11/24/2014 "Rocket Launcher and Grenade Launcher"

Today was another range day. Morning was more cleaning after chow, then throwing on full battle rattle for the range.

Range setting, upon arrival this range was like none of the previous ones. It was newer and had sort of rolling hills. We were at the top overlooking a good portion of Fort Benning. In the background, it seemed about every 20-30 minutes another plane would make a trip and anywhere from 10-30 (couldn’t tell) paratroopers or Airborne in training soldiers would parachute out of the plane and make a line of black dots in the horizon. The range had about 9-12 old army vehicles set up as targets. Today we were going over the AT4 anti-tank rocket launcher and the 203? Attachment grenade launcher on to the M16. The AT4 shoots an 84 mm shell but we were only shooting 9 mm tracer rounds. Essentially it was like shooting a homemade potato gun that we used to build back home. Fun to shoot but pretty weak in the practice form. Couple of small fires started due to the tracer rounds but went out quickly. The grenade launcher is a pretty cool and super useful piece of equipment. Not only can it shoot grenade rounds but smoke, pyro and other rounds as well. We shot a full size dummy round so when it hit a target, bright orange powder would go everywhere. A little more fun and a live round would have been awesome but no such luck for us.

After we got back it was chilled since our big test is tomorrow. I’m a little nervous. Sit-ups are still a problem. As a personal trainer I always taught to do a sit-up in a fashion that made you utilize the core while going up but also when going down. This tires the hip flexors as well. When going for max reps this is a bad thing. You need to relax the abs and throw your body to the ground. If I can break the mental barrier and inner trainer for the test, a perfect score is feasible. A hot wake up shower and warrior stance to pump myself up may be the trick. Whichever slackers don’t pass the test tomorrow, they are automatically packing up their gear and moving bags since they will not graduate or pass with us. So far that number is four.

We also have our night live fire race. MUDF is a platoon vs. platoon crawl through the mud, under barbed wire, over walls, more climbing, while smoke, live fire, grenades and so forth are going off. The winning platoon win that banner so we need to kill it.

It is 2224, I wake up the next fireguard shift in 10 minutes and the hopefully 5 hours of sleep for me.

Oh yeah…got a brief phone time, talked to my mom and buddy Cory; my two sisters- Tara and Lisa ignored my calls but I spent the rest listening to music. Oh how I miss music. J

Good Night.

11/21/2014 “Expert Grenadier”

Today was grenade qualification. It was weird, strange, fun, new, punishing kind of day. We woke up early to the First DS not liking the way the command suite was done last night. We had to put it in high gear to get it to his standard. His standard was so much bleach that it burns your eyes and hair. Done…but put us in a time crunch to load transit. We got to the grenade range and we were supposed to eat chow. BUT…4^th platoon has chow duty and forgot plates. This pushed chow back which made my stomach angry.

To start off grenade training, after the instructor course. We went through the line once to do a step by step demo, and then grabbed 2 more grenades to do a qualification drill. During all of this we used real grenades but they were just blasting caps. They still had the 3-5 second timer and popped loud but no explosion. We were monitored to ensure we followed safety protocol, had the right technique, and could throw far enough. After we threw we were to duck and cover so you don’t get to see your throw. I impressed the instructor with a good throw. (I really don’t know what good is but I’ll take it).

Next we went to the live range. This of course was pretty awesome. Again, what guy wouldn’t want to throw grenades? We rotated 4 at a time and throw two live grenades. The rest stood behind a blast wall and were able to watch. Some threw like girls and some could chunk it, but they all exploded the same. Amazeballs. Never got old watching this. During my time I was calm but giddy. After my throw the Sergeant said, “Damn boy…are you related to Peyton Manning? You chunked the sh_t out of that grenade.” That was just awesome. We had to clean the live and practice range. In all this was like 500 live and 600 dummy grenades. All that was left of live was the spoons, but the practice range had spoons, blasting caps and shells. What a bummer.

Then we had the grenade course. We competed for a level similar to rifle range… marksman (level 2)… (Level 1)…and (expert). We threw at targets like trenches and vehicles with an inner arcade of sandbags we had to land in. throwing from a standing and kneeling position; to compete for the platoon banner. Everyone that made it past one level, and then competed for their platoon on the next level as a team vs. team (platoon) set up. Out of 218 soldiers, about 80 made it this far. Next level was kneeling on one knee and landing a grenade in a circle about 25 meters away. I made it and one other from my team, as my DS says, we had a lot of “Weak Bodies”. We lost but only 15 out of 218 completed this successfully. We earned the expert badge for this. Another accomplishment in the books.

After making it back and eating chow, it got bad. The Drills were upset about something. Still not sure what it was but sometimes there isn’t a reason. My drill got us for about 20 minutes, doing all the exercises while holding our weapons, major pain. Then the night Drill decided to play “Dress up Barbie” and give us a weird time crunch punishment. We would have 4 minutes (impossible time for everyone to make) to change into mixed up uniforms of his choice. Part PT, one shoe, one boot, jacket, shorts and other weird combos. One hour of this dress up changing game. Soooooooooo annoying but just had to go with it.

Out free time was taken by cleaning duties so I’m writing from bed. Tomorrow is our combative competition.

This week has flown by and I’m thankful for all of it. Glad to see family, friends, my truck, dogs and my bed really soon. As close as it seems….we have a tough next couple of weeks.

Happy weekend everyone.

11/20/2014 "White Phase Testing"

“Drive on 1^st platoon, drive on first platoon.”

“One day you’ll be alone, way out there in the combat zone”

“Bullets flying all around, keep your head down to the ground”

“Don’t worry, you’re not alone, 3^rd platoon’s gonna bring you home.”

This morning was relaxed, like the cram before a big exam. We still got up early, but PT was switched to the afternoon, so we cleaned our bay spotless, because a new Commander was walking through. Then we did last minute studying for our exam. After chow we all took our exam. It was pretty easy. Rank structure, General orders, Alphabet military style, military time, and about 30 questions about customs, M16’s and so on. We then went to the PT rock pit and practiced our form and safety over grenades. Tomorrow we qualify on grenades. PT was at 1500 and for once it was light outside and warm. I loved it. Normal preparatory exercises, then 60-120’s on the track. We did longer than normal for 9 rotations which added up to about 2.5 miles, then the 300 yard shuttle sprint (kind of sucked). We then graded exams and hit chow again. I missed four so I aced it.  

Chow, decided today to start cutting back the bread now. 2 pieces of toast or 2 rolls and a muffin every meal, now I’ll allow one slice or a roll. Sub more fruit in the morning.

We got mail call again. Our Senior DS kind of likes this time because he likes the excitement, smiles and overall mood when everyone receives mail from loved ones. One of my best friend’s (Cory) mom sent me mail. Thank you Ms. Toni. I tried calling Cory with no luck last Sunday, so this was great timing.

Was able to knock out 100 pushups and sit-ups before shower and getting ready for bed. I have fireguard at midnight for an hour and again at 0400. They tossed me on that shift so I can grab my morning workout and shower. Due to range time tomorrow we take transportation before 0700 so we are skipping PT and eating breakfast at the range.

Almost Weekend.

Yippee!!!!

11/19/2014 "Frozen Range Day/Night"

1547 we are sitting around in formation back to back near the gun range waiting for dark. A smoke session will happen soon. We got hit hard upon arrival. In full battle rattle it was pretty tough.

This morning was GC- cold….20’s or less. Below 60 in our sleeping bags. So much that after my 0300 fireguard I got fully dressed in winter PT’s and went back to bed instead of my normal wake up and shower. Once we formed up outside at 0500 the senior DS said “F--- this I’m old…it’s cold…go clean the bay- no PT!” Best moment ever. It’s gorgeous now.

We shot a round earlier, 50 rounds to use our red dot scope, 20 kneeling near a wall and 10 prone unsupported. Shooting at our pop up targets, so it was fun. I scored a pork rib in my MRE which is exactly the same as the McDonald’s McRib. About 1800 we start night shooting, utilizing our night monocular and laser. We will be on the range until 2300 so I bought an extra Clif bar from the “Gut Truck” as a late night snack. Time to group study for White Phase testing tomorrow. I’ll fill in on the night shooting later. J

2213 we just got back to the bay early because it was freezing outside. The shooting was fun. The lasers weren’t zeroed so aiming was pointless, but we got to test at night vision scenarios so that was the point. With all the shooting it was neat watching the tracers shoot off. We are still waiting for our cleaning duties and orders so bed is still a little ways off.

Our DS decided we could get our “Punishers” name back. As a group we had to do about 1000 pushups or about 20 a piece. We were motivated, so 1^st squad alone (I’m in first) out of 4 hammered out 490 of them alone. The team has started acting better so it was good to get our name back.

J I have my wool blanket and socks in the dryer getting warm for bedtime. Boy when that time comes I’m going for full wrap up mode.

Late night but still Happy Humpday!

11/18/2014 "Red Dot Scope Rifle Day"

FYI- another mail day…no mail for me…like a birthday boy and no one showed up to my party. L Haha.

Anyways, it is always cold here. Early freaking morning fitness was good but oh so brrrrrrr. This week my platoon is first in to chow, which means longer time frame for us. Which is sweet and it must show. I’ve gained 2.1 lbs. since coming here. Poor, single man life over Christmas break will fix that.

Today was range day for advance rifle skills. 15 of the top shooters in each platoon were fitted with CCO (red dot scopes) on our rifles. We then zeroed them in with 30 round clip and let everyone else take target practice after that. It was pretty fun. Due to the weather and Army training standards of safety…a heat tent with a couple of small heaters was set up for the guys to rotate through to thaw out. I’m sure the “older” generation would have loved that back in the day. Before and after chow for the evening we had meetings. Tomorrow we go back to the range for day/night shooting. Going to be a long freaking day. All the expert and sharp shooters were fitted with lasers and NOD (night vision) for tomorrow. Our DS ordered us to use night vision for all of our fireguard duties over night instead of flashlights. This has everyone excited because what gut wouldn’t want to walk around for an hour using only “night vision”. Ummmmm….lame ones, so this will be cool. I for see some sock wars and what not. Today was a good day, be thankful for them all …appreciate. Keep your heart and eyes open to it all. Going to be awake for 24 hours straight tomorrow, so time to pack my gear and go to bed.

Night

11/17/2014- "Tornado Warning"

This morning started with a new twist. Like really. We woke up at 0345, weather warmed up about 20º from yesterday and rain in the forecast. As we are about to form up we were told PT and morning was pushed back about an hour to 0545, so everyone opened their lockers and laid down with their heads on our blankets, that we fold up in there right before it is time to go. The DS call us out; tell us we are under hurricane watch that started at 0400. This is why they pushed out time back. We were told the storm was heading our way and was about 70 miles way. We did out tornado drill and crammed at 220 guys into the hallway, freaking hot and stuffed like a can of sardines. No lie…within half an hour of the drill they called a real drill and the base sirens were going off. A lot of the guys without tornado experience were freaking out. Kind of amusing. We were in the hallway for about 45 minutes, but the DS kept opening the door for us. Rain was sideways and wind howling, it paused, and then came again. Finally it passed with no issues and the temperature had dropped back down to cold again. Grrrrrrr.

We had an extremely fast morning chow then went to electronic shooting range again. This time we were shooting in full battle rattle, (Kevlar helmet, FCC, pack, IPTO Kevlar vest…) little different but we got a red dot scope this time. Now we are talking. Tomorrow we hit the real range and get to do the shooting course, utilizing the new scope. Should be fun.

I got phone privileges last night and got to talk to a handful of people. Mainly I got to speak with my DeeDee, so that made my week. I miss her the most.

Big ranks are coming tomorrow, so a ton of cleaning tonight. Quick workout, shower. More cleaning starting at 0300.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Monday.

11/16/2014- "Peace"

“The greatest battle is not physical, but psychological. The demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by quite, steady dignity that simply refuses to give in. courage. We all suffer. Keep going.”

The mental battle is the toughest. I am picking myself back up. Although the guys didn’t notice. I felt myself losing patience, becoming irritated and annoyed a lot this week. I think the DS had the same feelings but they are allowed to express them. I need to keep composure. This for along the little things should be precise; the guys should clean up after themselves. Beginner moves should be executed with perfection, yet as a whole we still struggle.

Today I will recharge. Workout throughout the day to relieve stress. Isolate some. Study and prepare for White Phase test on Thursday. We move to the next phase if we all pass; which means more freedom and longer phone time.

Tomorrow I will start fresh. Keep patience. Be a better, sharper person in order to help others. Strength and leadership by example not by ordering.

I was just approached while I was bleaching the showers and the statement was; “Manning, you are always doing the right thing. Everyone else is lying around while you clean. We notice bro.” Feels good. Be a silent professional and it will show.

Happy Sunday y’all