This is linked to post number one.
Jon's Army training journal
This is an attempt to record my experiences at Fort Benning, GA as I go through Army basic combat training and officer candidate school. I know it will be an interesting experience and I want to share it with my family and friends, so hopefully you all will read it!
benningtraining.blogspot.com
Journal # 2
By jon
Army Basic Combat training (3/29-4/15)
Journal # 2
I am now in day two of my fourth week of Army Basic Combat Training at Ft. Benning. Tomorrow we will be moving from Red phase, or “total control phase” to White Phase, which is almost all Basic Rifle Marksmanship for three weeks. We are supposed to earn more privileges during this phase too, like weekend phone calls and passes. I noticed things have already changed a lot this week. For example, the drill sergeants don’t deal directly with the platoon as much now; they give orders to the Platoon Guide, who then gives the orders to the four squad leaders, who give the orders to everyone else. Luckily I’ve managed to avoid any of these positions because they are the ones who get chewed out all the time, but there are only so many OCS guys here, so I’m sure I’m near the top of the list of replacements if anyone gets fired.
Also, we hardly ever get smoked any more, unless we really screw up. To compensate for this, the DS’s have made PT in the mornings much more intense. One thing I don’t like is we focus way too much on calisthenics and hardly ever run. I think I am getting worse in my running because I’m used to running 4-8 miles per day, but the most we’ve done so far is 3 miles with the whole company signing cadence. I can tell my shoulders, chest, and abs are getting much stronger though.
We have done a lot of stuff since my last entry so I’ll try to remember the major training events. On March 29 we learned hand-to-hand combat all day. We went out to “Goodyear Field”, which is the size of a football field and made of tiny pieces of shredded tires, and threw each other around for about six hours. We learned choke holds, and lots of other grappling techniques and then had a tournament with the other 3 platoons. That night we were issued our M16 rifles which we have to have within arm’s reach at all times, and then had a 4 hour class on weapons safety and maintenance. I named my rifle Molly.
On April 5, we had a 2.5 mile road march to a range where we learned basic first aid for two days and had to sleep in the field for the first time. We slept out in the open in sleeping bags and it was freezing. We weren’t allowed to use our flashlights either and there was no moon that night so we couldn’t see anything. It was kind of cool going on patrol though because we could hear helicopters and artillery and machine guns way off in the distance all night.
April 6 was one of the toughest days yet because the final event of our first aid training was a long course through the woods where we had to use different methods of carrying a wounded person to move our partner from station to station. My partner weighed 240, but with our weapons, body armor, and other gear, I really had to carry about 280 pounds around. I thought I was going to break my back or die from a heart attack. My platoon recorded the fastest total time for completing that course in our company, so we were supposed to get a 15 minute phone call, but one of the stupid 18 year olds who cries all the time was late to formation 5 minutes before we were supposed to use the phones, so no one was allowed to make a call.
On April 7, we went to the gas chamber to test our gas masks and see what CS riot control gas can do to a person. While we were lined up to go in, my drill sergeant called me over to speak with the company commander. We’ve been told that if we have to speak with the commander, it’s probably for something bad, and that was true. My DS said “Bland, your grandfather passed away this morning. We’re going to get you out of here but you have to go through the gas chamber first”. Having that dropped on me made me totally forget about my nervousness about going through the gas chamber because all I could think about was my family.
Breathing in the CS gas felt like sticking my face over a big fire because my face was burning and my lungs felt like a bunch of smoke was trapped inside and I couldn’t breathe. A lot of people puked after that but I just climbed into a van with watery eyes and my DS drove me back to the barracks so I could call home.
By 7pm I was on a plane headed back home and for three days I got to see my family, get a full night’s sleep, and talk to my girlfriend on the phone. I wish I could have stayed an extra day to go to my grandfather’s funeral but my DS said I had to be back before midnight on Sunday. Leaving the real world to return to BCT was really tough on April 10, but everyone in my platoon had signed a card and gave it to me when I got back, which meant a lot. I think a lot of guys were disappointed I didn’t go to a strip club or eat a ton of junk food while I was gone.
The next day we had classes on land navigation all day, and on April 12, we got up at 3:30 and ruck marched 4 miles to the land nav range. That march felt like it was almost all uphill and was the toughest thing physically for me so far in Basic. At the LN range we broke into groups of 4 and went looking for checkpoints in the woods. We did this once in the day and twice at night, and I was the team leader everytime. I had the map and compass and everyone else kept a pace count and luckily we found our way back to the rally point before midnight because it started raining HARD at that point. Three teams from other platoons got lost so we had to wait in the thunderstorm until they finally were found, and we got back to the barracks around 2:00.
We were allowed to sleep in until 7:00 and it was weird to wake up when the sun was already up. After breakfast we went back in the field to learn small unit tactics. My squad leader had made me the team leader of the A-team that morning, making me the point man whenever we move as a squad. Is was pretty intense leading our 12 man squad through the woods looking to make contact with the enemy, another squad from our platoon. From about 40 meters away I spotted the distinctive outline of a Kevlar helmet right next to a pine tree. I used hand signals to halt the squad and let our squad leader know that I had spotted an ambush ahead. He took the B-team around to flank them on the right, and I waited for his signal to lay down suppressive fire with my team. It was really fun catching that other squad by surprise and firing all of our blank ammunition at them. There was a lot of trash talking afterwards, as we tried to figure out who would have killed who.
The next day, April 14, we went to the rope confidence course and rappelling tower where I discovered and then conquered a fear of heights. Everything we did that day was scary for me but turned out to be fun once it was over.
Today, we just went over how to set up vehicle checkpoints and had some basic training on convoy operations. In 2 or 3 weeks we will do that same training on real trucks with live ammunition.
I’m really excited about White phase starting tomorrow because I have never fired a weapon before (unless you count two days ago when I was shooting blanks), and it’s a big milestone in BCT. I can’t wait to get through all this training so I can go to OCS, get my commission, and go on to bigger and better things. I’m having second thoughts on whether or not I want to be infantry, so hopefully I can trade that with someone at OCS, because I’m sure I’ll end up getting that as my branch since it was my top choice and all the drill sergeants say that is where most of us OCS guys will end up. It will probably be tough to get out of that but I really want to do something like Armor or Military Intelligence now.
Well hopefully I will have time to write again soon so I can give my impressions of finally putting some rounds down range with Molly. Thanks to everyone who has written me, and if I haven’t written back yet, I will try to soon. |
