Basic Training
Journal: Friday, September 19th
I haven't had much time to write in the past few days. Here's
a breakdown of what we've done:
Wednesday: Live Fire Exercise
We got our first taste of MREs for the live fire exercise.
We ate them for breakfast and lunch..I got Beef Stew and Country
Captain Chicken. You get a main entree, shakes, juices, cappuccino
mocha, crackers and cheese/peanut butter, pita bread, pastry,
pound cake, cookies, gum, tootsie rolls, applesauce, M&Ms,
Skittles, etc. Of course you only get a few of the above.
Some of the MREs are quite tasty while others taste bad.
We did a dry fire exercise first where we just shouted "bang"
while our battle buddy moved. The course isn't that long,
you basically run from sandbag to sandbag or hill. It's a
cover me while I move, I've got you covered thing. Once we
got halfway down the course they gave us blanks to fire. You
need a blank adapter attached to the end of the M16 to use
blanks. We then ate lunch, then did live fire. We started
at the halfway point of the course and we shot at a target
that popped up and down while our battle buddy moved. It was
pretty easy. We then went back to the bay and had refreshers
on first aid.
Thursday: Hand to Hand Combat
We had an ability group run in the morning, then we ate breakfast
before hand to hand combat. We learned 4 mount positions to
hold people in, and 3 choke holds. It was pretty simple but
we didn't have time for everything. We finish it some other
day.
We did DnC after lunch...we were preparing for the DnC competition
we will have next week. There is a sequence of drill we will
do to get tested by the first sergeant. It's a whole platoon
DnC test but the first sergeant will also ask random people
a question and you must answer more if you get the first question
wrong.
Friday: Hand Grenade Qualification
We loaded our ruck sacks with phase 3 issue for the road
march today...3 BDUs, 1 pair of boots, NBC suit and boots,
4 undershirts, 4 underwear, 5 pair of black socks, face towel,
2 towels, and some other stuff. The ruck sack now weighs over
40 pounds....we marched 3 miles today but it wasn't as bad
as I thought it would be.
Once we got to the hand grenade range, we ate an MRE for
breakfast. After that, we learned the 3 ways to throw a grenade(prone
to kneeling, prone to standing, and alternate prone). They
weren't hard to learn, you'll pick it up quickly. We then
threw some grenades that just make a little bang, no fragmentation
because it was just practice. We then started on the 7 stations
we qualify on. Expert is 7 of 7, first class is 6 of 7, and
second class is 5 of 7. If you get less than 5 gos, you must
redo a station you got a no go on until you get 5 gos.
We did 1 station, then we threw our one live/real grenade.
Those make some noise! We were briefed on the procedures,
then we went to work. It was pretty simple..we did the standing
throw then ducked down behind the cement bunker. There was
a target you threw at but it didn't have to be close, you
just had to throw the grenade at it.
After that, we ate feed chow, then we continued on the stations.
We had to use all 3 throwing positions and the drill sergeants
gave you a go or no go. You got 2 chances at each station
except for station 7 where we identified the types of grenades.
I got 6 of 7.....I should have got expert but I didn't study
the grenades enough before going to station 7. I was studying
while in line but the line moved too fast for me to study
much. The hand grenade course is easy...we were even told
not to wear the grenade badges after BT since it shows people
you are just out of BT. We got trans back to the bay and we
cleaned our weapons, ate dinner, etc.
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