Super Long letters

Received 3/9/07

2/20/07

Ixchelle,

So you told me I got paid, but didn't tell me how much. It was comforting to hear though. Every letter I opened today (about 8) I was hoping for some pictures, though I figured you haven't recieved the other letter saying that. Ok don't go off the list on that site (goarmy.com). It doesn't have them in the right order. For our Battalion there are five companies: Alpha, BRAVO (aka cheer for this one), Charlie, Delta, and Foxtrot. All of them need to do all the same stuff. There isn't enough room for everyone to do the stuff at the same time. Aka we all do that stuff, but it is all mixed up, so no one is in the same place. Blah blah blah.
So yeah there's all kinds of problems with our platoon. People still screwing around/not doing what they are supposed to do. Ugh. So we are shooting riffles now. I'm doing really well. There are two things we do before we went to a pop-up target range; grouping and zeroing. For grouping we shoot a set of three bullets, then go down and look at the target to see if all three are within 4cm. Then get back down for three more bullets and again got to the targets to see if all six bullets are within 4cm. All of this is done anywhere on the target. Always aiming at the center of the siloette. Then you zero which all you do is take a grouping and adjust the two site posts and then group again and again until you can get at least 5 out of 6 within a 4cm circle from the center.
2/21/07
So today I went on what they call Detail. Since I grouped in only 12 shots and zeroed in only 6 shots the drill sergents figured I would be ok to miss 1 day of shooting to go do other work. So on my detail we went to the site that is going to be the new site for victory forge. (7 day camping trip) So we started off moving like 150 sand bags, 30 lbs each, across a street. Then we moved a guard shack. It took all 19 people to move and navigate it. Go figure I was navigating and not lifting. Perks of being the shortest? So after we moved the Guard shack we made a sand bag wall around the shack. Then we moved something called razor wire [he drew a picture], which is what they use for borders and crap. They put two rows next to each other and one stacked on top of the two in the middle of them. Anyways, it was a long day and I was sore. My back hurt all the next day too. What I missed from being on duty was a "videogame." They have a really big screen hooked up to 14 M16A2's. They practiced shooting 75, 175, and 300 meter targets. So already I was behind. :(
2/24/07
We moved to the range that we are going to gualify on to practice. I was in the first group to shoot. I did well enough to qualify (at least a 23 out of 40), so I didn't get to shoot the rest of the day. Aka I sat around for about 5 hours with nothing to do.
2/25/07
Sundays are really relaxed here. LDS service is at 0900 but I leave the company area at 0830. Then we go to a church building. Not a LDS chapel but that's ok. We only have sacrament and priesthood though. My guess is they aren't allowed to have all the soldiers gone for that long. In my company (4 platoons) there are 2 of us. In the battalion (5 companies) there are usually 15 that go. We get back from church around 1130. Then we go to lunch, then we either clean or we learn something that we will be doing during the week.
2/26/07
Went back to the qualification range to practice. Again I shot well enough to qualify. This time they told me I got 23. Just barely enough. Though I really wanted to shoot better that this. So again I wait around for 5 hours. The targets come up in a set pattern every time though it seems to be random. We shoot 20 bullets laying down with the rifle supported by sand bags. They stop us, have us move a sand bag, lay back down and shoot 10 more bullets. Again they stop us and we move to the kneeling position and shoot 10 more bullets. It's pretty fun, yet hard.
On a side note: We already did the bayonet training. It was kind of brutal, not on me, just the targets. Lots of stabbing and butstocks to the head and groin. We first learned all the movements then went through a running course with actual bayonets on the end. The drill sergents say they don't really use them anymore but they are supposed to train us how to anyway.
2/27/07
Actual day of qualifications. Once again I shoot first and to no shock at all I once again get a 23. Just enough to pass. They give us a metal for qualifying. Oh I didn't mention that there are 4 levels of shooting; Marksman 23-28 targets, Sharpshooter 29-35 targets, Expert 36-39 targets, and Hawkeye 40 out of 40 targets. I was really hoping to get Sharpshooter. I get pretty frustrated when I try so hard at something not to get any better. And then I sat the rest of the day. When we went back to the company we got camo covers for our helmets, now our head can blend in... WHEW!
2/28/07
We went to a confidence building course. We did 4 obstacle. First we had to split up into teams of 6. The First challenge: 5 walls- exactly as it is called. 5 different heights. Starting from 6ft, 8ft, 10ft, 14ft, and 18ft. They got interesting as they got higher. I was one that got on top with on other person and helped others get up and over the walls. 2nd challenge: You climb up a 45 degree angled ramp with a rope, then you jump down a 4ft drop, then climb down a 15ft wall like you are repelling. 3rd challenge: First climb a really spaced out rung ladder, then climb the rope down, feet first under the rope. Whoosh... It is tough. 4th challenge [he drew a picture] a group of 4 people climb up the tower (spaced out levels) using only side posts and then each other. No way one person could do it... well not me anyway. then climb down. All of the challenges were fun though.
3/2/07
Today we went to a new rifle range were we practiced reflexive fire. Refexive fire is were you are walking and as soon as an enemy "pops" out you raise your rifle and shoot 2 bullets at him. The part we were practicing though was to just stand and when the target pops we raised our rifles and fire. Harder than it looks for sure. Then we fired a rifle that had a laser scope. It wasn't one that put a dot on the enemy. It was a scope that had a screen in the middle that the dot was in the middle of. All you do is get the do in the middle of the scope an the dot on the target and then pull the trigger. Then we waited till it got dark and we put on a helmet with night vision on. We had a laser attached to the rifle. The really cool part about it is you can only see the laser with night vision. Also, you see the whole laser all the way down.
3/3/07
We went outside and did some UAC (unarmed combatives). I had to "fight" some guy that is much stronger and a good 4-6 inches taller than me. Yeah, I didn't win, but not everybody can win so oh well. Just means I have to practice in AIT and all that, and shooting, and... Anyway, I already told you about watching UFC.
Love you,
Chris