20140921
This week, we got our uniforms. We switched from tan cammies to green ones with our names on them. We also got the dress uniforms, though we turned them in right away to be tailored to fit properly. Still, holding that dress blue jacket and imagining wearing it gave me motivation to keep going hard. Let's see, at the beginning of the week after initial drill, we did the gas chamber and rappel tower. I did really great at both of those.
Tomorrow starts grass week. That's where we learn to shoot without ammunition. I can't wait! I hope to shoot expert on firing week, next week. Time is going to fly by for me the next few weeks. We have a lot to do. I do enjoy boot camp for the most part, but a lot of times all I can think about is what I'm going to do when I leave here.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Eighth Letter from Boot Camp
20140914
We have Initial Drill and and Initial Knowledge Test tomorrow so I don't have time to write much. Time is starting to fly here. We are more than one third done. Next is testing week, some more obstacle courses and stuff like that. We did this crazy PT yesterday plus an obstacle course. It was physically one of the toughest things that I've ever done, but I did really well and I was so proud when I finished.
Tomorrow is initial drill. Our platoon has a good chance of winning both the drill and knowledge tests. That means the highest score out of 6 platoons in Charlie Company. I want us to be the best. I've kinda reached a point where boot camp is becoming fun. The things that suck, I'm just used to them, and some things are starting to be pretty fun. Like we do the rappelling tower on Tuesday. This week doesn't have a lot of stuff in it, but next week is grass week, that's where we practice with our rifles, but no bullets. It will probably suck, but be fun too.
20140915
So guess what? Platoon 1081 won Initial Drill test. In fact, we knocked it out of the park. We scored outstanding, beat the closest runner-up by a large margin, and were only 1 point away from breaking the Regimental record. We got a trophy of a guilded boot for our platoon to display. Sadly, we only came in third for the knowledge test. But we're still strongly in the running for honors platoon.
Anyway, we were all pretty hyped. We were getting so pumped prepping for drill, our Senior Drill Instructor blasted loud music from his radio while we got our uniforms on, and we had several prayer circles, which is why I think that we won.
We have Initial Drill and and Initial Knowledge Test tomorrow so I don't have time to write much. Time is starting to fly here. We are more than one third done. Next is testing week, some more obstacle courses and stuff like that. We did this crazy PT yesterday plus an obstacle course. It was physically one of the toughest things that I've ever done, but I did really well and I was so proud when I finished.
Tomorrow is initial drill. Our platoon has a good chance of winning both the drill and knowledge tests. That means the highest score out of 6 platoons in Charlie Company. I want us to be the best. I've kinda reached a point where boot camp is becoming fun. The things that suck, I'm just used to them, and some things are starting to be pretty fun. Like we do the rappelling tower on Tuesday. This week doesn't have a lot of stuff in it, but next week is grass week, that's where we practice with our rifles, but no bullets. It will probably suck, but be fun too.
20140915
So guess what? Platoon 1081 won Initial Drill test. In fact, we knocked it out of the park. We scored outstanding, beat the closest runner-up by a large margin, and were only 1 point away from breaking the Regimental record. We got a trophy of a guilded boot for our platoon to display. Sadly, we only came in third for the knowledge test. But we're still strongly in the running for honors platoon.
Anyway, we were all pretty hyped. We were getting so pumped prepping for drill, our Senior Drill Instructor blasted loud music from his radio while we got our uniforms on, and we had several prayer circles, which is why I think that we won.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Birthday letter from Boot Camp/Seventh Letter from Boot Camp
20140911
I got birthday cards from people at church today. That improved my birthday a lot. I also got a nice present from a Navy Corpsman (Medical Assistant) at Dental. I had to go to get some fillings done. The Corpsman lady came and got me from the waiting room, took me to a dentist room, and me lie back. She said that she saw that it was my birthday in my file and that I could lie back for like 45 minutes before the dentist came. She got her phone out, opened Pandora and asked me what kind of music I wanted. So for the first time a month, I relaxed and listened to Gospel music. I shed a tear when it started playing. Pandora played like all my favorite songs. After the crazy of boot camp, 30 minutes of rest and Gospel music was an amazing birthday present.
20140912
Just had time to dash out a few more lines. Had pugil sticks 3 today. I destroyed my opponent. That's 3 wins and 1 loss. Not too bad. All our tests are on Monday, but when we pass we go to phase 2 of training.
I got birthday cards from people at church today. That improved my birthday a lot. I also got a nice present from a Navy Corpsman (Medical Assistant) at Dental. I had to go to get some fillings done. The Corpsman lady came and got me from the waiting room, took me to a dentist room, and me lie back. She said that she saw that it was my birthday in my file and that I could lie back for like 45 minutes before the dentist came. She got her phone out, opened Pandora and asked me what kind of music I wanted. So for the first time a month, I relaxed and listened to Gospel music. I shed a tear when it started playing. Pandora played like all my favorite songs. After the crazy of boot camp, 30 minutes of rest and Gospel music was an amazing birthday present.
20140912
Just had time to dash out a few more lines. Had pugil sticks 3 today. I destroyed my opponent. That's 3 wins and 1 loss. Not too bad. All our tests are on Monday, but when we pass we go to phase 2 of training.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Sixth Letter from Boot Camp
20140907
Not quite sure of the date, they don't tell us. I had pugil stick fights again. I only got one fight, but I destroyed my opponent. We also did some fun Martial Arts this week, and the confidence course, which is a type of obstacle course. It was a lot of fun. I was one of the only ones who did the slide for life (look it up online) correctly and didn't get dropped into the water.
Other that that things have mostly sucked. They push our platoon really hard, a lot of PE and IT punishments. I get the feeling its because we are doing really well, but I'm not sure. They trash us after every drill for being lazy. I'm not, but other's are, so we all pay.
On the plus side, I'm getting close to halfway. Today ends week 4 of 12 training weeks. 2 more and I'll be halfway done to Marine week. Marine week is family day, and graduation. :) Next week is swim week. I'll pass that no problem. That will end phase 1. The week after is testing week, and after we pass we switch to green cammies. We get official name tags on them, and we get to blouse our boots. Then we are in phrase 2, where we do rifle training. I'm excited for that.
P.S. Sunday Evening
We had a really good drill today, plus church and extra free time, so it was a good day. Tomorrow starts swim week. I hope to qualify on the first day. Next week is testing week, so pray for me and platoon 1081. We've been working really hard, and we want to win all the tests. I mean score the highest out of all the platoons.
Not quite sure of the date, they don't tell us. I had pugil stick fights again. I only got one fight, but I destroyed my opponent. We also did some fun Martial Arts this week, and the confidence course, which is a type of obstacle course. It was a lot of fun. I was one of the only ones who did the slide for life (look it up online) correctly and didn't get dropped into the water.
Other that that things have mostly sucked. They push our platoon really hard, a lot of PE and IT punishments. I get the feeling its because we are doing really well, but I'm not sure. They trash us after every drill for being lazy. I'm not, but other's are, so we all pay.
On the plus side, I'm getting close to halfway. Today ends week 4 of 12 training weeks. 2 more and I'll be halfway done to Marine week. Marine week is family day, and graduation. :) Next week is swim week. I'll pass that no problem. That will end phase 1. The week after is testing week, and after we pass we switch to green cammies. We get official name tags on them, and we get to blouse our boots. Then we are in phrase 2, where we do rifle training. I'm excited for that.
P.S. Sunday Evening
We had a really good drill today, plus church and extra free time, so it was a good day. Tomorrow starts swim week. I hope to qualify on the first day. Next week is testing week, so pray for me and platoon 1081. We've been working really hard, and we want to win all the tests. I mean score the highest out of all the platoons.
Fifth Letter from Boot Camp
20140901
Wow, September already. I don't know what to write right now. We have pugil sticks again tomorrow. So I can't wait for that. I also think that we have a drill inspection coming up. My platoon is pretty bad at some drill stuff so pray that it will go well. (It'll be over by the time you get this.) (Concidencally his platoon passed the drill inspection 1st on the Monday of this week that I am writing this.) We got a lot of extra free time for labor day, but I hope that it doesn't mess up training. It already pushed the obstacle course back a week. I can't wait for that. :) It's weird, I eat insane amounts of food, but I'm still hungry a lot. I think its just how crazy active we are. I'll write more later.
(Later the same day)
Wow, it's weird having this much free time. I like almost want the DI's to come back and tell us what to do. Almost. I get this is what it feels like after boot camp. I can't wait to be a Marine. It's easy to discouraged here, but I stay motivated pretty well. I can't describe the experience to you. It takes over your life . When I go to the head at night, I hear people yelling, "Aye, Sir!" and other boot camp stuff in their sleep. They tell me I do it too. It will be hard to go back to normal for my 10 leave. Then, MCT, then MOS school. But neither of those are like boot camp. This is some crazy stuff. I can handle it, don't get me wrong, but it's crazy.
Wow, September already. I don't know what to write right now. We have pugil sticks again tomorrow. So I can't wait for that. I also think that we have a drill inspection coming up. My platoon is pretty bad at some drill stuff so pray that it will go well. (It'll be over by the time you get this.) (Concidencally his platoon passed the drill inspection 1st on the Monday of this week that I am writing this.) We got a lot of extra free time for labor day, but I hope that it doesn't mess up training. It already pushed the obstacle course back a week. I can't wait for that. :) It's weird, I eat insane amounts of food, but I'm still hungry a lot. I think its just how crazy active we are. I'll write more later.
(Later the same day)
Wow, it's weird having this much free time. I like almost want the DI's to come back and tell us what to do. Almost. I get this is what it feels like after boot camp. I can't wait to be a Marine. It's easy to discouraged here, but I stay motivated pretty well. I can't describe the experience to you. It takes over your life . When I go to the head at night, I hear people yelling, "Aye, Sir!" and other boot camp stuff in their sleep. They tell me I do it too. It will be hard to go back to normal for my 10 leave. Then, MCT, then MOS school. But neither of those are like boot camp. This is some crazy stuff. I can handle it, don't get me wrong, but it's crazy.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Fourth Letter from Boot Camp
Sunday Morning 20140831
Whew, Boot Camp is exhausting. I'm pretty fit, fitter than a lot of my platoon, but all day, every day activity really wears you down, especially when you actually put out the effort like I do. It is very frustrating when others don't put out. I've screamed and yelled myself hoarse, but our platoon keeps getting messed up for not screaming, because a lot of the platoon doesn't yell everything.
Its very frustrating to hear fresh voices from platoon mates, when my voice is so sore. We do a lot of drill, which is fun when we get it right, but we don't get it right very much. I see potential though. Had pugil sticks last week. I barely lost my round 1, but totally kicked butt in my round 2. Our platoon mostly won all their matches. Only one of ours got his mouth piece knocked out, and our guys knocked out like 6 mouth pieces from the platoons that we fought.
It is very physically and mentally tough going here. I live chow to chow. But I can feel myself getting stronger and tougher because of it all, so even when we are getting trashed I try to stay positive. Chow is crazy, we cram into the line so tight we can barely breathe, you rush through grabbing what you can while workers slap chow on your tray. Sometimes DI's block the drink station and send away people who don't yell loud enough. Once you sit down, you have like 10 - 15, tops, sometimes 5, before you have to stack trays and rush back into formation. Its still the highlight of the day though. I eat twice as much as I ever ate before, in half the time. I eat so fast I tend to finish early and take stuff from slow eaters. Anyway, I'm still going strong. It's still more fun then lots of things that I have done. I'm still motivated. :) Can't wait until the Crucible.
Whew, Boot Camp is exhausting. I'm pretty fit, fitter than a lot of my platoon, but all day, every day activity really wears you down, especially when you actually put out the effort like I do. It is very frustrating when others don't put out. I've screamed and yelled myself hoarse, but our platoon keeps getting messed up for not screaming, because a lot of the platoon doesn't yell everything.
Its very frustrating to hear fresh voices from platoon mates, when my voice is so sore. We do a lot of drill, which is fun when we get it right, but we don't get it right very much. I see potential though. Had pugil sticks last week. I barely lost my round 1, but totally kicked butt in my round 2. Our platoon mostly won all their matches. Only one of ours got his mouth piece knocked out, and our guys knocked out like 6 mouth pieces from the platoons that we fought.
It is very physically and mentally tough going here. I live chow to chow. But I can feel myself getting stronger and tougher because of it all, so even when we are getting trashed I try to stay positive. Chow is crazy, we cram into the line so tight we can barely breathe, you rush through grabbing what you can while workers slap chow on your tray. Sometimes DI's block the drink station and send away people who don't yell loud enough. Once you sit down, you have like 10 - 15, tops, sometimes 5, before you have to stack trays and rush back into formation. Its still the highlight of the day though. I eat twice as much as I ever ate before, in half the time. I eat so fast I tend to finish early and take stuff from slow eaters. Anyway, I'm still going strong. It's still more fun then lots of things that I have done. I'm still motivated. :) Can't wait until the Crucible.
Third letter from Boot Camp
20140827 - Wednesday
Life kinda sucks today. Today I got my teeth pulled, all 7 of them at once. It took over an hour and was very not fun. The doctor said I was really, really tough about it though.
20140828 - Thursday
To finish my story, after the teeth surgery, I was a little woozy and feeling weird, the desk lady (otherwise known as a secretary) called my DI about me and then I got in trouble because they thought I was misbehaving rather than just disoriented. Then I was on bed-rest for the rest of Wednesday and part of today. It was supposed to be 3 days, but our Senior Drill Instructor told us to go back to training after afternoon chow. I was honestly glad because bed-rest sucked. It was boring and they kept putting us on other decks where other DI's would yell at us and treat us like dirty wimps. When they finally brought us back to our own squad bay and our Senior Drill Instructor told us to go back to training, I was so happy. I never thought that I would miss our squad bay and our mean Drill Instructors so much.
Speaking of which, we have three. Our Senior Drill Instructor is not around much, but he is like our daddy. He will give us a break if the other two are pushing us too hard, but only is we are doing our best. If people are being lazy, or disrespectful, he will trash us worse than the normal Drill Instructors. Our regular DI's are a "heavy hat" and a "kill hat" (side note: Since I am the one typing these out, (Joy Glass, Jonathan's Wife), please don't ask me what heavy hat and kill hat means, because I don't know. Okay end of side note.)
Our heavy hat is with us the most. He teaches us and also messes us up a lot with the punishments. He's a lot like the DI in "Full Metal Jacket." (Disclaimer: The movie is pretty good. But I would advise against ladies watching it because of a few things in there that I don't think are good for ladies to watch. That is just my preference and I thought that I would warn any ladies who are thinking about watching it.)
The kill hat does the punishment workouts, but apart from that, he's not bad. He's obviously very new and so he's just not scary or intimidating, unless you get IT'd (punishment workout), and then he messes you up.
Life kinda sucks today. Today I got my teeth pulled, all 7 of them at once. It took over an hour and was very not fun. The doctor said I was really, really tough about it though.
20140828 - Thursday
To finish my story, after the teeth surgery, I was a little woozy and feeling weird, the desk lady (otherwise known as a secretary) called my DI about me and then I got in trouble because they thought I was misbehaving rather than just disoriented. Then I was on bed-rest for the rest of Wednesday and part of today. It was supposed to be 3 days, but our Senior Drill Instructor told us to go back to training after afternoon chow. I was honestly glad because bed-rest sucked. It was boring and they kept putting us on other decks where other DI's would yell at us and treat us like dirty wimps. When they finally brought us back to our own squad bay and our Senior Drill Instructor told us to go back to training, I was so happy. I never thought that I would miss our squad bay and our mean Drill Instructors so much.
Speaking of which, we have three. Our Senior Drill Instructor is not around much, but he is like our daddy. He will give us a break if the other two are pushing us too hard, but only is we are doing our best. If people are being lazy, or disrespectful, he will trash us worse than the normal Drill Instructors. Our regular DI's are a "heavy hat" and a "kill hat" (side note: Since I am the one typing these out, (Joy Glass, Jonathan's Wife), please don't ask me what heavy hat and kill hat means, because I don't know. Okay end of side note.)
Our heavy hat is with us the most. He teaches us and also messes us up a lot with the punishments. He's a lot like the DI in "Full Metal Jacket." (Disclaimer: The movie is pretty good. But I would advise against ladies watching it because of a few things in there that I don't think are good for ladies to watch. That is just my preference and I thought that I would warn any ladies who are thinking about watching it.)
The kill hat does the punishment workouts, but apart from that, he's not bad. He's obviously very new and so he's just not scary or intimidating, unless you get IT'd (punishment workout), and then he messes you up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)