July 17, 2009

It has been a few days since I've written and I'm sorry, but some days we have almost zero time to ourselves. For example, some nights I have to sneak the letters you all send me to the toilet and read them because they give us almost no time to do anything that involves personal issues.

It's almost 4:30 am right now, and we all just woke up. I got ready real fast so I would have time to write this letter.

I want to start off with saying that I have gotten all of your letters. In fact, last night I received seven at once. Ha Ha! People here are always like, "How do you get so much?" But I received a letter from my father which included a sweet article on Billy Mays death, and letters from my mother, step mother, two from my sister, one from my best friend Daniel (He is very small), and also one from and old family friend, Craig. Thank you all for your letters, seriously. I laugh, cry, smile and frown at them, but they are real, and it's the only real thing I have in my life at the moment. So they are keeping me sane. Dad, you never let me down. Mom your letters are very calming when I need to take a break. Kristin, yours make me smile thinking about my niece and the shenanigan's she is getting herself into. To my friends, your letters make me feel important and loved. Your letters are also very important to me .
*Side note: As I am sitting here, a tiny mouse darted by me and ran over my foot. I screamed like a pussy, but shit! When your not expecting things like that to happen you can overlook the girly reaction...right? This is a great start to my day, let me tell you.

Now, to what has been happening. The last few days have been very repetitive and quite boring at times, but it has also had its fun parts. We just finished up medical training, and I administered my first IV to a battle buddy of mine, which I dominated in. We also have been doing combative (ground fighting) in the afternoon. It is so hot out when we are out here in our ACU's, but I'm learning things for real. We've been taught simple take downs and choke holds, as well as arm bars. We started sparing with each other, and that is a lot of fun; I did pretty well, We will do more of that today along with map reading and land navigation in the afternoon. Yesterday we got smoked pretty bad by the company drill sergeant. He made us low crawl across the entire PT field (size of football field). Which is made of playground sand. The sand was SO hot, that it burned skin off my elbows and knees through my ACU's. We had sand everywhere too. In my pants, shirt, shoes, ears, hair, etc, . It sucked but for some reason I would stop and start to laugh to myself and say, "FML". Oh well I guess. We are getting threatened a lot to not graduate, or to get re-started back to week on for stupid shit. I just want to say, if for any reason that were to happen to me, I'm out. I don't think I could start over and endure the same shit all over again. Once is enough for me, but it won't happen (Don't worry Dad).



I did my laundry last night, so I have clean clothes for now which is nice! Also, side note: The hand grip to my M4 Rifle says, "Knights Armament Vero Beach, FL". It is only on my weapon too, and it is always helps out when I look at it. It's like my hometown is always with me, and it gives me some peace of mind.



Alright, well I have got to go. We have PT in a few minutes, so I need to get down stairs. I love you all, and remember to keep sending me letters in the mail! I don't care what they are about, but it's like Christmas every time I get one. LOL



PFC Zaleuke



P.S. I have like 15 mins to write this. It is 10:00 pm and July 17th. I wrote the letter above at 4:30 am this morning. Alot has happened today. I got chosen for something called "Funeral Duty". Me and 20 other guys. We got our class "A" uniforms today, and I look Good as Hell! So if someone dies, we go. (They even gave me a bad ass black trench coat.) Also: Today we had a bad bad day. We got smoked All day. Had to carry 400 lb logs around the PT track for a mile in teams of 5. We had to disassemble our beds and set them up, downstairs in a one hour time limit, then bring them back up two stories and reassemble them. Sucked. I did it it all with a smile on my face because.... Well, why not?

Also, Drill Sergeant "K" caught a frog today. put it in a box and then gave it to me. I now have take this damn frog with me everywhere I go. F-that! LOL. I have to feed it and shower with it too.

More good news: Drill Sergeant "K" took me and 3 other guys outside today and told us more than likely we will be team leaders like Platoon guides and stuff. Cool huh? He said we work harder than anyone, lastly we have a 5 am four mile march tomorrow morning. It's going to suck. Okay, I have to go now. They are mad at us, so If I don't sent a letter for a few days don't be alarmed. I also got 9 letters today. From: my dad, mom, Aunt Mary, Sammy, Daniel, Ana and a few others. I will write back soon guys! Love you all. Pray for me!

Mike