BOLC II - Week 1 Update

So, week 1 has finally come to a close.

All in all I'd say the week went well.

Wednesday kicked off with a urinalysis. Since I had CQ duty from o200-0400, and formation was at 0405, I spent those 2 hours drinking 32 oz of Gatorade and an additional 32 oz of water. Big mistake apparently, since they decided to do an EO briefing before the UA and also had to give two separate briefings on what to do for the UA. I was damned near ready to wet my pants by the time we finally got to actually start. Then I got stuck being an observer for the rest of the testing, since I went first. -_-

Since the UA took so long, we didn't get to do PT that morning. I don't really remember what else we did all day (some more briefings, and CIF issue), but we can't go a day without PT it seems, so we did it at 1300. Yay for the hottest part of the day... It wasn't really that bad though... it was mostly an intro to crossfit, so we ran a couple laps (I think the track is 400m), did pull-ups (which I suck at), did dips (which I also suck at), and did inclined pushups (which I don't suck at, but which were fairly painful on sore muscles). It was a good workout though, so I really can't complain too much.

We did PT Thursday with a local baseball team, so it actually wound up being not so bad. Part of it was a crossfit-type workout, which was fun except for the fact that I can't do monkey bars to save my life. Had to have a buddy help me across the whole way :-/ We then spent the morning doing some more paperwork stuff: dental and optometry inprocessing, getting ID cards (FINALLY I have my CAC card...), and getting car decals. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the registration has to be in our own name to get the decal, so since mine is still in my dad's I have to get a notarized letter of power of attorney from him to get a decal. Guess I'll just use the guest pass and get a decal in Texas, since I won't have another day when I can visit vehicle registration... Thursday afternoon we started CLS (combat lifesaver) training.

Friday morning we had a 5-ish mile ruck march for PT. We rucked a little less than a mile to the clinic, where we got immunizations, then rucked for a while longer until we had to come back to eat and shower for the rest of CLS training (not sure how far we actually went). My new Danner boots seem to work well, I just need to make sure to wear sock liners when I'm carrying a ruck to avoid blisters on my heels (I didn't really get blisters, but the top layer of skin definitely peeled off - didn't hurt at all, fortunately).

The rest of Friday was a long day of classes, for the most part. At the end of the training we got to practice giving IVs, which was fun. Then we took a written exam and got our CLS certification cards. I am now qualified to try and save people's lives in combat :p

We got off around 2200 that night... 10 hours after the last time we'd eaten, and 16 hours after we'd gotten up that morning. Since it meant the start of the weekend, and the DFAC was closed anyway, a group of 10 or 11 of us headed to Outback for dinner, which tasted amazing. We got back in around 0030.

Sleeping in today was nice - I woke up around 5 anyway, as I expected (yay for my internal alarm clock setting itself), but then went back to sleep until around 1030. I'm on CQ duty right now (from 12 to 1500, in fact), but there's not much that the daytime shifts have to do. The cleaning tasks are assigned to the nighttime shifts (which makes sense, since people won't be walking around making the floors dirty again, and it keeps the people on duty awake), so all the daytime shifts really do is answer the phone and contact the NCO who's on call if there's a problem. We also are supposed to cut out targets for the rifle range on Monday, but my knife isn't big enough to really cut through the plastic targets.

Other than that, I have no real plans for the weekend. I wanted to swing by a post office today, but they either aren't open or close at two around here. I'll probably swing by the PX for some more PT shirts (the packing list said to bring 3 shirts and 3 shorts, but we do PT 5 days a week so that doesn't really work out well...) and sunblock (there's not really any shade at the rifle range). Tomorrow... again, no plans, but I might head to the pool here on post and swim some laps so that I'm not too sore after PT monday (I'd intended to do that today and take tomorrow off, but my arm hurt like hell from the meningitis shot and I was honestly too tired to want to get up this morning).

PT monday morning isn't until 0530 (holy hell, we get to sleep in!), and it sounds like another crossfit-ish workout (crossfit probably isn't really the right word for it... but we're doing some workouts that involve lunges and high-knees and stuff like that, and then sprints, so not really sure what you'd call it). Then we get to start our BRM training at the range. This next week promises to be long; we have to qualify at night too, so there will be at least one night where we will return to the barracks at 0200 and have to be up at 0500 for PT. Days spent at the range also tend to be long just because of the waiting around in the heat.

Weeks 3 and 4 will be spent in the FOB (forward operating base), so not sure what contact with the "outside world" I'll have (there is supposedly internet there, and we can bring our phones, but rumor has it that ATT doesn't work out there, and I'm not sure I'll be on my computer at all while I'm there). Weekends are still off though, and Week 5 is spent at the barracks before we spend week 6 doing actual field training out of the FOB (apparently we don't spend the entire week running our own missions, but get to play OPFOR - aka the bad guys - for other platoons part of the time, which will be fun). Then week 7 of outprocessing and graduation, and we're done!

Damn, it sounds so short when I summarize it like that... I suppose if every week feels like this past week (which basically felt like one long never-ending day, instead of 5 days) then it'll feel like it went by quick at the end too. Or it'll feel like we've been here forever. We'll see.

Until next time! (and I will just keep telling myself, I could always have been screwed and gotten stuck at Ft Sill. It will make the next 6 weeks feel so much better :p)