White Phase

Sunday 10/2

Regular church services were canceled this week for a concert. Two Christian groups played (Flame and December Radio). The volume was way too loud and I left my ear protection in the bay, so my ears were ringing for an hour. Billy Graham's grandson gave a short sermon and it was over. Several hundred soldiers stood to accept Christ for the first time, so that was really cool to see.

We made our bi-weekly trip to get sheared and to stock up on the necessities at the PX. They weren't gentle with my sun burned scalp. I'm looking forward to not having velcro for hair after I get out of here.

The rest of the day we cleaned our company area and they gave us 2.5 hours of free time before bed! I spent most of it catching up on getting my locker back in order. I had a mini-disaster area in there after the lack of personal time last week. At any rate, it was nice to have some personal time finally.

Monday 10/3

Fall is here in SC. It was in the 40's here this morning at PT. It reminded me of how miserable gym class was this time of year in high school standing there in shorts and a t-shirt.

After PT, we got on a bus (we usually march) and headed to the range for the day. My TX blood isn't ready for this sudden drop in temperature and I thought the DS's were going to let us freeze to death while we were waiting for chow to show up. (le note de wifey: Oh gosh! Somebody is being dramatic!)

The range today was cool. It was a 300m range and it used pop-up targets and microphones to give real time feedback to the exact point of impact on the target were were shooting at. The data displayed on a monitor next to each shooter. Friday is our big qualification day for BRM. I'm hoping to shoot 36/40 targets or better so I can score as an expert with the M16.

This evening our company commander met with just the privates and let us complain and state our grievances about anything. It was a total waste of time, but it made some people feel better. We finally were bumped up to White Phase tonight, so it feels good to have met that hurdle in our training.

4th PLT during the phase change ceremony

I've realized how impatient I've become thanks to modern methods of communication. It can take upwards of 2 weeks for the originator of a letter to get a response back, so trying to have a "conversation" via mail doesn't work here at Basic Training. Most of the letters I get here are post marked 8-10 days prior to when I get them. Occasionally, it is 3-5. The DS's also hold mail if they don't feel like delivering it or come up with an "excuse" not to. Such is life for the soldier at BCT.

Thank y'all for your letters though. They bring a great deal of encouragement and moral support. Another day down and another closer to Family Day.