January 14th

Sorry I haven't written! Since getting here to basic I haven't had any time. They keep us busy from 0500 (5am) to 2100 (9pm). That's lights out and we can't do anything until the next day.

Oh jeez, so how to begin... When we left reception we couldn't carry anything on our backs. We had to frontload it, which is where you basically strap it to your chest. Then they put us on buses, and drove us to a different part of the base where we got our units.

What surprised me was that we didn't get smoked! In fact we didn't get smoked until today, the 14th, the 4th day of basic! Our DS's (Drill Sergeants) don't yell at us, either... well, my platoon's don't. Other platoons, which are part of our company, have your typical DS's and we deal with them often.

Lights out came, so it is now the 15th. Where did I leave off...

Oh, well that first day all we really did was meet our DS's and eat dinner. Then we did some paperwork and went to bed.

On Tuesday, we had our PT assessment after breakfast. We had a bunch of classes for the rest of the day on sexual harassment, etc. We were also issued a 2 quart canteen and later, our rifle. All day was classes though. A lot of people in my company got in trouble for falling asleep.

On Wednesday, when we first woke up we went over to the PT field and they taught us what we would be doing for PT here. We then had classes for the rest of the day on all kinds of boring shit, like nutrition and cold weather survival. We got smoked a few times as a company during them due to people falling asleep... dicks. Later, however we were issued our helmets, packs, and assault vests... oh, and two 1 qt canteens to go into the holders on the assault vest belt. Then it was off to bed.

Thursday was by far the most fun day yet! We did out first road march, which wasn't far at only 1.6 miles or so. We had to carry our rifles, wear our helmets (ACH) and wear our packs and assault vests. We didn't have much in our packs, only a few shirts, poncho, socks, etc. only a little bit of shit.

If I had to keep it short, since I really should since it's lights out but won't, is that Victory Tower is awesome. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but that was the destination of our road march. What it basically is, is that it's a tower about 40-50 feet high with the rappel wall on one side, a big cargo net on the other, a few different rope bridges on another side, and finally a ladder where the bottom half is feet only, with you having to use a rope for your arms, the rest of the ladder is normal.

We spent the whole day doing that! It was amazing, and you'll be able to see the video. Today was more classes... all day. What makes it even worse was that I had fireguard duty, so I've been up since 0300. Looong day.

Tomorrow, the 16th, we're doing combatives! Yay for more throat pain like before!

I'm actually having fun now. They don't limit the stuff we can drink in the mess hall, and they give us a good 10 minutes or so to eat. It's also good food. It's mostly southern food, but so far I've been surprised a few times: We had roast beef... like an actual roast, veal, all kinds of stuff like that.