Boot Camp - End of First Week

It’s now Sunday, April 3, so my first full week of actual basic is over! It’s been a hard week, but definitely good. We got on the bus Monday to go over from reception to basic and the second we got off the bus they rushed us over into formation. After a week sitting in reception it was pretty overwhelming all of a sudden being surrounded by screaming drill sergeants, but it wasn’t too bad – but then we got our first smoking, right off the bus. We had our big duffle bags with all the stuff they issued us at reception, that weighted at least 50 pounds each, if not quite a bit more. We all had to get them up over our heads and hold them there, no joke, for the next 30-40 minutes. Without a break. Of course that is impossible, so it was a fun time. The drill sergeants really had their fun with us. Especially with their whole “shark attack” thing, when 4 or 5 drill sgts or more surround you, all yelling at you right in your face all at the same time. A lot of people really had a tough time with that first day. Since then it hasn’t been bad. I mean it’s been super tough physically, we’re always getting smoked, but it hasn’t been too bad. In between smoke sessions we’ve just been going to all sorts of long pointless briefings on like STD’s and suicide and stuff like that. Our training actually really started Friday, when we did our first series of “confidence courses”, or obstacle courses. That was fun. We were divided into teams and at the beginning we were the best out there, until later on a couple of guys started trying to be heroes and destroyed oru communication and teamwork, so after nailing the first 4, we failed the last 2 courses. Yesterday was rough, because of some idiots in 1st platoon (I’m in 2nd) the whole company got pulled out of bed and smoked then we had ot sit there while the drill sergeant lectured us for like 2 hours. Between that and pulling fireguard, I only got about 3 hours of sleep. Then because of some other dumb people we spend all yesterday morning getting smoked. Then after lunch we were issued our M16s then of course everyone was stupid and we got smoked hard again, though now a whole new set of ? was available to the drill sgts now that we have our weapons… I hope (though I doubt it) that people start figuring things out soon, because there isn’t a single part of my body that doesn’t hurt. A lot. I really am enjoying it, though. This week we’ll jump fully into our training. Tomorrow will be our first ruck march and the gas chamber (I can’t wait!) an then the rest of the week will be combat lifesaver training (like medic stuff). It should be a good week. As rough as things have been we do have a good platoon, I’m optimistic for the next 9 weeks. I love you all so much!