19MAR05

Sorry I haven't been able to write more often; there's very little time to do everything that needs to get done.  Today we switched rooms because the floor I was living on was co-ed and males and females were flirting, which isn't allowed at Basic Training.  After we switched bays, we re-did our lockers, and they gave us almost 3 hours of free time.  It's almost scary how nice it is to just be able to sit down.

We went to the gas chamber yesterday, and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  It wasn't fun by any means, but I certainly lived through it.  You start out by putting on your mask, then you go inside the chamber and see that your mask actually works.  They make you do neck rolls to show that your mask stays on even when doing normal activities.  Then they tell you to take the mask off.  At first I thought it wasn't that bad, then I started coughing and my eyes teared up.  The skin that was exposed started to burn.  They then made you scream that you were motivated before they let you out.  Once I got outside, I stumbled around a lot.  People who saw me said I looked silly with snot running down my face.  After a few minutes, it all went away.  Overall, not a pleasurable experience, but I was expecting worse.

A few days ago, we did a 3k road march, which doesn't seem like a lot until you realize that we had full ruck sacks on our backs - a considerable amount of weight.  At the end of the march, we did basic first aid training and had our first MRE's (meals ready to eat).  Those weren't too bad, though mine wasn't all that filling.  It did have skittles, which was nice because we're normally not allowed to have candy.

Other things we've done this past week have included the obstacle course, with obstacles including the rope swing, hurdles, monkey bars, rope bridges, cargo net climb, crawling under barbed wire, and I'm sure there's other obstacles I'm missing.  That was tons of fun, as we did it in teams, and the guys on my team were really cool.  We also did a team building course where you have to move your team across a course using less supplies than would be ideal, like having only 3 planks to cross something that takes 4 planks.  That was fun, too.

We did the Warrior Tower, which included a 40 foot repel, very cool, and the night navigation class was fun, even if our team made a mistake and had to retrace our steps.  We haven't done bayonet fighting yet, your schedule is a little off.  We have our first Field Training Exercise (FTX) or camping trip on Tuesday.  We'll have to sleep in pup tents and pull guard duty with blanks loaded in our M16's.  That should be fun.

The "smoking" or getting CAPEd (Corrective Action, Physical Exercise) isn't too bad.  They seem to know when I've reached my limit, then they stop.  The amount of CAPEing has gone down also, now it's longer sessions but fewer of them.  I'm definitely getting into shape.  I'm even starting to enjoy them.  I've only personally gotten CAPEd once, and that was because I left something in a classroom and had to ask a drill sergeant if I could retrieve it.  Otherwise, I've been keeping my head down.  We just had a barracks inspection, and I passed everything.  My bed was properly made, my wall locker was tidy and everything was put together the way they wanted it.

I still have to shine my boots, and lights out is coming up, so I'll have to wrap it up.  I really like the weather reports you send me, and the song lyrics are cool, too.  I'm starting to run out of stamps, and I won't be going back to the PX until at least week 5, so could you send me some?  I look forward to mail call every day, and if you could continue to include any current events in your letters, that'd be good too.

I miss you and love you both,

Way