Basic 14 David's Journal August 26 to September 3

August 26th (Day 41) Wednesday

I woke up feeling pretty crummy this morning, but a little better than yesterday. As I stood in morning formation coughing and sneezing I said a little prayer. My prayer was: “I know there are a lot of people that are praying for my health and safety. I ask for the power of their prayers at this time so I can overcome my fever so I can do my training. I ask for angels to be with me.”

I then did the morning PT (physical training) and once I was done I felt completely better. My shin did not hurt, my knee was all better, my shoulders and back were all better, and my fever was gone. I do have to cough every once in a while, but I am feeling really good. I know that this was a miracle.

For our training today we did US weapons. We had the chance to use an AT-4 (rocket launcher), and a M203 (which is basically an M16 with a grenade launcher). It was a lot of fun. We used practice ammo so it wasn’t as strong as the real thing. They did have some expert shooters from our company shoot with the real ammo. It was cool to watch. They also shot off a claymore mine. It was so powerful that it made the ground shake and I could feel it in my body.

Both of them were cool weapons, but I probably will never have to shoot them again.

Later we had some rest time coming, and right before personal time the drill sergeant on duty had us run over four miles. I was so proud of running the whole way. I hope that I am able to do well on my run test this Saturday. I also tested myself on sit-ups. I was able to do 71 sit-ups in 2 minutes. I hope to get 80 on my sit-ups portion of the test.

August 27th (Day 42) Thursday

Today we did the second portion of US weapons. We were able to shoot machine guns. We shot the M240B, the M249 (SAW), and the M2 Browning 50 cal. The M240B and the M249 are similar in how they work, but the M240B has a 7.76mm round and the M249 has a 5.56 mm round. So the M240B was stronger, but I liked the easiness and ability to control the M249 (SAW). SAW stands for “squad automatic weapon”. They take at least one in each squad. The M2 Browning 50 cal. was pretty awesome. We only used plastic rounds, but it still had a pretty strong recoil. It was a fun day, but a little hot with all our gear on.

August 28th (Day 43) Friday

Today’s training was, “Convoy Live Fire” (CLF). This was a lot of fun. The way it worked was we had a group of fourteen soldiers get on a big old truck, seven on each side, and our drill sergeants in the middle. We had to follow orders and have our weapon ready to shoot while the vehicle was moving. We came to one stop and one side would suppress fire while the other dismounted the truck. Once they were at cover behind a wall the other side would dismount the truck while those behind the wall would suppress fire. We all would shoot another magazine of ammo while behind the wall and the second side would go back to the truck while the first continued to shoot suppressive fire. Once on the truck the second group shot and the first group returned to the truck.

Once we all were on the truck again we continued down the road. Along the way they had IEDs (improvised explosive devises) go off. We had to yell, “IED” and take cover. Then there was a path where we shot at enemy targets while the truck was moving. I was pleased with how many targets I shot, because it was hard to aim. We then returned back to the base. It was a fun exercise. We are definitely getting more familiar with our weapon.

August 29th (Day 44) Saturday

I am feeling great this morning, and it couldn’t be a better day to feel this way. The weather is perfect for Missouri; there is a light fog so it is not too cold. Today is our final APFT Test. It starts with the push-ups. I felt like I tightened up too early, but I still got my best score of 84 push-ups in two minutes. That is well over 100%. The second part was the sit-ups. I wish the drill sergeant I had would have counted out loud to help me stay focused, but I still was able to pump out 69 sit-ups in two minutes for 92%. I think next time I will just let my body relax on the way down letting it fall rather than guiding myself down like I do. I hope to get over 76, which is 100% next time.

Then we were driven to the place where we had the run, which I was most worried about. The course is just a straight two-mile shot and mostly downhill. During OCS, I don’t think we will have it that way. I did very well and cut more than two minutes off my time getting 13:30. I think if I keep pushing myself on runs during training, then I could get under 13 minutes when I take the test at OCS. I got 98%. 100% is 13:18.

My total score was 290 points. I think the key to my improvement was trying my best during smokings and doing exercises correctly. My score tied for first in my platoon as the best score in the platoon. I am doing very well physically and hope to continue to improve.

Later in the day I was joking with my drill sergeant about something and said something dumb. She asked me “do you like doing push-ups Sparks?” I said, “YES, Drill Sergeant.” So she had me go in the push-up position and left the room. She had left others in that position before, so about five minutes later I decided she was not coming so I crawled over to her office in the push-up position and knocked on her door. I said, “Drill sergeant, Specialist Sparks requests permission to speak.” She yells through the door: “Sparks you are supposed to be in the front leaning rest position (push-up position).” I said, “I am.” She then rushes to her door and opens it and laughs seeing me in that position. She then yells, “Go back to the other room!” I said, “Yes, drill sergeant.” Then begin to crawl backwards in the push-up position. She then lost it and told me to get up and go away. All my battle buddies kept saying, “You are the only one to get the drill sergeant to laugh, and you can always get out of things.”

They always want me to be their battle buddy when they have to talk to the drill sergeant, and if I do something they say it must be okay because Sparks is doing it.

August 30th (Day 45) Sunday

Nothing special. Just nice and relaxing. Got a haircut, but had to do 125 up-down push-ups before I got it. I also got to talk to Mandy and the kids. I love them so much and can’t wait to be with them again.

August 31st (Day 46) Monday

Today was a pretty lame day. We did Urban Operation training. That is where you practice breaking into homes and buildings. It was very basic and I felt that we could have done more. We then came back to the barracks after a couple of hours.

September 1st (Day 47) Tuesday

We were fitted for our Class A uniforms today. It just means that we are that much closer to graduation day. They are also called “dress greens”

We got our black berets, which means we are now soldiers. I should look pretty good when graduation comes around.

We spent the rest of the day resting and shaving our berets. Yes, we had to actually shave all the lint off of our beret. We then had to shape it by soaking it in water and holding it to the form of our head.

September 2nd (Day 48) Wednesday

I decided to title this journal entry as “Ferris Bueler’s Day Off”. The day started with me going to sick call. I wasn’t really sick, but I figured it would be a good idea to get my ear ache checked out, along with a scrape that I have on my bum, and the pain I have in my knee.

The doctor gave me all the drugs that I needed and an antibiotic for the abrasion I have on my bum, which was caused by all the rubbing that happened during sit-ups. I was done with my check up fairly early. While waiting to go back I heard that our company was getting smoked pretty badly, because the day before about 6 people were caught fraternizing, someone had a can of chew, and a group of females had plucked their eyebrows, which was against the rules. I wasn’t too excited about getting chewed out for other people’s mistakes again, so I decided to stick around the sick call clinic.

It was coming up on lunchtime and our company was eating MRE’s for lunch. I really wanted something normal, so I decided to wait even longer and eat in the sick call DFAC (dining facility). Some of the people that I was with said the hospital DFAC was even better, so we took the bus to the hospital and ate there. I had a nice sit down meal of spaghetti and meatballs, with a huge choice of deserts and soda. I just got an apple pie, but it was super nice. We waited for another bus for a while and when it finally came it took us around most of the base. I got a nice nap in during this time.

It was about 14:00 when we finally got back, and when we came back we found out that our company finally phased to white phase. Most companies do that about 5 weeks before we did. This will give us a little more freedom from the drill sergeants. Everybody was wishing they had gone to sick call with me, because they got smoked pretty hard. I felt all rested up and it felt real nice. I don’t know if God inspired me to take the day off, but I am grateful for it.

September 3rd (Day 49) Thursday

Today was “Warrior Stakes”. That is where each platoon goes against each other in a series of events.

The first event was the tug-of-war. We got disqualified, because for some reason we had 11 people instead of 10 competing.

The second event was the water jug carry. If you were male you had to carry two 5-gallon jugs about 100 m one way and then back. The females carried one jug. We got last place again on that. So points wise we were not looking good at all.

The third event was the “litter carry”. They had to load up a first aid litter with 20 gallons worth of water and four people carried it about 400 m and handed it off to another group of four to do the same. We did better on that and got second place.

The fourth event was the weapons disassemble and reassemble. We had the fastest male and female and totally dominated in that event.

After those events we moved to the PT bubble for “pugils and combatives.” They broke down the competition into female lightweights and heavyweights and male lightweights and heavyweights. It was fun to watch all the competitions. Our platoon did real well and got first overall for both the pugils and combatives. I wonder how I would do if I competed in those events, but I am not willing to take the risk of getting hurt to find out.

While fight was going on I competed in the general knowledge competition. It was a fairly easy multiple-choice test that ten people took from each platoon. Our platoon won easily and I got 100% on my test.

The last competition was “drill and ceremony”, which is where we march as a platoon in unison. We did real good. I wish we could have recorded it. The 3rd platoon drill sergeant really takes it serious and wins each cycle. After we were done with our performance our drill sergeant felt confident we were the best. Later we found out that we lost by one point because our drill sergeant forgot to do a column left, which is super easy.
We started out in last place at the beginning, but it was fun to come from behind and win the whole competition and be the best platoon in our whole company.