September 19, 2007

As you know, this morning was the PT test. I THINK I passed, but I don't know for sure yet because they didn't tell us how many situps we did. I know for sure I passed pushups and the two mile run. I will update this letter later tonight when I know for sure. For pushups, I had to do thirty to pass and I did 33. For the two mile run, all I can say is wow. You know that verse that says God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think? Well, this was a perfect example. I prayed and asked Him to help me me on the test. If you recall, on Saturday I ran the two miles in 17:09. Today, the whole time I was running I was thinking, "See Bekah on family day. See Bekah on family day." To pass I needed a 17:54. Today I ran it in 16:10. I don't know how, so it had to be the Lord helping me. Now if I can just find out how many situps I did.

After the PT test, we had breakfast and then caught transportation to Patton range where we learned how to load and fire the M2 .50 caliber machine gun. Then we got to fire it and oh man. That thing is something else. The bullets are roughly as big around as my thumb, and as long as my hand. The guns max effective range is over a mile and you can feel the power when you fire it. We each got to fire about 40 rounds through it. It was quite fun.

After that, it was just trans back to the company area. Now we are sitting in the barracks waiting for Drill Sergeant Smithling to tell us what to do or for chow, whichever comes first.

Well, it's now the evening of 20 Sept 2007. Last night got a little crazy and today was nuts too. The day started with PT and it was crazy. There are a couple of new drill sergeants here and we had one of them. We did over a hundred pushups and situps. Fun, huh? After PT was breakfast, followed by an inspection by the battalion commander (Lieutenant Colonel Lightner) and the battalion sergeant major (Command Sergeant Major Heurta). The company as a whole failed the inspection. My platoon and fourth platoon were okay, but first and third had dirty, rusty rifles and a lot of them didn't have water in their canteens like they were supposed to.

The PT scores are finally in. I PASSED! I PASSED! I PASSED! Fifteen people in my platoon failed and will have to retake it. Some of them missed passing by only one pushup or situp, which is a real bummer.

Tomorrow is Convoy Live Fire Exercise, so that should be interesting. It involves eight of us at a time riding in the back of a truck firing at targets. It's the last required training event other than the third FTX.

PFC Sam Jones