Day 50

Day 45 of BCT

Today started with PT. It was muscle strengthening day. We did pushup/situp drills. I really pushed myself. I did 11 pushups on my toes! Hopefully, I'll be able to do it on Saturday!

We then had a Hot-A and changed for the range. My DS noticed I wasn't eating much-I rarely do-and wanted to know what was wrong. I explained that the Hot-A's make me nauseous, but he threatened if I don't eat enough he would watch me every meal to ensure I eat everything. No worries, I'm getting plenty to eat. I just don't stuff my face like most soldiers here, and the stress keeps my apetite at a minimum. The good part of that is that I am rarely hungry, while everyone else thinks they're starving all of the time.

Today we are headed to Renagan. This is the grenade course. Today we will complete the qualification range, and tomorrow we throw live grenades. The qualification course has us throwing from a standing, kneeling, and prone positions. The targets are anywhere from 10-35 meters away. Of course, most of the day was spent in concurrent training and waiting in line to go. On my acutual turn I did horrible. I did everything correct, except I couldn't throw far enough. I knew I should have played sports as a kid.... I kinda freaked out at the end, worried that I couldn't graduate without qualifying on this, but then the DS's assured us it only meant we wouldn't get a grenade badge.

We had lunch and then more concurrent training. We thought we were almost done for the day, but since the Battalion Commander showed up, they decided to make us no-go's go through the course again. I ended up as a battle buddy for someone talking to the chaplain, so I was one of the last ones to go through the course again and they were rushing us. Somehow in the rush, my weapon got switched with someone else's, but I discovered it in time to fix it before leaving the range. I still did horrible at throwing, so going twice was not fun!

After returning to the company, they let us have personal time until chow. DFAC tonight! I even managed to get some peanut-butter and jelly. Yum! After chow was mail call, personal time, HF, and sleep! Fireguard from 0100-0200.