July 28th, 2009

I dont have a lot of time to write tonight but I wanted to shoot you all a quick letter because this will be my last letter for about 3 days. We are getting up tomorrow morning (Wednesday the 29th) and will be going on a 7 mile ruck march to the shooting range. Apparently we will be doing so much shooting, we are just camping out on the range until Friday. The weather will be bad, so we will be sleeping in the rain... awesome! As soon as I get back I'll be sure to write a long letter for I will have a lot to say I'm sure.

Sammy sent me that binder with paper and lots of the clear plastic inserts, so everbodys letters are filed in this binder nicely to where I can go back and re-read them all with ease. It's perfect! I'm actually writing in it now. In other news, I got to talk on my cell phone last night. I got a chance to call my mom, dad, sister, Sammy, and I missed a call from Ana because my Drill Sergeant came in and said time was up, so I had to give the phone back. I also tried to call Daniel and Christina but I didn't get an answer. I felt 100% better after I spoke with my family. It was so good to hear their voices, it was very very refreshing and did me a lot of good. Thankyou guys- you made my day, week and possibly month.

ALso, they posted all of our PT scores tonight, and my score of 247 out of 300 landed me in the top 10 in my platoon. To be more exact, I'm #7 out of 56 soliders in my platoon. So thats something to be proud of right? Damn Right...LOL! This morning we woke up and did a long long fun three mile run in our platoon. We did the indian run most of the way, if you played football you know what this is. We got stopped numerous times and got smoked because some guys kept falling out of the run. I stayed strong the entire way however, and surprisingly I wasnt even breathiung hard when we were done. I'm even amazed at how good of shape I am in. I'm gonna pull so many chicks when I get out of here...but that wont be too much different than usual so...

Something funny-- we get to go to a concert on August 8th here on base. Out of all the crap bands in the world, we got stuck seeing Hinder..they are a crap band like creed, but whatever. I paid the $15 to go because it means I dont have to be here for one night. Also we get to eat pizza and drink soda and energy drinks. We will be smoked the next day I hear because the drill sergeants hate that we will be eating that shit but they cant stop us. Do I care though? Hell no! I'm going to eat pizza and drink soda until I throw up. I'm more than willing to pay for it physically later.

Lastly, we have been zeroing our weapons these past two days. We have been firing 5 shots and we have to hit a target the size of a quarter over 300 meters away. I'm a real Lee Harvey Oswald here. I mean I'm damn good. I cant wait to qualify with my weapon. I'd love to get expert.

Okay, I've got to go. I'll shoot out another letteer in a few days as soon as I get back from my camping trip. I love you all! Good night, sleep well!

-PFC Zaleuke