Red Phase: Week 2 - Days 6 & 7

Saturday was pretty boring. PT in the morning, then we rode over to the computer simulation range for some more practice. Didn't do so well today until the kneeling portion. Ironically, it's my least favorite since it's uncomfortable, but I hit 10 out of 10 targets. Oh well. Then, we were transported back to our barracks and spent the rest of the day cleaning our weapons and bunks.

On Sunday, we spent all day cleaning. I mean really cleaning. I think I'm starting to make a positive impression on my Drill Sgt. He's actually a pretty cool guy in his own way. Of course, a couple of morons nearly ruined it for us at dinner and we almost lost our phone privileges for today, but we didn't. Since these two days were so uneventful, I'll give you my top 10 list of "words or phrases most likely to be heard around Alpha Battery 1-40th FA".

10. Turds!
9. Holy shit, Private!
8. Nice job, Bitch.
7. Get away from me, Private.
6. Front leaning rest position. Move.
5. Weapons count!
4. At ease.
3. You eye hustling me, Private?
2. No secondary movements!
1. Jesus tits!

Red Phase: Week 2 - Day 5

Not much happened today. Marched 5K back to the range. Today, we worked on the actual range we will qualify on. It has 75m, 175m, and 300m targets. I started out amazingly for a guy who hadn't really fired a gun before a few days ago, but then I got a ton of sweat in my eyes (thanks, Oklahoma!) and struggled a bit. This led to my Drill Sgt. chastising me for sweating so much. (I don't know Drill, maybe because it's 100 degrees, I'm wearing long sleeves, strapped down with 25 lbs of gear while lying on cement, firing a weapon.) What can I say, I sweat a lot. But, I finished up strong hitting 4 out of 5 from the kneeling position, including the 300m target. Sniper school, here I come. Only one more week of red phase. Once we get to white phase, there is no more group punishment. He who screws up, gets dropped. Woo-hoo! Not sure what's on deck for tomorrow. Kind of getting sick of the range just because we spend so much time sitting around in the sun. The actual firing of an M-16 is cool.

Red Phase: Week 2 - Day 1

Not much happened today as I spent most of it at sick call. It took forever since seemingly all of Ft. Sill has fallen ill. The evening was just prep for an 8K march tomorrow as we will be spending the next five days at the firing range. That should be a little more exciting. I can say that the most annoying thing about basic is the fact that the DSs aren't on the same page. We sometimes get conflicting instructions everyday. We spend more time trying to figure out what to do than we spend actually doing it. Which sucks when your number 1 goal is not to get yelled at or smoked. Case in point: we spent all day yesterday getting our wall lockers a certain way. At 7:00 pm, another Drill Sgt. comes by and tells us an entirely new way to do it and that we'll be inspected in the morning. The whole platoon argues about which way to do it. Two guys almost came to blows and then we never even got inspected. Gee, I love the Army.