Boot Camp Diary #1

» BCT Day 52
End of Cycle Testing day. I passed everything on my first try. Army testing is NOT anything like college testing. We are given exactly what will be on the test weeks prior to testing. Then, for a few days before the test, we practice and study. When you take the test, if you’re struggling on something but trying, the tester will pretty much tell you exactly what to do.

» BCT Day 9
Today we had a class on army radio communication. Easy stuff. After that, we had our first real road march. This one was 3 kilometers. We walked by a graduation of BCT. I saw parents, girlfriends, families, people my age in normal clothes, etc. It made me realize more that I miss all of you.

» BCT Day 10
No mail call last night. We had mail call today, but our platoon’s box was empty. ??? I don’t know how mail works around here, but it’s a ****** up system. D.S. says there should be a large amount of mail on Monday. We’ll see.

» Day 2
I got 6 hours of sleep! Woohoo! Good thing, because wake-up was 3:45am. We had to stand in formation for an hour pointlessly, but since then the day has gone smoothly.

» BCT Day 65/AIT Day 1
0048 hours. We are sitting with all our bags packed. We leave in three hours. It is great to be leaving basic training.

» BCT Day 62
Sigh. Two days left. Tomorrow is family day. Tomorrow! I feel like I’ve been gone for so long. Over two months. Too long.

» BCT Day 32
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. The sky is getting dark. When I wake up tomorrow, there will be just 3 Sundays left.

» BCT Day 23
The land navigation course was cool. I plotted points on a map with protractor, found the azimuth, and followed the azimuth with a compass. I love that stuff.

» BCT Day 11
Sunday, Sunday, relaxin’ Sunday. I’m laying on my bunk relaxing, my stomach’s full of pancakes, and I’m getting ready to go to my religious service.

» BCT Day 45
I got stuck with a crappy weapons cleaning detail after shooting yesterday. A few of us stayed there for like two hours while everyone else got to go back to the barracks and chill.

» BCT Day 47
It’s another ITT day. That means crawling on the dirt. One of the platoons is wearing knee and elbow pads. Lucky bastards. I wish we had them.

» BCT Day 24
What a long day. It started with the PT test. I improved on everything. I even passed the running. I was going for 16:30 for the 2-mile, and I got 15:43. Apart from passing the hell out of the test, I get to eat cake, pie, donuts, and whatever the hell I want. They don’t put restrictions on fast ************* like me.

» BCT Day 12
Today was fun. We went repelling. That means we used rope to jump down a 35 foot vertical wall. Before we could get up there, we had to make a harness, or seat, out of rope.

» BCT Day 30
Went camping. Built tent. Did not get snake up ***. Shot rifle. Took forever to zero my sight. I almost didn’t qualify, but I did.

» BCT Day 15
Today was the funnest day so far. We marched to a bad ass obstacle course. For four hours, I was hanging from ropes, being held upside down, climbing walls and ladders, bouncing on logs, crawling under barbed wire(that wasn’t so cool), using soldiers as ladders to get over obstacles, and many other things.