Boot Camp Diary #1

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» BCT Day 36
Today we hit the 20s of time remaining until graduation. 29 more days. Less than one month. Here I am sitting at the boring bleachers again waiting to shoot.

» BCT Day 37
White phase PT test today. I did excellent. I rank #9 in the platoon for high score combining push-ups, sit-ups, and 2-mile run. I did 52 push-ups in 2 mins, 79 sit-ups in 2 mins, and 15:13 for the run. Damn, when I got here, I ran it in almost 20 mins.

» BCT Day 38
Ain't **** happened about my break of integrity. See? Told you I'm paranoid.

» BCT Day 39
Sunday! I wish for two things: phone call and a trip to the PX. I want to buy some stuff to help my feet on the two upcoming 10K marches and the dreaded 15K. I'm getting some super cushioned socks, combat boot comfort insoles, and gel heel inserts. The way things have been going this week, I'll be happy to get one of the two. I'd rather have a phone call.

» BCT Day 40
There's not much going on today. We have a class on loyalty later and "post detail" in scheduled almost all day. They asked for five volunteers for it. I have no idea what the non volunteers are doing. I broke my rule of not volunteering for anything in BCT and I became one of the five.

» BCT Day 41
It was the day I've been waiting for, for over six weeks. I blew **** up! I threw a ton of grenades. BOOM! The ground shakes, the shrapnel goes everywhere, you make a freakin' hole in the ground! I got expert on the grenade qualification course.

» BCT Day 42
The pace slowed way down from yesterday to today. We got fitted for our class A uniforms almost all day. Those are the really fancy military uniforms worn for ceremonial occasions. I looked so sharp. I couldn't stop saluting myself in the mirror.

» BCT Day 43
Ow. So much pain. Today was one of the two hardest days of BCT. We learned Individual Tactical Training (ITT). Ow. We did high crawls and low crawls on the dirt. It wasn't a nice soft pit this time. It was hard, rocky, nasty dirt with tree roots and spiders. I went under barbed wire, held my rifle behind logs, and crawled in ditches.

» BCT Day 44
Today should be awesome. It's US Weapons day. Hopefully, I'll get to fire a grenade launcher. Hey, less than 3 weeks left.

» 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 46
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Yesterday was operation appreciation. It was a nice change of scenery. The bus ride was an hour long. I tried looking out the window, but it took me five minutes of leaving the base to realize that there's nothing to look at in Kentucky. The radio was on a country music station. That combination put me to sleep irresistibly. We went to a church in Louisville.

» 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 48
Today is the last day of training before FTX. It's going to be a long day. ITT is scheduled from 0730 to 2300. We'll be out in the field all day. I'm assuming we're doing night infiltration.

» BCT Day 49
We're getting our refitted class A uniforms today. I can't wait to show it off in just two weeks. That's right, readers, that's right. Two weeks exactly until family day.

» BCT Day 50
A boring day for me lies ahead. We're doing nothing but practicing/studying for EOCT. I already know my ****. I pay attention in class and I study. With all this practice and time to study we've had this week, there's still going to be people who don't know a rifle from a grenade. People's stupidity around testing time never ceases to amaze me.

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