Now here's a copy of the letter to Morgan describing what happened to the little knitted platypus Morgan sent her.
Dear Morgan:
I'm sending this letter to you through my mom who hopefully has your addy because I don't have time to tell this story twice.
So I get your package, right, and since we're not supposed to get anything but letters I get in the "I'll be putting my stuff in a bag with my name on it" formation during mail call. I open the package and there's the book and the platypus. I didn't really have time to think - I chucked the book under a desk and turned in the platypus. (I had to turn in something because they knew I got a package, but I wished later I'd done it the other way around). My DI sees what I have and of course takes the bag. I later go back and get the book but I'm wondering how I'm going to get my platypus back. There's NO WAY the DI's will let me have it but I like to maintain positive control of my belongings. Eventually I come up with a plan and when it's our senior drill instructor's duty night I act. I go up and bang on her hatch.
Me: *bang bang bang*
SDI: What?
Me: Good evening ladies! Excuse Recruit Oltman, Senior Drill Instructor Sgt. Renteria ma'am!
SDI: WHAT?!?!
Me: Recruit Oltman requests permission to have her spirit animal for devotions ma'am!
SDI: Your spirit animal?
Me: Yes ma'am. This recruit was sent it in the mail for devos ma'am.
SDI: Stand by.
She's never seen anything like this before. She rummages around in the footlocker where confiscated things are kept and when she comes back she HURLS it to the deck and goes, "I don't even WANT to know" and slams the hatch.
So then it's devos and since I said it was a spirit animal, there I am with the platypus on my lap praying over it while everyone around me is cracking up.
Mission: A success. Operation Rescue Platypus (now named Corporal Perry) completed.
Oltman out, yo.
Training Day 44
Mom, please forward Morgan's letter to her after making a copy for yourself. I didn't want to write it twice. She sent me a book and a tiny knitted platypus for my birthday. Things are good here. A new catch phrase is "You're about dumb," which we got from the DIs and it's hysterical to say to each other.
One thing I didn't mention about the rifle range - and maybe this is what happened with my DI when she thought she saw a rifle off the rack - are the ghosts. I swear they're there. See, there's a river, Ribbon River, that runs by the range. Some years ago during Firing Week a male DI marched his platoon through it during the night and a whole bunch of recruits drowned. The legend has it that they stay on the range and in the barracks at weapons, having never qualified. It would explain some stuff, like the time the fire watch counted an extra body in the racks, and things like that.
The DIs are psycho. Today especially, Sgt. Andrew was fricking NUTS. I'm not sure what her deal is; there's a difference between how the DIs act and you can tell. They all DO the same things - quarterdecking us and so on - but Sgt. Andrew somehow does it further, like the way you'd torture a POW. I'm not sure how to explain it but she has a very unstable vibe. I'm not afraid of nor do I dislike very many people, and I LOVE three of my DIs, but I really dislike and find totally unnecessary Sgt. Andrew. She doesn't even instill discipline in how she goes about doing things, just a lack of motivation. It's stupid.
Ha ha, at Religious Ed, we ran into some new girls and they were like, "We're on Training Day 5" and we just burst out tittering and "Oh man"-ing. Training Day FIVE! Losers. The crazy part is I remember the EXACT SAME thing happening to me when I was at church on TD5. And when they're on TD40 they'll be at church and meet the new TD5 females and titter and …
Nothing changes but the names.
One interesting thing I've gotten from boot camp is the verbal repetition. I LOVE things like that; I always have. They're just sort of reassuring, like how Grandpa and I will be talking about food - he'll always say, "I can almost taste it now" and I always say, "It'll be so good." Things like that I enjoy but unfortunately most people get sick of it so I don't get an opportunity. Here at boot camp though you get all KINDS of it.
DI: Pick 'em up!
Rcts: Boot top high!
DI: Point your toes!
Rcts: To the deck!
DI: Let me hear that –
Rcts: THUNDER!
DI: Let me hear that –
Rcts: BOOM!
DI: Lean back!
Rcts: At the waist!
DI: Lean back!
Rcts: And strut!
DI: Elbows tight!
Rcts: Rifles right!
DI: Walk that tightrope!
Rcts: Left over right!
DI: Walk that tightrope!
Rcts: Tight tight tight!
DI: WALK THAT TIGHTROPE!
Rcts: CRACK THAT WHIP!
DI: Alignments to the-
Rcts: Right!
DI: And cover's to the –
Rcts: Front!
DI: 40 inches!
Rcts: Back to chest!
DI: Four recruits!
Rcts: Side by side!
Anyway, you get the idea. I find it great and very reassuring. Verbal repetition when both parties are happily and intently involved is my … my calming activity or whatever you want to call it, and we get a ton of it at boot camp.
One thing I didn't mention about the rifle range - and maybe this is what happened with my DI when she thought she saw a rifle off the rack - are the ghosts. I swear they're there. See, there's a river, Ribbon River, that runs by the range. Some years ago during Firing Week a male DI marched his platoon through it during the night and a whole bunch of recruits drowned. The legend has it that they stay on the range and in the barracks at weapons, having never qualified. It would explain some stuff, like the time the fire watch counted an extra body in the racks, and things like that.
The DIs are psycho. Today especially, Sgt. Andrew was fricking NUTS. I'm not sure what her deal is; there's a difference between how the DIs act and you can tell. They all DO the same things - quarterdecking us and so on - but Sgt. Andrew somehow does it further, like the way you'd torture a POW. I'm not sure how to explain it but she has a very unstable vibe. I'm not afraid of nor do I dislike very many people, and I LOVE three of my DIs, but I really dislike and find totally unnecessary Sgt. Andrew. She doesn't even instill discipline in how she goes about doing things, just a lack of motivation. It's stupid.
Ha ha, at Religious Ed, we ran into some new girls and they were like, "We're on Training Day 5" and we just burst out tittering and "Oh man"-ing. Training Day FIVE! Losers. The crazy part is I remember the EXACT SAME thing happening to me when I was at church on TD5. And when they're on TD40 they'll be at church and meet the new TD5 females and titter and …
Nothing changes but the names.
One interesting thing I've gotten from boot camp is the verbal repetition. I LOVE things like that; I always have. They're just sort of reassuring, like how Grandpa and I will be talking about food - he'll always say, "I can almost taste it now" and I always say, "It'll be so good." Things like that I enjoy but unfortunately most people get sick of it so I don't get an opportunity. Here at boot camp though you get all KINDS of it.
DI: Pick 'em up!
Rcts: Boot top high!
DI: Point your toes!
Rcts: To the deck!
DI: Let me hear that –
Rcts: THUNDER!
DI: Let me hear that –
Rcts: BOOM!
DI: Lean back!
Rcts: At the waist!
DI: Lean back!
Rcts: And strut!
DI: Elbows tight!
Rcts: Rifles right!
DI: Walk that tightrope!
Rcts: Left over right!
DI: Walk that tightrope!
Rcts: Tight tight tight!
DI: WALK THAT TIGHTROPE!
Rcts: CRACK THAT WHIP!
DI: Alignments to the-
Rcts: Right!
DI: And cover's to the –
Rcts: Front!
DI: 40 inches!
Rcts: Back to chest!
DI: Four recruits!
Rcts: Side by side!
Anyway, you get the idea. I find it great and very reassuring. Verbal repetition when both parties are happily and intently involved is my … my calming activity or whatever you want to call it, and we get a ton of it at boot camp.
Sunday, day after Training Day 41
Okay, I didn't want to talk about the rifle range before in case I unked, but since I didn't, let's talk about how fricking AWESOME it was.
So on the first day we did the grouping exercise, which I sucked at because I totally forgot all the fundamentals of marksmanship (correct sight alignment and trigger control) and just shot and it was GREAT! Then the next day we go out and start to work on the course of fire we'll be using on Qual Day and it turns out I don't really suck; my rifle's just weird. While most people have their sights set to 4 clicks right or 3 clicks left, for example, I have to use 28 right before I can hit the target.
Now, usually most people get up there and if they've never really shot before like I haven't they have a hard time. They get really nervous. The PMIs push PMAs (Positive Mental Attitudes) to keep you calm and focused. Me? I never needed mine. I totally forgot about mine. As soon as I was seated down in my position and I looked through the sights, there wasn't anything else there. It was just me and my rifle and the black. I'm a total natural - it was EASY. I can't really explain how it feels. You're like in this zone, and I knew where every shot was going to go. Even the ones where I knew I'd jerked, I knew where they'd hit.
The first course of fire is 15 shots in 20 minutes - 5 sitting, 5 kneeling, and 5 standing. You might go, "Oh, that's easy" but no. By the time you adjust your sling, fix the weapon jams, take your shot, plot your shot, wait for the target to reappear, plot your score, and re-aim, plus change your position every five shots, 20 minutes has gone by and you've still got 'saved rounds' - shots you never fired. The 20-minute slow fire I usually ended at 17 minutes fairly regularly and I was one of the first ones in the 1st relay done.
Next is 200-yard rapid fire from standing to sitting (you stand, load, wait for the target then drop to sitting position, aim and get off 10 rounds). Then they pull the targets and score them. Ten shots in the black is called a 'possible' and is hard. I got a possible on goal day, the only one in 1st relay to have it.
Next we move to the 300-yard line and take five slow fire shots in the sitting position in five minutes then ten rapid-fire shots from standing to prone. During slow fire you usually adjust your sights while you're firing to compensate for the wind.
Finally - and up to here I'd been doing nicely - we go back to the 500-yard line for ten slow fire shots in the prone position in ten minutes. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Black. Black. Black. Black. Then after my 6th shot the target comes back scored with a 2 -- nine shots in the black and one 2. I think the person scoring my target screwed up and marked the wrong shot because I KNOW I shot 10 black, but oh well. My final score was still expert, the highest rating you can get of the four.
220-250: Expert
210-219: Sharpshooter
190-209: Marksman
0-189: Unked!
Hoorah! So yea, I'm pretty pleased with that. Platoon 4000 with 12 unks took the rifle range from Platoon 4001, which had 17. This means we got a trophy and got to keep our series guidon. Losers.
Later that evening I get back to our original squad bay and have to bolt out for chow because the Catholics are going to the Immaculate Conception mass. Sadly I was all alone so I got what that guy I wrote about in my other letter got - "This recruit doesn't have a buddy!" "This recruit is all alone!"
I've been really focused on coming back home, but really it's just ten days of vacation before I go to my new duty station and new home. I'm thinking that after my five years are up I may re-enlist, or maybe come back, during my service work toward a degree, and after try for a job in (classified info removed by editor). It's a long way away though obviously. It's weird though; before I wouldn't be thinking so far in advance but now I am.
Every year I'll have to re-qualify on the rifle range so I think once I'm settled in school in California, I'll look into buying an AR-whatever, the civilian version of the M16. I won't be issued one in school but I'll need one to practice. I fully even intend to become an expert-expert, maybe even be a PMI some day. They really aren't even all that expensive, either, something like $500. Somehow I was thinking that a semi-automatic weapon would be more. It's actually a bit alarming that that rifle can be purchased by any fool with a few hundred bucks in his pocket.
So on the first day we did the grouping exercise, which I sucked at because I totally forgot all the fundamentals of marksmanship (correct sight alignment and trigger control) and just shot and it was GREAT! Then the next day we go out and start to work on the course of fire we'll be using on Qual Day and it turns out I don't really suck; my rifle's just weird. While most people have their sights set to 4 clicks right or 3 clicks left, for example, I have to use 28 right before I can hit the target.
Now, usually most people get up there and if they've never really shot before like I haven't they have a hard time. They get really nervous. The PMIs push PMAs (Positive Mental Attitudes) to keep you calm and focused. Me? I never needed mine. I totally forgot about mine. As soon as I was seated down in my position and I looked through the sights, there wasn't anything else there. It was just me and my rifle and the black. I'm a total natural - it was EASY. I can't really explain how it feels. You're like in this zone, and I knew where every shot was going to go. Even the ones where I knew I'd jerked, I knew where they'd hit.
The first course of fire is 15 shots in 20 minutes - 5 sitting, 5 kneeling, and 5 standing. You might go, "Oh, that's easy" but no. By the time you adjust your sling, fix the weapon jams, take your shot, plot your shot, wait for the target to reappear, plot your score, and re-aim, plus change your position every five shots, 20 minutes has gone by and you've still got 'saved rounds' - shots you never fired. The 20-minute slow fire I usually ended at 17 minutes fairly regularly and I was one of the first ones in the 1st relay done.
Next is 200-yard rapid fire from standing to sitting (you stand, load, wait for the target then drop to sitting position, aim and get off 10 rounds). Then they pull the targets and score them. Ten shots in the black is called a 'possible' and is hard. I got a possible on goal day, the only one in 1st relay to have it.
Next we move to the 300-yard line and take five slow fire shots in the sitting position in five minutes then ten rapid-fire shots from standing to prone. During slow fire you usually adjust your sights while you're firing to compensate for the wind.
Finally - and up to here I'd been doing nicely - we go back to the 500-yard line for ten slow fire shots in the prone position in ten minutes. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Black. Black. Black. Black. Then after my 6th shot the target comes back scored with a 2 -- nine shots in the black and one 2. I think the person scoring my target screwed up and marked the wrong shot because I KNOW I shot 10 black, but oh well. My final score was still expert, the highest rating you can get of the four.
220-250: Expert
210-219: Sharpshooter
190-209: Marksman
0-189: Unked!
Hoorah! So yea, I'm pretty pleased with that. Platoon 4000 with 12 unks took the rifle range from Platoon 4001, which had 17. This means we got a trophy and got to keep our series guidon. Losers.
Later that evening I get back to our original squad bay and have to bolt out for chow because the Catholics are going to the Immaculate Conception mass. Sadly I was all alone so I got what that guy I wrote about in my other letter got - "This recruit doesn't have a buddy!" "This recruit is all alone!"
I've been really focused on coming back home, but really it's just ten days of vacation before I go to my new duty station and new home. I'm thinking that after my five years are up I may re-enlist, or maybe come back, during my service work toward a degree, and after try for a job in (classified info removed by editor). It's a long way away though obviously. It's weird though; before I wouldn't be thinking so far in advance but now I am.
Every year I'll have to re-qualify on the rifle range so I think once I'm settled in school in California, I'll look into buying an AR-whatever, the civilian version of the M16. I won't be issued one in school but I'll need one to practice. I fully even intend to become an expert-expert, maybe even be a PMI some day. They really aren't even all that expensive, either, something like $500. Somehow I was thinking that a semi-automatic weapon would be more. It's actually a bit alarming that that rifle can be purchased by any fool with a few hundred bucks in his pocket.
Posting Break
The blog's editors took a long long posting break there for a while and left this blog to its own devices. We're going to pick back up again and finish posting the letters home.
Training Day 37
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.
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.
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