BCT Blog #5

Sunday, 8/9/09


This morning has been fantastic. We got to sleep in till 5. Yeah, believe it... 5 is sleeping in. Then we went to chow, where I got my usual. I don't think I've stressed how much I love chow time, particularly breakfast. This is what I had: sausage, scrambles eggs, tater tots, french toast, banana yogurt with walnuts, 2 cups of juice. That's basically my daily breakfast. This military manner in which we have to eat is a challenge. They slide us through the chow hall so fast that it all blends together. The typical drill sergeant quote is, "Don't taste it now, you can enjoy it later". Use you imagination for the meaning of that. But all the same, it is extremely tasty. The other day I was mad because we were running behind schedule and they gave us about 3 minutes instead of 5 to eat. I had to throw away grapes and a banana, which is frustrating. A lot of fresh food is wasted there.

After chow, being that it is sunday, we came back to the barracks until church services start. The Mormons and the Muslims all start around 7. but life is good for us "Protestants". We gather for church at 10:30. Our drill sergeant is cool and told us we still can't sleep on the beds (those are lights out only) but that we can hide somewhere else and sleep. That's exactly what I did. I slept sitting up in my wall locker. Then after that I moved to under the bed and had the best Sunday nap ever. I pretty much feel caught up on sleep, which is saying a lot for sleeping 4-6 hours a day for 3 weeks. I was becoming an "auto-private". I'm learning that it is possible to fall asleep in any position. Stuffing myself in my wall locker wasn't great, but I definitely got some sleep. The other day I feel asleep 3 times standing up. Emphasis on the word "fell". Luckily as soon as I began falling I woke up and didn't fall to the ground. That would just be funny. It has happened to a few people here. And I'm sure it looks awesome when someone else falls asleep while standing still but then suddenly jerks themselves back up as the realize their balance switch was off. We are usually given classroom instruction for at least an hour or two a day. Some of it is cool and practical, some of it is pure propaganda/indoctrination. A LOT of people fall asleep there and that is the best way to REALLY make the DS's mad. The punishment is of course "corrective training", where they choose from a variety of muscle burning exercises. It always amuses me, because luckily I am good at forcing myself to stay alert. But consistently this one guy starts doing the head banging motion and always gets called up. They also punish the two privates that he is sitting between, because as "battle buddies" we are responsible for each other. This is pretty sound training actually, because just like combat it is so important that we look out for each other. So far I haven't had to hold the squat position for falling asleep in class. But it could happen.

My platoon is doing really well now. Yesterday the higher ups commented to all 3 of our drill sergeants at separate times that we are looking great and out-performing the other 3 platoons in our company. This came from the company's First Sergeant AND Captain which is a pretty big deal. They are giving us some rewards, like "sounding off" and supposedly we will be working out to music later tonight! Sounding off is the cheerleading sounds that you hear from a formation of soldiers. They made it into a privilege that we had to earn, which is cool. All along, the other, less disciplined platoons have been sounding off, but it is sloppy. Since we respect it, we make it good. When called to the position of Attention, we are yelling "2nd Platoon, we'll do your job too!" There is a very competitive spirit here within the company. Apparently out DS's consistently win the award for Honor Platoon every cycle. So we are shooting for that.

Oh I have alluded to the fact that we are fed propaganda here. Maybe so, but I must say some of the classes have increased my respect for the US. In light of the Abu Ghraib scandals, we were given a very lengthy class on ethical treatment of Prisoners, detainees, and civilians. It is all based on very sound principals, and I think the enforcement is pretty effective. All in all, I'm proud to serve this country. I was never fond of this war. But for now I'm just a soldier and not a polotician, and that's all I can say for now.

Well, I'm glad to have finally gotten some deeper thoughts on paper. More to come later.