Friday, January 23, 2009

Thursday, January 22 Crawling in the Sand & Soldier testing

Hey all, I survived and was not left behind. Tough day. We started around 0700 with a bus trip to the day infiltration course. there were two lanes that we had to negotiate twice this morning. the first was learning to work with a chaplain assistant and move with him from cover to cover points to assault a location. It was fun, not to far from my police training. But we were wearing our ballistics vests (about 40 pounds) and kevlar helmets (battle rattle).

Now the second course was a boy's childhood fantasy. G.I. Joe stuff. We walked through a wooded area to a sand pit. We had to high crawl (hips on ground using arms and legs to pull yourself) through about twenty yards then low crawl (head in the sand) for about twenty yards then turn over and crawl through barbed wire area then crawl over a wooden fence. It was tough and a mess. But preparatory for tonights night infiltration course. A good leg and arm work out.

We had warrior task training which includes first aid, radio communications, map reading, and gas mask testing. I passed, OHAH! We ate another MRE- vegetarian cheese tortilliani-- it was better than the chicken from the day before.

We moved to another area for the night infiltration. We ate a hot supper brought out to us then lined up to march to the course. It was live fire over the top of us with several pits that exploded literally shaking the ground. It was pretty cool. We had about two hundred basic trainee's lined up in front of us then the 79 chaplains. We layed down in the sand and had about one hundred fifty yards to crawl on our stomach keeping head down. My battle buddy and I came across a female soldier trainee just soping in the sand. She was scared to death. We coached her through the course and all made it safely. I didn't know we were going to do ministry at the night infiltration course, but it made a difference in the young ladies life, I pray.

Well two quizes tomorrow. Got to study. God Bless you all, one week left, we worse is over for me now.

Steve

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Wednesday, January 21 Land Navigation day

We had to be in formation at 0600 hours this morning to move to the land navigation course. It was 23 degrees, pretty cold to be outside all day. We broke into groups and had three posted signed sites to find . They were all about 800 meters apart. We used compass and map to locate. Our group found what we needed in the three hours we had to do it. We also participated in a field service and saw how it is done. We have them coming up soon, mine will be a week from tomorrow.

I ate my first MRE for lunch. It was not too bad: Chicken breast and stuffing.

We moved to another areas and had our Warrior Task Training. Tomorrow is our test. Be in prayer.

We ate supper at that location and then moved to another course for Night Land Navigation. Our squad was the second back in so we were very happy. The only bad thing about it was that we had to wait about 45 minutes for the rest of the groups to get finished. That made for a cold wait.

We had been bussed around all day, but this time we tactical marched about two miles back to the main dorm and had a final formation and released for the evening. It was about 2130 hours (9:30 p.m.).

I am exhausted from being outside all day. It didn't get over 34 degrees today, so I am glad to be setting in a warm room and thawing out while I type this blog.

Tomorrow is another day out. We will be in full battle rattle gear and doing infiltration courses (day and night, live fire night).

Keep me in prayer and especially as I prepare for quizes on Friday.

Steve

Tuesday, January 20, Map Reading

We worked most the day on Map reading classes and compass work. We had the opportunity to go outside and do some basic compass work. At 1700 hours we meet at the athletic complex and had a killer physical conditioning time. Real tough on the legs and abs. Most of us were limping off afterward. We had two almost pass out. It was the toughest yet. I survived although my inner thighs were killing me it was hard to just get in the car and drive. We were up late due to two study guides being due on Friday and two quizes as well coming up. We have a small paper due as well, but I finished it this weekend. Tomorrow is land navigation day.

I got a card in the mail today, it was nice to hear from one of our church members.

God Bless All,

Steve

Monday, January 19 Day Off

We had most the day off today, meet up at 1500 hours for accountability and did some strenuous physical conditioning.