Dear Mary Beth,
I ran out of the good paper, so I will have to tear it out of my notebook until I get back to the PX. I am good right now but very cold. I am sitting in the bleachers at the rifle range and guarding weapons. I wished before that I would get a chance to sit here, and I did, but now I've been here for 2 hours and its getting old. We have these targets like this:
And we have to shoot six shots in a 4 cm circle. The shots today do not have to be anywhere in particular they could be here [arrow] or here [other arrow], it doesn't matter as long as they are close together, and then they adjust your rifle, so that when you aim at the center, that is where you hit. [This is called grouping.]
Ok, it got too cold to write. Now it's 1 AM and I'm down at the CQ desk with Manning, the guy who wants out. He's a nice guy. I hope he gets his wish and gets out of the Army. Some guys are dicks to him and I don't think that's right, but it is funny when the drill sergeants yell at someone else.
[It's funny because I thought I hated Manning and tormented all these guys. I feel a little better that I wasn't a total bully. On the other hand, it's important to weed out the weak and the unsound in Basic before they become liabilities. This is War, not a social club. I guess I figured the other guys were doing a good enough job]
Today, instead of shooting, he went to a support group for soldiers not able to handle Basic [ahhhahaha], and they [the Drill Sergeants] were pissed.
I got in an argument with this kid today. It's one of the same kids that is always out to get Manning. His name is Carter and I used to think he was cool. He claims to have sex with all sorts of people like lesbians and midgets and to have pitched in 2 major league games. But I caught him in a lie about wrestling with the Navy team the other day, so I'm going to have my dad check out the baseball thing. [stay tuned :)]
We got in a fight because it was 8:30 PM or so, and the drill sergeants hadn't really given us any instructions on what to do, so everyone was standing around, either bullshitting or loudly arguing, and I was behind a bunch of guys by my locker addressing a letter to Ty [buddy of mine from the gym I worked at who was briefly in the Army], when all of a sudden Carter is like, "Dude is it true personal time? (time we have in evening for letters, showers, etc.)
Me: No.
Him: Well, why are you writing a letter?
Me: (Gives finger) I'm putting a stamp on one. Mind your business.
Him: We're not supposed to write letters now!
Me: Relax, I'm not running around the bay naked. No-one can see me here.
Him: I'm just trying to get people to have some discipline..
Me: I'll tell you what, when you become an E5 (sergeant), come find me and give me some discipline. Until then, leave me alone.
[The army is full of these busybodies who think they are in charge of everything. I mean, sure, if someone is doing something unsafe, correct him. Or if he is flagrantly violating some norm or standard, like wearing his hat sideways, say something. Hell, if you don't and a sergeant shows up, you'll get in trouble for not stopping him. But like the Bible says, if you've got a log in your eye (or the other guys in the platoon do) don't pester people with splinters)
He rolled his eyes, but I was pissed that he called me out like that, because if anything, we were going to get in trouble for people being loud. A minute later, DS Swartz came through the door and as I promised, I closed my locker and no one was the wiser. I think that neither one of us will hold a grudge though.
Some kid told me that family day is only 11-7 on Saturday, in which case you'd probably find it pointless to go and might want to come during graduation instead. I was so pissed when I heard that. I'll ask my parents because they got the letter and check with the drill sergeants in the next couple of days. [deleted personal chit-chat] I don't know, if family day is only 8 hours, I'm depressed. No-one who lives farther away than like Alabama will have anyone visit. I'll just go get a pizza or something and call you. :(. They didn't give us mail today either, and I know there should have been some.
[sappy romantic crap. Here's a song that we sing that I like]
Used to date a beauty queen,
Now I have an M16.
Chorus: And it won't be looooong,
Till I get on back hoooooome.
Left my family and my wife,
So I could live the Army life.
Millions of other verses.
At least I grouped in 12 shots which was acceptable. Layton did it in 6. Bastard. But it took Greenberg 54, which was amusing.
[This was my least favorite part of marksmanship training. If you are reasonably competent, you shoot a few shots and you're done for the entire day. If you are utterly hopeless, you get to shoot over and over again, endless rounds. I think that some guys would eventually pretend to fail the first few times so that they'd get to shoot more. Greenberg, on the other hand, legitimately sucked at everything.]
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