3 Semesters of College Electrical Theory in 18 Days

Dear Family: (October 24, 2009)

I hope you guys are all doing well at home. From talking to you guys over the phone it sounds like everything’s good. Having class when I do certainly makes it harder to get a hold of you guys during the week but it’s definitely better than basic. It makes this whole thing significantly easier.

Life continues to be pretty good though. I’m lucky in that I can operate just fine on 3-4 hours of sleep so I don’t have to waste all my time during the day sleeping like the other guys do. So I get a lot in during the day. I get a decent workout in then I read and watch movies and stuff and it’s a pretty nice relaxing day. I finished the first season of The Unit today. I appreciate you guys sending that up, it was good. I’ve also read through Corinthians. I’m behind since you can really only spend so long reading the Bible for 4 hours a day. It’s a good book obviously but it’s not that good. I think I might cut the Old Testament out of my reading goal before Christmas. That makes it a lot less of a chore and I can go a bit slower and get more out of it. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Old Testament anyways.

So, my classes are going well. I found out this 18 day electrical course is actually the equivalent of 3 semesters of college electrical theory. I can actually transfer this course into 9 college credits which is pretty cool I think. We just finished our AC block though which involved going over the various formulas used to find different values and faults in an AC circuit and using an oscilloscope. We had our test on Thursday and we all did pretty well. We didn’t have anyone from our company on night or day shift fail which is cool. One of the other guys from my unit and I both got 100% on both sections.

We’re now moving into our solid state block. We went over diodes and power supplies yesterday and we’ll be moving into transistors on Monday. It’s getting increasingly interesting as we move into stuff that I don’t know as well. I’ve always found solid state components pretty interesting so this is fun in a way. Our current instructor is very knowledgeable but very hard to pay attention too. So a lot of the guys are having trouble staying awake despite sleeping all day and chugging energy shots and popping caffeine pills like crazy. The guy who sits next to me though is pretty cool and was one of the smart kids in high school who was in AP Calculus classes and stuff like that so although I understand the theory behind what we’re doing better he’s better at the formulas and stuff than I am so whenever we have practical exercises the two of us race through them and talk a lot of smack so we have a good time with it and we stay awake and retain the information. I usually win too so it’s a good time (he missed one question on the AC test, haha). He’s in significantly better shape than I am though so we both have something to work on. The competition within our class makes it pretty fun though.

I have to thank mom and dad for letting me do this in the way that I did. By allowing me to sign when I did and allowing me to make such a large decision they really helped set me up for success just as they’ve done throughout my life. My MOS, being a dying MOS, was only available as a large bonus MOS until about when I signed so them being willing to expedite the process of my enlistment by being willing to sign the papers to enlist before being 18 was very helpful. If I had waited until I was 18 the advantages at the initial sign on would have been significantly less since the military has had such a ridiculous influx of recruits lately. And that goes beyond just sign on bonuses too. This schedule and everything works so well though.

Well, I hope everyone at home is doing well while I’m over here. I’m excited to see all of you guys at Christmas. I’ve got a lot that I want to do, hopefully it all works out. Have a good week!