Day 44

Day 39 of BCT

The day started with PT - muscle strengthening day. Since I'm on a profile, I had to stay inside the tennis courts. At least they let us do what PT we can. Basically, I can do anything but the jumping and running. We then changed and grabbed out gear for the field. Out ruck sacks had already gone to the field in the truck since we are being taken out by bus. We had a quick Hot-A and headed out. I think it was about 10-15 minutes to get there.
We hiked maybe 1/4 mile to our campsite. The day was already starting to get warm, but being in the shade of trees, it wasn't bad, even with full battle rattle. The weight of full gear does start to wear on you, and just the cumbersomness of moving around in it.
We ended up spending the day doing training. Setting up a security parameter, stopping and searching a vehicle, handling direct and indirect fire, and how to set up and use the infamous Army radios that date back to Vietnam. Lunch was a Hot-A in the middle of all of that, and we also took some time to set up our tents and sleeping bags.
We then marched back to the road for motor movement to the Night Infiltration Course. Basically, they shoot live rounds over your head while you crawl across a sand pit. I was dreading this big time, because I'm so slow at the low and high crawl. They fed us MRE's for dinner while he waited for dark. I lucked out and had peanut M&M's in mine. Our DS is letting us keep the candy from now on. They tasted amazing!
Our platoon ended up going last through the course, so we spent a long time waiting. It was nerve racking. When our time came up, they lined us up inside a pit, then they started firing and we had to crawl out of the pit while staying low and then high crawling around...ummm I have no idea...it was probably around 200-300m, but it felt like a mile. Right at the beginning, I saw a 1qt canteen, so I picked it up thinking it might belong to my platoon. Our gear is expensive and if you lose it, you pay for it, so we really try hard to keep track of it all. I ended up crawling with that stupid thing the whole way. I pushed myself really hard not to stop, I was afraid of coming in last. There were quite a few drops along the way, so in the dark you thought you were reaching the end, only to have much more to go. Parts of it you had to crawl under wires and we also had to go around pits. By the time, I reached the end I was soaking wet with sweat under my gear, my glasses were fogged up, and I was very out of breath. We formed up by platoon to get accountability. I found myself struggling to catch my breath for a minute. That's the third time that I've felt that way. I'm hoping I haven't developed some type of asthma or am having panic attacks. Something to worry about after BCT...right now, I'm just focused on making it through 4 more weeks.
We took motor movement back to our campsite and after getting the fireguard list squared away, we headed to bed. I lucked out and didn't have FG. Sleeping on the ground isn't a ton of fun, but this time, we brought mats and it was warmer, so I slept better.