The Real Obstacle Course - Day 14

Post date: Nov 18, 2011 12:28:38 AM

Me climbing the rope - the 1st obstacle on the obstacle course.

(Original Date: Thursday, April 29, 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.

This morning at formation DS Midget came up to me and asked if I shaved this morning. I said yes drill sergeant, I shave every morning. I think because he is so small he must be getting a different perspective than all the other DSs. He then started to march us and because his steps are so small, it was a little difficult to keep up with his quick left, left, left.

So the last time I wrote about the obstacle course I was mistaken. The we course we did earlier is called “The Confidence Course”. Today we went to the “real” obstacle course. It’s setup with about 8 lanes for people to use. You start off crawling through sand, running a short distance, climbing a rope, going over monkey bars, balancing over a log, and then getting over some small walls. Then the fun began. We hat to low crawl for about 30 meters, crab walk for about the same,then sprint to the finish line. Everyone had to go through the course once and then each platoon picked their best 8 people to go for time. I was able to complete each of the obstacle. I’ll tell you that my arms were burning! We have some pretty athletic people in our platoon. We even have a guy who had a scholarship for football at University of North Carolina. Our platoon ended up beating all the others. The closest to us was over a minute behind. This was a big event to win because it’s part of “The Raider-Challenge”. Whichever platoon scores the most points will get more time with their family on family day.

After we finished they took us all to a pipe that was 8 feet off the ground with water pouring out of it. We all got in line and rinsed off all the sand that was caked all over us. We came back and took quick showers and then ate lunch. Speaking of food, I’m a very luck guy, In formation the way we line up for chow, I am always in the front of the line. Since I’m first in line I get a little more time to each. The food is good, we are just always rushed for time. Later on we had a class on team movement (squad formation and such) then we went out and practiced the movements and formations.

We came back up to find portions of the bay tossed. Our DS was showing the new DS (DS Midget) how and what to look for when tossing a bay. None of my stuff was tossed. I made sure to lock my locker and I take a long time to make my bed when we get new sheets. Once it’s made, I sleep on top of it in my winter PTs and a blanket that they issued us for camping. That way when I get up, I can put away the blanket and just straighten up the bed. Someone left their toothpaste in the latrine so the DSs squeezed out all of it over all the sinks.

We had to clean up our bay and later on clean up the company common area. This includes picking up leaves again one by one. I think we’re going to be leaf picker upper experts by the end of basic. LOL.

We have mail call again today. I think everyone in the platoon got letters except for me. I thought for sure I would have something by now. I was so looking forward to some contact from home. That may be the hardest thing about basic training - being totally cut off from the outside world. I was talking with a few people yesterday and everyone is suffering from the lack of contact with friends and family. Some have even thought about quitting. Having everything taken away from you really makes you appreciate all the little things you take for granted. (Giving someone a call or sending an email…deciding you want pizza and ice cream and wanting to take your time eating it. LOL) Seriously, I think only people who have been to basic or prison may truly understand this.

I have stupid CQ duty tonight from 1 to 2 am totally sucks!!! I want to sleep through the night for once! Our platoon has fireguard, laundry guard and CQ duty tonight, so there will be 5 people up each hour and everyone in the platoon will be doing something tonight. Nobody is happy.

Random DS Quote: “Some people should not breed” ( a DS was observing Pvt. Home School on the obstacle course)

Overheard Quote: “It’s only gay if you’re touching” (said while we were getting rinsed off two at a time after the obstacle course.

A photo showing the lanes at beginning of the obstacle course

A clip from the basic training dvd I ordered. It shows most of the obstacles on the course and it has people from our entire company going through the course. Some are a little less coordinated than others.

Anonymous

Love all the random DS quotes LOL

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 10:59 AM

Brandon

Yes...the drill sergeants come up with the craziest sayings. It was pretty funny listening to all of them. I wish I could have recorded all of them because I was only able to post about 1% of the funny crap they say.

Monday, August 16, 2010 - 08:17 PM