AIT Week 6

Day 40
Picked up our weapons from the armory today. Carrying an M16 all day is exhausting! My wrists were sore by the end of the day. School was more of the same. I spend most of the day in the break room. Looking forward to moving on from PBUSE!

Day 41
Had to get up early and be at school by 0530 to make up school we missed yesterday. Turns out we didn't have to be there. So we all ended up getting a bit of a nap before the instructors started to arrive. We had our last lesson in PBUSE. Easy peasy. Spent the day in the break room again. At evening chow the PS finally gave an about face command so that the tall people (like me!) got to be in the front of the chow line. Totally made the day. :-)

Day 42
It started snowing today. Enough that we got out of school for the afternoon. We took our final PBUSE test in the morning. I didn't quite get 100...98%. :-( We had to do barracks maintenance all afternoon but we did get personal time after dinner and an indoor bedcheck. Yay!

Day 43
Long day! Had bayguard from 0100-0300. Yuck. But got to sleep in until 0600. No PT and delayed start to school, even though the roads were fine. Today we started Weapons! Love, love, love our instructor! He's very cool. We spent the afternoon learning to disassemble and reassemble the M9 Beretta. Then he timed us. I was the fasted to reassemble in my class. Sweet! Things were crazy at the company with tons of mail and linen turn-in and a Major there to see active duty soldiers. Made for a noisy intercom, but at least I had mail from Matt. :-)

Day 44
4th Platoon graduates today. So ready for my turn! It was finally warm enough to have outdoor PT again. Had a company run. It was killer. My roommate (who is super short!) was up front and set pace. She said we did about 2 1/2 miles at a 7:30-8:00 min per mile pace. My knees were aching afterwards. I stayed with the group until the last 1/2 mile or so, but caught up by the time they were back to the PT field. School was fun. Learned the M249 SAW today. I did really well again with the timed disassemble/reassemble. The afternoon was laid back and we got out of school early. Had room and locker inspections to determine if we got our off-post civilian passes this weekend. Our room did good. :-) Had to find someone to take my bayguard shift tomorrow, but now I'm set to get off post with two battles for some good food and shopping!

Day 45
Typical Saturday morning. Had to clean all morning with a picky SGT. Lol. After lunch they finally released us to change for pass. After our civilian clothes were approved, we could sign out. We went to the PX first and ate lunch. Took some food back to people not on pass, and found out the bayguard shifts were changed and now I have it from 0300-0500. Yuck! We then got a taxi and headed off post to the mall. It's about the only place we are approved to go. Our freedom is pretty limited. I really missed Matt being off post and in civilians! We shopped until around 1830 and then went back. My battles wanted to go to the "club" on post that we're allowed to go to. I didn't want to, but since we all have to stay together I went. It was super loud and lots of dancing I don't do. No alcohol, of course. Not really my cup of tea, but it was fine. We stayed until 2100 before heading back to change for final formation.

Day 46
Daylight savings hit right as I had to start bayguard. So not cool. Thankfully I could sleep in! We left post around 1030 and went back to the mall. At lunch at BW3. Yum. We roamed the mall before heading back at 1500. It was a great day until we got back to the company. The cadre were not happy. They found the dayroom trashed. I guess those not on pass did not keep the trash taken out all weekend. :-( Changed clothes and went to chow and then a long evening of barracks maintenance until bedcheck. Not much time to talk to Matt. :-(