BCT Day 15

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 15
September 27,2010

Today was a pretty cool day. We started out with a march to the Fit to Win (FTW) course. FTW is an obstacle course that you run as a team, but you complete the obstacles as individuals. I think the course is about 1/2 mile long. To make it even more fun, it rained all night so the course was wet and muddy. Most of the obstacles were either jumping over something like a wall or crawling under or through something. Four teams ran the course at a time, so it was an unofficial race. My team won, luckily. It was some of the most fun we've had so far. Everyone was filthy and so pumped up after FTW. We ate some breakfast (hot a's) and headed to our next stop, the gas chamber.
We marched from FTW to the chamber, in some light rain. We were already wet from FTW though. Plus, we had more to worry about than rain. Everyone was nervous about the gas chamber. We've all heard the horror stories about it.
They took us in by platoon, so there were about 35 of us in at one time. our mask were on when we walked in so everything seemed fine. Within a few seconds our shin was burning. We still were able to breath fine since we still had our mask on. Then, the fun started. The DS's went up to us one by one, made us break the seal on our mask, say our rank, name and SS#, and put our mask back on and clear the gas out of it so we could breath again. This did cause a little discomfort, but as long as we didn't open our eyes or breath in while our mask was off. Most people were fine, but a few panicked. One guy, everyone calls him Turkey since that's were he's from freaked out. He wanted to get out and almost started fighting the DS's. He didn't get out, though. After our masks were back on they split us up in groups of 10. Each group had to take our mask completely off our heads and say the Soldiers Creed.Once you breath in, it's over. It has to be the worst experience of my life. Your eyes, lungs, and skin are on fire. You can't breath. There's snot pouring out of your nose. You're going and want to puke. They may have made us stay in for 10 seconds or so like that, but it felt like forever. Once your outside, it still takes several minutes to catch your breath and get back to normal.
Even though it sucked while we were in there, I'm glad we did it. I'll definitely never forget it. It's something most people can't say they've done. Plus, it's just another graduation requirement checked off the list. Oh, by the way, this was all before lunch.
The rest of the day was more relaxed. I think they were letting us recover from our intense morning. That and we are ahead of the normal BCT schedule, so we don't have to rush. Our company only has about 75 people in it. The company would normally have almost 4 times that many soldiers in it. So, it doesn't take us as long to complete most things. Tonight really capped off the day as well. I got 5 pieces of mail some letters and pictures from Em and Izzy, one from my mom , and a card and picture from my civilian co-workers. It's hard to imagine letters making that much of a difference considering that they are rarely used anymore. But when it's the only thing that keeps you connected to the outside world, it's amazing to get a simple letter. To make it even better we didn't have to pay for our mail. We have a PT test in the morning, so they didn't want to wear us out. With that said I've got some reading to do...

BCT Day 14

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 14
September 26,2010

Two weeks down!! This one flew by. This was an off day since it was Sunday. Worship Services were canceled today because there was a Christian concert this morning. It was open to all BCT and AIT soldiers. Only about 10 people from our company went. Maybe everyone else knew something we didn't, but probably not since there were about 1500 soldiers there. Everyone seemed excited to be there. That is until the music started. It was all in Spanish. That's right it was Hispanic Christian concert. Someone dropped the ball on communicating that important fact. Not only that it lasted until lunch. So we didn't get any personal time this morning.
It turned out not to be a big deal though. The only thing we did after lunch was spend a couple hours cleaning our bay. We had the rest of the day off basically. Most of us used some of the time to write our essays.
Tonight was a huge disappointment. We were expecting to get some phone time tonight. Our DS's never directly told us that, but all signs pointed that way. 2nd Platoon was told we were getting calls., but they got in trouble and lost their privileges. They next sign was that our DS let those that needed to get numbers from their cell phones. You'd thing that they meant for us to use the numbers for something. Unfortunately the day ended with no call. I'm very disappointed. I've looked forward to hearing my wife's voice all day.

BCT Dat 13

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 13
September 25,2010

We had our CLS test today. It was pretty easy though. However only one person made a 100 on it, ME. We had 10 people fail, and that means now I have to tutor them tomorrow so they can retake it. It should be easy since they already know the questions.
Our first combative (hand to hand combat) class was today. The Army uses a modifies form of jui jistu, so it's mostly a ground based system. We just covered some basic positions today. We did get to spar some at the end of class. That was fun, but we got a lecture about safety b/c some people got hurt trying stuff that they had seen in the UFC or something. It really doesn't matter what we are doing there's always someone getting into trouble for being stupid, more on that later.
We were issued our gas mask this evening, which can only mean one thing. The dreaded gas chamber is coming up soon. It will probably be early next week. I'm not looking forward to it either. They say it pretty rough, burning skin and eyes, snot pouring out of your nose, vomiting, ect. I'll let you know if all that's true or not.
Remember when I said that there are people always getting in trouble. Well we have some people in our platoon that haven't realized where they are yet. They constantly talk when they aren't supposed to, don't listen to the DS, show up for formation late, and the list goes on. So, thanks ti them, we have to write a 500 word essay on why we want to be in the Army by Monday morning. Honestly, I'd rather get smoked. I bet we have at least 2 people that don't do the essay either. I'll let you know if I'm right or not.
We also got to go to the troop store. It's like a mini PX. I bought an extra PT uniform and a few other small things I needed. All the males had to get haircuts. So, I'm bald again.

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)

BCT Day 11

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 11
Sept. 23,2010

Today was kind of opposite of yesterday. Not much fun was had today. We woke up at 04:30, and packed up our gear and tents. They brought us breakfast then we headed back out to march back to the barracks. It was harder marching on a full stomach and less sleep than the march yesterday.
Once we got back to the barracks, we were supposed to have about and hour to shower, change clothes, and unpack. Halfway through the hour though one of our "jerk" DS's came in and started smoking us for not being ready. So after we just got clean, we were sweaty again. I guess that's just how it is sometimes.
We had some first aid classes today, about 8 hours worth. It was boring and we were all tired. Needless to say people's heads were bobbing. Everyone was getting smoked, including me. I got caught nodding off once. I only had to do a few push-ups and v-ups (kind of like a sit-up). Some people got much worse.
The day ended great though. I finally got some mail!!! I got a letter from Em and one from my parents. They only cost me 20 push-ups each, but it was so worth it. It's nice to hear from my family. It's hard not to know how they are doing everyday. The downside is that Em's letter said she sent one before the one I got, but I haven't received it (we number our letters so we know the order to read them in). She left off part of my address. My mom actually left off the same part but I got her letter. I'll have to investigate.

BCT Day 10

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 10
September 22,2010

This was a long day. We woke up and marched to our land nav. course (4k). They brought breakfast out to us. They call it "hot a's" when they bring food from the DFAC out to the field. All our meals today were hot a's. I'm kinda glad though, I was afraid we'd have MRE's. My group did really well with land nav. We had 3 hours to find 3 out of 5 points. My group found all 5 in 1 hour and 9 minutes. We were only a couple of minutes behind the 1st group to finish. It was a pretty easy course.
During that afternoon, we set up our camp. It was cool to see all the tents set up together. One of our DS's also showed our platoon some combat formations and movements during some down time. He 's an infantryman and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan several times. So, he has plenty of experience to share with us and has some cool stories. He's probably my favorite DS. He's laid back as long as your doing what your supposed to be, just don't get on his bad side.
Once the sun went down, we started our night land nav. course. It was the same course, we just had to find 3 different points. It was fun wondering through the forest in the dark. We found our points easily, but didn't rush back to finish this time. We just hung out in the woods since we knew the DS's would find something else to keep us busy if we finished quickly.
The actual "camping" part wasn't as fun as I had hoped. It wasn't bad, I just didn't sleep good. Plus we only had about 5 hours of sleep. Overall though this has been the most fun I've had so far.

BCt Day9

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 Day9
September 21,2010

We had our first "real" PT session today. It was actually a pretty tough workout. Part of the workout was called climbing drills. Climbing drills are a variety of exercises using a pull-up bar. Most of my workouts before I shipped to BCT centered on Push-ups and sit-ups, which are two of the three components of the APFT (PT Test). So, the pull-up exercises were tough. If you are reading this and preparing for BCT, work on pull-ups!!!
After PT and breakfast, we marched out to the team development course(TDC). We had the same load in our ruck packs as the march last week, but this one was shorter. The TDC was cool. We were split up into teams of 8-10 and had to complete obstacles using limited supplies and teamwork. For example, we had to get our team and a 55 gallon drum of "fuel" across a "destroyed bridge" using only a couple of 6-8ft boards. It was really more of a mental puzzle than a physical. The hardest part was trying to come up with a plan to complete the obstacle using only the supplies we had. Our team completed 2 out of 4 obstacles, which was in line with all the other teams. We had problems with everyone wanting to be the boss at first, but eventually worked better together. This was actually the goal of the TDC, to get us to use teamwork.
Once we marched back from TDC, we got a refresher on land navigation and got packed and got packed for tomorrow's march and course. I think the DS told us the march would be about 4k which is only about 2.5 miles. Our rack sack will be little heavier to since we are staying in the field over night. I'm not looking forward to the march, but I think the course will be fun.