3/1/07

Dear everyone,

It’s Thursday in Fort Benning. It has now been one week since the shark attack (the first day of Red Phase), and life is well adjusted. I’m even mostly healthy. I’m still coughing like crazy (Drill Sergeant M heard me and said it sounded like SARS) and I had to drain blood and snot into a Kleenex for an hour today, but I’m healthy. I had the added pleasure of watching a new platoon get attacked as they arrived this afternoon. Even though we’re both groups of recruits and I should think of these new guys with sympathy, I found myself maliciously wishing the Drill Sergeants would lay it on extra thick for them. Maybe I just wanted to be sure that they were as scared and miserable as I was on the first day. I wasn’t disappointed.

I know I’ve lost weight. We don’t have access to scales, but I can tell. Maybe five pounds this week. Not surprising, given the work we’ve been doing. We wake up at about 0445 and stand in formation in our PT uniforms, brushed and shaved, at 0515. We then proceed to march to the Sand Hill, a gigantic pit of sand maybe a little larger than a football field with track. We then begin our morning PT. Arms, legs, abs, followed by a group run. Nothing too extreme (for most of us). For the rest of the day we train on drills, classes, marching, or field exercises. We’ve moved through two obstacle course: the Confidence Course, which involves single and group climbs of high objects and was a lot of fun, and a Race Course, where groups raced to climb ropes, crawl under wire, etc. Both were loads of fun even while sick. I performed decently but without distinction in both. I didn’t fail at anything but I did move a little slowly.

Our weapons are still only props. We won’t begin firing them for another couple of weeks. But we’re learning them pretty well and growing familiar with our drill instructions. We’re starting to look like soldiers.

Well, some of us. We have a few duds in the platoon. One poor man can’t do a single push-up. Not one. No one knows how his recruiters let him get this far. It was a major mistake, and this man’s life is subsequently hellish.

Every Drill Sergeant in the company has targeted him. I don’t think they let him sleep anymore. Everything he does, he does wrong. He’s cursed. And at the rate they’re tearing him down, I think he’ll completely snap by the end fo next week. I don’t think he’ll be able to hack it.

And a few more of our enlisted recruits need some serious help. One is seriously overweight but completely dedicated to soldering, and this man has become an inspiration to the others. He’s a jolly, middle-aged Guamanian, and despite his size he’s always ready to volunteer for extra duty or physical labor. The Drill Sergeants all started by mocking him ruthlessly, but after about two days it all stopped. They’ve seen his character. Overweight or not, the man will make an outstanding soldier.

Others are not so good. Some have no rhythm and can’t march. Some have no coordination and can’t weapons drill. Some can’t climb ropes and some can’t run. All are enlisted recruits, except for one OCS recruit dud: this guy just can’t seem to get it right. His feet are everywhere but where they should be. He never catches a trick order (where they order you to do something you shouldn’t just to see if you do). It’s like he just zones out and follows the line like a zombie. I don’t know enough about him to judge him, but given what I do know, I’d be hesitant to put him in charge of a platoon in combat. It’s like his brain just shuts down.

I have to go for now. We have hand-to-hand combat training tomorrow, and that should be fun. But now I have to practice stripping my weapon. I’ll write soon.

-Jeremy