4/11/2007 Wednesday

Dear All,

I’m now on my third day as 3^rd Squad leader. There are 49 men in the platoon now that we’ve picked up a man injured at this point in training form another company. There 49 are broken into four squads. 3^rd Squad is the odd one with 13 soldiers, and until Monday, Mard was the Squad Leader. Had been for weeks. He’s just a squared-away guy, so there had been no problems. But he didn’t hear an order while marching and did not react to it, so he lost his job shortly thereafter. I just happened to be standing next in line, so DS “A” tapped me as Squad Leader.

Mostly this just means that I ensure that my guys are all ready with the correct uniforms and equipment, lead them during tactical maneuvers. This last part is the big one for me. I love that stuff. It just seems to come naturally. Probably a product of all those computer games. I only hope I can keep the job until FTXIII (starts on Sunday!) so I can lead 3^rd Squad in the squad-on-squad tactical simulations.

Yesterday we did Eagle Tower, a 40-foot wooden tower that we climb up and rappel off of. Plus a bunch of rope bridges and climbs: crawling overhand over one rope, shimmying up with two topes, and a three-rope bridge. I rediscovered my fear of heights. And today we were training in urban operations, practicing four-men room clearing. This is training that people definitely use in Iraq. Approach the door stealthily in tactical formation, silently move the fourth man forward, and then kick down the door an let all hell loose. Every soldier has a path and a sector of fire. It is carefully orchestrated and endlessly practiced. And given the element of surprise, it is very effective.

Tomorrow we have our final APFT of BCT, the one that determines if we graduate. I’m definitely safe...but still a bit anxious, because I shooting for a 270 out of 300. that’ll get me a patch for physical fitness. And if I push, it’s in my range. It’ll also assure me that I won’t be held over for a mediocre PT score at OCS.

Platoon morale is mixed these days. We haven’t received mail in over a week and we have much fewer privileges than the other two platoons, but we’re still going strong. We’re united in our resentment about our status. Our DSs are around a lot less often these days. When we aren’t training, we rarely see them. I haven’t seen DS “S” in days and days. We’re starting to feel forgotten. But the days are still going by, and the end is nearing. So we just keep pushing. Our growing concern is that we might not receive any time off after graduation after all. As it stands, it seems we are to report to OCS immediately after graduation and will spend our “liberty” painting their building and mowing their lawns. We are also to sleep there. This, obviously, is not alright with us. Not at all. But it proves again that the Army owns us now, and owns us completely. They could order us to Iraq tomorrow and we would go. Once ye enter here, abandon your own plans.

This latest bad news is not yet verified, so I’m not calling anything off yet. It’s too abnormal and needlessly cruel to be true, we think. Many of use have already invested a lot of money to bring loved ones here, and while we expect to be inconvenienced by the needs of the service, our parents/wives/children/girlfriends should not be forced to spend hours in transit only to find out that we can’t see them. But hey, the speculation might be all wrong.

So we won’t stress abut that yet. We’re at 14 days remaining. Seems like no time. We’re on our way out of here. I’ll write tomorrow with the results of the APFT. But now I’m passing out.

-Jeremy