Day 30

Day 25 of BCT

     The day started early for me with last Fireguard shift, so I was up at 0330. PT was a sprint day. So after hip stability, and military movement, they jogged us to the track and around once before starting sprints. I think today we started doing 60/120's instead of 30/60's. Feeling homesick and tired of the stress of Basic made it difficult to push myself, but I did my best. I ran with one of the girls in my platoon and we encouraged each other the whole way. After 6 sprints, we jogged back as a platoon. More like ran, in my opinion. We then did some pushups and sit-ups before grabbing our gear and marching to the DFAC for breakfast. During the run I had a muscle get really tight, so by the time we made it to the DFAC, I was in a lot of pain, but I toughed it out and it slowly got better throughout the day.
     Things seem to be going better today for our platoon, and our DS seems to be in a better mood. Today we qualify with our M-16's. He said if we all qualify the first time he'll buy us each a Snickers candy bar and a gatorade. We're all pretty pumped about that possibility!
     We changed to ACU's for the range, but just when we thought we were ready to head out, our commander decided we needed to wear full battle rattle, so we had to add our IBA vest, Kevlor helmet, and rifleman's kit vest. It was very heavy and awkward to get on and off the bus with all that gear and our assault packs front-loaded. I already dread the last 2 foot marches when we have to wear all of that gear.
      After a briefing on the range our 1SG gave us an opportunity to do quick skits and imitate/mock our DS's with no repercussions. It was pretty funny. Our platoon then had concurrent training while they started others on the range. We wore our full battle rattle and started practicing drills for ARM (Advanced Rifle Marksmanship). This is where we start learning to move and shoot at the same time. As we progress further into training, it feels like there might be an end in sight, but at the same time, it feels like we have so much left to do and I'm worried that physically, I won't be able to make it.
     Our platoon was the last to line up to shoot. Since I'm the last person alphabetically in my platoon, I ended up waiting quite awhile. When it finally was my turn, I ended up all the way on Lane 1 which was on top of a hill looking down at the targets. It kind of through me to look downhill, and I ended up without good sandbags. But I did my best and managed to get 26/40. So I did qualify. It felt good to get one more requirement for basic completed. I had hope to do a lot better, but we didn't really get a lot of practice. Our platoon only had 6 people not qualify the first time, which was the best in the company. All of them qualified on the 2nd or 3rd try. We then did more concurrent training after chow while we waited on everyone in the company to qualify. It was long and boring but our platoon did a good job of trying to stay productive and one of the officer's complimented us on that. The drills are repetitive and boring, but should give us the speed and confidence to be effective in real life.
     We then had shakedown and motor movement back to the company. we then went to the classroom where our commander gave us a chance to bring up concerns and talk about what things are doing well and what isn't. She also introduced us to our new commander. Apparently, she is promoting/leaving so we'll be getting a new CPT. He's been around this last week some and seems nice enough. She then informed us that we'd be having a surprise locker inspection. They did the females first. The DS's went locker by locker and tossed our stuff looking for contraband and anything unsanitary. I didn't have any issues, but some females were caught with razors and other contraband. There were a few tears shed. After getting our bay cleaned back up, they fed us an MRG and sent us back to our bay. We got ready for HF, but we never had it. They came and counted us at 2115 and sent us to bed.