BCT Day 20

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 20
October 2,2010

Even though today was Saturday, it almost felt like Sunday. It was a very laid back day. We started off the day with a short PT session. We had to wear our long sleeved shirts, and most people were still pretty chilly. I don't think that I've mentioned it, but in the last week the season has changed. Fall is here at Fort Jackson. It was like someone flipped a switch. All of a sudden, the mornings are cool(as low as the upper 40s) and the days are comfortable(70s). I like it though. Everything is easier when it's not blistering hot outside.
Our D and C competition was this morning. My platoon did better than I though we would. We didn't win or anything but we did okay. After they announced the winner, every platoon in the battalion changed their banners to white. This signified our transition from red phase to white phase.
I can already tell a difference in phases. The DS's seem a little more relaxed. We can march on our own to some places, like the DFAC. We also get to call cadence when we march. It gives us rhythm to help keep us in step. There are all kinds of cadences. We'll get more personal time in white phase too. We'll get 1.5 hours instead of 1 hour.
Since we changed phases, we had to do evaluations. We did a self evaluation and a peer evaluation on 3 different soldiers. Luckily, I got to evaluate 3 soldiers that I interact with regularly. That made it easier to do. I'm not sure how the evals are used, but our DS said that she used them.
After evals, two of our DS sat us down and told us about themselves. They talked about how long they've been in, where they've been stationed, deployments their families, ect. Then every soldier in our platoon had to stand up and tell their story. This has been one of my favorite things we've done so far. It was interesting learning more about my battle buddies. And it really help to understand their personalities more when I know their background.
There are only 37 in our platoon, but there is so much diversity. We've got soldiers from all over the world- Turkey, Africa, Brazil, Mexico to name a few countries represented. Ages range from 18-38. Everyone has a unique reason for joining the Army too. Some just want to serve their country, others supporting families, and some just carrying on family history by serving in the military service. All this diversity means everyone brings something different to the team.