3/12/2007

Dear All,

More wild and crazy times in Fort Benning! Most notably, we received mail today. The company is especially slow in getting it to us, so today I received mail dated form March 2-6. It was fantastic. Many thanks to my sister-in-law Alicia for her care and support and a big thank you to Peter and Ellie, my nephew and niece, for their cards. We have some budding artists among us. Mark Knight’s letters were a blast…except that one of them had giant, cute puppy-dog face stamps on it. The Drill Sergeant couldn’t not notice, and I had to knock out a few extra push-ups for receiving a “cute” letter from a man. Thanks, buddy. Thanks. But the letters were great. Another thanks to my Mom, ever concerned for her sons, and as always a thank you to Hope for maintaining the Blog as often as she does.

Looks like we’ll only receive mail once a week, but that’s growing on me. Because today was like Christmas all over again. Morale could not be higher post mail call. Whenever it gets rough over here, I just remind myself that I’m not doing this alone. The support really does help. While I’m on the point, though, Mark: don’t you even think about sending me cookies. The Drill Srgeants will do horrible things to me, which I in turn will one day do to you. Some day soon.

We started the day with an “Ability-group” run. Early on we were broken into 4 groups, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, based on our running speeds. I’m in Bravo group, the second fastest. The run wasn’t’ bad at all this morning, despite the hacking effects of my residual sinus illness, and I felt pretty good afterwards. So did a few of the other guys. Enough that DS “S” decided we should move up to Alpha…which scares me. These guys haul and high speed.

Lewis and I both got “promoted,” and we share the same concern: we’re better than Bravo, but Alpha might just tear us up. But I guess it’s the only way to really improve.

After breakfast we put on our uniforms, helmet, body armor, light basic equipment, and pulled out the rifles. We then had bayonet training in Sand Hill for a number of hours. In the sun. In body armor. We were dying out there. But we kept going. Bayonet training, though perhaps a bit antiquated, is still required for soldiers in training. The possibility of bayonet combat still exists. This remote possibility, plus the aggression and “motivation” that the training imbues, means that we all still spend time fixing bayonets and giving a smashing-good thrust to those Johnny Rebs.

Point One: A combat knife fixed to an M16A2 just looks ridiculous. The weapon is too short to serve as a spear. The reach is too short to be effective. And the image of a modern assault rifle equipped with a knife just strikes me as absurd. Seriously, I have 30 bullets per magazine. If you aren’t dead yet, I sincerely don’t think the knife will finish you off.

Point two: our “motivation” today was a little peculiar.
We swing the weapons like berserkers and scream “KILL!” at each other with every stab. Every now and then the Senior DS shouts out, “What makes the grass grow green?” And we all scream back, “Blood! Blood! Bright red blood!” Truth be told, I found it a little disturbing. These are not healthy things to scream out at people. But I guess it’s the Army way. And at least I got to hear my favorite quote of the day during instruction: “ Soldiers, in this world there are predators and there are prey. And right now some of you all look like little fluffy bunnies.”

Point three: there is no such thing as a respectable “war face.” Any of us screaming like hell pawn and swinging around a bayonet think we look intimidating, but really we look downright silly. Especially in BCGs. Viking warriors we are not.

And that was bayonet training for today. Tomorrow we do the bayonet assault course and then fight each other with Pugil sticks. Thee are sticks with colored pads to simulate the bayonet and butt of the rifle. We pad up and go at each other. Grudge matches are fostered by the DSs. They want us to challenge the guys in our platoon that we don’t get along with. I’m looking forward to beating the holy snot out of this guy who keeps talking in formation. He’s MINE tomorrow.

To end the day, Bravo Company held our change of command ceremony for our new Captain. This meant standing in formation before a Colonel, a Lt. Colonel, and bunch of civilians in the sun for another hour. I was practically a heat casualty by the end of the day. Between the bayonet training and the ceremony, we got totally wiped out. Thank heavens we had it light this evening. And from what we hear, we’ll be leaving Red Phase on schedule. Our platoon is doing relatively well.

Quidachay and I have taken to singing Disney songs during our night latrine cleaning details. It’s pretty surreal. The two of us just spontaneously break into song while scrubbing urinals. “I can show the world…” we harmonize, “shining, shimmering, splendor…” The younger guys in the platoon all think it’s the highest travesty. It does not fit into their high-speed image of the Army at all. The older guys join in whenever they know the lyrics. I can’t explain the appeal. Maybe it’s just a way to compensate for our training to be “ruthless killers.” Singing Aladdin in the same day that I declared I was here to “kill, kill, kill with cold, blue steel” strikes me as pretty…different.

Anyways, it’s lights out. I’ll write when possible, and I should have time tomorrow. Once again, thank you all for your support. I’ll write soon.

-Jeremy