January 22

Well god damn! Today was a hell of a day. We marched with most of our gear across Fort Jackson to the confidence course... Well, let me back up. Wake up was at 0445, so that we could march at 0600. We marched for about 2 hours with most of our gear to the confidence course.

What the Confidence (I swear the Army hurts spelling) course is, is basically an obstacle course. It's probably a quarter mile long, with walls you jump over, nets you climb, pipes you go through, logs you walk over, ditches you crawl through, etc. My platoon, the Great Danes, got the best time of our company. The exercise I liked most of all that... that's a tough one. Probably the easy ones where we had to jump through windows, haha.

After the obstacle course (I forgot to mention they fed us breakfast there), they marched us about a mile down some crappy trail to the NBC, most commonly known as the gas chamber! Once we got there, we had to change our shirts and socks, like always, and then they made us eat our MRE's. Personally, I was kinda butthurt that they made us eat right before getting gassed, but figured that if I was going to blow chunks, I was going to do it spectacularly with a full stomach since I was starving.

Once we finished eating, they sat us down for a class on how to clear our masks, etc. It was taught by this black lady that had the most massive boobs I've ever seen, and said as much to the guy sitting next to me. He replied with, "Yeah... I'd like to see her pass her PT test!" Hahaha!

Not long after the class had ended, they lined us up by platoon. Once lined up, we marched up the hill to the NBC chamber. They then arranged us so we were facing each other. When it was our turn to go in, the big breasted sergeant said, "Gas Gas Gas!" and we put on our masks. While waiting to go into the chamber (we were the second in line), three people popped out the back door (a big no-no), and threw their masks and collapsed retching, coughing, and screaming.

Naturally, this didn't make me feel better about doing thing... Not long after they ran out, they called us in. Now, the room is just that. All that it is is an empty space with a table in the middle where they drop the CS things in. There are two doors on either side of the building; one for each wall, where the people line up.

So anyway, the first thing we had to do was pull our mask up about halfway off out face and recite our rank, last name, first name, and the last four digits of our socials. After we did that (which I did fine, btw) we had to turn to our left to face the front doors. They then told us to remove our masks and say the soldiers' creed. I got a fair distance into the creed, then I decided to open my eyes. Worst. Mistake, Ever. As soon as I did that I took a breath involuntarily.

My eyes started watering, my nose started running, I was coughing and then, oh god, I was going to throw up! I leaned to the side so that I wouldn't puke on the guy in front of me's back, and at the same time grabbed his shoulder because my eyes were squeezed shut. I did a good gag, with nothing coming up. Then I felt the guy I was holding onto shift forward, so I opened my eyes just a little and saw light towards where the door was.

As soon as I was outside, I shoved the person in front of me out of the way as I took off at a run. Little did I realize at the time, however, that the outside air actually makes it worse! As soon as the fresh air entered my lungs and hit my eyes it got about x50 worse. I kept hearing one of the female drill sergeants yell, "keep your eyes open!" but it was impossible. With all the tears and burning your eyes automatically close, and you don't want to touch them with your hands!

After running around coughing, flapping my arms like a bird, and weaving all over the place since I was blind, I felt like I had to puke again. So, I bent over, put my hands on my knees and braced for it. I let out the worst gag and burp simultaneously ever. I remember actually thinking, "Ohh, that's so fucking gross, that's going to make someone puke from the sound alone." After about 5 minutes though, I was back to normal... with clear sinuses.