February 28th, 2009

Lights got shut out there at that last line (2/27 post). I'm not sure I want to explain all that now. I just had a close call. 3 guys got the whole platoon smoked. Standing out in the freezing rain in shorts, t-shirts and rifles. I almost was the fourth man, but I got lucky. My rifle was only partially secured right, but the drill didn't get it off my locker. Wee he didn't cause he had 3 others in his arms. Oooh lucky. I won't ever make that mistake again. Ever.

Found out most things are good at home at this point. I guess Bear might lose his tail. Boy, that's difficult to handle. In a sense, it's all my fault. It never would have happened if I hadn't made the decision I did. That hurts, but I'm just glad he'll be okay. He's a great dog and I'm sad this had to happen, but I'm glad he's going to hang around. I wouldn't know what to do if I lost him.

Today - the 28th - we had a bunch of class crap we learned about the M-130 or AT4 anti-tank weapon. It's pretty cool, but not that great. We also studied our procedures with the radio, calling for med evac and shit like that. We also played with the M249 SAW (squad automatic weapon). Now that's a cool fucking rifle. 5.56 belt fed machine gun. Can't wait to fire that sucker.

Had a weird conversation with a Sgt. - not a drill just a sgt - this morning while guarding about 1/2 million dollars worth of M-249s.

Finally had a good diner. I got to finish: lasagna, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, 2 pieces rye bread, two glasses of milk, cottage cheese, pasta salad with some jalapenos, olives and cheese and 4 soda crackers. The bread and milk are a good combo. They make you feel full which is nice. Tomorrow I will have the same thing for breakfast I've had every day since I've been here - scrambled eggs/bacon/1 piece toast with gravy/sliced potatoes/1 bagel/1 banana/1 glass milk/1 glass water/ 1 bowl of grits with one small box dry cereal mixed in. It all gets eaten together in one giant pile and near choking speed. If you have time to get it all down, it's good. Sometimes you barely have time to get a quarter of it down, and when they say, "You're done, Charlie" or "You're done, 1st." the shit in your mouth falls out and onto the plate and you go at a high rate of speed you pass off your shit or grab someone else, cause you always double rush to dump it in a highly organized fashion and then get outside in formation. 3 times a day.

Who knows what tomorrow holds - fireguard tonight sometime, church at 7:30 - 10:30 for me. I picked LDS. It's a 3 hour service, all the other services are 2 hours. It's actually a nice way to get away and even though you're with 50 people, it's quiet and you can have some peace and know you're not gonna get jumped for something at any moment. You just sit and listen and let your mind wander. We went back into white phase today. We were supposed to be a week ago, but are fuck ups. Well, not everyone, but the majority of the 200 are. We're actually supposed to start blue in a week which is the last phase of the basic part of OSUT. I don't know if we'll see blue or not. For all I know, I'll/we'll be back in red in a day or two. Red is total control all the time/ white is less/ blue is even less/ then black/ then gold/ then onto your duty station and the regular Army.

I've heard varying stories about where people are going. I've heard a lot are going to Ft. Campbell, KY. I really, really don't want to go there. So, I'm sure that's where I'll end up. I heard a couple people are getting Hawaii. I wish that was me. Then that rumor might be BS, like everything else. They know where most of us are going already, but we won't know for a while, I'm sure.

Ft. Campbell is 101st Airborne. If I go there I got that to look forward to, but honestly at this point I don't know how much I could take. Airborne is pretty rough and I'm beat to shit and got 11 more weeks here. I kinda am actually hoping for a Bradly or a Stryker unit at this point, but would not hesitate to take an Airborne or Air Assault or Ranger or Pathfinder slot if offered one. even as beat as I am, but I doubt I'll get offered one. Although, I am trying my damnedest. My sit-ups and push-ups are in the 100% zone. My running I guess is about 1 minute off of 100% but I got about 8 weeks to work on that, to get 300 points in PT. I can get 1 of only 2 medals you can realistically get here in basic. I already have a marksmanship medal - not the best but not the worst either & the 300 would get me the other one - EIC (Excellence in Cavalry award). We'll see about that.

I got Jason's mail last night. That was a great surprise. It sounds like things are going OK back home, but it also sounds like if I would have stayed I might be close to super fucked at this point. Doesn't sound like the work situation back home is all that good. Well it actually sounds worse than when I left over a month ago. From what little I can gather, it sounds like the DOW and stock and that shit are all in the toilet. Housing market is still f-d up. Job market is still going down and that Obama is doing a pretty fine job of fucking it all up, but that's just what I gather from little bits of shit here and there. It could be all BS, too. Well I am pretty positive the job and house situation back home is in the shitter, and I would be fucking done if I would have stayed there at home. I'm still curious as to how this will all play out by the time I am out in a few years. There's going to be a lot of weird shit I encounter on the road of life in the next few years, but all in good time.

Well, it's almost lights out. So, I am going to get this ready for the mail. Tomorrow will come way too fast. I hope all is well with everyone. Things are good as can be expected here. Talk to you all soon.

Scouts out
~Justin


If you ain't Cav, you ain't shit!


You wouldn't believe the amount of repetitive brainwashing that goes on around here. Some day I'll write down some of the sick, twisted cadences.

Like:

"Shoot em in the head. Shoot em in the head. Kill em."
"Fill the body bags. Fill the body bags. Fill em."