BCT Day 38

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 38
10-20-10

We finished up ARM today. We had to shoot at the timed targets, similar to BRM qualifications, except we were in full battle rattle and had to hit the targets more than once to get a "kill". It was actually fun. Now, we have to turn in our "new weapons and red dot sight and go back to our old ones. This is the last range we will go for a week or more. We need a break from the range. It's getting a little old.
Since there's not much to write about, I'll give you an update on our platoon. For the most part we get alone much better and don't get in trouble as much as we were. We only have a couple of people that can't keep their mouth shut when they should. Even Pvt Hardcore has changed. Actually I'm going to rename him Pvt Marti, since that's that we call him. We get along fine now. He still occasionally talks trash to others but tries to do the right thing most of the time. He even told me that I'll make a good officer. I guess you can say we are doing much better, which I'm sure is expected now that we are in week 6 an about to go to blue phase.

BCT Day 37

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 37
10-19-10

Today did not start off well. First we were supposed to have our morning formation at 5:50, which means we need to be down and ready for formation at 5:40. At 5:25 a DS comes into the bay and starts yelling at us for not being downstairs yet. This led to push-ups. We didn't do many but it was too early to be beating our face.
Next, we were scheduled for breakfast from 6:40 to 7:00 with a bus to the range at 7:15. So, we didn't have a lot of time for chow to begin with. When we got to the DFAC there's another company in front of us for chow. They decided to go to chow early instead of their schedule time. This means we literally had 2 minutes to eat before we had to rush back to catch the bus. Everyone was pissed, even the DS's. There was also a last minute change to the rage schedule. We had to share the range with another company, the same one that cheated us out of breakfast. We have sort of a rivalry with this company already. Even our DS's don;t like their DS's. Their DS's treat their soldiers like crap, always yelling and cussing at them and such. Anyway that company won the D&C competition earlier in the cycle. So they thought they were the stuff. Well, until they came in second place in BRM, which we smoked them in. They tried to brag about winning D&C at the range today but Pvt Subtitle, my bunkmate, shut them up quickly though. He pointed out that D&C wouldn't help them much when they ended up in Afghanistan. That pretty much ended their bragging.
The icing on this day happened at dinner. I had just marched my platoon over for chow and we were waiting behind 2 platoon to go in. All of a sudden a female DS from another company bust out of nowhere and starts yelling at us not talking(we really weren't) She asked where the PG's were. I say "Here Drill Sergeant!!!" She starts yelling about getting my platoon under control(they were). Now apparently, I thought this was funny. She stops yelling and says "Are you smiling at me? I'll punch you in the face!!" I don't think I was smiling but I probably did have some smart ass grin on my face though. I guess the point of this story is that we've become immune to all the yelling and even getting smoked sometimes. There are time we all fight back laughter when getting smoked. Ahhh, the fun we have at BCT.

BCT Day 36

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.

B-CT Day 36
10-18-10

We started the day off strong, with diagnostic PT test. I improved my score in all 3 events. I increased my overall score by 24 points to a 254. It's still short of my final goal of 270, but it was higher than I set for today, 250. I have about 2.5 weeks until the final PT test, I think I can set up to 270 by then. The biggest problem I had today was with the run. I was not prepared to run in the cool weather. It will only be cooler for the final, so I better get more prepared.
We had to head back to the EST, too. We are starting advanced rifle marksmanship (ARM) this week, so we used EST as an introduction. It allows us to practice shooting without wasting ammo. One component that makes ARM different then BRMs is the gear we wear. We wear full battle rattle when we shoot. We all found out today that this extra gear make it much more difficult to do everything, not just shoot. It's heavy , hot, and uncomfortable. It's hard to imagine what it's like to have to basically live in this stuff like some soldiers have to. We also did simulated night fire. We were in pitch black room and wearing night vision goggles. This was actually neat. I've always wondered what it was like using night vision goggles, now I know.
In non- training news you'll never guess what we had in the DFAL tonight...OREO's!!!! They had little packages with 4 cookies inside. It was awesome. I came so close to getting a glass of milk to go with the,. Then I realized being seen eating milk and cookies by DS probably wouldn't be the type of attention I want. I'd never hear the end of it.

BCT Day 35

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 35
10-17-10

Another Sunday and another week is in the books. We only have 4 more Sundays left.
The Bible teaches us that Sunday should be a day of rest. At BCT, even non-Christians become believers on Sunday. Almost everyone take a nap between breakfast and lunch. Some take short naps and some sleep the entire 4 or so hours. I go to church services so I usually don't nap. I still enjoy going to service on Sundays. Not only does it give me the opportunity to worship the Lord and fellowship with other Christians, it also give me a chance to clear my mind before the next week.
We got another treat tonight. The entire battalion got to go tot the Army's Soldier Show. It was basically a concert where all the singers and musicians are soldiers. They covered all types of music- rock, rap, country, even Broadway. It was really good. The best part was the Michael Jackson tribute and they did some Journey too. Journey always make me smile. I guess it make me think of my younger days.
Before I finish up for the night, I want to give a shot out to all of my readers and followers of this blog. In the past several days I've had several of my battle buddies tell me how much of their families and friends enjoy reading this. I'm happy to know that I'm not just wasting my time with this. Thanks for all of your support.

BCT Day 34

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 34
10-16-10

I'm officially halfway through BCT, 34 days down and 33 to go. I stead of thinking about how many days I've been here I can now think about how many days I have left.
We had our first and only, organized PT of the week this morning. It was a little cool out but it was nice to do PT. We haven't had any time to do PT since we've been going to the ranges every morning. We've got another diagnostic pt test Monday morning too.
After PT and chow, we had to go to a ceremony for the entire battalion. They announced the the best shooting company and platoon. It just made what we already knew official. We have the best shooting company and my platoon was the best in the company. We got a streamer that goes on our phase banner. Our Co. Commander even reward the entire company with ice cream sandwiches. That was a nice treat. Everyone ate slow and savored the taste.
We also went to the barber shop and troop store today. We are all bald again. We didn't do much for the rest of the day. Pretty much clean and zero in our red dot scopes.

BCT Day 33

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 33
10-15-10

Today was kinda of fun since we had completed BRM. We marched out to the confidence course. It was a short march only about 2 miles. The confidence course is just a big obstacle course. It probably had about 25 obstacles. Most of them were too easy, but a few took some effort. It was fun though a nice change from going to the range everyday.
A weird thing happened while we were there. One of out DS's that isn't around to often, kept calling me and my bunk-mate, Private Subtitle, the wrong name. She did it several times. She said that we look alike. Probably b/c were both bald. Anyway, it's just weird to be called someone else name.
Once we marched back, we got some new weapons. We were issued M-4's and M-16A4's. They are similar to our m16A2's that we've been using, but they are newer and nicer. We also for some red dot scopes for them. These are Advanced Rifle Marksmanship (ARM). That's what were doing this coming week. We are the only company in the battalion to get updated weapons, probably b/c we are the best shooters.
The best part of the day came at the end. We got to make phone calls!! They were only 5 minutes, but it was still so awesome to talk to mu wife. My little girl, Izzy, even talked to me for a minute. I miss them so much, but I will see them soon.

BCT Day 32

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 32
10-14-10

Well, I didn't get expert. It's not all that bad though, I shot much better today. I shot a 34 only 2 shy of expert. That's an improvement of 8 from yesterday, but still a little depressing that I came so close and still came up short. That's just how it goes sometimes. Our company is still ahead in qualifying. Our DS also told us that we scored better than 2nd platoon. So not only did my company score the best, my platoon is the best. We are supposed to be rewarded for our shooting too, with phone calls and other treats like pizza. I could care less about pizza, but the call has me excited. Just a side note, at this time, 5 weeks from now, I should be back at home in my own bed. Thank God!!