01.08.99

Weapons Pool == Icy Road March there & back - most complained about the cold, I, as always, sucked it up & drove on -- much like CCC yesterday after the 15K...our "ritualistic rite of passage: obsticle course w/ my rubbed bloody left heel -> only did part of it as 1st Squad though at least.

Swept & Mopped b4 lunch -- good work cuz of the quiet the empty bay held...peace, quiet, solitude; such a rarity here, qand anywhere, I suppose...Too many ppl everywhere.  Everything has been super slack 'round here since getting back -- ppl ordering pizza delivery, sneaking it.  Several have hit the strip clubs...jeesh.  IMHO, why risk everything now, so close to graduation?

Got a letter from Christa today.  She got her Christmas gift, happy as heck 'bout it, and said she had one for me and when will she see me again...Maybe after HTC, I'll take a couple leave days to go say hello...I got my 1st LES today (Leave Earned Statement - "paystub" also) & Exodus did not draw accrued leave time...i e I have 7 days still...

Every minute is one step closer to getting out of here -- towards being treated as a soldier and not a "Private" (tho I still am a PFC...).

Looking back, as I knew I would at this point -- it all seems so fleeting, these weeks of BCT, almost like a dream.  Even now, I cannot imagine that I actually did some of the things I did.  The emotions running through me at that m60 range - the gravel biting into my body, DS Valiente yelling at me, the COC ladder, the 15k ruckmarch w/o a sight of sunrise, fog & clouds & cold that quickly went away w/; the exercise...The bayonet rage everyone stared at me during BRT...all that shit is recollected here, in this journal so I can look back and say I did all that. This is my Basic Training Experience & Memoirs...
So much frivilous reporting, but such a wealth of memory stones & joggers.