3/3/07

I just noticed how fitting it is that I’m in Basic during the month of “March.” We do plenty of it. And life is good, except for whatever reason, the mail isn’t working. Nobody has received any letters. There are 49 of us, and many of us are married with children, so we know it isn’t a problem back home. No, it’s here. We don’t know what it is, but it’s starting to have a negative effect on platoon morale. First, it’s a federal offense to withhold mail. So we know it isn’t our Drill Sergeants. Second, this is our only form of communications with our loved ones. So we’re starting to get angry.

Long story short, I apologize for not responding to any mail. We have yet to receive it. If we haven’t by Monday, there may very well be a revolt. We’ll take just about any abuse, but damn it, we do want our mail.

The Bravo Company Combative Tournament went well. We each wrestled someone from our own platoon and then sent one representative forward in each of the four weight classes. I won my round but not by enough to receive the nomination for heavyweight, which was probably for the best. Watching the platoon heavyweights go at it was a bit like watching tanks maneuver. Slow tanks. And the little scrappy ones were a blast: they moved very quickly and with insane agility. Not much power behind them, but man could they move.

There are only three platoons in our company, strangely named 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th. I’m 3^rd Platoon. We lost today, but at least we weren’t stomped; we won 1 our of 4 of the championships, 2^nd Platoon won the other 3 out of 4, and 4^th Platoon is still doing push-ups. 2^nd Platoon also won the Obstacle Course race. We’re thinking about busting some kneecaps to level the playing field.

I have to go and clean the bay before lights out. I’ll write soon. And with any luck, we’ll be receiving mail by then.

Good Luck,

Jeremy