BCT Day 5

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 5
September 17,2010

Today was pretty uneventful. We spent most of the day learning how to read a map. It was actually pretty interesting, but that didn't make it any easier to stay awake during class. I was struggling and you do NOT want to fall asleep in any classes. I've seen it happen and the consequences did not look fun. We've got more land navigation classes tomorrow. We'll be learning how to use a compass.
Since I don;t have much to talk about today, I'll tell you a little about my platoon. I feel like we are pretty lucky. We have a good group of DS.We have 4 that are our main ones, 2 males and 2 females. The two that are around the most are pretty laid back as long as we're doing what we are told. Our group isn't nearly as bad as some of the others. The other platoon in our company gets smoked all the time by their DS's. We have people from all walks of life. We have people from New York all the way to Washington state.. We even have a few foreigners, one from Turkey and one from Africa. Most of the platoon gets along well and don;t mess up too much. We do have a couple that just can't seem to get it together though, but maybe they'll figure it out soon, for their own sake. Most everyone is under 20, but we have a couple of guys in their late 30's though. It's been cool getting to know everyone.
That's really all I've got for today. I need to be hitting the bunk anyways. I've got fireguard shift at $:00. I'll fill you in on what that is next time. There's also been creepy stuff going on during some fireguards shifts. They say this barrack is haunted. (Supposedly) someone killed themselves upstairs during a previous BCT class.

BCT Day 4

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.


Day 4
September 16, 2010

Today was a big day. Our training today was something that we had to complete in order to graduate, Victory Tower.
Victory Tower is a 5 story tower and the only was down is to rappel down a wall with a rope. There are a few other obstacles, but the wall is the main attraction. The tower is designed to do a couple of things. The first is to get people to prove to themselves that they have courage to do anything they put their mind to. The second is to teach soldiers to trust their equipment and training The harness is just a single piece of rope that you tie around your waste and between your legs. It is scary to think that's all that's going to keep you safe.
I'm not even going to lie, I was a little scared at the top, but once I pushed off the wall and was on my way down it was really cool. It's definitely not something I would have ever even attempted if not for the Army.
We also did our first road march today. We marched to and from Victory Tower. It's just under 2 miles, and we only had about 30 pounds of gear so it wasn't to bad. It was fairly hot on the way back though. We had one girl that fell out due to the heat. She had to go to the hospital , but she is okay now. Today was finally laundry day too. We don't have to do our own laundry, which is nice since we don't really have time. The downside is that they charge us $26 bucks a month, whether we use the laundry service or not.
Also, I forgot to mention that I mailed my first letters to Emily yesterday. This won't be news to you since your reading this. I just mention it because I can't wait ti start getting letters from whoever else she passes my address along to.

BCT Day 3

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 3
September 15, 2010

Today didn't start out very well but it ended up being a good day after all.We started the day by marching to the PT field for an introduction to the Army's PT program. We weren't really going to do PT. They just wanted to go over formation we use for PT and the standard warm up exercise. It didn't go that was though. A lot of people weren't listening or weren't motivated enough and were messing everything up. We got smoked for it. I think it was just the DS's way of making us do PT since we weren't going to do "official" PT.
We also got smoked when we got back to the barracks. We've got some people that just don't have the sense of urgency. When DS says we have one minute we have 50 seconds to do something, he means it. I guess some people are just slow to catch on. After we were allowed to shower, change clothe, and have dinner, we went to a large classroom for some briefings. We spent pretty much all day in there. We heard presentations on everything from Army rank structure to sexual assault. We did get a motivation speech from our Sergeant Major, though.
We were also told something that turned my day around. They told us that graduation would be a day earlier that we expected. I know it doesn't seems like much, but when your here it means a lot. As good as this news was it wasn't the best part of my day.
I got to make a short (5 minute) call home!! Again, this seems small, but the small things always been the most. It was awesome to hear my wife's voice. I'm not ashamed to say it make me tear up a little. I wasn't expecting a call for a while so it was a surprise to get this one. It definitely got me motivated.

BCT Day 2

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 2
September 14, 2010

Day 2 started with a 1-1-1 PT assessment. We did as many push-ups as we could in 1 minute, sit-ups in 1 minute, and a 1 mile run. This gives the DS(Drill Sergeants) an idea of what shape everyone is in and helps them put us in groups for Ability Group Runs (AGR), I did 45 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, and 7:25 on the 1 mile run. It's about what I expected, but I wish I would have done a little better on the run. There will be plenty of time to improve though.
After the 1-1-1 and breakfast, we got our weapon (NEVER call it a gun). We have to take it EVERYWHERE, even chow. It is a bit of a hassle to carry all the time, but I'll get used to it. We also got more gear, our combat helmet(ACH) and our armored vest(IVA). The IVA has heavy armored plates in the front and back. Most of the time after that was spent getting our gear setup correctly. We got smoked a few times for not getting things done enough, but nothing serious.

BCT Day 1

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 1
September 13,2010

Today was a big day, the start of Army Basic Combat training.
We started the day off in reception, Everyone had a chance to take care of anything, they needed before BCT. The ones that didn't need to do anything(me) had to clean up our bay. We did that until time to go...

Ship time for BCT was 13:00. We loaded up all our gear and were bused to another part of the base. This is where the fun begins.

We stepped out of the buses and it was MASS chaos. There were about 400 recruits running around trying to figure out what was going on. Drill Sergeants were everywhere, constantly adding to the confusion by yelling at everyone. They were randomly telling soldiers which group they needed to go to. This was how our companies and platoons were form. I ended up in B Company (Bravo), 1st platoon. We are called Spartans. They made us find our bags (more mass confusion) and march to our barracks. Once we got to the barrack, we formed up by platoon. Guess who the the first one to get called out was? It went something like this:

Drill Sergent- "Specialist?!!!" (that's my rank)
"How the bleep bleep bleep did you get Specialist?!!"
ME- "Bachelors Degree, Drill Sergeant!"
DS- "Are you an OSC Candidate?!"
ME- "Yes, Drill Sergeant!"
DS- "You might as well get on the bleep bleep bleep bleep and
start bleep bleep pushing!!!"
Me- "One, Drill Sergeant! Two, Drill Sergeant! Three, Drill Sergeant!...

So much for flying under the radar.
After that they took us up to our bay and assigned us bunks. I then fell out.

Reception Days 2-4

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.

Reception Days 2-4
September 10-12,2010

I'm getting a little behind on my letters so I'm going to cram the rest of reception into one.

On Friday we were issued our ACU (uniforms)and other clothing even underwear. This is really all we did since it took half the day. The rest of the day we spent cleaning up our bay in the barracks.

Saturday started off great, I had 5 shots before 06:00 (I'm going to be using military time in all my letters) Some people got more than that, 5 was the minimum. We were vaccinated for every disease known to man. We cleaned more and had some free time.I used my time to call Em, Izzy and my parents.

Sunday was spent packing up our gear and getting ready to ship "down range" to BCT. We did have quiet a bit of down time too. This can be dangerous when you have a few hundred guys, mostly under the age of 20 in the same space. Things got a little rowdy so we all got called outside and got smoked. It wasn't that bad though, just a few push-ups and a lecture from the drill sergeant. Sunday was sad though, It was the last time that I got to talk to Em and Iz. I also called my parents. I'm not sure when I will get to talk to them again. I am guessing 2 weeks.

Reception Day 1

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.

Reception day 1
September 9, 2010

Day started as soon as we sot to Ft Jackson a little after midnight. We went to a large classroom to do some paperwork and get a briefing on the things we'd do in reception. We were also taken through the amnesty room. This is where everyone gets a chance to get rid of any contraband without getting in trouble, things like weapons, drugs, tobacco, candy, ect. After that we got an initial issue of gear. PT uniforms (which we also sleep in), a towel, some sheets, canton, and a couple of other things. By the time we finished up it was about 4:00am. Day 1 didn't officially start until 4:30am though. So we had 30 minutes to put our stuff in the barracks, change clothes and shave. We fell into formation at 4:30, and headed for chow. The food actually hasn't been that bad. Breakfast is the best though. The rest of the day consist of TB test, (I almost passed out from this. I was standing in line a few minutes after wards a guy behind me actually did pass out about the some time I got light-headed), a haircut($6), getting our pay and benefits set up, medical checkup (eyesight, hearing, dental x-rays, and blood work), and a trip to the PX (store for you civilians) where you were "required" to buy between $150-$200 worth of supplies including running shoes. The best part of the day was getting boots. It only took 5 hours. Yep, again "hurry up and wait." I finally got to bed around 11:30pm, only 43 hours since I began this adventure in Jackson, MS.