4/1/2007 Sunday

Dear All,

It’s finally April! 25 more days until graduation. Almost to blue phase. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it looks good. So it seems to be a good day. I had a nice, large breakfast with (yes, my Sunday treat) coffee. We gave the CTA a thorough cleaning and enjoyed a light lunch. Then we trained and studied for our mid-cycle testing with our battle buddy groups. And then we had dinner. Heck, it felt like a vacation today.

We only had some excitement towards the end for the evening when the fire alarm went off. Our company wisely remembered to grab our weapons as we dove outside, but one company next to us did not. Some push0ups were involved in their remedy. And we fulfilled our perverse pleasure in watching some other poor bastards get a taste of smoke for a while.

We’ve started doing that more often. We crane our necks when other ocmpan8ies are getting punished, eager to see. It validates our pain to see other people go through it. Proves we aren’t weaker. Actually, we almost want them to hurt worse. We’ll then “remember” our own experience with more pride. I can see why every generation claims that they had the “last days of hard basic before it got lazy.” Basic probably hasn’t changed that much in a century. The tech, yes. But not he pain. We probably just want to remember ourselves as stronger and even more hard-core, gung-ho than we were.

We almost got to see a group of new recruits come off the busses for the first time on Thursday. I swear, we were grinning like maniacal devils. We all wanted to see it so badly. To watch from a new perspective some of the seconds that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. To bad we had to move on; that would have been something to see.

Word is that the Iranians have captured some British personnel. We don’t get any news here, so we can only catch rumors and speculate. And speculation is running rampant. Would they tell us the moment we go to war, or would they wait until we get orders to board the planes? WE don’t know. But the guys in the Bay are reading up on the specs of Iranian armor and APCS. The subject of their terrain, military capacity, and history is always in discussion. This is what happens with too many OCS guys trapped in a room. Well, whatever happens, we’re ready for orders.

My night duty is almost over, so I’ll wrap up. It’s been a good day. The end of Basic—and whatever that may bring—is getting close. So except for the fact that he fire alarm lights are still flashing (as of 2256) and the fact that my bunk ajoins one such flashing light (oh joy), this has been a good Sunday.

Time to try and sleep without going into seizures now. But if I can nod off in a cold, chigger-infested fighting hold, I can definitely fall asleep to this. A few more weeks of training and we’ll learn to sleep through anything.

So goodnight. I’ll write soon.

-Jeremy