Letters From Basic Training

Hey, all us guys are starting to get bored. ha ha

Everyone wanted to thank you for the news you send. People get excited now when a package comes for me. ha ha

We've been having pictures sent in so we can all laugh at each other. Look thru my boxes. One of the boxes has pictures in it. There's a few pictures I'm looking for. There's one with me in front of my airplane I flew in flight school and another one of me at work. They are both polaroids.

Also send a few pics of T and K. I should have a few of T and a few of me and K. Whatever other interesting pics I might have in there grab them too.

Being stuck in a room with a bunch of guys, you end up with nothing to talk about but our previous lives as civilians. The pictures just add a sense of reality. Send some pics of my old cars too. :)

Bah! I was one shot away from expert with the pistol. I guess sharpshooter will have to do. The only thing left to qualify on is the hand grenade. The basic training portion of our 16 weeks is coming to a close.

Have you managed to secure a motel for family day? Are there any sights worth seeing in Kentucky? Everyone is looking forward to family day. Anything to get away from Fort Knox Prison for a few days. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone, and a movie, and junk food.....Oh and a nice pint of dark Ale.

Get info on some bar and grills like Friday's. I'm gonna want a good beer and steak. I really wanted to see the movie "Blackhawk Down", but it may not be playing by then.

I feel better than ever, well some of the time. 12 lbs I've gained, whoot! I'm gonna be a tough guy soon. hehe!

Please keep sending news info!!!!

Ah! Nothing better than a Sunday. The one day we get some free time. I'm not doing a damn thng this Sunday. Most of the time I helped buff the floors and do some cleaning on Sunday. Today I decided to shine my boots and write a few letters and just chill out. All the lazy asses can do something today, I'm taking the day off. The halls are filled with the sound of angst ridden teens arguing over who and how things should be cleaned. Our room is quite nice and peaceful. A few of our bunk mates are at church, it's just me, Read, and Peterson in the room. There's eleven people in our room. I'm the lucky one for I have no bunk mate. I get to use the top bunk of my bed as a table and don't have to worry about a bunk mate tossing around at night keeping me awake.

It's a nasty day today, raining but not too cold out. After lunch we go to the bayonett course. Not sure if running up 5o meters of slippy muddy hillside with a rifle and knife is going to be too much fun. I have no clue why on earth we're doing this on a Sunday, but hell I don't make the schedule.

They stuck us out in the woods all day yesterday. Land navigation training. They should rename it to walking around for hours with 50 pounds of gear on. No one got lost, so I suppose we can "navigate" now.

They're telling us we might be able to use the phone today. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch someone at home. This coming week we will be learning more stuff about the tank. We also will be starting our shooting on the 9mm Berrata hand gun. Us tankers won't carry a rifle around so we have to learn to use the hand gun.

Remember to send pictures of whatever. Cats, family, it doesn't matter. News, especially stuff related to the "terrorists". It sucks not really knowing what's going on in the world. If anyone asks I'm doing fine, bored and a little sore. If anything I've learned in the Army that's how to be patient. We probably spend 50% of our time waiting in a line, or standing in formation.

Well I'm going to try a sneak a cat nap in now. Maybe I can get someone to keep guard for a drill seargent and actually take a good nap. haha!!

Ugh my legs are sore! We started doing morning PT now. We ran about 3 miles stopping several times to do sprints. The physical training isn't exactly what I would call fun, but I'm not the worst. Average. I'm doing okay so far. Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

We have been to the motor pool twice so far. We have started doing training on the tanks. There's only about 3 1/2 weeks left in "Basic Training". It's starting to get interesting. However, the restrictions are still pretty tight on us. We learned the other day how to prep the tank to start it. We also had some classes on using the night vision equipment. Today we learned how to refuel the tank and use the fire extinguisher equipment. Once we get out of "Basic Training" we will be doing more classroom stuff and less physically strenuous stuff.

Back to "basic training" tomorrow is our field day for land navigation. We've had a few classes on map reading and using a compass. Tomorrow we find out if we learned anything. They're going to stick us out in the middle of the woods with a map and compass and some grid coordinates. It's up to us to find our way out, or get lost trying. haha!!!

Overall it's been tolerable. It's not near as hard as I had imagined. In fact, it's not really hard at all. I was just out of shape.

You should have gotten some stuff in the mail about "family day". I don't know what was in it, but I can tell you one thing, I will WANT OFF THIS BASE ASAP. So if there's some "family dinner" or whatever, DO NOT make plans for it. I want to be signed out as quickly as I can. Then I'm gonna want nothing but fast food and a few movies would be nice. Also sleeping in late will be a very important thing. I know you guys maybe be wanting to spend as much time as possible with me, but sleep and junk food is what I'm going to be craving. :)

A box of twinkies and donuts will be a must. Get Granny to make a loaf of banana bread :) COKE! DR. PEPPER! CARBINATION!!!

Anyways I'm off to bed now, getting up at 4:45 a.m. isn't exactly a fun thing. haha

Let me know what was in the "family day" letter. Remember to send me news articles about what's going on in the world concerning terrorism.