The Next Chapter

Friday February 8, 2013- Today we went to the EST virtual shooting simulator again. I like to call it the Duck Hunt Chamber. It really is like a life sized video game except with real M-16s as air rifle controllers for it. I did well on the BRM qualifying test simulator. My score put me in the sharpshooter category! The rest of the day was pretty boring though. There was some news about people washing out though.

The first wave, including PVT Quitter, got sent home a few days ago. There area few reasons that people get sent home. One is injuries, which if legitimate, are perfectly understandable. The other is the Non-Trainers. These are people like PVT Quitter who gave up once things got too hard. Our platoon has about eight non-trainers and personally, I can't wait for them to leave. They suck away all the platoon's morale and all they do is slow us down and complain about the Army. Today, four more privates got called in to speak with our battalion commander, the Lt. Col., who informed them that they were being chaptered out. This is the end of their military careers. One of them was PVT Boricua, my Puerto Rican buddy, who just lost all motivation and desire to be here about a week ago upon receiving news of his grandfather's death. The other was a private who was a really nice guy and had told me that he looked up to me. This guy's big problem is that he can't get anything right. Whether it be a horribly lumpy and messy bunk, a shirt untucked, not being in the right place at the right time, being late everywhere, or being socially awkward, this guy could just not conform to the Army's way of doing things. It's too bad, 'cause he's a good kid with good manners and a good heart.

We also had a guy who got caught with his iPod on him and failed his PT test that got chaptered out. Most of the chapters are due to people failing their PT tests, so I was a little nervous because I found out recently that I failed the PT test also. I was a couple sit ups shy, about ten push ups short (because I forgot you can't drop a knee to the ground when you get tired) but amazingly, I passed the run which was my biggest  concern going into it. Today we had another AGR (Ability Group Run) and I actually improved a bit, finishing about two thirds of the way through the C group formation, instead of being one of the last few people. I've been doing like 200 push ups and sit ups a day. I crank out 25 of both before every meal and lately, every time we're not busy, me and a couple other guys will try to do 60 or mo in an hour's time every hour. Today it felt like I did 300 after that run! Lol.

I feel myself getting slowly stronger, just a little more every day. And two people in the last three days told me I look skinnier in the face since Reception! I'd wager to say I've lost 8 to 10 pounds but it could be more. I'm glad to be getting healthier, but right now, I could give my big toe for an Oreo! Lol.

We also recently got student leadership privileges, which consists of a Platoon Guide, Assistant Platoon Guide and Squad Leaders and Team Leaders. I'm pretty sure I would have been considered for the P.G. position if I hadn't failed my PT test as one of the qualifications is a passing score. These kids have so much to learn about discipline. DS Amazon came out to our formation a couple days ago and appointed the youngest female in our platoon as the Asst Platoon Guide which I found funny but she is actually pretty sharp. Then she appointed PVT Tactics to be our Platoon Guide. I'm glad she chose him as I feel he has the potential to do a great job. Or, he could get fired tomorrow for all I know. Lol. I think I would do a good job of leading them and inspiring them to be better. But hey, maybe I'll be made a Team Leader which is just a step below squad leader with four soldiers underneath the team leader. We'll see. A bunch of guys already ask me how to do stuff already anyways.