Basic 11 David's Journal August 2 to August 16

August 2nd (Day 17) Sunday

I was missing my family a lot today. Faith’s birthday is coming up and I am going to miss it. I wish I could be with her. She is such a wonderful girl. I bore my testimony in church about how I am beginning to understand Heavenly Father’s feelings about sending us here to earth a little more. I shared my hope that Faith and Solomon will always remember me. The spirit strongly told me that that is how our Heavenly Father feels towards us. He wants us to always remember Him. I was grateful for the Spirit sharing that with me.

After Sacrament meeting I was able to get a blessing for my back to not cause me too many problems and will heal quickly. I know I will be blessed.

August 3rd – 5th (Day 18-20) Monday – Wednesday

The days were very similar. One day we went to the shooting range to practice grouping our shots in a tight area, about the size of a quarter. I did that pretty good. There was a shot that strayed every once in a while. The next day we zeroed our weapons to help the sight point to the middle of the target. Once I did that I was grouping better. My target had all the shots hitting the man in the target, which was the same as hitting a person 300 meters away. I was pretty proud of myself. The third day was very boring, because we were waiting for others to get better. That morning we had to ruck march 5 km. That was a good experience, but I look forward to the time that I will stop getting blisters.

August 6th (Day 21) Thursday

It was a fun day today. We did the Confidence Course. The first part we had to crawl face first in the dirt under some low ropes. Then we needed to walk up and down some diagonal balance beams with our hands linked together behind our head and singing “The Army Song”. The next part was more difficult. We had ascending balance beams. By the final beam we were about 4 meters above the ground. Then from that beam we used the monkey bars to go about 10 meters. I made it farther than most, but fell on one bar that jiggled.

We then needed to climb a tower that was about 4 stories high and go commando style (face forward with one foot hooked on the rope and the other foot dangling down for balance) down a diagonal rope about 50 meters. I did really good and went super fast passing the guy in front of me. It was a lot of fun.

The next part was a group effort. It was more difficult and scary. It was a tower with about 5 levels. It started out a little narrow or small at the bottom and got wider at the top. We had 5 people in our group, and we needed to get everyone to the top and back down. It was a little scary hanging onto the side of the tower with only a small pad at the bottom. Or worse yet have to make sure my battle buddies make it up each level without falling off. It was cool to see how each part of the course helped build confidence. It was great for people who had a fear of heights.

After lunch we kept going. The next course we needed to climb up some high rope ladders and walk across a balanced beam and climb up a wood ladder and then go down a rope ladder. Before we reached the bottom we had to fall backwards about 10 feet onto a mat.

The last course we needed to climb over a diagonal wall. When I got to the top DS Smith had me go down face first instead of feet first. I was the first one to do it, and there were only a few of us left. It must have looked real cool having me go down face first because the whole platoon cheered and thought it was awesome seeing an old guy like me do something like that.

There were a lot of other parts to the course, but not enough time. It would have been fun to do more and spend another day doing it, but there was not enough time.

Also the other day I was relived of my duty as PG, because I was on a limited exercise profile because of my back. The DS said that I could not lead from the back. It was actually a big relief not having to do it any more. It was a good experience the few days I had it.

August 7, (Day 22) Friday

Today we did more shooting. In the morning we broke off into our running groups. My body was hurting but I gave it my all anyways. I kept up most of the way, but it was not easy. I am in the fastest group and they go real fast. The bad thing is we have PT test tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t wear me out.

August 8, (Day 23) Saturday

Today is Father’s Day in Taiwan so I thought about my kids a lot. In the early morning we took our 2-2-2 PT test. 2 minutes push-ups, 2 minutes sit-ups, and 2 mile run.

I did awesome on the pushups. I got 82. It was the most in my platoon. The sit-ups I did well on. I got 58, but I think the guy counting cheated me out of 10 sit-ups because he counted 1-10, 1-10, 1-10, etc. It is okay because it was just a practice test. I hope to get 80 by the final. I feel like I am getting better.

The run was horrible. I could not get any speed, because I was worn out by the run yesterday. I felt very slow. My time was 15:41. The only good thing about the run was that I became familiar with the course. I should be ready for the final. I hope to get under 14 minutes.

The rest of the day we spent playing a video game preparing us for shooting pop-ups targets with our body armor (IBA) on. It was a little fun.

August 9, (Day 24) Sunday

I still have not been able to get a hold of Mandy and the kids. I really wish I could talk to them. I miss them and pray that they are doing well.

August 10 (Day 25) Monday to August 13 (Day 28) Thursday

This week was spent qualifying for the M16A2 weapon. It was fun, but a little hot and uncomfortable for me to do really well. I qualified the first try and did not worry so much about becoming an expert. It got me real excited about shooting with the family. I think when the kids get a little older I will get them a BB gun and teach them weapon safety. I would like to take them hunting and stuff like that. I think it will be a great bonding moment.

Well, to qualify we needed to wear with our ACU (uniform); IBA (body armor), ACH (helmet), LBV (vest with canteens), eye protection and ear protection. So while we were shooting we were wearing about 30 pounds.

My problem the first day was that I was trying to stay hydrated, because of the heat. So I was loaded with water and had to use the latrine like crazy. I was in line to qualify and was not sure if I had enough time to use the latrine. So I thought that having the need to pee would help with my adrenaline. When we set up to shoot they have us shoot from three positions. The first is the prone position, which is lying on the stomach with the chest up.

Let me take a moment to explain what we are shooting at to qualify. They have these plastic green men that pop up at 50 meters, 100m, 150m, 200m, 250m, and 300m. They randomly pop up and at first we shoot in the prone position one magazine of 20 rounds. Then we shoot in kneeling supported 10 rounds. And lastly we shoot 10 rounds in kneeling unsupported. In total we have 40 rounds to shoot 40 targets.

Now back to me being in the prone position. The tower gives us the orders to fire and I look down range and my eye protection begins to fog up from all the sweat that is dripping down my face so I miss a couple targets. I dropped the glasses down a little so I wasn’t using them while shooting and I could see a lot better. Then the pee really kicked in. In between each shot, which was maybe 3 seconds I was banging my feet down to try to keep myself from peeing. I was so tempted to pee in my pants just so I could focus on my shots. It was a real bad experience. Then I went to the kneeling/supported position and wasn’t bothered quite as much, but still lost some focus. The third magazine in the kneeling/unsupported position had trouble loading so I did not get to shoot at the first target and three rounds popped out of my weapon. I shot real well and when I got to the final three targets I felt like I was in a movie because I thought real quick and remembered what a sergeant did with my weapon one time that happened. I quickly grabbed the extra rounds and one at a time popped them into the chamber and banged the bolt release with my other hand. Then I popped up with my weapon and looked down range and shot my targets. I did this with all three shots and hit all three targets. I only had about 5 seconds for each shot. I didn’t shoot to well, but those last three shots made it all worth it. I got 25/40 shots and that was enough to qualify as a marksman.

The next day instead of shooting I took care of my financial issue. I got notification from the finance department that said that because I don’t know my wife’s address I obviously don’t support her and should not receive my BAH money. When I first dealt with finance my marriage certificate was not certified and the lady going over my stuff said that I needed to have Mandy’s Taiwan address. I got all of that stuff, but they still sent me that letter. I was able to get that taken care of in the morning while everyone was shooting. So hopefully I will get all the money I am supposed to.

The last day of BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) we had to do a ruck march to the range, which was 8 KM. Even though the march is getting longer it is starting to get easier. I still got a couple blisters, but not as bad as before. Hopefully, I won’t have a problem with that on the next march.

August 14th (Day 29) Friday

We are at the start of week 5 and we are still in Red Phase. Some of the reasons are privates fraternizing; (I wonder what basic would have been like at an all male basic training post); sneaking cell phones; having bad attitudes with the drill sergeants; and not sounding off as loud as we should. I feel I did pretty good at staying motivated and being a good example, but it just takes one to ruin the whole company.

Today we did the video game training for ARM training, which is shooting in the standing position and while walking forward. It wasn’t too difficult.

August 15th (Day 30) Saturday

Today we went out to the range and performed our ARM training. It was fun to shoot while moving and to start laying down a suppressive fire.

I forgot to mention that yesterday my drill sergeant wanted me to see him after dinner chow. I could not figure out why, but didn’t think I was in trouble. So my chow time got cut real short and I was sent outside with three other people from our company and we were told that the Command Sergeant Major wanted to speak with us. Finally it was explained to us that we were chosen to speak to a new company of trainees and do what is called “Troop Talk”.

Troop Talk is where the company is given some time to ask questions to others that have been through most of basic training and there are no drill sergeants around to give them a hard time.

The Command Sergeant Major was very friendly with us and it was a good experience to be around some higher ranking NCO’s and CO’s and see how I should act around them.

Most of the questions that were asked were pretty basic, but one thing that they asked me was how do I deal with being away from my family and do I get to communicate with them at all? I told them that my situation is a little different, because my wife and kids are in another country and I have not been able to get a hold of them yet. I also explained that it was actually a blessing in disguise, because I have been able to focus on my training and my wife has been able to become more independent. I trust that she is capable of taking care of the kids during our time away.

A few questions later a guy got up and just made a comment about how he was grateful to hear my comment and that it gave him a lot of hope and started to clap for me, and everyone in their company joined in. The Sergeant Major looks over at me and says, “I have never seen that happen.” Overall it was a good experience.

August 16th (Day 31) Sunday

This was probably the best Sunday so far at Basic Training. They let us go to church an hour early, so I was able to write some letters and catch up on my journal. It just was very relaxing. I got some more people coming to church and they are getting more and more curious. We have great conversations about the bible in the barracks. It is funny how everyone goes to me with their questions. It just makes more sense to them when I explain things. I don’t know if anyone will ever join, but I have gotten a couple to get a little more active at church. The best part of the day though was in the evening and I was given a whole hour to call home. What made it great was that I finally figured out how to call Mandy. I had been dialing an extra 0 in her phone number. It was sad that a zero could keep me from talking to my wife and kids for so long, but like I mentioned earlier it has been a blessing in disguise.

Hearing Mandy’s voice was so wonderful. I actually called two times because I needed to talk to the drill sergeant for a moment. The second time I called Solomon answered the phone. At first I wasn’t sure it was him, because he was speaking so much and in Chinese. When I realized it was him I began to cry uncontrollably. I wish I could be more a part of his and Faith’s childhood. I do feel that they will always be so proud of me.

Faith is speaking a lot of Chinese and it was hard for her to understand me on the phone, but the second time I talked to her she seemed to understand a lot better.

It was so refreshing to talk to everyone and I look forward to taking to them again. Mandy seems to be doing good. She has a few troubles with disciplining Solomon. Hopefully our talk helped her. I think us talking to each other not only lifted my spirit, but also lifted her spirit. It was great.