Mailed blog – written by Julian

21 Feb 11

Oh, boy.  There is zero wind in the sails of this BCT ship and the crew is about to mutiny.  I haven’t had much to say about training because it really seems like we haven’t done much since we got back from the field exercise last Thursday.  There is a reason drill sergeants warn about slacking during Blue Phase.  The pace slows to a crawl and boredom sets in.

Friday our company had post detail.  Gomez and I were assigned to TSC detail with four male privates.  We had no idea what TSC stood for and when our ride arrived he told us it was Toilet Service Cleaning.  Obviously he was joking, and that set the tone for the day.  We went to the Training Support Center where they make props for our training (targets, stands, faux weapons, posters).  It was a pretty chill day just organizing things around his shop.  We got to relax, listen to the radio, and even got some leftover Valentine’s Day candy….ooooh!  In all, we were really lucky as some of the other details really stunk.

Saturday we had the 12K march.  I was so thankful that it was a good foot day, they hung in there for me!  It was a beautiful morning and the whole march went by very quickly.  For the rest of the day we cleaned, cleaned and cleaned.  We’ve cleaned our bay and our weapons like twice a day since Friday.  It’s driving us insane.

Sunday I attended the Jewish service.  The last few weeks at the non-denominational have  been very uninspiring.  It doesn’t seem like there is much thought or planning that goes into the service.  So that’s been frustration I thought maybe the Jewish service would spark some critical thinking.  I was right, it did.  The Rabbi was very kind and used the story of the Israelites and the golden calf and related it to our experiences here at BCT.  It was nice to study a story from the Bible for a change, they don’t do that at the non-denom  Christian service.  None the less, I’ll return to the Christian service next week in the hopes I’ll be re-inspired.  The rest of Sunday we cleaned, fun…

That brings me to today!  We got our first lesson how to throw a hand grenade.  Guess what?  I stink at it!  Not a good thing to be bad at…really.  Hopefully I’ll just keep getting better.  We’ll be practicing for the next  two days.  And then tonight we cleaned our weapons!  Again!

Tomorrow’s a new day and I’m gonna try to poof  up these sails again and get back on the positive train.  It’s just hard with so much negativity surrounding you.  But if anyone can scrounge up some cheer, I bet I can! 

As always, please write.  Love to All!