Crow Goes to Summer Camp

[Versus]

nice story (cool story bro)

[A. Crow]

Well, summer camp is over tomorrow, then the real fun starts.  I'm chilling around the base for family day, paying $0.15 a minute for internet at the arcade  

I have played with a fuckton of weapons.  My M16A2 was named Sally.  Sally was a good rifle, only malfunctioning once, however this was during my rifle qualification, causing me to miss expert by 2.  I didn't think I could function for so long on 3-5 hours of sleep a night.  BCT hasn't been so tough that I'd say it was a real challenging experience, but it has definitely not been easy.  But, I have my beret, done my 9 weeks, and am moving on to something (hopefully) more fulfilling.  Now, I think I'm going to crawl under a rock and sleep for a couple hours while no one is checking up.  It might be awhile before I'm back online, but I am alive, well, and trained to kill you, now.  I'll flesh things out if I get free internetz. 

P.S. Turkies explode when hit by a .50 cal round.  No.  I am not shitting you.

[CaffeinePowered]

Good to see you again crow  :-*

[Riosan]

HI CROW I MISSED YOU

[A. Crow]

ok, this isn't buggering 0.15 a minute internet, because I still have $2.30 balance.  Guess I'll stick around.

I was a member of the first company graduated by a newly stode up battalion, manned entirely by reservists.  It was pretty experimental.  So, there were some rough edges, but in general the rest of the post is impressed with our performance.  This company has the potential to graduated some high speed sons of bitches, especially with the Commander's tendancy to drag ruck marches out, at the hardest BCTpost for ruck marches.  I can backpack like none of you bastards can now.  I did a 15k in full battle rattle as RTO (that radio fucking sucked, way too many extra batteries were packed) through the forest (no trails) and carried a 240B for a good hour and at the end was a fucking ambush.  The army is doing this thing called "weapons immersion" now.  I got my M16A2 on day 2 and turned it in yesterday, and ate/slept with it.  A damn popup just told me I have 2 minutes left.  Damn, guess I won't be fleshing this out.

[Versus]

awesome :O

good luck :-*

[A. Crow]

bleh, I've spent $400 on crap that's on the packing list and still didn't get everything, and I'm going to have to pay for internet in the barracks.  They give you a hundred dollars and take back ninety-nine.  We started getting our first briefings today and will spend most of the week classing up.  I'm either going to really enjoy myself here or get sent home very early. 

[rumsfald]

Yes, in BCT they pay your way, but as an officer you are expected to front many of your own expenses, like uniform, etc.

That said, the worst part is mostly over. Mostly. You should be in well enough shape to handle the physical demands of OCS, now it's just the mental part. Here, let me reminisce and inspire you with an old war story.

At the beginning of officer training, they told us we had to drill. March in columns, in cadence, have precise footwork in turns, etc. Everywhere. From your room to revellie to mess to class to lunch back to class to retreat to take a shit whatever.  I am uncoordinated, and insubordinate by nature, thus I hated to drill. So I was half paying attention to holum heft, forward harch, and all that crap.

The last week, they announced we had a drill competition. It was on a small square piece of asphalt in the middle of a field - the asphalt was like the size of a squared off halfcourt. It wasn't very large for a full unit of 24 troops in 2 columns (unit size in training) to march about very easily, as with 5 full steps you were at the edge and needed to turn.

Now, for those who are not familiar, each parade drill is lead by a drill leader (title varies by service), the dude who hangs out usually to the left of the formation and calls the orders. For this competition, the drill leader was to be called from a hat. I sweated at first, but then I realized I had a 1/24 chance of being called on and then relaxed thinking one of the more gung-ho members of my unit would be selected. Wrong, it was me.

So, not only was I faced with being the drill leader and calling out directions, steering, the formation, but we were to go 1 on 1 on the asphalt patch. That is, there would be another unit on the asphalt drilling at the same time. Oh, did I mention, the drill instructions were secret, they were given to me on a slip of paper. I could not tell the unit, and I had to execute the commands in-order (such as turn left, forward, halt, turn right, present harms, etc). You were given like 2 or 3 free commands to break the order in case you drove the formation onto the edge of the asphalt and needed to order a 180, but if you did more than that, you lost points. Stepped off the ashpalt, lost points. Ran into the other formation, lost points.

As most of you might imagine at this point, I was sweating bullets nervous. I didn't think I new all the right verbal instructions, I hated marching, I was sure I was going to let my unit down and be hazed to hell as a result. But fortunately, I found inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. As some might have guesses, the setup was not unlike a Tron lightcycle race. Two long lines, each only able to make 45-degree or 90-degree turns, each vying for control of a small patch of earth. Now, I can't say that I purposely ran the other unit into the grass, but I was aggressive in maintaining positional advantage for my unit. Though I can scarcely remember how, we won the round, and the full tournament (there were like 14-15 other units total in my class). I've got a stamp on my training certificate to prove it.

Hope that cheered you up, Crow. Best of luck.

[Versus]

Niiiiice.

[A. Crow]

Rummy, that sounds like old OCS, where they still wore the helmets.   

[A. Crow]

Oh snap.  It's drinking time.

[Professor Funbucks]

R&R

[Versus]

nd.

[rumsfald]

Congrats, butterboy. Don't forget to keep your coin with you.

[HeK]

Hey! Congrats!