We've had our free time taken away for most of the week, so I couldn't write, and I can't remember what I covered in my last letter. It looks like we will make it to White Phase this weekend. The DS's haven't been as upset with the company the last few days. We started doing Ability Group Runs (AGR) during morning PT. We run every other day during PT, and our run days alternate between sprinting drills and AGR's. I made it into B group, the 2nd fastest run group. I missed A by 15 seconds on my qualification run.
Our days have settled into a fairly regular schedule. It's just the training activity that changes:
04:20 I wake up to get ready, shower, shave, make my bed to Army standards, and figure out which uniform is the least dirty that day.
05:30 1st Formation, overview of the day, personnel count, reciting The Soldier's Creed, more practice at standing at attention.
06:00 PT, running, stretching, pull ups, push ups, sit ups/core building exercises
07:30 Shower again and hand up sweat-soaked PT uniform (Note from the wifey: Am I the only one who thinks its totally gross that they just get hung up and not washed? I think they only do laundry like once a week...)
07:50 Breakfast chow. French toast/pancakes, "eggs," hash browns, breakfast meat, grits/oatmeal/cream o' wheat, fruit, and sometimes yogurt. It's always the same thing pretty much, but it's a solid meal and most people like it best.
08:30 Training starts
12:30 Lunch chow
13:00 Continue training
17:20 Dinner chow
18:00 Clean weapons
19:00 Personal time or "corrective training"
20:30 Final count
21:00 Lights out
This week was all shooting - all day, every day at the range. This is what I was waiting for. In the first two days, we zeroed our rifle to our eyesight. today we practiced on the 25m range shooting silhouettes of varying sizes, simulating targets at ranges from 50m-300m. Fun times. I shot pretty well all week considering they had to "fix" some of my civilian shooting habits. It's definitely easiest for people who've never shot before, oddly enough.
Saturday 10/1
We redid the APFT since it was rained out last time. I rocked sit ups with 3 shy of the max score. I showed an improvement of 14 push ups more than the test last week and my 2-mile time was 15:45. That needs some work, but we haven't run much since we got here - that's changing though.
In the afternoon, we did Pugils (hand-to-hand combat vs. each other). I was one of the first to go. You get to call out any soldier to fight, so the fights are usually heated and fun to watch. The DS asked one soldier who they wanted to fight and they responded, "You pick, I don't care." Next thing I heard was my DS screaming "You're up!" So I was instructed to fight with no mercy until they called the fight. I followed orders and the fight didn't last long. The soldier I fought learned they should probably pick on their own if given the chance so they don't have to fight the biggest guy in the company. (Wifey note: I'm so proud!) Everyone (save one) was entertained and in the end no one sustained any serious injuries. We all wore a lot [read: too much] padding. It was a fun day, but I got really sun burned.
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| Me, dominating the fight |
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