Eagle Tower - Day 6

Post date: Nov 17, 2011 3:38:32 AM

A pic of 2nd platoon going down Eagle Tower

(Original Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010)

These entries are from the letters that Brandon has mailed to me. His writing at times can be a bit difficult to determine his words... bare with me, I do my best, especially with army terms.

Today we all got dressed up and slung on our backpacks and vest for the march to Eagle Tower. It’s not too far away, perhaps a couple of miles or so. When we got there we ate breakfast and then the company broke into the four platoons. Two of the other platoons started repelling down Eagle Tower. My platoon went to another station to keep us busy. We learned how to load a magazine of bullets in our rifles and how to check for problems when the gun doesn't fire. We were given a magazine of blanks and some that were designed to jam the rifle. It was interesting for the first few times, but after an hour it gets boring. We then switched to practicing throwing a grenade. We used dummy grenades and threw them at a target. After that we switched to get ready to repel. We all got harnessed up and then practiced on a mini version of eagle tower. (It was only 10' tall…a midget Eagle Tower) When we finished, we headed over to Eagle Tower and waited in line. When I was about 10 people back all of sudden it started pouring down rain. They cancelled the rest of the event because of this. I didn't get to do it. We had to march back in the rain, then we all got to take showers that weren't timed (yahoo!) we just had enough time we needed to be back in formation.

The rest of the day was kind of strange, because the plan was for us to still be at Eagle Tower. The DSs gave us some informal classes on staff, we ate dinner outside in the courtyard because it was already set-up for us to eat at Eagle Tower.

The end of the night was our 3 DSs gathering everyone around and explaining why they joined the Army. Then they had each of us state why we joined. After that it was a Q & A session that lasted for a long time. It was interesting to hear their stories and have them act more like people instead of just yelling and swearing all the time.

Mail came tonight, everyone had to put on their protective eye gear and sit in a semi-circle around the DS. He would then read the name of who the letter was to. When the person would sound off, he would throw the letter in that general direction. Envelopes were flying everywhere. A few "lucky" ones even got hit right in the forehead. It was pretty funny. No mail for me yet. The rule is 5 push-ups for each letter & 15 push-ups for every heart on the letters. LOL. Even though I didn't get any mail, I still ended up doing push-ups. When getting our protective eyewear I forgot to put my dog tags (they have my locker key on them) back down my shirt.

Since I've been here the DSs have stated that basic training has changed a lot, and it is still changing every cycle. They said too many people were getting hurt because the generations coming into basic now are soft.… to many video games & TV. The DSs also can't touch anyone unless they ask permission first. They can't even call anyone names. But they can get their point across. Instead of saying "you're an idiot" it could be "you're acting like an idiot" with some more colorful language of course.

Random DS Quote: "How does 1st Platoon do everything?" response from the Platoon, "Sexy Drill Sergeant"