January 9, 2005

"We have been back from our "camp out" for a day now and we finally have some personal time. I have a lot of chores to do but I am finding some time to write this letter. We started basic rifle marksmanship this week and finished total control. I have really looked forward to this. Everything picks up in pace and most of our training will be in the field. We march to our field training with 40 lb rucksacks and often we'll stay overnight. I really enjoy it. Our most recent field training was to learn land navigation. The courses we navigated were through all kinds of terrain. We were given a map, compass and list of points to navigate to by the distance. The first course of 5 points walked us through about a mile and a half of woods, heavy brush, swamps and then stream crossings. We walked to more courses then waited and walked a night time land nav course. You can be proud of me, we correctly found all 10 of our points. We had to work in 3 man teams, I took lead to make sure we found all of the points. The rest of the training we set up camp and learned camp security practices and checkpoint security. We had to set up camp to make secure perimeter for the company. We dug small fox holes to lay in as buddy teams, then rolled out our sleeping bags. It was just like camping w/out the tent. Although we had to rotate through guard duty, keeping 6 people awake all night for security, I slept well. You have to sleep w/ your gear right at your feet and your weapon in your sleeping bad. The DS tried to take my weapon while I was sleeping but I woke up and held tight. They try to keep you on your toes and make all exercises realistic. Next week, we are doing rifles and keeping all equipotent with us for another couple nights in the field. Love it, but after all the marching and being in the field, we are some smelly soldiers. I am really looking forward to this week. We start with the rifles and qualify on Saturday. I am a little nervous but I think I will do well. We shot on simulators yesterday at 300 meter targets. I shot 7/9 without my glasses so I think I will do well. Hopefully we will get to call soon.
-Dale"

January 11, 2005

"I am standing on the firing range right now writing this letter. Today is our fourth day on the range. I am shooting pretty well so far, but having some trouble with 300M targets. The silhouette is about an inch tall at that distance. It is about equivalent to 3 1/2 football fields. I generally hit that target abut 40% of the time. I am having a real good time at the range and passing all of my prequal. Testing. I think I will probably qualify sharpshooter. This (is) definitely the most fun we have had. We also have started to ruckmarch a lot to prepare for the 5 & 9 milers. The pack right now weighs about 4o pounds & our flack jacket, helmet & weapon weigh another 14 lbs. It really wears me out but we have a good time. Our most recent bad experience was inspection of the bay & wall lockers. All of the drill sgts came to the bay and started checking lockers & removing ceiling tiles looking for contraband. A couple of the guys left their lockers unsecured and the drill sgts started to have fun. They dumped everything from the lockers and threw it all over the floor. Clothes were everywhere, shampoo & foot powder were spilt all over the floor. The worst part was that one of the lockers that was unlocked had a cell phone. He got yelled at and we were yelled at because we "supposedly knew" he had the cell phone. Most people didn't know. We got smoked later that night for disappointing the DS's and not having enough integrity to tell. I had no idea he had the phone, but I paid dearly for it. We ran 1 1/2 miles in full gear. (helmet, flack jacket, BDU's & combat boots) Then we came and changed into our PT clothes and were smoked for an hour by two different drill sergeants. We were exhausted but the platoon stayed strong and united."

January 14, 2005

"Today, we had bayonet training. It was real fun. We started by fixing bayonets to our rifles and then learned combat maneuvers using the bayonet. Imagine 140 men in BDU's with rifles and bayonets practicing stab and slash moves on a field; ... They love to say, "no matter what your job is, you are infantry first." So after lots of dry runs we got to practice our moves on each other with pugil sticks. They look like big Q-tips but are firm pads. So we padded up and beat the hell out of each other for a couple of hours. Face off was against 1 other person about your size. The first to 3 pts wins and only legitimate bayonet moves scored points. All other moves were just for pain. I can proudly say, I won my match but I did get my bell rung. It was a lot of fun. After our platoon fought, we had a company competition with a few winners from each group. Well those are my stories for now. We are back in total control for now b/c of the cell phone. It's not really a big deal but hopefully we will get out soon.
(yada-yada-mushy love stuff)
-Dale"

posted by Shalene Wyrick