Some last thoughts.

Bah, charge of quarters duty tonight from 0000-0200, this is the third night in a row that I've had some kind of duty and had to get up at an odd hour of the night. My summer boots are still damp from when I tried to clean them, so I'm rolling in my winters at the moment. Might as well write down some thoughts while I still can.

I know BCT has been quite the experience, but sometimes (especially in recent days) I wonder if I've improved as a person and/or how much I've changed as a result of going through the experiences I have. I think I've gotten stronger, I can't really tell. I've definitely learned a lot, I guess the question is how much I'm going to be able to retain and apply besides the four words "safe back down move". I've definitely learned a lot more about myself and how I work, but will I be able to improve on my deficiencies? Hmmm.

The hook "sometimes goodbye is a second chance" has been on my mind quite frequently - I wonder if it really holds true.

Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's fate, but it's mildly interesting that when I was six years old, I dressed up as GI Joe for Halloween... look where I am now, and the GI Joe movie is coming out at the same time. I wonder if mom still has pictures of me in my camouflaged vest she sewed me back then.

Victory Forge and "Haji Yao"

WE MADE IT! According to Belangia (3rd squad leader, shot hawkeye or 40/40) we made the road march in about three hours and 45 minutes, and we had two long halts in the middle to rest. I figured it was about nine miles, though I heard that someone from 2nd platoon asked the company commander how much further we had to go at one point, and he extended it by another two miles so 11 total. The tents here trap heat like no one's business, and using a sleeping bag for anything other than to use as a pillow seems like it might be a bad idea considering how hot it is. We better be motor moving (taking the buses) back on Thursday!

1300 - A 1st platoon drill sgt is giving a class on room entry and clearing but there's an Apache flying in circles around the area, it's definitely pretty distracting.

1715 - just ran an OPFOR* mission with my squad of 13. I role-played a suicide bomber - had a mock bomb vest underneath my ACU top flipped inside out, and wore my patrol cap backwards. I sauntered right up to Gate 2 yelling randomly in Chinese and "detonated" right in front of two guards, and another two got called out by the drill sgt who was supervising my attack. The rest of my squad attacked conventionally a few minutes later and bagged three guards, so altogether we netted seven of them? It was definitely a good time.

OPFOR - Opposing Force - roleplaying the enemy

NIC at Night

NIC was fucking chaos! The 1SG and CPT were impressed by our platoon's rehearsal in the afternoon, but the actual event went to shit, not sure why DS Holthus gave us an overall rating of "not bad". My eyepro and inserts completely fogged up and I couldn't see anything during the event, gotta wipe 'em down to prevent it from happening again next time.

There was a mock ambush on the trail to NIC my squad was assigned to take care of, but given I couldn't see anything we ended up flanking short of where the enemy actually was... oops.

I crawled my ass off in the sand when we made it there, haha. I didn't really pay attention to the live machine gun fire overhead or the boom pits, pretty much focused on crawling and suppressive fire. It really wasn't that hard to crawl under the wire, maybe I had to duck around a bit but I didn't really get slowed down. Blanks kept fouling up the M16, and a lot of sand got in all the crooks and nannies inside, it'll need a thorough cleaning for sure.

Once we got to the trench, squad was a little slow in getting in - we were about to swing over when the casualty was called, I slid down and immediately ended up running in knee-high water. Our squad hauled ass to the casualty collection point, though we got slowed down by the cadre - we were already in a formation, then someone splits us up to count us I think, then someone else yells at us to make a formation... what? I think we did a good job of making it to the casualty collection point and rapidly setting up security though, I heard 2nd and 3rd squads had a clusterfuck on their hands though with dropping the casualty and whatnot.

DS Holthus was pretty pissed off at our performance, but he thought about it and said not bad when we were back in the company area, so we might get our phones Monday after post detail.

3-Day FTX = bust

Well, the 3-Day started out normally, we ate MRE's for breakfast and had a motor move over to the site, then we had training after lunch chow.

Then around 1600... the shit hit the fan weather-wise with the most ridiculous storm I've ever experienced in my life so far! I got thoroughly soaked during dinner chow since the rain was going sideways underneath the cover our company took refuge under. It was absolutely freezing standing in wet ACU's and being unable to go anywhere else since it was a lightning protection area, sucked since I had to go to the bathroom and we couldn't run out to the portapotties, which was actually kind of amusing since one blew over due to the strong winds. The other platoons all started to act like jackasses during the storm, but us in 3rd kept our military bearing throughout the hours we huddled in the cold.

Eventually we packed our gear up and took buses back to base - I got lucky, I threw all my stuff in my tent so it was all dry for the most part, but a lot of people's equipment got soaked or washed away by the torrential rain. DS Holthus said we did a good job of remaining disciplined during the storm, and he usually doesn't say such things! Have CQ tonight from 2300-0100. Only a week or so left until Victory Forge, we'll see how it goes!

Reception, how I haven't missed you...

We had a "boxed lunch" for breakfast, don't know why it's called that since it was all prepackaged breakfast products like cereal and Pop Tarts... then we headed to 120th for shots and deferred issue, aka getting our dress uniforms! I think they look pretty good, but reception itself sucked like usual with the hurrying up and waiting. Dinner was really rushed since we weren't quite done with D.I. by the time the buses arrived, I only had time to shove down a personal pan pizza and some rice before rushing on the bus. At least I sneaked a piece of cake at lunch!

It was nice to be able to use my cell phone later on - called family and Vicki Jaw to say wassup, haha. Apparently gas is $2.85/gal in Michigan according to mom, but the gas station(s) on base are selling it for $2.36.

Gotta pack for the 3-day FTX coming up, Andrew Jackson range is tomorrow. I can't wait to wear the beret as part of my uniform!