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.
We
ship out tomorrow "down range" or "up the hill" to start our basic
combat training. I can't wait to finally get this started so I can start
counting down the days before I see my wife.
I
have to bitch a little now… I tell you, these guys just don't know how
to shut-up. I know most of them are straight out of high school. They
still act like this is high school. Whenever we are all together as a
group and the DS leaves the room or the area, everyone starts talking.
It starts off quietly talking then it continues to get louder and
louder. Every once in a while someone will shush everyone, the
process starts all over again in a low rumble getting louder and louder.
Even when the DS or cadre are in the room people just can't stop
talking. We've been smoked for it a few times and the DS and Cadre have
yelled at us for it. But nothing changes. I imagine when we start basic
that crap will stop fast...I hope, or else I'm going to get very very strong.
We
had inspection again the morning and other than the DS telling a few
people to straighten their bunks there were no issues. We've come a long
way. I had to assign people small, but specific task they are in charge
of to keep everything in order. Hopefully we'll keep it all clean. A
couple of people had to shave again and the DS took down one person's
name for not shaving at all. What a dumb ass. We all know he'll be
checking our faces, now he'll be spending some quality time with the DS
tonight instead of sleeping.
We
were all sent out for formation at 7:45, after waiting a little bit we
were told to come back in an hour. So at 8:45 we went on the "nature
hike". We walked out in the woods and the DS & Cadre showed us some
examples of formations. After that the DS sat down on a stump and had
us all sit down around him for some questions and answers about
anything. It was a nice change in scenery and very laid back. When you
don't have any privileges, something as simple as that is pretty cool.
We
also got our BCG glasses. They are these really huge thick brown
glasses that everyone has to wear if prescribed. Picture a bunch of
people walking around looking like "Revenge of the Nerds" only in army
uniform.
We
started watching a movie (some war movie with John Travolta as a guy
who is interrogating an army ranger - I didn't catch the name), but
after 45 minutes it was cut short. A captain came in a wanted to do
some Q & A to find out how reception was for everyone. After that we
had the pleasure of standing in line for dinner at attention for an
hour. Standing still doesn't sound that hard, but it starts to get tough
after a while! People the DS saw moving hat to get out and do push-ups
in front of him. Every time he would start talking my first reaction was
to look at him because he was talking to us. Doing any movement (even
following him with your eyes is not allowed). I'm in the barracks right
now resting my feet!
I
have fire guard duty right now. Which really sucks. 3am-4am and we are
waking up at 5am. Each hour of the fire guard shift has a different set
of duties and responsibilities. Some of the earlier shifts have cleaning
and all of them at some point have the fire guard head count. My
special duties include talking out the garbage and taking out any
laundry that is still in the washer & dryers.
Tomorrow
is the big day, we are finally shipping "down range", I feel like they
have just been fattening us up here in reception. It will be interesting
to see how things change and how the people will be changing.
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