The funniest sight I saw was earlier while we were in formation waiting for everyone to get out of the chow hall. The DI for Platoon 4001 comes running by after a male recruit, and we hear her go:
Gaeddert: Keep saying it!
Male: I'm all alone.
Gaeddert: All by myself!
Male: All by myself!
Gaeddert: All on my own!
Male: All on my own!
We're supposed to travel in pairs everywhere in the rare instances we're without DIs, but he was mustering hot trays (food for rifle watch) back to his squad bay alone. She just kept trotting right on after him. We were giggling and covering it up as coughs.
Sunday, almost Training Day 36
Sunday is not a Training Day. Last night I dreamed about Dice and the snow, going on a walk down our alley, about family and about food. They were good dreams. Poor little fat puppy.
My shin splints are pretty much gone but that cough is coming back and I'm pretty sure it's developing into some form of pneumonia. I say this based off the fact that 6 people have caught pneumonia so far and more coughs are on the way. My goal is to hold off going to medical until after Saturday. This week as I've said is Firing Week and hell if I'm going to miss THAT, and then Friday is Qual Day, and then Saturday is our 10 mile hump, none of which is really miss-able. I've been kinda doing meditations for it but I only have time in the rack and I keep falling asleep. I think it is getting better though. Last night and the night before I imagined cleaning my lungs out with rifle cleaning gear and that seemed to work pretty well.
One of our girls, Dambert, has a husband in Kilo Company, which is the male company on track (same dates) with us. We ran into him and with the help of some of his platoon mates were able to exchange notes without notice. Talking with males is actually a big risk that you can drop training days for, but we waited until we were on the bus.
My shin splints are pretty much gone but that cough is coming back and I'm pretty sure it's developing into some form of pneumonia. I say this based off the fact that 6 people have caught pneumonia so far and more coughs are on the way. My goal is to hold off going to medical until after Saturday. This week as I've said is Firing Week and hell if I'm going to miss THAT, and then Friday is Qual Day, and then Saturday is our 10 mile hump, none of which is really miss-able. I've been kinda doing meditations for it but I only have time in the rack and I keep falling asleep. I think it is getting better though. Last night and the night before I imagined cleaning my lungs out with rifle cleaning gear and that seemed to work pretty well.
One of our girls, Dambert, has a husband in Kilo Company, which is the male company on track (same dates) with us. We ran into him and with the help of some of his platoon mates were able to exchange notes without notice. Talking with males is actually a big risk that you can drop training days for, but we waited until we were on the bus.
Training Day 35
Sorry the phone call was so early (it was 5:30 a.m.). I had already been up for hours, probably since 2:00 a.m. your time. I almost started crying when Dad picked up the phone but then I was fine. It did make me miss home a lot though. I'm pretty homesick, yea.
Firing week is nearly here, and I received a great quote from the PMI – a lot of people have problems with nervousness on the range, so he said, "You can't make the butterflies go away, but you can make them fly in formation."
There is a lot of drama these days – new squad leaders, people fucking with other people, I now have one of the dumber recruits as a bunkie so I'm fucked, and I'm kinda depressed. I dunno, I'm just sick of all the drama. I was hoping females in the Marines would be different but for the most part they aren't.
We did this MCMAP endurance course on TD 33 a few days ago which was CRAZY. We basically -- okay, it wasn't that crazy. It was fun though. It was a lot of 'field exercises' -- one person was dead, the other had to drag her with a specific carry across the field, low-crawling through mud, etc.
We're losing patience with each other. Example: we got to make some more phone calls home today, with a DI watching the whole time. You may have noticed I periodically would say, "Aye ma'am" because she would make some comment to me about something. The phone call was great! Sorry it was so early. I really have no idea what time it was but I'd guess around 7:00 a.m. my time. At least I got ahold of you. A lot of the girls didn't but that still counts as their phone call.
Anyway, one girl started crying so the DI comes out to where the rest of us are in formation studying and says, "You'd better not start crying your eyes out when you go in there, because that's disgusting. A squad leader too, right, Zaballa?"
Rct. Zaballa: Aye ma'am
DI Sgt. Goodman: You are disgusting.
Us: Aye ma'am
Granted, you have to agree with anything the DI says, but we meant it more. Recruits who make mistakes -- scratch their faces, talk, not go fast enough, open the hatch wrong, don't sound off, etc. -- now punish everyone. The guide and squad leaders all get quarterdecked for it too. We've all decided to 1) get on our faces and get punished with them as a platoon, and 2) keep tabs, and on rifle watches set the offender's rifle from safe to semi so they get watch instead.
Firing week is nearly here, and I received a great quote from the PMI – a lot of people have problems with nervousness on the range, so he said, "You can't make the butterflies go away, but you can make them fly in formation."
There is a lot of drama these days – new squad leaders, people fucking with other people, I now have one of the dumber recruits as a bunkie so I'm fucked, and I'm kinda depressed. I dunno, I'm just sick of all the drama. I was hoping females in the Marines would be different but for the most part they aren't.
We did this MCMAP endurance course on TD 33 a few days ago which was CRAZY. We basically -- okay, it wasn't that crazy. It was fun though. It was a lot of 'field exercises' -- one person was dead, the other had to drag her with a specific carry across the field, low-crawling through mud, etc.
We're losing patience with each other. Example: we got to make some more phone calls home today, with a DI watching the whole time. You may have noticed I periodically would say, "Aye ma'am" because she would make some comment to me about something. The phone call was great! Sorry it was so early. I really have no idea what time it was but I'd guess around 7:00 a.m. my time. At least I got ahold of you. A lot of the girls didn't but that still counts as their phone call.
Anyway, one girl started crying so the DI comes out to where the rest of us are in formation studying and says, "You'd better not start crying your eyes out when you go in there, because that's disgusting. A squad leader too, right, Zaballa?"
Rct. Zaballa: Aye ma'am
DI Sgt. Goodman: You are disgusting.
Us: Aye ma'am
Granted, you have to agree with anything the DI says, but we meant it more. Recruits who make mistakes -- scratch their faces, talk, not go fast enough, open the hatch wrong, don't sound off, etc. -- now punish everyone. The guide and squad leaders all get quarterdecked for it too. We've all decided to 1) get on our faces and get punished with them as a platoon, and 2) keep tabs, and on rifle watches set the offender's rifle from safe to semi so they get watch instead.
Training Day ?? 31 or 32 or something
I have a headache and get one every night. I'm trying to decide if it's from dehydration or a lack of sodium (overhydration). At this point it's a dead toss up but since I don't have any salt packs I'm hydrating.
Where to start … the DIs. They say the funniest crap. SDI goes yesterday, "At the same time you've covering down (aligning) your footgear, because if you think it's covered then you're probably smoking some form of crack cocaine that I don't know about." DI Sgt. Ambrose decided she was going to spell things out for us while we held our rifles parallel to the deck. SLOWLY! It was brutal.
Ambrose: You … Y… O… U… will…W… I… L… L… get… G… E… T… to… T… O…(and so on, finishing the sentence 'the front of the squad bay when I get done counting. Do you understand?')
She'd stop periodically to yell, "Get them UP!" and "I have to start over because Cobb distracted me. Say 'Thank you, Recruit Cobb.'"
We have our rifle classes in these uncomfortable sheds that have two open walls and a lot of benches. We sit there with our rifles slung and our range belts – canteens, ammo pouch and poncho – at our waste. It's very uncomfortable with the gnats and all and there is sand EVERYWHERE, I swear. It's all over our data books (where we record our shots) and wrecks our inksticks. The classes themselves though are great and our PMI is fantastic. We all went out to test fire on the range and he was like, "When you get out there, just calm down girls. You're going to forget everything you've learned. Ctrl-alt-delete, girls, Be calm." It was totally true. We all shot like crap and it was great! We also got to go to the ISMET – a simulator with real rifles hooked up to air hoses to simulate the recoil. You fire at a screen and the computer figures everything out. I did awesome in it.
The sand. I swear to you, we scuzz the floors 3 times in ten minutes and each time it is like we've never scuzzed before. Huge mounds of sand -- where does it all come from?
It's very hot here, but that's apparently unusual. I don't care too much except for the classroom breaks where we have to run back and forth. One girl has pneumonia. Another might get NJPed for being stupid.
Where to start … the DIs. They say the funniest crap. SDI goes yesterday, "At the same time you've covering down (aligning) your footgear, because if you think it's covered then you're probably smoking some form of crack cocaine that I don't know about." DI Sgt. Ambrose decided she was going to spell things out for us while we held our rifles parallel to the deck. SLOWLY! It was brutal.
Ambrose: You … Y… O… U… will…W… I… L… L… get… G… E… T… to… T… O…(and so on, finishing the sentence 'the front of the squad bay when I get done counting. Do you understand?')
She'd stop periodically to yell, "Get them UP!" and "I have to start over because Cobb distracted me. Say 'Thank you, Recruit Cobb.'"
We have our rifle classes in these uncomfortable sheds that have two open walls and a lot of benches. We sit there with our rifles slung and our range belts – canteens, ammo pouch and poncho – at our waste. It's very uncomfortable with the gnats and all and there is sand EVERYWHERE, I swear. It's all over our data books (where we record our shots) and wrecks our inksticks. The classes themselves though are great and our PMI is fantastic. We all went out to test fire on the range and he was like, "When you get out there, just calm down girls. You're going to forget everything you've learned. Ctrl-alt-delete, girls, Be calm." It was totally true. We all shot like crap and it was great! We also got to go to the ISMET – a simulator with real rifles hooked up to air hoses to simulate the recoil. You fire at a screen and the computer figures everything out. I did awesome in it.
The sand. I swear to you, we scuzz the floors 3 times in ten minutes and each time it is like we've never scuzzed before. Huge mounds of sand -- where does it all come from?
It's very hot here, but that's apparently unusual. I don't care too much except for the classroom breaks where we have to run back and forth. One girl has pneumonia. Another might get NJPed for being stupid.
Monday, Training Day 30
Today was a lot of marksmanship classes and tomorrow we fire a few times. The DIs are super on our asses because we're around male platoons and because we have so much "down time" away from them with our PMIs. SDI (Senior DI) Sgt. Radetsky just gave us a loooooong speech about being professional around everyone. We're gonna be quarterdecked no matter what we do, though. When you're a recruit, even when you're right, you're wrong.
The PMI had us put a boot band and then moleskin on the bridge of our glasses to seat them higher so they are even dorkier than usual.
What else ...
Oh, I did pretty well on the PFT I ran Friday. Dunno if I already mentioned that. 24:43 on my 3 mile run; maxed out crunches at 103 / 2 minutes (you need 100, and I think you need 21:00 for the run, but I finished as one of the first so no one was even close to that). Also I lost my grip on the bar so I was 7 seconds short of maxing the arm hang at 63 seconds. Oh well!
One of our ex-recruits decided to be an idiot today and quit. She got NJPed, and the MPs came and arrested her after she said she'd kill herself, and she had a TOTAL attitude with the SDI. It was ridiculous. Who wastes a month and a half of her life in boot camp only to decide to give up like that? We have basically no sympathy for it. Frickin' Thompson. Rct. Shapiro did the same thing, but back on Forming Day 4 so she didn't waste everyone's time hanging around.
The PMI had us put a boot band and then moleskin on the bridge of our glasses to seat them higher so they are even dorkier than usual.
What else ...
Oh, I did pretty well on the PFT I ran Friday. Dunno if I already mentioned that. 24:43 on my 3 mile run; maxed out crunches at 103 / 2 minutes (you need 100, and I think you need 21:00 for the run, but I finished as one of the first so no one was even close to that). Also I lost my grip on the bar so I was 7 seconds short of maxing the arm hang at 63 seconds. Oh well!
One of our ex-recruits decided to be an idiot today and quit. She got NJPed, and the MPs came and arrested her after she said she'd kill herself, and she had a TOTAL attitude with the SDI. It was ridiculous. Who wastes a month and a half of her life in boot camp only to decide to give up like that? We have basically no sympathy for it. Frickin' Thompson. Rct. Shapiro did the same thing, but back on Forming Day 4 so she didn't waste everyone's time hanging around.
Sunday. Day After Training Day 29
We've changed into desert cammies and are now at the rifle range. Yesterday we woke up and grabbed our MOLLIE packs filled with our gear and humped out six miles to new barracks. I wish we were back, kinda – the new barracks are tiny and cramped and dirty though I'm sure we'll get used to it. The nice thing is I'm in the middle now not at the end, AND when lights go out it is actually dark. It was the first time I've actually slept until the lights turned on again.
I just found out we have to say ditties like "pink princess" and "prancing ponies" I know I've said. We picked up some new girls – FRPers (Female Rehabilitation Program, where you go if you get hurt or unk and drop) who told us our platoon is the Princess Platoon. Apparently we're called that because our barracks are the largest and nicest ones. Ha ha! Sucks only when we have to clean them. These new barracks take like two seconds to clean.
We eat at the male mess hall when we are here. They get better food than us. One, they get cookies and other goodies because they burn calories faster than we do. Two, the stuff that is the same, like eggs and French toast, is made better. I'm not kidding. So unfair!
Everyone's cranky or something today, even I am. I almost started crying in church and I'm not really sure why. We're just tired, I guess. Word has it we're going to bed at 1900 tonight so we get our required 8 hours of sleep, because tomorrow is Grass Week where we get up EARLY so when the sun comes up we've already eaten and are all set up on the range ready to begin learning. We met our PMI (Primary Marksmanship Leader) finally and he's a very cool guy.
I just found out we have to say ditties like "pink princess" and "prancing ponies" I know I've said. We picked up some new girls – FRPers (Female Rehabilitation Program, where you go if you get hurt or unk and drop) who told us our platoon is the Princess Platoon. Apparently we're called that because our barracks are the largest and nicest ones. Ha ha! Sucks only when we have to clean them. These new barracks take like two seconds to clean.
We eat at the male mess hall when we are here. They get better food than us. One, they get cookies and other goodies because they burn calories faster than we do. Two, the stuff that is the same, like eggs and French toast, is made better. I'm not kidding. So unfair!
Everyone's cranky or something today, even I am. I almost started crying in church and I'm not really sure why. We're just tired, I guess. Word has it we're going to bed at 1900 tonight so we get our required 8 hours of sleep, because tomorrow is Grass Week where we get up EARLY so when the sun comes up we've already eaten and are all set up on the range ready to begin learning. We met our PMI (Primary Marksmanship Leader) finally and he's a very cool guy.
Training Day 26
Hey guys! The days are flying by! 26 already? It's Thanksgiving today, and it counts as a training day AND a Sunday, meaning we get 5 hours of square away time and go to church if we want. There isn't religious education today so I'm waiting until 10:15 when the Catholics muster for mass.
Yesterday we got fitted for our uniforms – formal ones – and I'm excited about them. No dress blues, but we get the service uniforms – khakis (long and short sleeves) with sort of green slacks and a skirt. A couple of us were in the wrong place at the wrong time and the fitter wrote down our names randomly to give to our DIs, so we got ITed (pronounced eye teed, an acronym we can't figure out, possibly Intensive Training) when we got back, which is another way of saying you got quarterdecked. But that's cool – you get punished randomly a lot. The more I get ITed, the better I'll do on the PFT (Physical Fitness Test) which is tomorrow.
There are a lot of nouns that are "verbed" here, like:
• Quarterdecked: to be put on the quarterdeck and do a bunch of punishment exercises, usually while screaming whatever the DI wants you to scream.
• Unqued: pronounced "unked." To not qualify for something. "She unqued on the rifle range."
Not a lot happened this week. The DIs got into a whole mess of trouble for a couple of times they mistreated us, I guess. I don't think it was any big deal, but apparently they were not supposed to do such things as:
• IT us on Sundays
• Withhold square away time
• Make Rct Monahan eat an entire bag of cough drops because she is a stupid idiot and hid them when we can't have them.
• Shake recruits
• Have us run back and forth with our footlockers
Really, I wish they hadn't done anything about it because it only makes it worse. While stuff like that is a one-time incident, whenever the DIs get into trouble they are harder on us for longer. DI Sgt. Sagullo was the one behind the cough drop thing and she had to go stand before a general, which if I've read my knowledge correctly means she either got NJPed (Non Judicial Punishment) or court-martialed. She's AWESOME so I'm glad she's still around, but she's definitely pissed. They all are. We've spent this whole week tearing up our house and putting it back together and tearing it up again.
Then you have the idiots in the platoon who fuck it up for everybody. Rct. Bonetti and Rct. Thompson never sound off loud enough; Rct. Gangler sounds off with an sarcastic "Aye, ma'am", which is just dumb. Why did you come here if you have an attitude? The infamous duo, Monahan and Lanier, who have repeatedly been caught with food they've stolen (big stuff like pears and bread) are single handedly responsible for most of our messes.
We've lost the series guidon twice now. Platoon 4001 has it because of Lanier's most recent "bread in her valuables bag" incident, so we march behind them. Bastards! We're in Second Phase now so we should be able to blouse our boots (tuck in our pants) but Monahan made us lose that privilege too, so we look like Phase One recruits. It's fine though. We're all at the point mostly where you kinda laugh about it while wanting to kill the onesies and twosies responsible for it.
I had Interior Guard a few nights ago, which was fun. Basically it's a little like rifle watch, only we took up posts outside and patrolled them in pairs with our rifles. We made sure all hatches were secure and I got to yell, "HALT, who goes there?" to a few people. It was just for practice for later when we're out in the fleet, since obviously the only people who are going to be walking around our base at 2300 are officers (once I got "Do you not SEE the black belt?") but I did it anyway since we were told to. It was enjoyable but brutally cold. BRUTALLY COLD. How can it be so freezing and there not be any snow? It must be the humidity and I do not approve.
My handwriting sucks! I'm writing on my lap, that's why. Speaking of excuses, that's a big no-no here. The correct response to anything is: "Aye ma'am", "No ma'am" "Yes ma'am", or "This recruit does not know, ma'am." Often you'll say that and you'll get: "No, recruit! It was not an 'Aye ma'am' question. WHY are you holding your tray like that?"
Do not mistake this question for one that needs a reply! The response to this should remain "Aye ma'am" until the Marine making the inquiry decides what to do with you. Your response is not necessary to or wanted for the decision-making process. Like earlier today the DVD player broke. Since you don't disagree with OR lie to Marines (making tricky situations for recruits) the conversation went like this:
Gunny Hyatt: Why didn't you tell the DI the DVD player broke?
Me: Aye ma'am.
Sgt. Sagullo: Basically what you're saying is you broke the DVD player.
Me: … Aye ma'am (not true, but I was watching it when it broke so yes)
Gunny Hyatt: You did?!?
Me: No ma'am.
Gunny Hyatt: Recruit, which is it? You said yes to her and no to me.
Me: Aye ma'am.
Then they continued on their way after fixing it. That's a pretty regular conversation, really.
I love food still. I never realized quite how much I loved it. I want a cupcake. Or a gummy worm. An Oreo cookie. Oooo, a chocolate chip one! Meat loaf. Strawberries, cherries, chocolate. Ice cream. Pizza. Subway. Burger King. Steak. French fries. Oatmeal. Grilled cheese. BLT. Chicken soup. Buttered noodles. Muffins. Raspberries. Doritoes. A pineapple. Cake. Pie.
The Lunch Box story you're sending is great. I've gotten a few good things like that. One of my friends printed off a few pages of web comics -- nothing thick so they wouldn't check the envelope -- and sent that. It's great. The Onions as packaging were ingenious too. I'm doing great and I really think it has a lot to do with all the support so thanks.
I'm in awesome shape now. I don't know if I could have run for 30 straight minutes before, but now I'm like, "Yea, what? 30 minutes? Pffft, bring it on!" It feels good!
Miss you and hope you're having a good Thanksgiving!
Yesterday we got fitted for our uniforms – formal ones – and I'm excited about them. No dress blues, but we get the service uniforms – khakis (long and short sleeves) with sort of green slacks and a skirt. A couple of us were in the wrong place at the wrong time and the fitter wrote down our names randomly to give to our DIs, so we got ITed (pronounced eye teed, an acronym we can't figure out, possibly Intensive Training) when we got back, which is another way of saying you got quarterdecked. But that's cool – you get punished randomly a lot. The more I get ITed, the better I'll do on the PFT (Physical Fitness Test) which is tomorrow.
There are a lot of nouns that are "verbed" here, like:
• Quarterdecked: to be put on the quarterdeck and do a bunch of punishment exercises, usually while screaming whatever the DI wants you to scream.
• Unqued: pronounced "unked." To not qualify for something. "She unqued on the rifle range."
Not a lot happened this week. The DIs got into a whole mess of trouble for a couple of times they mistreated us, I guess. I don't think it was any big deal, but apparently they were not supposed to do such things as:
• IT us on Sundays
• Withhold square away time
• Make Rct Monahan eat an entire bag of cough drops because she is a stupid idiot and hid them when we can't have them.
• Shake recruits
• Have us run back and forth with our footlockers
Really, I wish they hadn't done anything about it because it only makes it worse. While stuff like that is a one-time incident, whenever the DIs get into trouble they are harder on us for longer. DI Sgt. Sagullo was the one behind the cough drop thing and she had to go stand before a general, which if I've read my knowledge correctly means she either got NJPed (Non Judicial Punishment) or court-martialed. She's AWESOME so I'm glad she's still around, but she's definitely pissed. They all are. We've spent this whole week tearing up our house and putting it back together and tearing it up again.
Then you have the idiots in the platoon who fuck it up for everybody. Rct. Bonetti and Rct. Thompson never sound off loud enough; Rct. Gangler sounds off with an sarcastic "Aye, ma'am", which is just dumb. Why did you come here if you have an attitude? The infamous duo, Monahan and Lanier, who have repeatedly been caught with food they've stolen (big stuff like pears and bread) are single handedly responsible for most of our messes.
We've lost the series guidon twice now. Platoon 4001 has it because of Lanier's most recent "bread in her valuables bag" incident, so we march behind them. Bastards! We're in Second Phase now so we should be able to blouse our boots (tuck in our pants) but Monahan made us lose that privilege too, so we look like Phase One recruits. It's fine though. We're all at the point mostly where you kinda laugh about it while wanting to kill the onesies and twosies responsible for it.
I had Interior Guard a few nights ago, which was fun. Basically it's a little like rifle watch, only we took up posts outside and patrolled them in pairs with our rifles. We made sure all hatches were secure and I got to yell, "HALT, who goes there?" to a few people. It was just for practice for later when we're out in the fleet, since obviously the only people who are going to be walking around our base at 2300 are officers (once I got "Do you not SEE the black belt?") but I did it anyway since we were told to. It was enjoyable but brutally cold. BRUTALLY COLD. How can it be so freezing and there not be any snow? It must be the humidity and I do not approve.
My handwriting sucks! I'm writing on my lap, that's why. Speaking of excuses, that's a big no-no here. The correct response to anything is: "Aye ma'am", "No ma'am" "Yes ma'am", or "This recruit does not know, ma'am." Often you'll say that and you'll get: "No, recruit! It was not an 'Aye ma'am' question. WHY are you holding your tray like that?"
Do not mistake this question for one that needs a reply! The response to this should remain "Aye ma'am" until the Marine making the inquiry decides what to do with you. Your response is not necessary to or wanted for the decision-making process. Like earlier today the DVD player broke. Since you don't disagree with OR lie to Marines (making tricky situations for recruits) the conversation went like this:
Gunny Hyatt: Why didn't you tell the DI the DVD player broke?
Me: Aye ma'am.
Sgt. Sagullo: Basically what you're saying is you broke the DVD player.
Me: … Aye ma'am (not true, but I was watching it when it broke so yes)
Gunny Hyatt: You did?!?
Me: No ma'am.
Gunny Hyatt: Recruit, which is it? You said yes to her and no to me.
Me: Aye ma'am.
Then they continued on their way after fixing it. That's a pretty regular conversation, really.
I love food still. I never realized quite how much I loved it. I want a cupcake. Or a gummy worm. An Oreo cookie. Oooo, a chocolate chip one! Meat loaf. Strawberries, cherries, chocolate. Ice cream. Pizza. Subway. Burger King. Steak. French fries. Oatmeal. Grilled cheese. BLT. Chicken soup. Buttered noodles. Muffins. Raspberries. Doritoes. A pineapple. Cake. Pie.
The Lunch Box story you're sending is great. I've gotten a few good things like that. One of my friends printed off a few pages of web comics -- nothing thick so they wouldn't check the envelope -- and sent that. It's great. The Onions as packaging were ingenious too. I'm doing great and I really think it has a lot to do with all the support so thanks.
I'm in awesome shape now. I don't know if I could have run for 30 straight minutes before, but now I'm like, "Yea, what? 30 minutes? Pffft, bring it on!" It feels good!
Miss you and hope you're having a good Thanksgiving!
Training Day 24
A drill instructor is sort of like this dog. There are two types: The drill instructors – the green belts; and the senior drill instructors – the black belts.
The senior drill instructors sort of 'unleash' the green belts onto us with a "Stand by for your drill instructors" and they come running in basically screaming. We're all used to it now. They've lost their bearings in front of us a few times now (i.e. smiled or grinned) and once we caught through a porthole (a window) Sgt. Sagullo kissing a guy.
Today the DIs had us name our weapons. Sagullo was like "And it had better be a good strong name too. Like…like Bob." We crack up and surprisingly all she says is, "That is the only time you're allowed to laugh because I'm about to take you back to the pit for that." She was smiling, though.
Anyway, we were to name them after a guy who has pissed us off so that we slap the rifle around. I already have bruises from smacking mine, which is ideal. So mine is "Alex the M16 A2 service rifle." How funny is that?
Also, I love food.
The senior drill instructors sort of 'unleash' the green belts onto us with a "Stand by for your drill instructors" and they come running in basically screaming. We're all used to it now. They've lost their bearings in front of us a few times now (i.e. smiled or grinned) and once we caught through a porthole (a window) Sgt. Sagullo kissing a guy.
Today the DIs had us name our weapons. Sagullo was like "And it had better be a good strong name too. Like…like Bob." We crack up and surprisingly all she says is, "That is the only time you're allowed to laugh because I'm about to take you back to the pit for that." She was smiling, though.
Anyway, we were to name them after a guy who has pissed us off so that we slap the rifle around. I already have bruises from smacking mine, which is ideal. So mine is "Alex the M16 A2 service rifle." How funny is that?
Also, I love food.
Training Day 22
Could you send me maybe four or five packs of those tight metal-less hair bands that we buy? They don't sell those at the PX. Thanks so much. Please use the money I sent to pay yourself back.
I passed Combat Water Survival (CWS) 5 which is the basic and lowest level you need to qualify. It's just swimming in cammies.
CWS 4 was swimming in cammies and boots, and also wading and shallowly swimming in full gear -- Kevlar helmet, rifle, 50-lb pack (it floats sort of, though you can drown real easily if you don't do it right and actually someone did—I'll get to that), and flak jacket. I passed that too.
CWS 3 was the same only in the deep end. We jumped off a five-foot tower into the water with our gear. One guy drowned but they revived him with CPR. Passed.
CWS 2 was with everything BUT the pack. Without the floating pack the gear was too heavy for me and – I'm serious – for 54 of the other 62 recruits who tried. We were all thrown rescue devices, pulled out of the water and told to leave.
Extra classes those are though – CWS4 to CWS1, I mean – so I passed the swimming part. Also got my tan belt in MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) today which means "I know just enough to hurt myself" as they like to put it. This is another graduate requirement. Only a few more and a bunch of days to go!
Doing great! Lots of drama with the other girls, but what do you do.
Love you!
I passed Combat Water Survival (CWS) 5 which is the basic and lowest level you need to qualify. It's just swimming in cammies.
CWS 4 was swimming in cammies and boots, and also wading and shallowly swimming in full gear -- Kevlar helmet, rifle, 50-lb pack (it floats sort of, though you can drown real easily if you don't do it right and actually someone did—I'll get to that), and flak jacket. I passed that too.
CWS 3 was the same only in the deep end. We jumped off a five-foot tower into the water with our gear. One guy drowned but they revived him with CPR. Passed.
CWS 2 was with everything BUT the pack. Without the floating pack the gear was too heavy for me and – I'm serious – for 54 of the other 62 recruits who tried. We were all thrown rescue devices, pulled out of the water and told to leave.
Extra classes those are though – CWS4 to CWS1, I mean – so I passed the swimming part. Also got my tan belt in MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) today which means "I know just enough to hurt myself" as they like to put it. This is another graduate requirement. Only a few more and a bunch of days to go!
Doing great! Lots of drama with the other girls, but what do you do.
Love you!
Training Day 20
Thanks for the hair gel. I don't need any more as we just made a PX call and I bought 3 more bottles. We re-gel our hair several times a day with a LOT of gel. There can be no flyaways and the buns have to look like they are held up by magic—no bobby pins or hair ties or anything else like that can show. So those bottles we go through FAST.
I'm having a good time. We won initial drill, meaning we beat Platoon 4001 (the scores were close – it was 63.7 to 63.5) and will march in front of them with the series guidon (a red flag). It was a moment of victory that awarded us a lot of hell from the DIs, who were making sure we knew nothing had changed and we were still recruits. I'm glad we won though. It would have been a lot worse if we hadn't.
We are in Phase II now and Swim Qual Week has started. It's really not that hard to swim in the water in cammies – they can be sort of filled with air and they kinda float. Anyway, we all jumped off a ten-foot thing into the water, swam 25 meters, etc. Piece of cake. Some girls didn't pass; one somehow almost dislocated her shoulder. Weird.
Rifle range is next week. Gonna go study knowledge now. The test is coming up.
I got like over 100 birthday cards. A class of first graders made me cards too which greatly added to the numbers. And just so you know, the present you sent was great. DI Sgt. Sagullo's exact words were "How cute, Snider. Now start pushing." SUCCESS!
(Rose's mom here: I gift-wrapped a little sample packet of moisturizer that I picked up at Whole Foods, decorated the tiny present with stickers and included it in a letter.)
P.S. Funniest thing just happened. You're supposed to run for any DIs hatch to open it for them. So a DI comes in, looks around and starts to walk out. I go booking it for the hatch and out of nowhere she starts SPRINTING for it. Luckily I beat her. Afterwards everyone in the squad bay just cracked up. I have NO idea why she decided to do that. She didn't say nothing or crack any expression or anything!
I'm having a good time. We won initial drill, meaning we beat Platoon 4001 (the scores were close – it was 63.7 to 63.5) and will march in front of them with the series guidon (a red flag). It was a moment of victory that awarded us a lot of hell from the DIs, who were making sure we knew nothing had changed and we were still recruits. I'm glad we won though. It would have been a lot worse if we hadn't.
We are in Phase II now and Swim Qual Week has started. It's really not that hard to swim in the water in cammies – they can be sort of filled with air and they kinda float. Anyway, we all jumped off a ten-foot thing into the water, swam 25 meters, etc. Piece of cake. Some girls didn't pass; one somehow almost dislocated her shoulder. Weird.
Rifle range is next week. Gonna go study knowledge now. The test is coming up.
I got like over 100 birthday cards. A class of first graders made me cards too which greatly added to the numbers. And just so you know, the present you sent was great. DI Sgt. Sagullo's exact words were "How cute, Snider. Now start pushing." SUCCESS!
(Rose's mom here: I gift-wrapped a little sample packet of moisturizer that I picked up at Whole Foods, decorated the tiny present with stickers and included it in a letter.)
P.S. Funniest thing just happened. You're supposed to run for any DIs hatch to open it for them. So a DI comes in, looks around and starts to walk out. I go booking it for the hatch and out of nowhere she starts SPRINTING for it. Luckily I beat her. Afterwards everyone in the squad bay just cracked up. I have NO idea why she decided to do that. She didn't say nothing or crack any expression or anything!
Sunday. Not a Training Day. The Day after TD 17.
Initial Drill and Game Day, where we compete for the series guidon (flag) with Platoon 4001, is only 2 days away. I hope we’re ready. We spent a while drilling this morning. A ditty is something you say aloud or in your head to remember your steps.
DI Sgt. Sagullo: Half step…
Recruits: Pause!
DI Sgt. Sagullo: March!
Recruits: 30-15! (and we start half-stepping)
DI: … Okay, what is my ditty?
Rct. Mulherron: 30-15.
DI: So you take a full 30-inch step, then kick out a 15-inch step. Half of you— I don’t even know what you’re doing. You should kick it out and then pick up a half-step. You prance, like a damn pony. Don’t make me change your ditty to "like a pony."
That would be the best ditty ever!
Then later we turn to square away time and Davey bangs on the DI hatch.
Davey: Good morning ladies! Excuse Recruit Davey, Drill Instructor Sgt. Sagullo ma'am!
DI Sgt. Sagullo: What, Davey?
Davey: Recruit Davey requests permission to know that if these recruits signed the church roster, do they still have to go?
DI: …. Yes.
Davey: Aye ma'am, good morning ma’am.
DI: Davey!
Davey: Aye ma'am!
DI: Are you telling me you're turning into a damn heathen now?
I don’t know why, but it was dead funny.
Religion is an expected thing. "Heathens" have to shut their "fat mouths" and so on to let the rest of us pray and do devotionals etc. properly. Catholics are the best because mass is long. It ends after square away time already ended, so when we get back, the house has already been field-day-ed (thoroughly cleaned) by the other religious recruits who get back sooner. Suckers!
Every Sunday we are weighed in. I'm at 133 lbs now – lost 10 lbs and I swear that I’m eating excessively.
It’s easy to screw things up for everyone. One recruit doesn't do her hair? Then all recruits take down and mess up their hair.
The days are going by fast. Miss you guys.
DI Sgt. Sagullo: Half step…
Recruits: Pause!
DI Sgt. Sagullo: March!
Recruits: 30-15! (and we start half-stepping)
DI: … Okay, what is my ditty?
Rct. Mulherron: 30-15.
DI: So you take a full 30-inch step, then kick out a 15-inch step. Half of you— I don’t even know what you’re doing. You should kick it out and then pick up a half-step. You prance, like a damn pony. Don’t make me change your ditty to "like a pony."
That would be the best ditty ever!
Then later we turn to square away time and Davey bangs on the DI hatch.
Davey: Good morning ladies! Excuse Recruit Davey, Drill Instructor Sgt. Sagullo ma'am!
DI Sgt. Sagullo: What, Davey?
Davey: Recruit Davey requests permission to know that if these recruits signed the church roster, do they still have to go?
DI: …. Yes.
Davey: Aye ma'am, good morning ma’am.
DI: Davey!
Davey: Aye ma'am!
DI: Are you telling me you're turning into a damn heathen now?
I don’t know why, but it was dead funny.
Religion is an expected thing. "Heathens" have to shut their "fat mouths" and so on to let the rest of us pray and do devotionals etc. properly. Catholics are the best because mass is long. It ends after square away time already ended, so when we get back, the house has already been field-day-ed (thoroughly cleaned) by the other religious recruits who get back sooner. Suckers!
Every Sunday we are weighed in. I'm at 133 lbs now – lost 10 lbs and I swear that I’m eating excessively.
It’s easy to screw things up for everyone. One recruit doesn't do her hair? Then all recruits take down and mess up their hair.
The days are going by fast. Miss you guys.
Training Day 16
Yesterday November 9 is when I got about 30 cards all at once. They first got passed to me (the DI calls "Snider" and you say "Aye ma'am on the way ma'am" and run up, alligator-slap it, and say, "Recruit Snider, all mail received, aye ma'am, good evening ladies") but after seven or so she got sick of THAT and just started chucking my mail all around the squad bay. Only had time during the square away time to read one or two because I was busy methodically tightening my "A" cammies (a set of dress cammies -- ours are just jungle greens that we iron and starch and never wear) and cleaning my rifle because we had a Senior Drill Instructor Inspection today.
Let's talk about that.
We all stood in line in front of our footlockers at parade rest. One by one – I was like almost last because we are in alphabetical order – The SDI Sgt Radetsky marched up to us. You said, "Good morning ladies, Recruit Snider" and performed a tricky little number with your rifle called inspection arms that basically involved you exactly pulling the bolt to the rear, looking to make sure it's clear, and stopping at port arms (held in two hands). If you fucked it up, you failed the "Rifle Manual" part. If you passed, the SDI took the weapon, inspected it, and asked some questions – I got "What is your rifle serial number?" and "Who is your company first lieutenant?" Then you took back your rifle, executed an about face, she inspected your uniform and moved on.
My scores:
Rifle Manual: Average (this is good)
Knowledge: Above average
Uniform: Average
Overall: Above average
But get this: Most of the platoon either failed or got Below Average and the DIs were PISSED! As soon as the SDI was off deck they flew off the handle. Anyone who failed grabbed all her stuff – seabags, mollie packs, full muster war gear, footlockers, day packs, Kevlar helmets, garment bags, hygiene bags, shoes and boots and DUMPED it all into a mess in the quarterdeck.
As for the rest of us, we tore up the house on command. Racks were stripped, footlockers and other shit moved to the containment area (laundry room/gym) and back again, etc. etc. After an hour or so they relented, kinda, said we had 7 minutes to make everything perfect, and went into the DI house and shut the door.
After that, we went to chow and because it's the Corps birthday, we had cake. The DIs are pissed about that too. We don't rate cake.
We do a lot of echoing. Like if a DI is calling for a recruit, it would sound like:
DI Sgt. Sagullo: Recruit Snider!
Recruits: Recruit Snider! Report to Drill Instructor Sergeant Sagullo as ordered!
Snider: Aye ma'am on the way ma'am!
Recruits: Aye ma'am on the way ma'am!
This is all done to make sure the recruit she wants hears her and she hears they are coming.
Tomorrow we have a 3-mile hike with our gear, and rumor has it tonight the DIs are gonna fuck with our rifles. I seriously love my rifle. I think I've bonded with it, and can't wait for grass week – 7 days of shooting, 7 hours per day!
I wouldn't say I'm enjoying myself, but I sort of am in a weird way. It's not that bad … ha ha someone was sprawled out or something and now we have to spend the rest of square away time standing up. I'm gonna wrap this up since it sucks to write standing.
Write!
Let's talk about that.
We all stood in line in front of our footlockers at parade rest. One by one – I was like almost last because we are in alphabetical order – The SDI Sgt Radetsky marched up to us. You said, "Good morning ladies, Recruit Snider" and performed a tricky little number with your rifle called inspection arms that basically involved you exactly pulling the bolt to the rear, looking to make sure it's clear, and stopping at port arms (held in two hands). If you fucked it up, you failed the "Rifle Manual" part. If you passed, the SDI took the weapon, inspected it, and asked some questions – I got "What is your rifle serial number?" and "Who is your company first lieutenant?" Then you took back your rifle, executed an about face, she inspected your uniform and moved on.
My scores:
Rifle Manual: Average (this is good)
Knowledge: Above average
Uniform: Average
Overall: Above average
But get this: Most of the platoon either failed or got Below Average and the DIs were PISSED! As soon as the SDI was off deck they flew off the handle. Anyone who failed grabbed all her stuff – seabags, mollie packs, full muster war gear, footlockers, day packs, Kevlar helmets, garment bags, hygiene bags, shoes and boots and DUMPED it all into a mess in the quarterdeck.
As for the rest of us, we tore up the house on command. Racks were stripped, footlockers and other shit moved to the containment area (laundry room/gym) and back again, etc. etc. After an hour or so they relented, kinda, said we had 7 minutes to make everything perfect, and went into the DI house and shut the door.
After that, we went to chow and because it's the Corps birthday, we had cake. The DIs are pissed about that too. We don't rate cake.
We do a lot of echoing. Like if a DI is calling for a recruit, it would sound like:
DI Sgt. Sagullo: Recruit Snider!
Recruits: Recruit Snider! Report to Drill Instructor Sergeant Sagullo as ordered!
Snider: Aye ma'am on the way ma'am!
Recruits: Aye ma'am on the way ma'am!
This is all done to make sure the recruit she wants hears her and she hears they are coming.
Tomorrow we have a 3-mile hike with our gear, and rumor has it tonight the DIs are gonna fuck with our rifles. I seriously love my rifle. I think I've bonded with it, and can't wait for grass week – 7 days of shooting, 7 hours per day!
I wouldn't say I'm enjoying myself, but I sort of am in a weird way. It's not that bad … ha ha someone was sprawled out or something and now we have to spend the rest of square away time standing up. I'm gonna wrap this up since it sucks to write standing.
Write!
Training Day 14
Happy Birthday to me! Fifteen minutes after I turned 21 I woke up to start the day.
It was actually a really good day. The major event was the confidence course – a 3-hour obstacle course that involves entirely heights. And amazingly? I was confident! And I successfully completed all the obstacles we got to! Usually I'm terrified of heights but today I did, among other things:
Log climb: Three logs in succession, each set higher than the last, where you climbed on the first one (3 ft high), stood up, LEAPED to land 5 feet forward on your stomach on the 2nd (6 ft high) and did the same for the 3rd (9 ft high) then climbed up on it and dropped down.
Monkey Climb: You scramble up a telephone-pole-like thing that's about 20 feet high then, balancing on a single rope while holding onto another one that's above your head, you cross over a water obstacle. Then you slide down a rope to the ground.
Among others! It was very exciting that I DID it!
Little drill today. We had some classes and at supper I snuck an extra dessert as a birthday present to myself so I had pudding AND jello. I need to study and work out, all the time I can afford.
It was actually a really good day. The major event was the confidence course – a 3-hour obstacle course that involves entirely heights. And amazingly? I was confident! And I successfully completed all the obstacles we got to! Usually I'm terrified of heights but today I did, among other things:
Log climb: Three logs in succession, each set higher than the last, where you climbed on the first one (3 ft high), stood up, LEAPED to land 5 feet forward on your stomach on the 2nd (6 ft high) and did the same for the 3rd (9 ft high) then climbed up on it and dropped down.
Monkey Climb: You scramble up a telephone-pole-like thing that's about 20 feet high then, balancing on a single rope while holding onto another one that's above your head, you cross over a water obstacle. Then you slide down a rope to the ground.
Among others! It was very exciting that I DID it!
Little drill today. We had some classes and at supper I snuck an extra dessert as a birthday present to myself so I had pudding AND jello. I need to study and work out, all the time I can afford.
Training Day 13
Gas chamber today with CS gas. We got in and the room filled up and it stung along your neck and hands and ears and edges of the mask. There were like 30-35 girls in this smallish room, and they had us do a few things like jumping jacks. That was fine! I was nervous at first even though we practiced taking the mask on and off a lot already, but when I got in I found I was totally ok. We took off our masks, held our breaths, and shut our eyes until they said to put the masks back on. I fucked this up a little and didn't clear my mask properly (you have to exhale hard and hold down a certain spot on the mask) so I breathed a little gas but it wasn't awful. I cleared it in the next breath, and stood calmly by while the girl next to me FREAKED out, didn't put on her mask, collapsed on the floor, then ran for the door. They had to physically restrain her. Sucks to be her. "Failure to follow simple instructions" as the DIs always say.
They dragged in someone else at the start, too. You're going through that chamber whether you want to or not!
After we got out and stripped our masks my eyes teared up awful though. It was horrible. I must have gotten some CS in them from my cammies. Some of my platoon had to direct me to the place we stripped down. But I wasn't freaked about it! I just couldn't see.
Gonna wrap this up and send it. Don't want too long of a letter to be discovered and confiscated.
P.S. Our drill is way improving.
They dragged in someone else at the start, too. You're going through that chamber whether you want to or not!
After we got out and stripped our masks my eyes teared up awful though. It was horrible. I must have gotten some CS in them from my cammies. Some of my platoon had to direct me to the place we stripped down. But I wasn't freaked about it! I just couldn't see.
Gonna wrap this up and send it. Don't want too long of a letter to be discovered and confiscated.
P.S. Our drill is way improving.
Training Day 12
I received an inadvertent compliment from the new DI today. She was telling off the rest of the platoon when I was the only one volunteering to answer test question, and DI Sgt. Goodman goes, "Someone else besides Snider, 'cause it looks she's the only one that's going to graduate."
We did an obstacle course today – everything from leaping over logs five feet up to climbing a wall, ropes, flipping ourselves over bars, etc. It was very tough! A lot of people – actually everyone but three – didn't finish. I made it to the very last ropes obstacle, but Sgt. Sagullo had made me do the wall like four times because other recruits kept messing up, so I was too tired to climb the final 20 ft. rope. Oh well.
Can you do another mass letter? Just to let people know how I'm doing, that I can't write back and am very sorry about that, and thanks A LOT for the birthday letters.
When we 'muster' – which mean march anywhere – we wear our full muster war gear. This is a hefty harness w/ canteens, a moonbeam (flashlight), a glow strip for visibility, and a butt pack and drill belt with a poncho in it. We even take this to church. Yesterday in church religious ed we started The Shoes of the Fisherman – a very long movie. It was a blast. We get 4 hours square away time on Sundays, most of which I spend in religious ed and church. Worth it!!! You're away from the DIs. The Catholics get back last and we always return to exhausted-looking recruits, freshly scuzzed (cleaned/scrubbed) floors, racks that have been made and unmade and made and unmade for no real reason, etc. I'm happy I miss all of that. Go religion!
We did an obstacle course today – everything from leaping over logs five feet up to climbing a wall, ropes, flipping ourselves over bars, etc. It was very tough! A lot of people – actually everyone but three – didn't finish. I made it to the very last ropes obstacle, but Sgt. Sagullo had made me do the wall like four times because other recruits kept messing up, so I was too tired to climb the final 20 ft. rope. Oh well.
Can you do another mass letter? Just to let people know how I'm doing, that I can't write back and am very sorry about that, and thanks A LOT for the birthday letters.
When we 'muster' – which mean march anywhere – we wear our full muster war gear. This is a hefty harness w/ canteens, a moonbeam (flashlight), a glow strip for visibility, and a butt pack and drill belt with a poncho in it. We even take this to church. Yesterday in church religious ed we started The Shoes of the Fisherman – a very long movie. It was a blast. We get 4 hours square away time on Sundays, most of which I spend in religious ed and church. Worth it!!! You're away from the DIs. The Catholics get back last and we always return to exhausted-looking recruits, freshly scuzzed (cleaned/scrubbed) floors, racks that have been made and unmade and made and unmade for no real reason, etc. I'm happy I miss all of that. Go religion!
Training Day 9
MCMAP (martial arts training) is great. We learned how to fall properly, that loud dramatic way martial arts people have of doing it that makes it not hurt. I can now leap forward, somersault before I hit the floor and roll up onto my feet.
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