May 21, 2007

5/10

Okay, I can't remember what the last I wrote to you was about. Just ignore anything that is repeated. I think that I wrote you the last info sometime last week. Since then I've done the gas chamber ( not that bad ) and the repel ( nowhere near as fun as climbing).

I'm pretty sure that you haven't heard anything about the latest injury news. I went to physical therapy doc on Tuesday and she recommended an even longer profile and I'm also required to go to physical therapy 3x a week in the mornings instead of regular PT with the platoon. At this point there is pretty much no doubt that I will be pulled from training and new started in a little over a week. The one really good thing about that is that I'm staying with Alpha 2-10 through our rifle qualification. As long as I can hit 23 out of 40 targets (no, really - that's it!) and qualify with the M-16, I can start with a new bunch that has also completed the marksmanship ( which means they'd be in week 4) instead of all the way back at the beginning. So, it won't be all that bad. I'll get some down time to heal and not have to go back to day one.

In other news, our drill sergeants have finally trusted some of the group with a little bit of leadership. They've divided the platoon up into four squads, each with a squad leader and chosen a platoon guide. We've already seen one platoon guide fired (within about 20 minutes of getting the job actually) but the guy we've got now is actually doing ok with things.

The squad leader ( at least, the female ones) aren't doing so hot though. They are doing a really great job at over managing things. Ours last night asked me about 7 times if I had my uniform ready for the morning. I finally explained that I was dressing myself before she was born (she's a whopping 17) and dressing in uniform for about 3 weeks now I've got it covered. I think I offended her a little but, darn it, she didn't ask me any more!

I do think that, ultimately she'll do really well. She seems like a very smart girl and interacts fairly well with people. I'd say that after a couple days of spending all her free time doing excessive prep. suff, she'll get a clue and do a lot better.

Living with all of these females is still drama, drama, drama. Our one major drama queen sprained her ankle yesterday which, as I'm sure you can imagine, was such a major catastrophe in the world. Sometimes it gets so ridiculous here that you wonder if it can be real. That was one of those times.

I'm getting pretty tired of being a gimp. I have to ride in a big 'cattle truck' when the group marches anywhere and the other 'injured' folks, for the most part really, really sucks. I'm 100% that most of them are faking their injures and almost all of them are looking for ways to go home. When I tell them that the doc things I have a fracture their yes light up and they jealously tell me that, if it's bad enough, I could get to go home! It's like they're jealous because the doctor only gave them the diagnosis of mild inflammation due to over use of something that with a recovery time that is equally as short. There is one guy that's trying to get our for being crazy. They took away his shoe laces so he can't march.

5/12

Well, here I am on fireguard gain. I'm actually not supposed to have fireguard tonight but the girl that is in charge of getting the schedule done is really an idiot and she keeps getting the thing all screwed up. At first I though that she was messing it up on purpose to give herself better shifts but her's are as bad (maybe a little worse) than everyone else's, so I'm not sure that she's just really, really dumb.

We actually went to the range and fired our M-16s for the first time. Today we are grouping; that is, trying to get 6 shots in a 4 cm radius anywhere on the target. Tomorrow we will zero. I was excited to get to shoot but then, after getting to the range, realized that good shooters wouldn't get much actual shooting time.

We fired an initial 6 rounds and continued with 3 more untill we had 6 round groups. I fired my first 6 with 4 in a group and two thrown away. I fired the next 3 in a tight group just to the left of the original. After checking the target, the drill sergeant asked if I'd ever shot before. I said yes and he told me that if I didn't quit wasting ammo playing around and group he'd make sure I got good and scuffed up when we came back from the range.

There might be something to that 'drill sergeants have seen all the tricks before' thing. Even though I was tempted to keep throwing it so I could keep shooting, I grouped with my next 3 rounds and, in the 7 1/2 hours we were there today I fired a total fo 12 rounds. Awesome!

5/15

I've got a nice cold or flu or something. I ran a fever all night last night but I do feel better today. My fever is gone and, while I've still got some congestion, I fell more like a normal person.

Last night was pretty funny. Drill Sgt. ( the one that reminds me of Daniel ) told us a bunch of ghost stories about things he swears hav happened to him in our barracks. So of course, everyone was completely terrified all night long. Twice I woke up to people asking other people to to go the latrine with them so they don't have to go alone. And mind you, the latrine is directly across the hall from our sleeping bay - a good six feet away. Although, I'll have to admit that I did almost crap my pants when I turned around in the latrine and saw our fire guard standing there. I didn't hear her come in at all and she was wearing a reflective vest that was glowing in the dim light.

Right now I'm waiting at sick call for someone to finish so that I can go back to the barracks I had physical therapy this morning and have been done for a half hour or so, but I have to waith for a 'battle buddy' to go with me. The battle buddy system in pretty frustrating, but I understand the reasoning behind it. So I guess it's all good.

One of the platoons in our company got a new drill sergeant that is actually kind of mean that called a couple of kids fat and lazy ( they are! ) and told one girl she was a useless piece of crap. All the whiners in the company have been complaining every since.

Ok this is a weird place to end a letter, but I'm doing it just so I can send it off.
LOVE
J

Received May 10, 2007

Jecca says:

So, today is day 4 of REAL basic training and day 11 since I actually arrived at Ft. Leonard Wood. When I first arrived we spent a week in reception doing paperwork and getting shots and standing in lines a lot. It pretty much sucked - real hard. The most exciting part was this 36 year old woman that was all crazy. She couldn't carry her own bags or eat without assistance or stay awake - even when being tapped over and over again.

But she didn’t' come to real basic with us, so it's all good. It's kind of hard here but not really what I expected. The hardest part - by far - is dealing with all these females with attitudes a whole lot bigger than, um, something really big. Like a blue whale. It's been very frustrating for me to deal with people that are just rude or mean - not because it really upsets me or hurts my feelings, but because there's no reason for it. The drill sergeants have to be mean to us, so why should we be mean to each other and make it that much worse, you know?

I honestly really like my drill sergeants a lot. I guess that sounds kind of weird, but it's true. I have one male and one female in charge of our platoon. They are both very knowledgeable and fair.

Today isn't a good day for me so far. It's not even 6:30 yet, though, so I'm hoping it's going to get a lot better. I came to sick call this morning because I was told that I could come and get some ibuprofen and Neosporin and immediately go back and not miss any training. I have scrapes on my hand from the pull up bar and we're going on our first field exercise in a few days so I felt like it would be very important to get the stuff.

I am very glad that I'm not seriously injured. though and I've almost finished my first full week which means I only have eight and some change to go. I'm really struggling with my upper body strength. It's very frustrating for me because when we do PT using bags or our rifles or something I can do more reps than all the girls and many of the guys but when it comes to push-ups I can barely push my own weight. I do push-ups and sit ups every night on my personal time on top of the ones we do throughout the day but I haven't seen any improvement so far and I don't know what to do.

Ok I've made it to sick call. My ankle is extremely painful this morning - i can barely walk. It does feel a little better with my boots on. I'm really afraid that I have a stress fracture. That would make it a very real possibility that I'd have to start all this crap all over.

So far I would have to say that this is probably my worst birthday ever, but really in the grand scheme of things its isn't that bad at all. Plus I even got time to eat three of the little chocolate covered mini donuts at breakfast. I got a pack of six but didn't finish them fast enough. That was almost like birthday cake. There are about 110 people in line ahead of me so I'll probably be here for lunch and that means I'll get a nutritious and delicious (ha!) MRE for lunch. Super Duper Yay!

Today is officially the fist day of my second week. 8 weeks is a lot better than 9 to go, and hopefully I can recuperate every quickly, stay on schedule and go on to Texas.
<3 J