BCT Day 52

End of Cycle Testing day. I passed everything on my first try. Army testing is NOT anything like college testing. We are given exactly what will be on the test weeks prior to testing. Then, for a few days before the test, we practice and study. When you take the test, if you’re struggling on something but trying, the tester will pretty much tell you exactly what to do.

The following information is a portion of “Marck’s Boot Camp Diary”. The information contains a straight-forward look at Basic Training Life on a daily basis. The information contained within this page is used with the express written permission of the author. For more information about the author view the “Author’s Information” at the bottom of the page. Some choice phrases have been censored.

September 14th, 2002

End of Cycle Testing day. I passed everything on my first try. Army testing is NOT anything like college testing. We are given exactly what will be on the test weeks prior to testing. Then, for a few days before the test, we practice and study. When you take the test, if you’re struggling on something but trying, the tester will pretty much tell you exactly what to do. The test is private proof. We had to get 18 of 20 tasks correctly to pass. Five of the tasks were: Load/unload a grenade launcher, evaluate a casualty, react to a chemical/biological attack, report enemy information, and measure distance on a map. Easy, easy ****. A few of the privates in the company still managed to fail after three days of preparation. Unbelievable. Specially because our “smart book” has ALL the answers and you can read it up to the second we begin our next task. Nobody in my platoon failed. Hopefully, we’ll get a streamer for our flag for best EOCT results. We won the obstacle course streamer yesterday, so if we get this also, D.S. Lewis hinted we just might get a pizza party tomorrow. I’m still exhausted from yesterday. I’m glad we finished EOCT before lunch and we get to chill most of the day. I smell a trip to the PX coming today. I don’t need anything except shower shoes. Somebody jacked them up.

Man, I’m pissed. We haven’t had mail call in two nights. I bet I have like four letters from you wonderful people waiting for me. I hope we get mail tonight so I can reply to everybody on Sunday and make some final requests that I want people to bring. Because, come Monday, I’ll be in the woods until Thursday doing the FTX (Field Training Exercise), and I imagine mail boxes will be hard to come by.

Wilson is sitting next to me and he will not close his ********. There goes my train of thought. Oh. FTX. All I have to worry about now is the 15K march back. Oh God, he’s still talking. It’s my fault. I said something to him and now he’ telling me his life story. No more getting Wilson started.

I saw somebody wearing the watch I lost. I got it back just in time. Boston decided to let us wear it from now on. Boooored. In AIT I’ll have stuff to read, maybe a TV and video games, and maybe a computer. Now I have my journal.

Hey, DS Boston was actually working on my finance thing the whole time. He gets my respect and the title of drill sergeant back. He called me out of formation. “Hey, where’s that little *****, Rossy at?” I said, “here, drill sergeant.” He said, “Here’s your damn paperwork you’ve been bitching about everyday. Thinking I don’t know how to do my damn job.” Then he shoved the paper to my chest and said something to the effect of “get out of my face.” I took the paper and smiled the whole way back to formation. The paper is an official payroll inquiry stating that I joined the army as an E-3, but my paycheck does not reflect it. It has some signatures and it says “Will fix ASAP.” I hope so. In the army, ASAP means….damn it! Brain fart. I can’t be on all the time, but I have an excuse.

My ass muscles feel as if a family of circus midgets practiced their acrobatic routine on it. I’m tired. DS Boston took us to the pit after dinner for “stealing his canteens.” We did countless laps of bear crawls and indian walks. It was an excellent smoke session. We were out there for like an hour and a half. Some people are bitching about it. I think they need a five gallon bucket of midol for their *******. It was great to do PT after taking a week off to rest for yesterday’s PT test. I could’ve done ten more laps. It was lightly raining, too, so it felt great. When there’s no heat, I can go longer than any DSs smoke session.

I got four letters today! But I’ll write more tomorrow , on my second to last Sunday up in this biatch. I need to clean the sawdust out of my ***** now.