BCT Day 12

These post are from letters that Jason has mailed to me. Sometimes his writing is hard for me to read so bare with me if some of the terms aren't right. I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

BCT Day 12
September 24,2010

I had a long day today. Not a bad day, just too long. I had staff duty from 3:00 til 5:00, so I was up at 2:30 to get ready. Staff duty is where we go to our battalion offices and clean up, answer the phone, ect. It's not bad they even have a TV in there. It felt strange to have a TV on. I haven't seen a TV in a couple of weeks. I really don't think about it much at this point. I used to watch it everyday, and now it's like it's normal not to have a TV. I may just drop cable when I get back. I'm pretty sure Em (my wife) won't go for that though.
I had a pretty cool experience during staff duty. The shift before mine said they got a call that said the Post Commander (a 2 star general that is in charge of the entire base) and the post Command Sergent Major (highest enlisted soldier on base) were going around the base checking in on people. I kind of hoped that he wouldn't come by while we were on duty though. I was nervous about what to say and do when he came by. Well they did come by and the only ones there when he came in were me and my battle buddy. Our DS had to go check on another soldier. So I called "attention" when they came in, since that's what your supposed to do when an officer walks in. Apparently it was the right thing. He talked to us for a few minutes and was pretty laid back. Our DS came in while he was talking to us and he told her what I did. He said that I was the only person that had done that all night. He even gave us his coin. Senior officers and NCO's have special coins that they give out when someone does something really good. It's an honor to get one especially from the Post Commander. I'd guess most soldiers go through BCT never even getting to see him, much less talk to and get his coin. I was pretty excited about how it all went down. Our DS told us good job when the General left, which is something that NEVER comes out of DS's mouth. When we got to formation our Battalion Commander (Leutinent Colonel) and Battalion Sergent Major came by and wanted to know what happened and also told us good job. They told our DS that it reflected on the job that they were doing too. So maybe I got some brownie points with the DS.
The rest of the day was boring. We had about 8 more hours of (first aid) classes. We've got a test on it tomorrow morning. It should be pretty easy though. Most of what you learn is common sense. I'm off the bed now I've been up since 2:30 and haven't had a full nights sleep in a few days. I've had some sort of duty at night for the past few nights. And in non-BCT related news, I started dating my wife EM (Emily) 10 years ago today. Happy Anniversary Em!!! (and no I did not add that it really said that in the letter, Emily)