8-28 2007
Dear Aqizzar,
We've been busy as heck here in Ft. Know the last few days. I received your letter a few days ago, but haven't had the free time to write before now (they've cracked down on letter writing at the range >:| ).
The last few days have been the most physically challenging of my life. Thursday the 26
th featured a 2-2-2 PT test 2 min push-ups, 2 of sit-ups, and a two mile run. I was as worried as heck about it, having run a terrible time of 18:80 [Aq: wha?] in practice. I was a few short of my goal in push-ups, barely made it for sit-ups, and kicked ass at the running. I concentrated on taking really long strides and ignored everything else. 15:32! I'm incredibly happy with the time.
I've g The next PT test is on the 10
th, we're required to score 50% on it to get family day privileges.
Friday featured an 8 kilo march. I'm niether a runner nor a walker, but we had the advantage of not having to wear armored players in our vests (which are only good for 9mm and shrapnel by themselves). Supposedly, the person who'll be one of our trainers when we get to tank training messed up the route, so it was an extra couple of kilometers. I spent the march counting step series. Left-right-left-right, one-two-three-four, two-two-three-four, three-two-three-four, 4-2-3-4, 5-2-3-4, 6-2-3-4, 7-2-3-4, and so on. [Aq: yeah, really] I restarted every hundred, and switched my weapon to the opposite low-ready.
[Picture of Stickfigure Strife switching a rifle held low from one shoulder to the other.]
The march ended with a bastard of a hill. I'm from ND. ND is flat. Roads meet at right angles and are otherwise straight. I did not like that hill, which is known by the appropriate name of Misery. Misery sucked, I could take long strides and keep pace with the person ahead of me. I had a lot of problems keeping pace while taking long strides uphill. My battle-buddies did their best to help.
[Picture of Stickfigure Stife standing at the base of a stupidly steep hill, saying "Fuck".]
[Overhead map of the winding trail, marked where it climbs and where it's flat.]
Bloody thing even flattened out in a curve, so everyone thought that we were done with it.
(Got half our time robbed >:| ) 8-29 1743
Once the beast of a march was over, we got to have breakfast in the field (which was pretty much awesome, unlike field lunch and dinner). Then we went on to the "real" training of the day.
We walked to the training area and grounded our armor, then people started to wander off to fill canteens, piss, and the like. Some others and I took the opportunity to stand in the nicest sunspot we could find. Allow me to explain, I'm a Fargo guy. I live in a damn cold place where 60
o is T-shirt weather and schools don't close until 0
oK. I'm miserable with cold, much more than the heat here. At home, one
never stays in wet clothes any longer than needed. Here, we're stuck marching to a class room in Black flag weather and armor, then told to sit down in an air conditioned room for a while. It really sucks.
Anyway, we're standing around, laughing at the way the sun is making our wet uniforms steam when everyone hears a whistling. Two people decide to drop on their faces, me and Williams (another recycle from Delta co.). Bug loud explosion follows. Funny as heck to see the others jump.
Spent the rest of the day doing "fun" and fun stuff. Low and high crawls in a pit of dirt filled with sawdust. One's nose gets packed with shit because you've got to keep your face in the ground. I took a goodly chunk out of my finger with my rifle's magazine when getting down, and the wound got packed with blood-soaked ground. After a while, I completely tore up my elbows with the crawling too. Looking back, I can say that they were good times, as miserable as they were.
Then we went back to arty response. If a unit is stuck in a barrage,
some the leader tries to order them out of the killzone with something like "12 o'clock, 50 meters!" which makes everyone get up and sprint 50m forward before diving down again. One suck command landed the company on a nest of quickly angered wasps. Didn't end well. Eventually, it got sorted out and we tried to continue,
when where we immediately found another beehive. Between the command "Incoming!" and "Bees!", bees won, so everyone bolted. I avoided being stung (mostly due to my tendency to care more about low ground than distance when covering), but we sent a few to the hospital with allergies. Everyone's fine now.
Second part of the day was maneuvering from cover in battle-buddy teams, while firing blanks and having blanks fired at you. Annoyingly enough I got picked to get on the truck to get lunch, so I missed it :| . I got to scarf the leftovers on the return trip though, so it's not all bad.
Saturday was the start of the U.S. Weapons, specifically the M203 grenade launcher and AT-4 rocket launcher. Boom. We didn't get to fire stuff, only 5 practice rounds each, but I really like both of the platforms. Once I get to the unit, we'll get to train with the stuff for real. Second part of Saturday was tough as hell. We went to the Pit and did some heavy PT, jog in place, push-ups, flutter kicks, rolling, over and over. Then we got to run. Then we got to do crawls. Then we got to run more. I must have gotten a fair bit of dust in my lung in the crawl, cuz they shut down. I ended up bent over, trying to cough up the gunk and puffing on my inhaler (which I've been avoiding using). I got a lot of help from my buddies on the run. We had one person pass out at this point [Aq: may say puss out]. Finally, we were supposed to do the fireman's carry. I was in no shape to try to carry anyone, so one of the larger guys (Gliek, who was in C co. the previous cycle, but got hurt bad for a while) picked me up and carried me both ways.
I was hurting for a while, what with three days of killer activity, but I'm feeling fine now. It's week 6 now, and there's talk about us getting a 4-hour pass sometime soon. I might be able to get to a computer during that time, hopefully. Church was nice today, I got
press ga volunteered into cleaning the chapel, but was rewarded with two Oreos. Best damn Oreos I've ever had.
(Finally gets around to responding to letter's questions.) Looks like I'm going to be at this same address until November 5
th, with no changes when we get done with the basic phase. I don't really need anything, we go to the little Px every week. I write on paper like this to keep it as neat as possible, or to allow me to carry it around and write during odd down times.
I think that you should have got a letter about me getting replaced as PA by now. We're @ #6 right now, I was responsible for making sure that the PLT was in the right place right at the right time in the right uniform, and to be a buffer between the DS and the PLT's stupid questions.
No reason to send a CD, we're not allowed music other than the occasional musical birthday card and whatever the DS blares from his office (which is usually pretty good heavy metal). Hopefully, I'll get to reclaim my iPod once we're done with the Basic part. I would really appreciate some lyrics though. Just printed on a small font so I can look at them when I forget the words (I don't remember nearly enough songs in full anymore).
Nighwish: Amaranth, Eva, Sahara, Master Passion Creed, Medows of Heaven, Planet Hell. I don't really think most of the songs are that good (except Amaranth), but they're always in my head for ideas.
Cruxshadows: Eye of the Storm, Roland, Winterborn, Sophia, Defender
Vega: Solitude Standing
Simon & Garfunkel: Sound of Silence
Rush: Tom Sawyer, Freewill, Spirit of the Radio
Dio: Holy Diver
Iron Maiden: These Colors Don't Run
Patti Smith: Where Duty Calls
Dragonforce: Through the Fire and the Flames [Aq: we'll carry on,
wicked computer-assist solo ]
My letters are overly positive by design. I'm going to deny my misery as much as possible. Plus, I don't want anyone to worry about me overmuch. Also, really bad days usually line up with days we can't write, or days I don't want to write. I still haven't gotten anything from Barbarossa, but I haven't sent nearly enough mail to the grandparents, so I'm planning to move him down a little on the mail priority list. [Aq: sorry Barb] It really doesn't matter what kind of mail I get, anything is really appeciated.
I'm keeping my spirits up and looking forward to the future.
-Kaseman
Strife26
PS Damn it's nice to get a chance to write again.
Author
Topic: Life and Times of Strife26 (Read 161349 times)