Red Phase: Week 1 - Day 4

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus!!! What a day today was. First on the agenda was a simulated chemical attack. During a patrol, we come under chemical attack and have to don our mask, etc and decontaminate. During this organized chaos, I lost my glasses. Luckily, they were my civilian glasses so once I get my Army glasses, I'll be ok. After this, we had the gas house. Now typically, I imagine things to be terrible and they never turn out to be as bad as I thought. This was not the case when it came to the gas house. I thought it would take time to infiltrate your body. I was wrong. As soon as I unmasked, my eyes & nose were burning and I began to manufacture copious amounts of tears, snot, and spit. CS gas is the debil. He had to unmask and say our name, rank, and social, then reseal the mask. After that, we stood on the ready line, unmasked, and were guided out. We also had to tell what platoon we are in on the way out. Total time is about 10-15 seconds. It feels like an eternity. We finally emerged blind, drooling and snotting everywhere. Easily the most torturous experience ever and ensures that I will never protest anything. Ever. On the bright side, it did temporarily clear my sinuses.

We also had our first encounter with MREs today. We had them for breakfast and lunch today. That was pretty much it. Except for the brutal smoking session we got since guys still do stupid shit (leave clothes in the latrine or turds in the toilet). Hopefully, we'll do better tomorrow.

Red Phase: Week 1 - Day 3

I unintentionally lied to everyone. We didn't do the gas house today. It's tomorrow. All day today was classroom work in preparation for tomorrow. Oh, and our worst smoking yet. Our platoon was really slack today. Forgetting equipment, not staying in cadence during PT and not securing their wall lockers. So we got smoked during PT, after class, and in barracks. I never realized over the head claps could hurt, but if you do 100 of them (which is really 200 since the Army counts "1,2,3-1: 1,2,3-2") they really, really burn.

On a brighter note, only 59 days left. Yes, I'm already counting down. I think I'm adjusting ok. My appetite is back with a vengence. It's amazing how much food you can eat in 4 minutes. In case you're wondering, it's 2 sausage patties, eggs, potatoes, a banana, a yogurt, and a plum. I'm a little banged up from the repelling swiss seat and half of my right big toe nail fell off today for some reason, but otherwise ok. Except for the sniffles which, apparently, everyone gets since we have 51 guys living together. Hopefully, we will be able to head to the PX soon and I can get some Halls.

Red Phase: Week 1 - Day2

The only thing we had today was Treadwell Tower. It is, essentially, traversing three rope bridges and a 40 ft. repel. The hardest thing was one of the rope bridges. You must cross a single rope on your stomach, pulling yourself across by hand. It's great until you get to the middle and it sways. But, I made it and never fell off. I didn't even hesitate on the 40 ft. repel, which kind of surprised me! Tomorrow's event -- the gas house. Hooray for me!

Red Phase: Week 1-Day 1

Today was the first day of Red Phase or "Total Control". This means that the Drill Sgts control every aspect of your life. Day and night. The only real event today was our initial PT test. It consists of max pushups in 1 minute, max sit ups in 1 minute, and a 2 mile run. I did fine (for me) and even ran the 2 mile in a personal best 15:47. Of course, we have Drill Sgts that are much more demanding on us, which I like. I don't really like it when we get "smoked" just before our PT test. Oh well, I don't think they care.

Week Zero: Days 1-3

Day 1: We were shipped to basic on Thursday. We traveled from the reception battallion to basic "across the tracks" in modified tractor trailers/buses. We were greeted at the loading area by Drill Sergeant Oskoui (Oss-koo-ee). DS Oskoui's favorite word is, apparently, turd. I am making this assumption based on the fact that this is how he refers to us, both individually and collectively. All in all, it wasn't that bad. I did get a little grief because I had already been to sick call due to gastro issues, but it still wasn't that bad.

Day 2: Today was dominated by two things: equipment issue and a moron. We were issued about 70 pounds of equipment (kevlar, helmet, rucksack, etc). Then, we piled into actual cattle cars, in full ACUs and equipment, to ride back to our battery. By the way, I am officially a member of A battery 1/40th Field Artillery 1st Platoon. On to the moron. We were in barracks in classroom formation which consists of us seated on the floor around the DS. As we're filling out paper work, some guy rips one. The DS says "No busting ass in here. You gotta bust ass, go to the latrine." Here comes the moron. Not even 1 minute later, some other guy rips one. Un-be-liev-able. To his credit, he did own up to it. We were pushing very quickly. Yay. Our first smoke session because some moron couldn't contain a fart. Awesome.

Day 3: Today was a big day. We were issued our weapons: the M16A2 rifle. I have to say it feels weird carrying a semi-automatic weapon. I now know how to field strip an M-16. How many of you ever thought you would hear me say such a thing? I didn't. Honestly, it's kind of cool in it's own way.

I have to mention a few words about my "battle buddy". In the Army, you never go anywhere without a battle buddy, which is your bunk mate. The first words my bunk mate ever said to me were "I'm glad I got over my anger issues before I got here". Great. Fifty guys in this place and I get the one with anger issues. Honestly, he's a pretty nice guy. We are both married and missing our wives a lot, so we have that in common. Some of these kids are idiots, though. Seriously.

I guess that brings everything up to date. It's still brutally hot here. Though it did rain a few days ago. Well, I'm off now to write a one page essay on why I joined the military. Go me.