Eagle Tower... Again - Day 54

Post date: Nov 19, 2011 11:19:50 AM

(Original Date: Tuesday, June 8, 2010)

These entries are from the remaining letters that Brandon has mailed to me - the next several days up until Day 62 are letters that didn’t make it to me before I left to Georgia. His writing at times can be a bit difficult to determine his words... bare with me, I do my best, especially with army terms.

We were told that we would be running an ARG this morning. When we got down to formation there were 26 people in sick call. Our platoon had 4, which was the least, but holy cow! We ended up just doing 60/120 around the track (sprint for 60 seconds, walk/jog for 120 seconds.)

Some updates on people: We still have three that have not passed the PT test. The ones I was wondering about – Pvt. Diesel & Pvt. Spiderman because of their extended sick call still passed. Pvt. AA (his initials – he doesn’t have a drinking problem… that I know of) left this morning because of his mono. He will be gone for 30 days to recover. He will still get paid, but he will not graduate with us. He will have to come back and join the other platoon in progress. Pvt. One Way has improved dramatically and no more negative counseling statements have been given to him.

We have had no pinke eye or fever out breaks. The DS with the motorcycle accident has been back for a while and only walks with a slight limp and… Pvt. Home School still has not passed the PT test.

We went to the Eagle Tower again today to make-up from the time we were cut short way back in red phase. So I finally got to repel down. The rope harness we used was pretty uncomfortable, but the experience was pretty fun. I just didn’t look down. LOL. We also had to cross a rope bridge with two ropes (one for our hands the other for our feet), then a bigger single rope we had to slide across, then across another rope bridge (V-shaped, 2 ropes for your hands & one for your feet) and finally down a big cargo net.

After everyone was finished we had a little ceremony. Evidently we phased into “red, white & blue phase”. Not sure exactly if this will have any extra benefits. The Commander said it’s because we have finished all the major events of basic training.

When we got back 5 people from our platoon were asked to hear about being rangers. They chose people basted on their PT scores and part of their ASVAB scores. Pvt. Cock was one of those and he decided to go ahead and do it. (I’m way too old and my PT scores needs to be a little higher, but I wouldn’t want to do that anyways.)

The rest of the day included cleaning machine guns…again and cleaning our stuff we’ll be turning back in. I’ve been able to throw almost everything in the washer yesterday, so today was just double checking everything. We also were able to start cleaning our helmets since today was the last time we’ll be using them. With all the sweating we’ve done in them the pads in them were starting to smell pretty bad.

Our cool DS played some music for a lot of the evening, which was nice. He then let us have a surprise 15-minute phone call, which was awesome! Before he left he brought down the projector screen and showed us some of the pics that have been posted on FT. Benning Facebook page. He also showed us how to access some important information using our AKO (Army Knowledge Online) account online.

Our ex-cop has started to make everyone a little nervous. Every time he takes a shower he faces everyone and stays that way for the entire time. Everyone else had their back toward everyone else. It’s starting to creep everyone out! LOL!

Random DS Quote: “You won’t be able to stand up, you don’t even wear underwear under those PT shorts” (our cool DS in the DFAC. The TV was on and he had to turn it off because some entertainment show was showing Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johansson kissing… We are not allowed to look at the TV anyways, if one is caught they are usually forced to leave immediately no matter how much they eaten)

A couple of clips from the DVD I purchased from basic. (The footage is actually from the first time we went to Eagle Tower, but that page in this journal had a bunch of photos on it...so I decided to put the movie clips on this page)

This shows us getting fitted for our harness and then going on the practice wall before we went on the big one...Eagle Tower

This video shows everyone going down Eagle Tower. It may not look that high in the video, but when you’re up there and they ask you to go over the edge...it seems pretty high!