2358 I didn’t have a chance to write about my day, but I am fireguard from 2400- 0100, so I have a few minutes. By the way my fingers hurt from being cold all day.
Started today off like every other morning. Personal 10 minute workout followed by group formation at 0500. today was leg- running day, so warm-ups, hip stability, drills, (vertical, laterals, shuttle sprint), followed by 7 rotations of 60/120’s on the track, 60 second sprint/ 120 second walk. The weather was in the 50’s but a front was moving in every minute.
Today was day two of rifle qualification. It was cold by this point, 42º on location but the wind was eating right through me. By the time I was up to shoot, I was shivering….Great… male it tougher. Remember every time I shot I was slowly figuring out how to over correct for my rifle not being zeroed correctly and them not giving us another chance to do this. My last practice scores were 10, 18, 26 and now the ones that count. Mt strategy was not to waste bullets on the 300 meter targets. There are 2 during the first 20 rounds while using sandbags in prone support and 1 in the next 10 rounds in prone unsupported. Expert level shooting is 36/40 hits. I was nailing them. Through the first 30 targets, I hit 27, only missed the 300 meter ones. The last 10 rounds were in the kneeling position. If I could hit 9 of 10 I would get expert….awesome. the third target was “Fast Freddie” at 50 meters. I rushed and missed hitting the dirt in front. At this point I was shivering from the cold and unsupported kneeling, bad combo. I still had expert hits with that one miss, but between letting that get to me and whatever else; I missed the next two targets as well. Noooooo. I recovered to hit the rest but there goes expert. Finished with a 34/40 and sharpshooter status. That is 30-35/40 hits (good enough to tie for second in my platoon) but that didn’t make me happy. No chance to shoot again so I had to settle. Some guys started yesterday and kept going back up until they qualified so they could graduate. This meant some shot upwards of 8 different times compared to one each day. I’m glad they had the chance to keep attempting. Most are in the support role, so handling a weapon will be unlikely. We received our daily range smoke session. We were given a certain time to eat our MRE’s by and as a company, some guys were too slow…23 minutes of more exercises, squats, while holding a weapon out securing charging handle back, push to the freaking ups…ouch.
After chow, more corrective exercises. The first Sarge smoked all the platoon leaders because some guys out of 218 didn’t have their fleece cap. For the record my squad and platoon was good. Then the DS tonight had us back outside in PT shorts and a thin long sleeved shirt for over an hour. In this time we got a lecture about infirmity, being a man, earning the right to wear Army, and so on. We also did multiple sets of pushups as well as hit the track. To the track is about 250 meters round trip. First time we did 2 laps and next time 3. it is the low 40’s at this point, shiver control. 8 man fireguard tonight because every guy will pull one shift. Patoowee.
On a lighter note: our drill Sarge has been picking one music genre that my platoon has to sing a song to him. Yesterday was AC/DC and we did TNT…not bad, while marching in cadence. Today he wanted Toby Keith, Red, White and Blue. Due to the lack of country fans we botched it, but it was funny. Saturday is Spanish, should be interesting. We also got mail. Mom sent me ESPN magazine. Awesome but not allowed. My senior DS said I could pick them up to read on Sunday, so the guys are excited to catch up on sports.
Next couple of days are predicting sub-freezing temperatures. I am already whining and you may read the hurt in my next couple of letters. Stupid cold. I need to finish cleaning duties before back to bed.
Goodnight everyone.
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