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July 25, 2009
Ok, now this is my last piece of normal paper and after that it’ll be weird (but cool) stuff from the PX. If it’s hard to read send me more normal paper. If not, sweet.
So yesterday (Friday) was a pretty good day to start. It was an extra stupid day for our platoon but other than that it was good.
Our training for the day was MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain). We started out the morning with PT as usual and got ourselves nice and sore which is good. My forearms look pretty good. After PT we walked out to the range where we conducted our training. At this point we march everywhere with our load-bearing-vests and our assault packs which is probably a 30 pound load and we just started filling the two, quart-sized canteens we carry with us so we can get used to carrying extra weight. It really wouldn’t have been bad though if we hadn’t gotten smoked with all of it because people weren’t sounding off while we were marching. As always it’s just basic simple crap but people don’t do it.
After our smoke session we started into our training. It began with a class on how to clear rooms and basically just reviewed the stuff I’d learned at drill. The new spent 3 hours running through “glass houses” which are just rooms outlined in the ground. While we were running our cobbled-together fireteams through the glass houses we listened to stories and advice from drill sergeant. He kind of reminds me of the old war vets that just spew out information constantly which is great for us. A lot of people don’t pay attention though and when he chews you out its rather frightening. I’m glad it hasn’t happened to me.
After the glass houses we had chow. We were going to treat it like an FTX with people pulling security for their battle buddies and guys going out on patrols but for some reason they changed their minds and we got to just sit and eat. It was a slightly maddening meal as always because some people that started out doing the right thing have falling in with the idiots. Probably 80% of the guys who got contraband in their MREs ate it. I told them it was a bad idea but the only response I got was that I’m the good guy and they’re the bad guys and I just need to deal with it. Of course, the drill sergeants got wind of our contraband problems and we got smoked for it and were told that next time it happens they’re going to just hand out AR-15s. An I-told-you-so ended up be unneeded.
After that we had a couple more classes then dinner. After dinner most of us went to a final class for the night on radio reporting during fireguard shifts. 2nd platoon was mysteriously missing though and we later found out that they were all getting smoked. Some moron had snuck his cell phone in and half the platoon was using it. Luckily the half that wasn’t turned him in and got to watch as the rest got smoked for multiple hours. The kid who sneaked it in got an AR-15 as well and got reduced two ranks as well as a loss of half a month’s pay (over $800). Stupid stuff.
Saturday was the really fun day though. We started out with a company run. We went about 2 miles but did it in over half an hour. Because the pace was so ridiculously slow we only had 3 fall outs out of over 180. It was weird though. By the time we stopped, despite having to call cadence and go up and down hills, my breathing was exactly the same as when we started but my calves killed. Our steps were close to the same pace as a real run but they were tiny so you were on the balls of your feet the whole time if you had long legs. It was great strength training but it was a very bizarre feeling to have after a run.
After our run was the gas chamber. We got all loaded up with our LBVs and Assault Packs as always and crammed onto a bus to go down to the range. I was rather surprised that I still wasn’t feeling nervous at this point. When we got there we got another quick briefing after we dripped off our assault packs. Then one of the drill sergeants and the first sergeant went through the gas chamber to show us it wasn’t that bad. They came out tearing and coughing a bit but that was it.
So we donned our masks and our helmets and started filing into the chamber in groups of 30. The first thing that I noticed was little shiny flecks floating through the air like little shards of glass. WE had our gas masks on so it didn’t hurt or anything yet but you could smell it. It kind of smelled like fireworks. I was shocked to see wasps flying around and a little group of baby birds sitting against the wall just chirping away. They looked fine to me which kinda gave me a false sense of security.
We continued to push into the room while the four drill sergeants in there yelled at us to get tighter. There was a table in the middle of the room with a little propane stove on it that had a little tin can being cooked over it. When I stopped against the wall I noticed a tingling sensation on the exposed skin on the back of my neck. They had us remove our helmets, place our rifles between our heels and put our helmets on the muzzles. As I did this the tingling increased to a very severe burning on the back of my neck. If you’re curious about what it felt like, go get a sunburn on the back of your neck and put Icy Hot on it. It was very unpleasant and now I was starting to get nervous.
I was about midpack when they started coming around and having us break the seal of our masks to give our name and the last four digits of our social. Personally I like knowing what I’m getting myself into before I do something so I kept my eyes open and took a small breath when I was finished before clearing and sealing my mask.
TO BE CONTINUED…
July 25, 2009
Saturday Part II
It wasn’t as bad as I expected but it did hit very quickly. My eyes burned in about the same manner as they do if you use too much beach while cleaning a bathroom and the feeling in my throat was like swallowing a sharp-edged potato chip too soon. I coughed a couple of times and was mostly better and went back to watching.
Then the drill sergeants dropped a few tables in the can and thick cloud of smoke rose out of it. After the room filled a bit the other side of the room was ordered to unmask. Then that line of 15 guys had to remove their masks, strap on their helmets and hold out their weapons in one hand and their masks in the other. After the drill sergeant checked them all they quickly evacuated the room.
Then they added more tabs, waited for the room to fill and told us to do the same. I had always heard that the worst thing you could do was panic so I decided to just breathe normally and deal with it. At first it wasn’t too bad, it was the same as the first time, painful but bearable. Then I inhaled more of it. The best way I can describe it is to put bleach in your eyes and stick a sparkler in the back of your mouth. It even smells and tastes like one.
Then I felt my nose fill with crud and I couldn’t breathe because it was running so bad. So I blew hard out of my nose and was greeted by a dark green ball literally bigger than a golf ball. As we started to clear out I noticed someone rush the drill sergeant and try to tackle him. Of course he just got knocked back into the wall and slowed the whole line down.
After a few more seconds though we were able to get out and start breathing good air again. In order to get all the pockets of gas off our uniform we walked around the range flapping our arms as we continued to cough, cry, dry heave, etc. While we did that the cadre members checked to make sure we had followed instructions properly. If we were holding our rifles wrong, had our helmets unbuckled or anything else was done wrong we got a COB – come on back. We had one guy in our platoon who had to do the chamber three times. He wasn’t too happy.
In the end though, it sucked for that 15 or 20 seconds you were in there with your mask off but as sono as you stepped out of the door to the outside everything started getting better. By the time we’d walked 100m or so you were pretty much back to normal. And we all agreed that looking back on it, it was fun experience overall in that cool sucky way you can only find in the Army.
After we all went through the chamber we had another quick class on NBC and broke for chow. At this point my platoon once again got to show that it’s retarded. As it often does when we go to ranges, lunch consisted of MREs. Of course some MREs taste better than others but they’re MREs. I know a few of the other guys and I have told our platoon that they need to stop being so picky and whiny about their MREs but it hasn’t stuck.
So we had 10 guys or so standing in front of the formation fighting over the MREs they wanted while the two that had been designated to pass them out tried to pass out what was left. Of course this was not what was supposed to happen so we got to do crawling and combat roll drills in the dirt for awhile before we ate. It was awesome.
After chow we returned to the barracks, showered, and changed into PTs so we could get rid of the CS smell. Then, since we all needed haircuts again, we got to go to the PX which was awesome. I was able to replace all of the clothing that I had taken from me (never leave your laundry, no matter what) and got a few other things I was running low on. I also got to have an OCD moment and got 4 new sponges of different colors for our bay so we can have different sponges for the shower, sink, toilets and all the other stuff we have to wipe down. I also marked them so the same side is always used to clean. This was rather satisfying because right now we just have two old sponges that are totally falling apart and have been used on everything every day. Things almost felt dirtier after cleaning. I could have just gotten new sponges from the supply guy but I didn’t find that out until later and they’re all the same color. The rest of the day just consisted of classes and anxiously waiting for Sunday.
Dear Family:
Well so much for Sunday being an easy day. This one certainly had some highs that made it a good day overall but my stupid platoon made sure it was peppered with lows.
I started out my morning with breakfast and church. Church was good as always even though we didn’t have any visitors. (The Jewish service has doughnuts and lemonade so it’s hard to compete). Our lesson was pretty good and sacrament meeting was very nice. It was cool too because one of the other guys in my platoon who I really like got the Melchizedek Priesthood last week and we sustained him as an Elder. There were also two guys that were baptized last week and we welcomed them in.
It was good too because I got a chance to talk with t he third Mormon in our platoon for awhile. He was a very stubborn atheist until he converted with his wife a year and a half ago supposedly which explains a lot. He says it makes the most sense and feels the best to him but he misunderstood a lot of things if nothing else. So it was good to get to know him a bit better and address some of his issues.
When we got back to the bay I moved straight downstairs to do the laundry I hadn’t been able to do for a week. I got called up about ¾ of the way through and everyone was on line upstairs. That always means they’re either smoking us or putting out new information.
This time we got smoked. It turns out when the other two Mormons got back one was missing his shoes. After looking around for awhile they found one in the fire extinguisher case and the other behind the weapons rack. It wouldn’t have been a big deal but we had a PT test the next day so it would have been a problem.
When he started asking who did it the drill sergeant got involved. He asked who did it and no one fessed up so it became an integrity. They put out that the punishment would be much lighter if they just came forward and that there would have been no punishment for people who knew who did it, still no one came forward so they made a few more threats. Still nothing so they smoked us then drill sergeant told us about his 3 strike rule. It was still quiet so we got smoked again and got another lecture. Still nothing, so we got smoked again and when no one came forward we were warned about the trouble that was ahead of us. Stupid kids.
After chow I was dumb enough to volunteer again. My platoon is against work and detail so work details really don’t fit. So when they call for a 10-man work detail every night it’s just a rotation of the same 20 or so guys. So I ended up on work-detail sweeping rocks back into our gravel pit. At 19:32 people came out and told us they were letting us make phone calls and we could take a break. So I sprinted upstairs and grabbed my cell phone within the minute.
It turns out he had handed out the phones at 19:20 and people hadn’t decided to come and get us until then even though we all had until 19:42 regardless (however the 10 minutes is an amazing privilege, we didn’t expect to see phones again for a couple more weeks). The phone call was greatly appreciated but those extra twelve minutes would have been awesome.
Now it turns out one of the main reasons they allowed us the phone call was to prove that we would take advantage of it and these idiots proved them right. We had two morons keep their cell phones. As though they weren’t going to check.
So we got smoked for a while for that but luckily they cut it short since we have to take our first official PT test tomorrow. They still certainly sent a message though and made it clear that they’re looking to start pulling the individuals that are causing the problems. They also made it clear that we won’t be seeing our phones again for awhile.
Of course, everyone who had been on work detail still had things to do because we hadn’t been able to get back to it. So when they gave us our personal time from 20:00 to 21:00 to fix ourselves the one other useful kid and I were out sweeping rocks until 20:52. So at 21:00 I got to go to bed tired, pissed off, and with my locker all messed up (I had it 90% empty to bleach it when the whole shoe thing started and never got to go back to it). The thing that really annoyed me though was that the drill sergeants really went easy on us and the only people to blame for a bad Sunday were me and my stupid platoon. And in the end you were better off if you did the wrong thing. Everyone got smoked just as hard; those who did the work detail lost phone time, those who sat around ended up with close to two hours of personal time and those who jacked their phones now had phones. And the whole platoon is now in jeopardy of not moving to white phase when this last week we have come together really well for the most part. I guess that’s just how it works I guess but it’s infuriating.
Well, it’s actually Wednesday now but I’m going to end this here because I’ nearing the end of my fireguard shift and I don’t know when I’ll have time to write again. The week’s been better than expected though. Lots of threats and a couple of bad smokings seem to work well enough. I’m sending a description of our drill sergeants too. I wrote it on a bus out to one of the ranges. Sorry if it’s hard to read. I love you guys. Be sure to write.
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