The rest of basic training is kind of a blur in my memory. Day after day of firing our weapons, cleaning our weapons, cleaning the halls, rooms and anything that could potentially shine. This also included the Semi-Gloss coat of white latex paint that covered 99% of the walls within our barracks. (Some patches had been chipped away by hand over years to expose bare concrete and more than likely some lead paint.) There were a few memorable days that stood out in my mind between the many days that blended together.
The 4th of July was a special day for us in training. We were told that we would not work at all that day. We were pleased to not be awoken at 0430 but rather at 0600 to hold formation at 0630. This was nothing short of a dream come true for the many of us who stayed up reading our religious texts/letters well past the hours of 2100. After breakfast we were marched to a building where we gathered around a projector screen and sat on the tiled floor to watch one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Gettysburg (1993). Fun fact, I particularly loathe the time in history that is the American Civil War. Yes it was the bloodiest war in American history besides WWII, but I have little to no interest in reading or studying this topic. or even to watch the movie about it. I sat and tolerated the 4.5 hour long movie on the increasingly uncomfortable floor and wished I could be doing almost anything else. Thankfully this soon came to an end and dinner chow was served. No special food was given out, no cake or soda or anything like that. We marched back to the barracks and were told to make it look like we were cleaning for several hours, which meant just walk around looking busy and try not to run into a drill sergeant. At lights out there is only one drill sergeant left on duty past 2100, and he or she has to stay all night. I am thankful that my platoons drill sergeant was left behind because he had a darker sense of humor and let us listen to rap battles of history, which was a popular YouTube series at the time. Not having heard music or anything like that in the past few weeks it was a nice thing to hear blaring over the intercom at 2100 while we all lay laughing in our bunks. It was a pretty good day.
After that the days blew by having gotten the swing of things after the first month. Every day blended together between classroom training, going to the range to shoot M4's, doing the same drills for PT in the morning... It all was fairly homogenous except for the two field exercises (FTX) and the final gauntlet. I remember the first FTX vividly as a 4 day stint in the woods of Fort Leonard Wood wondering how it could get so cold and rainy in July. 40-50 degrees at night and not much warmer during the day. The weather was fickle and unpredictable in our world of Fort Leonard Wood. (I think this was mainly due to the fact that we couldn't check the weather at all during basic because we had no means too. Another mind game.)
The second FTX was spent in hard stand buildings and the weather was actually really great, sunny skies and cool breeze. I remember sneaking an extra nutri-grain bar in my sleeve to give to my basic buddy, Minich, for his birthday. The nutri-grain bars were as close to dessert as it got in basic so it was like I gave him a birthday cake... That he ate in a porta-potty out of fear a drill sergeant would see.
The 4th of July was a special day for us in training. We were told that we would not work at all that day. We were pleased to not be awoken at 0430 but rather at 0600 to hold formation at 0630. This was nothing short of a dream come true for the many of us who stayed up reading our religious texts/letters well past the hours of 2100. After breakfast we were marched to a building where we gathered around a projector screen and sat on the tiled floor to watch one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Gettysburg (1993). Fun fact, I particularly loathe the time in history that is the American Civil War. Yes it was the bloodiest war in American history besides WWII, but I have little to no interest in reading or studying this topic. or even to watch the movie about it. I sat and tolerated the 4.5 hour long movie on the increasingly uncomfortable floor and wished I could be doing almost anything else. Thankfully this soon came to an end and dinner chow was served. No special food was given out, no cake or soda or anything like that. We marched back to the barracks and were told to make it look like we were cleaning for several hours, which meant just walk around looking busy and try not to run into a drill sergeant. At lights out there is only one drill sergeant left on duty past 2100, and he or she has to stay all night. I am thankful that my platoons drill sergeant was left behind because he had a darker sense of humor and let us listen to rap battles of history, which was a popular YouTube series at the time. Not having heard music or anything like that in the past few weeks it was a nice thing to hear blaring over the intercom at 2100 while we all lay laughing in our bunks. It was a pretty good day.
After that the days blew by having gotten the swing of things after the first month. Every day blended together between classroom training, going to the range to shoot M4's, doing the same drills for PT in the morning... It all was fairly homogenous except for the two field exercises (FTX) and the final gauntlet. I remember the first FTX vividly as a 4 day stint in the woods of Fort Leonard Wood wondering how it could get so cold and rainy in July. 40-50 degrees at night and not much warmer during the day. The weather was fickle and unpredictable in our world of Fort Leonard Wood. (I think this was mainly due to the fact that we couldn't check the weather at all during basic because we had no means too. Another mind game.)
The second FTX was spent in hard stand buildings and the weather was actually really great, sunny skies and cool breeze. I remember sneaking an extra nutri-grain bar in my sleeve to give to my basic buddy, Minich, for his birthday. The nutri-grain bars were as close to dessert as it got in basic so it was like I gave him a birthday cake... That he ate in a porta-potty out of fear a drill sergeant would see.