20 minutes until lights out. Family day (the a week mark) had come and gone. Thank you, Emily and Elizabeth, for coming. I enjoyed seeing both of you. Since then we've done a lot of busy nothingness, to include a few nights in the field practicing team movements and other such things. It actually hasn't been bad at all, even with the smokings.

I went overboard with the caffeine and sugar on family day and I really paid for it the next few days afterward. We had a PT test a day or two after our family day pass and my score showed the effects of my indulgences. We had another pass today (it was ft. Benning Day) and I did a lot better. I also went to an actual bookstore and did some reading. It was great. Thanksgiving is coming up. We're going to have a pretty decent meal then too. Okay, enough rambling.

The big training event of this week was the convoy line fire. It's basically the military version of a drive by shooting. We get in a track, drive past some targets, and unload on them. Then we do a simulated IED, dismount, and assault the position that we were 'attacked' from. Once all the 'enemy' are dead, we do EPW (enemy prisoner of war) searches. Basically we put them down for maps, phone numbers, or other intel that may be of use to us. Then we re-mount trans and get off the objective as quickly as possible so the enemy can't regroup and hit us back.

We also did our final land nov event. They gave us a map and compass, a pencil and a protractor, and a set of points by eight-digit coordinate. Then we had to plot the points on the map, find the distance and angles between them, and (finally) walk them out on the ground. if you're thinking that sounds hard, you would be right. The points are 400 to 600 meters apart through wooded and hilly terrain with patches of dense brush. not fun. Actually it was pretty fun, to be honest. Being able to do something like that and hit four out of five points (we missed the last one) is a big confidence builder.

Other than that things have been pretty slow. I'll write more tomorrow.

November 21 2007
Chow is in an hour so I'm doing laundry. This week we've been learning to do house clearing. You move in a team of four and go from room to room, killing searching and/or tying up anyone you find. Everyone gets searched, only people who are 'combative" get killed. it's hectic and chaotic and really hard to do correctly. Lots of things can go wrong, most of which involve people with guns being places you didn't expect them to be. That and people with guns waiting for you and shooting you as you come through doorways. (doorways, by the way, are known as the 'fatal funnel'. Do not stand in doorways, or near them if you can help it.) today we went and did it in real houses and had some people playing hadji. I 'died' about five times, and got it right-perfect-only once. (by 'i' I mean my team)

this morning we did our "eagle Run". It was five miles in formation, at a 9:00 mile pace. That's pretty slow so it wasn't a problem for me. At about mile four we were doing great, talking and joking with each other, jumping and tapping our heels in the air, etc. Then we realized we were really only on mile three and we had a long hill to go up. We had to push a few guys (literally-I had my hand on his back for a while and at one point he was resting his arm on people's shoulders) but everyone except on guy made it. Then we ran through all of the company areas and yelled TWO! FIVE! FOUR! (we're one of six companies in the 2/54 Infantry) to "wake them up". It was a fun time, but I'm glad it's over with. there's a 2 mile APFT run on Saturday and a 12-16 mile ruck march at the end of the FTX (field Training Exercise, a week-long exercise where we review and practice everything we've learned) and then I'm done with all the endurance for OSUT.

Speaking of the long ruck march, at the end of that march we go up a big hill, nicknamed the stairway to Heaven, and at the top we'll go through two big gates, drop our rucks, and have the Honor Hill Ceremony. I don't know what that all entails since we're not supposed to talk about it but I know that we get our crossed rifles then (the symbol of the Infantry) and that it's the only time we're allowed to cry.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I don't know what that means, other than that we get to sleep in until 6 am and that we get a good dinner. I'll write more about it them, I guess. Oh, we also learned how to search vehicles today, and had a crash course in ROE (rules of engagement) and EOF (escalation of force) Nothing fancy, mostly just common sense. Don't kill people who pose no threat, use the least amount of force possible, etc. That's it for now.

November 22 2007

So far Thanksgiving has involved in until 5:50 AM, getting ready at a leisurely pace, being told at 6:05 AM (just as soon as I finished soaping myself up in the shower, but before I started rinsing off) that I had 2 minutes to be in the PT uniform and downstairs with my rifle and camlebak. I didn't make it in 2 minutes but I was on time anyway, After breakfast I helped the drill sergeant with some computer stuff and then cleaned up my locker, scrubbed the sinks in the latrine, folded a bunch of laundry, organized my fuck, shined my shoes, listened to story time with our drill sergeant for a bit, and now I'm writing this. All before 10:30 AM and this hasn't been a busy day. There's some speculation that we're getting a pass later today but I kinda of doubt it, the PX is probably closed.

Regarding Graduation- (LET SADIE GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I haven't bought a ticket home yet so it's good to know how long you'll be staying. I'd like to see some of the sights with you, including the infantry museum and (if we can see it) the airborne tower. I'm sure the guys in the platoon will all want to get together for dinner one night too, so plan on at least one evening without me. Also, I think you should pull Sadie out of school for a few days to come. She can make it up later, but I'll never graduate from Basic and Infantry training again. I can help pay for her ticket if thats an issue.

I think this letter is long enough so I'm going to send it now, even though it won't go out for a day or two.

Dear Family.

This probably won't be long because I have other letters to write but we'll wee. Actually I think I'll write those first. (three days later!) Okay, there we go. Holy cow I've been busy! I don't have much time so I'll just do a quick recap and then some Q+A.

Last week (today is the 7th of November) We did team movement drills. I got a raw deal because I got a staph infection in my armpit and had to go to sick call. That was the day we did the dry run (with blanks). Because team movement involves running, hiding behind cover, providing covering fire, and shooting at targets, a lot can go wrong-primarily shooting your teammates. So because I didn't get to do the dry run I couldn't do the live fire. I understand the policy but it still bothered me. Sick call is pretty much a full day of doing nothing. It sucks. I got two days in a row of doing nothing because of it-one for sick call, one of not doing the drills because I missed them the day before. There was other stuff last week but it was leading up to the team movement drills.

This week we've got two overnights in the field. We had one last week too where we learned the basics of setting up a patrol base. One was Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. Tonight (Wednesday) we're back in the bay and tomorrow night we're in the field again.

This morning we did a ruck march (fire miles, not long at all) and I hurt my knee on it. I'm afraid it might be bad. It popped inside and immediately hurt like crazy. I quickly discovered that I can walk straight just fine but that twisting or rotating it hurts. So I'm going to sick call again in the morning. I'm not happy. Casanoua thinks it's a torn ACL but he's not a doctor or anything, he just had his hurt in the past. I guess we'll see. I'm worried about it. Hopefully I can get back out with the platoon tomorrow afternoon and keep going. Friday is more training and then Saturday is (yay!) family day! I get a pass until Sunday night! I'm going to try to go to church with Emily and Elizabeth. Now for Q+A.

Q. What comes after Blue Phase?
A. Black and Gold phases. I forget the order. One in Infantry training, including an FTX-field training exercise. It's a week in the field (camping) and doing missions. It will be as much like being in a combat zone as possible, including artillery, ambushes, scouting, firefights, etc. The other is recovery, where we clean everything about five times.
Q. What is a ruck?
A. A ruck is a ruck sack. you would probably call it a backpack. The FTX ends with a 12 mile ruck march, which is a hick at 3 mph with the ruck on. 3mph seems slow until you're doing it with a ruck on.
Q. Why would they tip our lockers over when they search them? it seems unusually cruel and unnecessarily rude to do so.
A. The short answer is "Go watch full metal jacket." The longer answer is that they do it because they can. I keep thinking that you 'get' it and then you ask something like that. Basic training is nine weeks (14 for infantrymen) of drill sergeants treating privates in ways that would normally be considered cruel and rude. And then they laugh about it. If we get upset (or show it, anyway) they just do it more. Sometimes they get good food and bring it in the bay and eat it in front of us. No reason, just because they can. We can either man up and deal with it, or gripe and bellyache. It doesn't really bother me any more. Everyone here has really think skin.
Q. What kind of contraband do people have?
A. Porn and tobacco, mostly. Anything less appealing isn't worth the risk.
Q. Is Sunday the 'eat whatever' day because they told us or because that's what I decided?
A. I decided. you can eat whatever you want every day. Some guys are still fat because they eat too much and don't push themselves on PT.
Q. Have you been shot?
A. no, just busy, and tired.
Q. Should we still write to you?
A. Yes! I don't mind the push-ups

Go ahead and get the thing for Polly. I need sleep now.

28th Oct 2007 11:30-ish
Reflexive fire turned out to be kind of lame. It was just turning and shooting at stationary targets from 10 to 25 meters away. We face left, look to the right and identify the target, then turn right and raise rifle, safety off, fire, safety on, trun left while returning rifle to the low ready. Pretty boring. We did a few walking and shooting drills. It's hard to hit a target like that.

On Friday we did a night fire exercise with our NODs-Night optice Device. They're pretty cool. We had infrared lasers, too, on the rifles. So you put the laser on the target, you can only see it with the NOD on, and the lazer is zeroed to the rifle so wherever you put the laser dot is where your round will go. Kind of like the CCO except the dot in the DDO is only visible when lookiing through the CCO; the IR laser plus the NOD actually projects a light (invisible to the naked eye) onto the target.

Because we had to wait for it to get dark, we had some time to kill on Friday afternoon. So we did "skits". Privates from different platoons got to get up and do imtations of drill sergeants and other cadre. One guy did a spot on impression of our company commander. He had his voice, his mannerisms, and his figures of speech down just right. Then another guy jumped up and did the Mormon drill sergeant-the same one who yells "milk and cookies." And we had a caricatured replay of the events of a few weeks ago:

Drill Sergeant: "Milk and cookeis!'

All Privates (in unison); "MILK AND COOKIES!"

Company Commander: (annoyed) It's a #%^@* Caloric Augmentation packet, men."

Privates (a smattering, not very enthusiastic) Caloric augmentation packet thingie"

Drill Sergeant: Milk and cookies!

Privates (loudly and inunison) MILK AND COOKIES!!

We like the C.O. He's a nice guy. But we love our drill sergeants. I would follow my C.O. anywhere on earth and fight under his command. But I would follow my drill sergeants through the gates ofHell and die if they asked me to. I don't even know what specifically they do to inspire that kind of loyalty, but it's probably related to their ability to call us things that would normally be insulting and make it sound respectful. Complimentary, even.

Speaking of our relationship with the drill sergeants-it's changed quite a bit since red phase. About halfway into red phase they started "taking off their drill sergeant hats". Not literally, but they started acting more like mentors and instructors than screaming machines. At this point our relationship includes mutual respect, a lot of joking and occasional horse play. At the end of the night fire exercise we were doing a "brass and ammo check". We all form up, empty our pockets and hold our rifles up for inspection. Then a drill sergeant comes along and looks in our rifle for rounds, and "pats us down" to check for brass or ammo. The patting down is only a guideline though, Normally it takes the form of getting a really hard shove in the chest, where we have two pockets. The smaller guys get knocked around and the bigger guys try to take it without moving too much. It's all in fun though. And because our company is doing really well they trust us, so the checks are quick and more of a formality than anything. Anyway, on Friday night for the brass and ammo (after they made us low crawl across the range to pick up brass) we were doing it as we did the airborne shuffle (quick walk/jog) past the drill sergeants because trans (portation) showed up early and we can't keep them waiting. Friday night had been crazy all night and it just got worse when trans showed up. I was talking to my senior drill sergeant when one of the jokers in the platoon ran past and did a flying leap (in his IBA and helmet) toward the other drill sergeant, who grabbed him in midair and slammed him on the ground. When the kid landed he yelled "No brass no ammo drill sergeant!" and the D.S. said, "You're good, go!" and the kid jumped up and ran off laughing. That kind of think goes on all the time.

Another thing about Friday night. We had a lot of extra ammo to fire. When I had fired my rounds I went back to the line and someone said "Go to the ammo point and get more, we're going again. Hurry!" So I went to the ammo point and they handed me 200 rounds (10 magazines) and said "Doubletime it back and hand these out to the drill sergeants." I got back to the line and there were about three guys behind me also carrying stacks of magazines. We all ran downrange (remember this was a close range exercise-we were behind the firing line) and gave the magazines to the D.S.'s there. At about that time I heard someone firing on burst (three round bursts) as fast as they could. I turned around to go back and saw more guys coming down with ammo. At about this time the guy inthe tower said "Stop bringing ammo to the drill sergeants. I repeat, DO NOT FEED the drill sergeants. We have people who need to rotate through." Apparently by the end of the night the barrels were glowing red.

Ruck march tomorrow. Eight miles with a 45-ish pound pack. Lights are out already. Got Mom's letter. Gold's Gym already has my orders. They can wait until I get ack to get another copy. Also, this isn't the "real army" yet. Need to be up early, will write more later.

Oct. 24 2007 1840

Today marks the exact halfway mark for us. If you count our time at the 30th A.G., I;m more than half done. Time is absolutely flying. I think it's because we've settled into a routine. Monday we zeroed our CCO's and that's it. I fired niie rounds. Tuesday we qualified with the CCO's. 40 rounds, 40 targets; I hit 32 of them. This is with pepip targets-you only have a few seconds to acquire the target, aimm, and fine). With the CCO's it's outrageously easy, point, click, Bang! wait. My weapon jammed once and I had to clear it, so I missed at least two targets for that. Today we had in intro to monigh targets. Basically they handed us a few clips full of ammoway more than normal, they were giving it out like candy-lined us up at our firing points, and said "fire until you're out, then move and let the next man move up. Fire all your rounds." They kept the targets moving and dind't keep score. It was, in other wards, just for fun. I hit most of the moving targets and all of the stationary targets. The rest of the week will be taken up with reflexive fire exercises. From what I've been told, reflexive fire is going to be the most fun we've had (or will have) to date. Or whatever the future version of "to date" is. I guess it's just like the movies-walking through rooms, targets jump up and we shout at them. Or something. Maybe. Anyway, it's going to be fun.

On Tuesday (yesterday) we had our first Health and Wellness imspection. I don't know why they call it that becasue as fas as I can tell it has nothing to do with health or wellness. They just search our bay and lockers for contraband. When they search the lockers they just pulll everything out and dump it on the floor. Some of the lockers they just ripped over completely. They also threw the mattresses off our bunks and took soome of our racks apart. I didn't know they were going to tip the lockers so I wan't prepared for it. My laundrydetergent was in an open box and it spittle (from the top shelf, of course) all over my pile of stuff. I spent the rest of the day (literally-lights were out before I finished) cleaning that up and putting my stuff back in place.

They guy in the next locker over-the one from Hollywood who was a stunt double-lost his wallet in the process of doing all this. So today they searched lockers again, and mine got dumper again. I didn't care though because I put all the detergent in a ziplock bag (thanks Mom!) so it just plopped on the floor without spilling. We finally found his wallet. It was in h is camelback (a backpack-type "hydration system"-it holds water and has a tube you can drink through.) He now owes the drill sergeant a $100 bottle of rum when we graduate for making him search for something that wasn't lost.

The weather here is distinctly nasty all of a sudden. It's cold and wet. Not pouring, just a near constant drizzle with a cold, steady breeze that occasionally gusts. I don't miind cold and dry, or cold and wet with no wind, or wet and warm with wind, but cold and wet with wind is perfectily miserable weather. I hope something changes sooon but I'm not holding my breath. I'm getting out my winter boots and water proofing them tonight.

Our workouts have gotten a lot harder since blue phase started. We ran with our full IBA (bulletproof vests with plates-at least 20 pounds, probably more) earlier this week. It was a long run at a good pace, too. Then we did push-ups and sit ups with them on, and then climbed a rope with and without the IBA. Now when I put the IBA on and walk around with it, I don't even notice it. I mean that literally. I walk downstairs, look around and see people wearing theirs, and think, "oh yeah, I need to put that on..." and then realize I"m already wearing it. I can wear it all day (most days I do wear it all day) and it's only mildly uncomfortable. I think I'm going to start doing my evening workouts with it on. We've also added a bit more gear to our full battle outfit. Every time it feels heavy at first and then I get used to it. Hopefully this willl be good for the 8 mile ruck march that's coming up. I'm a bit nervous for that one. I'm sure it'll be fine but whatever. I'm still apprehensive.

I ( just about 10-15 minutes ago) got back from final farmation. On the way back I passed a wrestling match on the stairway landing. There were about five guys. Three of them were "beating up" the other two, who were on the floor laughing. All of them were laughing, including two spectators. One of them got his head smacked pretty h hard on the concrete, said "OW!" really looud, then laughed and kept going. I would have done the same thing. Pain is becoming familiar, even routine and pedestrian. About three guys in the platoon have shin splints, sprained ankles, or other foot and leg injuries. Everyone ran 5X60's (same thing, shorter time) despite the pain they must have been feeling. I ran until I was literally dizzy. Every day I push myself a bit closer to the limit, even as the limit moves farther away. It is both agony and ecstasy.

My hips have been bothering me recently, especially aften a run. It's felt like they're coming out of socket. Because of the problems Emily, my sister, had with her hips, I was worried about it. One of the guys in my platoon is a personal trainer so I asked him about it. (I hope I haven't written about all this already). I described the pain, or rather I started to, and he stopped me and said, "I know exactly what it is" and completed the description. He was right on, and knew exactly (as he said) what it felt like, so I have faith in his diagnosis. He told me I just have to stretch out a few different leg and hip muscles and tendons and the pain will start to lessen. So tonight I got with another guy who is a gymnist and he showed me how to stretch muscles I didn't know I had. It was great and my hips feel better already. I'll probably lose 90% of that in my sleep but if I keep it up I should be fine. Two quick things before I go to bed. One, I'm going to the dentist tomorrow to get my other tooth fixed. Two, our drill sergeant said that we are the first platoon in about two years to go through Health and Wellness without having contraband. I guess we've got a good group of guys.

Love,__________

21 Oct. 2007 1550

Last night for dinner they added hamburgers, onion rings, slices of pizza and ice cream to the dinner menu. Not sure if that’s going to stay for all of Blue Phase or if it was just last night. I didn’t have any of it. We also got to watch a movie last night, but I was really tired so I just went to bed. I hope they bring the ice cram back. Sunday (today) is my “eat whatever I want day, so I could have some if it’s available.
The other day we got our CCO’s-close combat optics. It replaces our rear iron sights and consists of a tube with a laser (or something) in it that draws a little red dot with the top of the front sight post, and pull the trigger. It works really well for targets at 25 meters of less. It’s not very accurate but it’s quick. And since most of the guys here are 18 or 19, they were (of course) screwing around with them last night. I’m surprised noe of them got broke . The LGOPs frame got broken the other night because people were screwing around.

22 Oct. 2049
We zeroed our COO’s today and learned some movement drills. We move three times between four sets of sand bags (four because we start at one). The first movement is the low crawl. You basically-scratch that, you don’t basically do anything. You lie in the dirt and literally drag yourself across the ground without lifting anything up. The next movement is the high, or “command” crawl which is what you normally think of Army people doing. Then you have the fun one, the 3-5 second dash. You jump up, run long enough to say “I’m up, they see me, I’m down”, and then fall/throw yourself down in a controlled way. Only because I’m new to the drill, I keep messing up. We’re going to be doing this drill later this week or next with live rounds. It’s a squad movement drill-some people fire downrange while other people run, then we switch it up. So we’ll be running past people while they shoot actual bullets past us, and we will have actual bullets in our rifles while we run. Everyone here can control their rifles and hit their targets consistently while they stay in one place. It’s the running that scares me. One trip with the safety off (part of the drill is to check that the safety is on) and someone could get shot. So I need to practice, a lot, before we start doing this for real. We’ll be doing it with blanks before we do it with live rounds, and I’m sure we’ll have lots of time to practice before we do it with blanks. I’m nor really worried about myself, most of my mistakes were in the way I got down. But the other people in the platoon-there’s only one or two, but that’s all it takes-make me nervous.
By the way, we’ve started doing push-ups for letters, so if your’re going to send a lot of stuff, please send it all in one envelope. Time to go to bed.

Love,
p.s. I’m going to try to send these more often. I finally got stamps.

14 Oct. 2007 (Sunday)
Morning, Just after church

The weather here has been getting steadily cooler over the past few weeks. This morning it was perfect-cool, just a little bit of snap in the air, clear sky, birds singing in the trees, etc. My platoon won the BRM competition, so we're getting a four hour pass later on today. I'm going to get online for a little while, buy some stamps and things at the PX, and then I don't know what for sure. We have to go to lunch first-the pass is from 12:30 to 17:00-but there's a Chinese place just up the road where people would rather eat. So the joke is that we're all going to take one piece of bread, lick it, and then leave.

Today marks the start of our sixth week. Next Sunday we'll be going into Blue Phase. That's when all of our training starts coming together. We'll start learning fire team and squad movement formations and all that high speed stuff. This week, the rest of white phase, is devoted to advanced rifle marksmansnhip. We'll be firing machine guns and AT-4's (anti-tank rockets.) We'll also learn how to fire on multiple moving targets with our M16's.

Last week was more of what I've written already. Firing lots of rounds and waiting. I had been pretty consistently shooting well enough to get sharp shooter (the mddle qualification) so I figured at the qualification range, which is nice and better maintained,I could probably get expert. But when I went to shoot I didn't have the strap on my glasses so they kept sliding down and the rims got in my line of sight. I shot well enough to qualify (marksman) but that's it. I'm dissapointed, but whatever. I can always requalify later.

Yesterday we went to the grenade range. We'd been practicing throwing grenades but people screwed it up anyway. Before they let us throw real grenades they gave us practice grenades, which just make a popping sound when they go off but otherwise do nothing. One guy's went off in his hand. Other people dropped theirs, etc. Then we went and threw some live grenades. They make big booms that you can feel in your guts.

We're all used to explosions by now. People (myself included) used to jump a bit, or at least lolok around, when something went bang. Now we just ignore them.

Mom asked me a few questions about the military so I'm going to take a minute to answer them. The first is officer vs. enlisted. It's not actually officer, because enlisted men can become NCO's (non commissioned officer) but whatever. Basically, commmisioned officers form the command structure of the military. They decide what needs to be done. Lietenants, captains, majors, colonels, and generals are the officer ranks. Enlisted men-privates, corporals, and sergeants (sergeants are NCO's)-carry out the commander's orders. We do the actual work. In a command situation, there is always one enlisted man and one commissioned officer. For example, my company has a company commander (a captaiin) and a first sergeant. The commander directs the 1 st and the 1 sg gets it done. Enlisted men generally have more experience than officers, too, because they stick around longer. Our commmander will get promoted and move on but the first sergeant willl stick around and use his experience to advise the next commander on how to do things. There's more to it than that, but it's harder to explain. It's kind of cultural. Officers are more prestigious, etc. But they get made fun of sometimes by sergeants because they don't get thier hands dirty with "real" work and they generally have less experience than their NCO.

I mentioned to mom on the phone that I kind of wished I was staying regular Infantry instead of going S.F. (or applying for S.F. anyway) and she asked why. Basically it's because of the things I've been hearing from my drill sergeant about being in the infantry. First of all, the infantry period (special forces and rangers are both elite infantry) has a very high esprit de corps. We are the men (no women are allowed in the infantry) who actually hit the ground and fight. Tanks, jets, heicopters and artillary "fight" too, but only in support of the infantry and generally from a greater distance. One thing that some civilians don't get obout the military is how prestige is reversed. In the civilian world, the more comfortable you are (big house, cushy car, expensive food, etc.) the higher you're regarded. In the military, it's the opposite. The people with the most prestige are the people who do the hardest, most demanding, most uncomfortable jobs. First is Special Forces. They basicallly get dropped in the middle of nowhere for a year with no support and they have to make friends with the natives and survive. Then there's the Rangers, who generally stay on base but do hard, dirty missions. Next is the Airborne infantry, who perofrm the dangerous and unnatural act of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, but otherwise are standard infantry. Then you have your ordinary G.I's-General Infantry. After them are the poor, fat slobs who are in combat arms (tanks, arillery, etc.) but who aren't Infantry. And finally we have the barely-human drooling masses we call fobbits. They live on the FOB-the Forward Operating Base-where the most danger they'll encounter is occasional mortar fire. They sleep in their own beds every noght, eat hot meals every day, and basicallly live a soft, cushy, disgusting life. Infantrymen generallly think that if someone wanted to be comfortable they should have stayed a baby so they could get thier diapers changed for them their entire life, or (failing that) they should have stayed out of the military. We're generally satisfied, though, if they just stay out of our way.

I've allready written about what Rangers and Special Forces do. Go back and read the stuff I wrote before I left. It's in there. Let me know if you still have questions. Airborns school is where you go to learn how to jump out of airplanes. I don't get why it's such a big deal but for some reason everyone talks about paratrooopers (trooops who can jumb with parachutes) like they're super eite. Everyone wants to get into airborne school because it opens the door to Rangers, S.F. and a lot of non ??? (sp and handwriting) elite units like the 82nd and the 101st. (The 101st is for wankers, by the way.) We've seen the airborne training over the past week a few times. It starts on a tower that holds your chute open and then drops you, and then they go to jumping our of actual airplanes. I'm excited for January to come so I can start my airborne training.

You should tell Darlene to quit being a wimp. I know she's heard the story about her Dad in Minnesota. I don't know what she's thinking, having heard that, and still thinking that a little chill in the air wlll killl her. You'd think, being a nurse, that she'd have learned about cold weather injuries and-more to the point-what it takes to cause them.

I'm out of paper now so I'm going to stop writing and tend to my laundry. By the way, we got all new washers and dryers, very nice, Love ---------

17 Oct, 2007 After lights out and on new Army stationery

I was wrong, this week isn't advanced rifle marksmanship. That isn't until next week. This week we're getting familiar with different weapon systems, getting additional shots, and getting our "phase 11 systems, "I'm pretty sure that's our class A's (our really nice uniform) but I'm not certain. The weapon systems we're learning are M240 and the M249 (both machine guns), the M19 (automatic grenade launcher) and the .50 calibre machine gun. The .50 calibre is my favorite so far. I love watching the gigantic copper-jacketed rounds go in and seeing the tracers go down range and the brass flying out the other side. We also learned to aim and fire the AT4-and anti tank round. Rocket, actually. Four people got to fire live ones, including a guy in my platoon who we call the Kentucky Fried Asian. He's a skinny little Asian guy, but he was adopted young and raised by Kentucky Baptists. He apparently drives a huge truck with a gun rack in back and he has a really strong southern accent.

I may have all ready mentioned this, but my platoon won the BRM (marksmanship) competition, so we got a 4 hour sand hilll pass last weekend. I went and had Chinese food, then went to the rec center where I hadn't been before. I heard they had fun games and computers there. When I went into the computer room, I almost fell over. People were online, playing World of Warcraft. I didn't get online at all, and if I had I wouldn't have been able to play anyway (account is suspended until I reactivate it), but I was still shocked to see that people who are in basic training can play W. of W.

In other news, every noght at final formation (usually at 20:00 or so) we are issued, and we devour, what I learned today is called a "Supplemental Caloric Packet." previously we had been referring to it as simply "milk and cookies." Today we were corrected (jokingly) by our coommander. After he left, our drill sergeant made us yell "MILK AND COOKIES!" agian. A lot of interaction between the drill sergeants and the company (or platoon) is yelled. For example exercises. The drill sgt. will yell (for example) "The High Jumper!" and then he starts to count "one, two, three" and on the fourth count we yell out the numer of the exercise/repetition. so it goes;
DS; One, two, three
Us:One
DS: One, two, three
US" Two
etc, etc. And there is a certain tone of voice that goes with the yelliing, so we know to repeat it. But it's always fun to take something normally serious and play around with it, so things like yelling "milk and cookies" happens a lot.

My laundry is in the dryer now so I'm going to go to bed and write down my name to be woken up in an hour. We have a six mile ruck march tomorrow so I want all the sleep I can get.

18th Oct. 2007 19:32
I was wrong again. The mle and cookies are actually called a "Caloric Augmentation Packet", or juse CAP for short.

I guess Blue Phase officially starts tomorrow. We're excited. I don't know what that means exactly as fas as changes in lifestyle here go, but who cares? We're moving forward. Blue Phase also means 3 weeks until Family Day. Nov 10th is family day and anyone who wants can come then. I don't know what happens then, exactly, except that it probably involves us looking good and you getting tours and hearing speaches about how great we are and how great you are and alll that. I'm sure it will be very impressive despite the synicism with which I'm writing about it. I just think that the drill, ceremony aand parade stuff is kind of silly now that I'm starting to see the "real" military. But, civilians love to see people walking in straight lines, so...

This morning was the six mile ruck march. It was actually challenging. I was surprised by that, so I weighed my gear. It only came in at 42 pounds, though my camelbak (A backpack-type "hydration system" that holds about three liters of water. I drink about two or more a day) was only about half full and it was full this morning. That's also not including my rifle, which weighs about 11 pounds. But still, that's not a lot of weight. I guess I should be glad we're working up to the 12 mile march slowly. We'll have even more weight then, plus our IBA's which make breathing hard in addition to being heavy.

I got Mom's letter, dated (postmarked) the 9th of Octover a day or two ago. (It's the 19th today.) I'm curious about the reactions that people have when you tell them I'm in the military. I'm sure they run a whole spectrum from positive to apathetic to negative, and it's the negative ones I'm curious about.

It;s funny that you would ask about my battle buddy, because we saw him briefly today. We went back to 30th A.G.to get our nicer uniforms-class A's, new PT's (a jacket and pants that are super comfy that we can warm up in when it's cold) and a hand full of other stuff. While we were there, a bunch of people walked by the spot we were eating lunch at. Our Drill Sergeant knew somehow that it was a group of people on sick leave so he yelled "Hey! Creed, are you in there?" (yes, Creed is his last name. You can put in online, I don't care.) And Creed (that's my old battle buddy) raised his hand and looked around. Then my Drilll Sergeant yelled, to everyone eating lunch (but loud enough for Creed to hear), "Hey, there's the piece of *#!?!" The whole company was there-more than 200 people- and everyone laughed and started yelling insults at him. It was great. (You see what they're doing to me?! He deserved it though.) He gave us all the bird and we laughed at him even more. That was almost the highlight of my day.

When we go to chow, there's a specific way we line up that is orderly and efficient but the practical upshot of it is that even if your're "first" in line you are still about fifth or tenth in line, depending. It involves a lot of shuffling people and marching them and stuff. At the end of it all we're in two lines and the platoon guide picks one to go first, that is how you can be first and still not go until the middle of the platoon.)Anyway, I stopped trying to get up front a long time ago for two reasons. First, the things I just mentioned; second, it doesn't matter except that if you go up front you get maybe two extra minutes to eat. So I'm always toward the end of the line. But there are people who are insane about chow. They go down to every formation 20 minutes early-at least- and stand at the position of attention the whole time, just so they can eat a few miutes earlier than anyone else. That's crazy. So it's escalating into a sort of chow race. People are lining up earlier and earlier every day and it's getting ridiculous. So today, instead of taking us the normal way, the P.G. reversed everything and the people at the end of the line ate first.

Anyway, back to my old battle buddy, Creed. He is currently rotting at 30th A.G., that horrible terrible place I was at before I came to actual basic-and no. as far as I know, he will never come back to basic training. He will definitely not come back with us. With any luck I will never see him again.

We don't generally change platoons or companys unless there's a problem. My company has 4 platooons, organized by alphabetical order. We are all going through training at the same time, as a company. If someone (like Creed) screws up, they leave for a while and then go to another company that's at about the same place they were at when they left. That's the ony reason someone would move around.

The computer work I'm doing is not like the stuff I used to do. It's not really "work" at all. So far I've done two things, recored people's weight in a spread sheet, and record the meds people are on in a spread sheet. Not axactly strenuous or time-intensive work.

It sounds like you guys are putting a huge amount of time enargy and money into Grandpa's house. I hope that it's all worth it in the end. Im sure that it's satisfying, at least.

I said earlier that I don't have a nickname, but one of the drill sergeants has started calling me the Stormin' Mormon, and it seems to be catching on. I found out today that that drill sergeant is also Mormon. I should have known when he asked me if I had a trampoline, told me (on marksmanship qualification day) to hold to the rod and choose the right, and...I forgot what else he said but it should have been a give away. I thought maybe he just knew a lot of Mormons or something.

I'll check about the AAFES catalog. We'll be getting to go the the PX soon, I'll ask then. I don't know about the plans for graduation. I'll try to get details but it's hard, which is weird. Other stuff is spelled out in detail, at about a third grade level, repeatedly. But the graduation stuff is really vague. I'll see what I can learn. The earliest you should be here is the 10th, though so you can check into your hotel the night before.

It's late and my laundry is done so I'm going to end this and go to bed.
Love-------------------

We started BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) today. For those who are counting (or who read my last letter) yes, that is a few days more than a week early. We also did the 'Eagle Tower" this morning after P.T. which is the popes tower. You climb up to about 30 feet off of the ground, then negotiate a series of rope bridges and things. The one I enjoyed most was the single rope that you have to literally crawl across. You just lay down on it and pull yourself forward with your hands on a single rope. At the end you climb up to 60-70 feet off the ground ( I'm estimating here) and repel down the wall. Fun stuff. P.T. was sit 30/60's, sprint for 30 seconds, walk fast for 60, repeat six times. It was a very good workout, which is code for "it was very hard."
My battle buddy had an asthma attack today. You aren't even supposed to be able to get in the military, period, if you have asthma, and certainly not into the infantry. He also has steel rods in his ankle. I don't know what he thinks he's doing in the most physically demanding MOS in the Army. I keep hoping he'll wash out so I won't have to babysit him but it hasn't happened yet.
In other news, I'm losing 'weight' already, but I'm not really getting any lighter. I haven't seen any really big changes yet physically, in terms of muscle tome or anything. But I'm definitely getting leaner. I've started working out with some guys every night after lights out. We do our two minutes of push-ups and sit-ups and write down our numbers so we can record progress and then do arm curls and squats afterward. Our drill sergeant said that we'll start to see real results at about week six, but I think with the extra we've been doing it should happen earlier.
I'm tired now and it's bedtime, so I think I'll put two and two together and make Z's.

Sun, 23 Sep, 09:55
When I arrived I was told that I was in the best platoon in the best company in the etc. etc. in all of TRACOD. (TRA is for training, I don't know what the rest if for.) I had heard before I arrived here that Ft. Benning had by far the best, toughest, but best basic training around. But I figured the rest was just hooplah. Trying to pump us up and all that. But I've already written about the other platoons and how they're comprised, as far as I can tell, of the world's most pure, unadulterated, and concentrated slovenly philistines. But apparently Frappuchino, aka New York, has friends who were here in another company and they told him (hearsay, I know) that Echo company is consistently more disciplined and hard working than other companies here. So maybe (just maybe) they weren't just making stuff up.
Our senior drill sergeant today asked for all the computer geeks to come to the front of the bay. I was the first person up there so he picked me. I guess I have the 'computer geek' job. I don't know what it entails yet but I think it deals with a lot of paperwork.
I didn't get to go to church today because of some confusion with the schedule. So instead I'm back here cleaning the bay and getting computer geek jobs and writing letters. Only now I'm out of stuff to write. Maybe if I sit around for a while I'll come up with something to say.
..........
Nope. I'm going to put my return address on all my envelopes. I'll leave a few blank in case someone wants to borrow one. Bonus-if someone I know is a slacker asks for an envelope I can say I put my name on all of them.
16:50
My platoon is up in the bay, listening to music, hanging out, talking and reading and working out. Third platoon is downstairs getting smoked for who knows what. Dinner is in about an hour. I hate so much at lunch that I felt sick but I was hungry less than an hour later. So hungry I was getting cramps. Either I have a tape worm or my metabolism is through the roof.

Mon 24 Sept. 2007, 19:05

Wed 26 Sept. 2007, 18:30
I didn't have time to write any thing last time. I got dad's letter that day though. The one he wrote on the 19th. So it takes about 4-5 days for mail to get here. It's good to hear from you. You did tell me about your new job, dad. Hopefully you'll get to spread some of the experience you got in the Bio-Ag around to other colleges. I hope your shoulder is doing alright. Since my first letter was from Mom and the next was from Dad, I figure that Sadie should be next in line. Be sure to let me know how the rest of the family is doing as well.
On Tuesday we learned how to start IV lines, with a needle and catheter. This is part of the CLD (combat life saver) training. Everyone in my company is getting this training. It's a new thing and we are the first training cycle to get CCS certified as part of Basic/OSUT. Apparently a large number of the deaths in Iraq right now are preventable if the people on the scene just knew what to do. So we're learning how to treat sucking chest wounds, (including a 'tension pneumothorax" (Sadie would just like to point out that if you've seen 'just like heaven' you should know how to do this...) pressure inside the chest cavity due to air inhaled through the would. Bleeding, and hypovolemic shock, which is just a fancy word for 'they lost about two liters of blood'. Anyway, of Tuesday we got to stick each other with needles. It was fun. You stick the needle in, watch for blood to start coming out, and advance it another 1/8th inch, then you push the catheter into the vein. Then you pinch off the vein (this is very important!!0 and remove the needle and screw a saline lock onto the catheter. The saline lock seals the catheter with a membrane that seals itself after being poked with a needle. So now that the catheter is in you can just leave it there and if you have to start an IV then bang, just push it through the saline lock and you're in the vein already. If you have an IV going and medevac arrives, bang, just pull out the IV needle and it reseals itself. it's really slick. I've heard that SF guys will put saline locks in both arms before a mission so if it goes south they don't have to waste time finding a vein.
Anyway, remember how I said we're the first group to do CLS training in 2/54? It showed. The drill sergeant who was overseeing us knew less about the process than I did. This was for me getting stuck. I kept saying 'Pardon me drill sergeant, but I believe that we're actually supposed to..." and remember how I said that pinching off the vein is important? The guy who stuck me was good and he got it all right, except for pinching off the vein. So when he pulled out the needle-leaving the catheter in, remember- blood started literally gushing out of my arm. I lost about a half pint of blood or more in about five seconds. I'm glad we'd already been told how much blood you can loose before you get in trouble because otherwise I'd have been worried. As it is, I just laughed and told the guy that it was fine but PLEASE put the saline lock on ASAP. Like I said, he's smart and did really well on everything but that bit. So he didn't hesitate to stick his (gloved) fingers right in there and fix me up.
I got lucky twice on the IV practice. Not only was my partner pretty smart but he also has monster veins in his arms. You can see them even without a band around his bicep. So I had an easy time with it. I got the catheter in, sealed it and started the IV without spilling a single drop of blood. I was proud of myself even if I did have an easy patient. Also, oddly, I was more nervous when I was sticking him than when I was getting stuck. We took the first aid/CLS written test today. I got 98%
This letter is way to long so I'm going to end it and put it in the mail. I love you all.

Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
15:10

We have a visiting drill sergeant for a few days. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. He treats his own platoon really bad but Id think with us he's following the lead of our senior drill sergeant.

This week marks the end of red phase. Things are supposed to get "easier" but since they've been a cake walk so far I'm not sure what easier means. The P.T. is going to get more intense too but that's fine. Speaking of P. T., we have an APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) tomorrow. I've been doing the sit ups and pushups with my work out buddies at night so I know I'm good there. I hate running but I think I'll do OK on that too. I know I can pass, but just passing is like getting a D on a written test. Anyway, back to phases. White phase is next. Basic rifle marksmanship among other things. We also get more freedoms, which really is little more than rope to hang ourselves with. I hope nobody abuses it. I'm sure someone will but I hope it's not too bad.

17:10
Our P.G. (the guy I wrote about before who's in a peer leadership position and has a really quiet voice) is getting replaced, along with the squad leaders. The old (current) squad leaders and PG are good, but the new ones will be good too I'm sure. I'm looking forward to having a PG that I can hear though.

We just took the end of red phase test and I missed 8 of 81. Five were because I was off by one. I'm mad that I mssed that many but there's nothing to be done about it now. Cappucino missed a bunch and he's afraid that he'll get recycled (sent to another company to start over) but I'm sure he'll be fine. A lot of people told him that they'd help him out with learning the stuff if he needed it. I could tell that he felt better after the show of support. Another guy missed 40 and will probably be recycled. My battle buddy didn't take it at all. He's going home soon because of his ankle. I can't wait for him to be gone so I can stop dealing with his crap. He throws his dirty laundry all over my bunk, I have to clean up after him constantly, etc. etc.

The rest of the platoon is made up of really good guys. It took a little while to get used to some of their quirks but now that we know each other better we know when to just roll our eyes or smile and nod or whatever.

I went to the dentist yesterday and got my teeth fixed. I had to wait in the line most of the day but when they finally got to me it was tooth fixing at light speed. I got a filling and a root canal, all in about the time it would have taken a civilian dentist to do one filling. And they did a fantastic job on both. I love being able to chew on cold things without stabbing pain.

Time for final formation. If you guys could send small (snack size) and medium (sandwich size) ziplock bags, that would be great. I don't need very many of each. I can only get gigantic freezer-sized ones here.

Love you,


30th Sept. 2007
0720

Doing laundry again. Two washers are broken, leaving us with eight. There are just over 100 men using these eight washers. It's spread out over a week though so it's not that bad. Three of the guys in the laundry room are singing Bohemian Rhapsody right now. That seems to be a perennial favorite. It gets sung in the showers a lot at night. There are eight showers in our bathroom, four on a side. No-one seems to feel weird about showering with a bunch of other naked men any more. When we do shower drills there's a whole line of naked men going out of the showers and into the bay. We get anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to shower during a shower drill. (Normal showers we can take as long as we want.) The drills are just for when we have to be somewhere soon and everyone has to get clean fast.

Yesterday we got a sand hill passs for four hours. We got to go to the PX, (the store), the rec center, use the internet, the phones, and buy and eat junk food. At this point, "junk food" is anything other than fruits or vegetables, whole grain bread, skim milk, etc. I had pizze, an M&M, (yes, one), a piece of someone else's chocolate bar, two scoops of ice cream, and a bottle of soda. I felt sick afterward. I think it was the soda that did it. I also called home and talked to Mom. I got a chance to read everyone's comments but I didn't have time to respond to them. I would like to say to Elizabeth that Napoleon does in fact have little man syndrome. That's why we call him Napoleon. He's not in my platoon any more though.

Tomorrow is our second rack march. Four miles-twice as long as the last one. We get to wear our IBA's this time too. (Interceptor Body Armor heavy bulletprooof vests). I'm nor worried. I walked farther as a civilian, and I'm in better shape now.

A few days before I left the 30th A.G. I came down with a cold. I got over it pretty quickly but then I got another one. And another one. I've been sick pretty much the entire time I've been here. Three weeks straight of cold, coughs, flu, and just general malaise. I guess that's what happens when you bring 212 men from acrosss the country and throw them together into close quarters. But people, myself included- are starting to get better finally. Apparently we've all gotten everything there is to get and have become immune to it all. Go go immune system power.

I think people are starting to get bored in their spare time. I know I am. I've read everything there is to read in the bay. I still have to memorize the LGOPs rule-Little Group of Paratroopers. It goes something like this; When the best Airborne plan fails, a terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield-the LGOPs. In its purest form, this consists of small groups of angry, well-trained 19 year olds who are armed to the teeth and seriously lacking in adult supervision. They collectively remember the commander's intent as "march to the sound of guns and kill anyone who's dressed differently that you." Happily they go about the day's work.
My drill sergeant, who has junped into combat several times, swears that that happens on almost every jump. So we have to memorize it.

A guy upstairs is making a chess set out f paper and cardboard. Other guys bought books from the PX and are reading them. I'm going to see if I can borrow them later.

By the way, my battle buddy is finally gone. Hallelujah! He flipped out yesterday at the drill sergeants and threw a punch. The drill sergeants aren't allowed to hit us but they are allowed to defend themselves. He got a personal introduction to each of the stairs in our stairwell and several boots. Then the MPs came and took him away. No more smelly bunkmate. I actually felt reallly bad. I wondered if I could have done anything different to help him out. But then I thought back to when I'd try to talk to him about thinking about things differently (They're not screwing with you, it was just an accident, etc.) and how he was never willing to consider a different point of view.

Wednesday, Sept 19th I think
Today was fantastic. We started at about 04:30, formed up at 05:00, and had our rucks and gear on and were heading out by 05:30. We marched (hiked, really, because we weren't in formation) for a few miles through the woods while the sun came up. Then we came to a little clearing in the woods with a few buildings around. It was just like boy scout camp, only with rifles and drill sergeants.

After eating breakfast we had a quick land navigation class, which was review for me since I've done all this before about 50 times, and then we got nav. routes and headed out in teams of four. Mine was 5 because we got an extra guy. None of the other guys had done it before and they made a lot of amateur mistakes, but the distances between points weren't long, so we didn't get off course much and it was all fine. We found all five of the first five points. After that we had an MRE lunch and two classes on radio communication. Then we had dinner and waited for dark to get our night time land nav. course. Same thing as before. Get a starting point, get our direction from a compass, walk the appropriate distance and find the sign with a number. Only-in the dark with no flash lights. We had an hour to find two points. By 45 minutes we were completely lost. So we headed back to the starting point, got our bearing again, and nailed it exactly. The second point was only 200 meters away, so it was no problem. We got to the reporting station, after double timing it through the woods, with 2 minutes to spare. There is nothing like running through the forest at night with 4 other men, carrying an M16, decked out in camoflauge, to make you feel like a soldier. And there's nothing like finding a random spot in the wood at night using a compass and counting your steps to make you feel like you can do anything.

We just heard that our drill sergeant (one of them) is moving to another company. Sad news. I feel like my big brother is leaving. I'm sure he'll be around. He's the drill sergeant who...well, let's back up. I don't know if I mentioned this. The other day there was a snafu with our chow time. We didn't know what was happening. But all of a sudden our DS ran up to us and yelled "down, down, everyone down!" And then he got in the front leaning rest (push-up) position. Normally when we do push-ups, it's as a punishment. But he was smiling so we had no idea what was happening. As soon as everyone got down he said, "The world is out of place. Quick, push it back. push it back." So we all laughed and did some push-ups and when it got pushed back into place we got up and went to chow. Anyway, that's the drill sergeant that's leaving. So in his favor, just now, we all got down and pushed the world back into place. It's lights out now so I'm sitting on the toilet to write this. That's why my handwriting suddenly got bad. So I'm going to shower and go to bed. Tomorrow we've got more fun stuff ready to go.

Thursday 20 Sept. bed time

I was right, today was fun. We did the obstacle (I mean confidence) course. It was a lot of jumping, balance, climbing, etc., stuff. Agility things. Stuff I'm good at. None of it was very challenging, but it was fun anyway. Later there will be a competition on it and I hope someone noticed me so I can be on the team that gets to compete. Our new drill sergeant is a funny guy. He's kind of weird and very laid back. He's an ex-ranger, which means he's elite. While he was showing us the Combet Application Tourniquet (the CAT) he kept moving. He just made sound effects all night actually. I'm kind of worried that he'll be as mean when he gets mad as he is nice now. I guess we'll see. He also taught us some new cadences (the singsongy things we yell when marching) and one of them is about wondering about where "she" is and what she's doing and who she's kissing while we work and march and train all day and all night. A lot of the guys are getting upset now thinking about their wives and girl friends back home. I am glad I don't have anyone.
I can't believe tomorrow is the end of week two. Red phase is two-thirds over. Holy Cow. I thought it would be harder and more painful than this. I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. I do know that I'm looking forward to white phase (weeks 4, 5, and 6) and basic rifle marksmanship.

Time to get to bed.

Friday, 21st Sept. 2007

Today we learned how to set up and operate a Claymore Mine. It's pretty idiot proof. It says right on it "this side toward enemy." And of course people get it wrong anyway. No one in my platoon, though. Third platoon, (ours is first) are the ones who screwed it up. They've also had two accicental discharges - sorry, "negligent" discharges - since we started loading our weapons (with blanks!) last week. That means their weapons weren't on safe ( which they should always be on) and they accidently (negligently) pulled the trigger. In the field with real amo, that would probably kill someone.

I got your first letter today. The one postmarked on the 17th of September. I'm glad Charlie is in a good home. I didn't actually get to read the letter from the Commander -- don't ask, I'm still mad about it-- so I don't know what you're asking about. I think it's probably a generic letter for every MOS. My MOS for training purposes her is 11B, which is infantry, but later I'll be going for 18D . which is Special Forces Medic. Since I'm doing infantry training, what I'm doing is different than what people in other MOS's are doing. Normal basic is 9 weeks, ours is 14 weeks. We have the same 9 weeks that other MOS's have but there's a different emphasis for us during those 9 weeks.

For example, I've talked to some guys today who are going into a computer related field. They've been here just as long as we have, but they haven't been issued weapons yet, and their P.T. has been a lot lighter than ours. We got weapons last week sometime and have started working with them allready. When we get into BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) in week 4, we'll spend a lot more time on it than they will. Then after their 9 weeks they'll go on to AIT (advanced individual training) somewhere else and learn a bunch of computer junk. They might have to wait a while to start AIT. When we're done with our nine weeks we'll stay right here, with the same staff and everything, and just keep training. Oust -- One Station Unit Training. Our graduation is the 12th of December. I go to Airborne school on the 7th of January. So there will be some time in there between the two where I'll be home. At least I'm assuming I'll be home. I see no reason for them to keep me. As for when you should come -- yes, please come to the graduation. On family day, I'll just hang out with other guys who's families couldn't come.

I will actually be leaving here and going to Airborne school. It's three weeks long, so it'll go till the end of January. After that I don't know what I'll be doing. SFPC and SFAS, but I don't have exact dates yet.

We do still get up pretty early. Between 5:00 and 6:00. I guess that's not so bad. We get six to seven hours of sleep on nights we don't have laundry or fire guard. Fire guard is one hour a night when you stay up and make sure the place stays secure, no one goes AWOL and that nobody starts any fires. Then you wake up the next shift and they go for an hour. It's not bad.

We have a ton of stuff to do here. And since 53 people have to do everything, it always takes a long time. There are 53 people in the platoon. But even considering that, the days are pretty full. We clean the bay every day (the bay is where we all sleep), and doing it all in detail takes a while. Eating takes about 3.5 hours a day, not counting marching there and back. PT every morning is an hour, and most days our platoon does an hour of PT on our own. My squad does it's own PT everyday as well, for at least 20 minutes. Every time we take our rifles somewhere sandy (and this place isn't called Sand Hill for nothing) we have to clean them, which takes a while. So we spend a lot of time each day doing maintenance things, which in addition to training and classes means we stay very busy. There is usually some time each day when we can just hang out and talk to each other, but not so much.

I don't think the parking ticket is mine. It might be from the time I went...I think it was to the library, but I don't think so. It might be Polly's. But $40 isn't worth fighting with her about it.

I'm doing just fine here; don't worry about me succeeding. This is easy stuff. You just do exactly what they tell you. I'm doing fine on the push-ups and sit-ups. It's getting to the point where I can push myself until my muscles give out and then wait 30 seconds, and keep going, and even if I do that a few times my muscles don't hurt the next day. My feet are doing fine too. The hiking I did before I left has proven to be a lifesaver. Other people here are getting really bad blisters and things but my feet aren't even thinking about it.

Thanks for writing, it's good to hear from you; it's a huge relief to hear about Charlie. I'm still worried that he'll be too much for them, but I guess it's out of my hands now. Could you send me Alicia's address?

Love you guys,

p.s. Could you find a copy of the poem that starts "It little prophets that an idle king" and send it to me? I think it's by Tennyson. It's Odysseus coming home. And it has the line "How dull it is to rest unburnished, not to shine from use." I think I've got it in a book on the bookshelves in the basement. Also a box ofpaper stemmed Q-tips if you could please. We can only get small boxes here.

16th Sept. 2007
We've got 45 minutes before we go to eat. I got several hours of very good sleep last night. I'm getting better at being quick in the moring but I'm still a bit slower than most other people. We were issued our weapons (or rifles, or M16's, but not "guns") on Friday. So now we carry them with us everywhere. We've been shown the kneeling and unsupported prone firing positions. Both of those were while wearing our kevlar (with armor plates), LBE's (load bearing equipment) and helmets, I was sweating in the air conditioned barracks. But other than being hot, the possitions were relatively comfortable.
I finally got to talk to some people in the other platoons and I was right about our drill sergeants. They're a lot less prone to smoking us than the other ones are. At the same time though, we seem to be more disciplined than the other platoons. They motivate us by telling us to be proud of who we are, etc., rather than by making us afraid of being punished-and it's workinig.
Student/peer leadership positions have been assigned. Each squad has a leader and a platoon has a platoon guide-(pg). The pg is in the bunk next to me. Before he joined up he was a stunt man. People were bugging him last night to find out if he had been in any movies, and eventually he admitted that he was in Pirates 2 and 3. So then they were asking who he met, if they were nice, etc. Apparently Johnny Depp is nice but weird, Keira Knightly is nice except when her boyfriend is around, and everyone else is real coo. After that someone asked who he did stunts for, and he kind of dodged the question. But his brother (also here, same bunk as him) made him answer it. Apparently he did stunts for Jonny himself. So, I'm bunking next to Johnny Depps stunt double. I know about 50 girls who would be crazy jealous.
One of the PG's duties is to call cadences and march us around. He cannot get it right. He apparently has no rhythm (it's not like left right, left right is complicated), gets the commands wrong, and just generally fumbles things. It's frustrating, but I guess I don't remember when I was learning it and how hard it must have been for me too.
It's hard to believe I've been through a week of basic allready. Thirteen weeks left. The only part is PT. But I'm getting more used to pushing myself despite the burning. Running is still hard. I think I'm going to start doing cardio exercises at night with the other slow people.
My bunkmate-the guy who drunk the MRE heater-keeps going downhill. I'm worried about him. He's fine physically, but he's kind of coming unglued mentally. He told me that he just came off of some psycho-active drugs the day before he left. I'm not sure if I should believe him-he lies a lot. But he does seem to be slipping. I almost hope that he does something stupid so he'll get kicked out and quit dragging us down. I feel bad for thinking that, but he's by far the biggest slacker we've got. And I'm his battle buddy so it messes me us too.
Time for breakfast.

17 Sept. 2007 21:Something
Doing laundry. Would rather be sleeping. We did the obstacle course today. It was fun, but we got muddy and sandy and just generally nasty. After we all did it, we picked 5 guys to race against, the other platoons. We ended up losing by two seconds. I know that there are other guys who would have done better and won it for us. Oh well. I'm glad it was so close because now I can count on people to keep pushing themselves in future events, knowing that as little as two seconds can make the difference. I hope I get fit enough to compete myself sometime.
Our drill sergeant worked out with us today. He put on some music and we all got our sleeping pads out and we flutter kicks, military presses with our rifles, and a load of other work outs. When he's counting he never stops before 82 reps and he never stops at 101 reps. He was in the 82nd Airborne and loves to make fun of the 101st. Apparently they don't see much action, but the 82nd does. The workouts keep getting easier. It's nice.
Today we learned how to clear (with an R as in Romeo) our weapons. Simple little procedure but it takes a while to get the whole platoon to do it. Basically you're just making sure that your weapon has no chance of being loaded, when you're in a "safe place". We've only been issued blank rounds so far, but it still makes me nervous. Especially with all the idiots around. The other day we learned how to clean (with an N) them too. It's not too hard or complicated, but it's a lot of detailed work. We got good practice cleaning them today after the obstacle course.
My battle budy keeps going downhill. He cut himself today with the pin on his rank insignia. I told the drill sergeant about it but he (my battle budy) lied and said it was an accident, so nothing there. I hope when he snaps it's something small.
We got mail for the first time today. It was awesome. A couple of guys got about 50 letters. One guy got a bunch of candy and had to put it in the civilian gear room. No one got any dear Johns, which is what we're waiting for. A couple of guys know they are coming, so we're looking forward to giving them a hard time for that.

18 Sept just after dinner
My battle buddy spent some time in the drill sergeants office talking and I think he's doing a lot better now. He still hasn't done any laundry though. At least he's a slightly happies slob.
You may remember Napolean. I ran into a guy in his platoon last night. He said that Napolean was on their obstacle course team the other day and he was the slowest by far. Apparently he's had a pretty poor reception in his new platoon. I know I shouldn't be gloating, but I am.
Lest you get the impresstion that I hate everyone here, let me tell you about some of my friends. They are, in no particular order, Lucky, Casanova, and Cappacino (or Fettucini, or New York, or anything else we feel like). Lucky is a cowboy from Montana. He's Irish and looks like a leprechaun, and thus the name. Casanova is one of those friendly, always happy, rolly-polly, black guys that everyone knows. He's not a U.S. citizen, but he's lived all over the U.S., including Hollandale, Mn. And Cappacino is an Italian from New York. He's got complaining and griping down to an art, but other than that he's a good guy. There are other people here who are nice, but I don't know them very well.
Everyone is sitting around the bay, and nobody seems to know why. This happens alot. Something is probably supposed to be getting done. But the PG is just sitting next to me. He's a really good gut, but has 0 leadership ability. At least I personally won't get in trouble when whatever we're supposed to be doing isn't done.
I think I'll bundle this one up and mail it.
Love you guys,