somewhere else tomorrow. So that is one down in our platoon. I wonder if anyone else will fall out.

Speaking of guard duty, we also have a "laundry guard". Our platoon has all the washers in the barracks on Mondays & Wednesdays. There isn't really enough time or machines for everyone to do their own, so for the whole night each hour we rotate a person to do everyone's laundry. I was gong to do the first shift at 9pm tonight, but with the addition of a suicide guard everything got shuffled around. I now have fireguard from 22:00-23:00.

Random DS Quote: "Stop choking and start eating, hurry up" (heard during dinner at the DFAC)

Eagle Tower (Basic Training) Day 14

 A pic of a 2nd platoon soldier going down Eagle Tower

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.

Today we all got dressed up and slung on our backpacks and vest for the march to Eagle Tower. It’s not too far away, perhaps a couple of miles or so. When we got there we ate breakfast and then the company broke into the four platoons. Two of the other platoons started repelling down Eagle Tower. My platoon went to another station to keep us busy. We learned how to load a magazine of bullets in our rifles and how to check for problems when the gun doesn't fire. We were given a magazine of blanks and some that were designed to jam the rifle. It was interesting for the first few times, but after an hour it gets pretty boring. We then switched to practicing throwing a grenade. We used dummy grenades and threw them at a target (picture yourself standing in a line throwing something like a rock into the sand...over and over). After that we switched to get ready to repel. We all got harnessed up and then practiced on a mini version of eagle tower. (It was only 10' tall…a midget Eagle Tower if you will) When we finished, we headed over to Eagle Tower and waited in line. When I was about 10 people back all of sudden it started pouring down rain. They cancelled the rest of the event because of this. I didn't get to do it. We had to march back in the rain, then we all got to take showers that weren't timed (yahoo!) we just had enough time needed to be back in formation. 

The rest of the day was kind of strange, because the plan was for us to still be at Eagle Tower. The DSs gave us some informal classes on staff, we ate dinner outside in the courtyard because it was already set-up for us to eat at Eagle Tower.

The end of the night was our 3 DSs gathering everyone around and explaining why they joined the Army. Then they had each of us state why we joined. After that it was a Q & A session that lasted for a long time. It was interesting to hear their stories and have them act more like people instead of just yelling and swearing all the time.

Mail came tonight, everyone had to put on their protective eye gear and sit in a semi-circle around the DS. He would then read the name of who the letter was to. When the person would sound off, he would throw the letter in that general direction.  Envelopes were flying everywhere. A few "lucky" ones even got hit right in the forehead. It was pretty funny. No mail for me yet. The rule is 5 push-ups for each letter & 15 push-ups for every heart on the letters. LOL. Even though I didn't get any mail, I still ended up doing push-ups. When getting our protective eyewear I forgot to put my dog tags (they have my locker key on them) back down my shirt. 

Since I've been here the DSs have stated that basic training has changed a lot, and it is still changing every cycle. They said too many people were getting hurt because the generations coming into basic now are soft.… too many video games & sitting in front of the TV. The DSs also can't touch anyone unless they ask permission first. They can't even call anyone names. But they can get their point across.  Instead of saying "you're an idiot" it could be "you're acting like an idiot" with some more colorful language of course.

Random DS Quote: "How does 1st Platoon do everything?" response from the Platoon, "Sexy Drill Sergeant"

In formation for "Concurrent Training" (I'm the one in the front)

 A DS showing us how to conduct SPORTS to clear a malfunction. 

 A pic of our platoon "striking a pose". 

Some of my platoon throwing mock grenades.
 

A photo of our platoon in concurrent training 
with Eagle Tower in the background

 A DS explaining the steps involved to throw a grenade
 

Me in front "Striking a Pose"

Hew

talking about everyone with the ds and sitting in a circle reminded me of stripes with john candy lol!

Sunday, May 2, 2010 - 03:42 PM


FS SPC Miller

Haha yea, "I figured I would join before I got drafted"

Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - 12:20 PM

Good Day (Basic Training) Day 13

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.

Today was an interesting day. We woke at 4:00am and got ready. After formation we went to do some of our daily morning exercises. We thought we were going to do the 1-1-1 test today but it turned out we only did the 1 mile run. The track we ran on is pretty crappy, there is  even a soft sand on part of it. I ended up running an 8:20. Not too bad, I didn't push myself that hard. I was in the very front at the start and I ended up slowing way down after the first lap to try and run an 8:00 minute… I guess I slowed down a little too much.

After the mile test we had to get dressed in our ACUs along with a little backpack and something I think the DS calls a Flick. It's basically a little vest that you can snap a bunch of stuff on, We then took a bus (well 4 buses because the entire company came). We went to a little training area and had breakfast. We had a couple of a couple of communications classes, but the thing that really stood out about this place was their bathrooms. We all had to go to this little building that was just plain disgusting. It reminded me of a restroom you may find at a remote park, except I don't think anyone ever cleans it. Some of the urinals were not draining well and you literally had to hold your breath while in there.  We capped off the training outside with another heat injury demo where another solider had to strip to his undies and get iced sheets put all over him. We ate MREs there for lunch. I had BBQ veggie burger, not too bad, and the best part...they actually gave us plenty of time to eat them. 

Got back to our bunks and found a big surprise. Some people didn't lock their lockers, so the DS pulled out all their crap and spread it all over the bay. They also took a guys sunscreen (or some sort of lotion) and used it to write on the floor "Good Job :)"

So we all had to hurry and clean all that up and then hurry down for some more classes that were hard to stay awake in. It really takes all my concentration to not fall asleep...so far I haven't. There are a number of people that do end up falling asleep and getting smoked for it! All the stuff… the information that they are piling on us is crazy. I still am feeling a little overwhelmed. Lots of memorizing stuff and trying to remember what to say or do while in formation. I swear if the DS winks at us and farts we have to chant something. I have a hard time keeping everything straight.

Sounds like if it doesn't rain tomorrow, we will be doing a road march to "Eagle Tower" and then repelling down it. Sounds like that would be fun with a little scary thrown in it.

Random DS Quote: "Privates, you're as dirty as my wife's private and that some dirty shit" (a couple of privates laugh) then the DS gets up in their faces and starts screaming "What, you laughing at my wife's private!!!"


Victor
 
 
Good info, I know not to laugh at this joke!  LOL

 
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - 10:59 PM