August 5th, 2009

I apologize for not writing the past day or so, but we have been crazy busy and they havent given me much time to myself. These past few days have been hectic for us. We spend most of the day on the range shooting and being hot. Seriously, the other day it was 108 degrees on the field. We ran out of water, and we were on a sand course with no trees or shade. We had on full battle rattle (ACU’s, Bullet proof vest, helmet, etc). We had numerous guys drop out and sent to the infirmary. It is absolutely miserable some days, but on a good note, I’m shooting well. I hit 37 out of 40 targets yesterday which is Expert level, so that’s pretty legit.

I woke up yesterday morning to a pleasant surprise too! PT Test!! I was so pissed off because I like to mentally prepare for something like that. I did pretty good though again. We had been smoked a lot the night before so I was pretty out of it, but I did 50 pushups, 63 sit ups, and ran my two-mile run in 14:06. Yeah, it ‘is lower than’ last time, but give me a break, I get tired. My score is still high (230) and I’m still #7 in PT in my platoon. Everybody’s run times were down by one minute this time but that may be because last PT test we ran on the track while this one was on the road. Reguardless though, I’m stronger than ever, not to mention I’m in the best shape of my life. My scores are still well over 60% which is what I need to graduate AIT, so I’m not worried. I’m still a bad Ass.

LOL- this is a funny story I wanted to share with you. A few weeks ago I was given a cheap Bible by the Army when I went to church. Each bible had a personalized note inside of it written by people to soliders. I got one written by a nine year old little girl named Hunger, and she wrote her address in it, and asked me (or whoever) to write her. On one of my lazy Sundays, I wrote her a letter thanking her for the Bible and what not, and I told her a little about myself. A few weeks went by, and Friday, July 31st I got a FedEx package in the mail. We have to open all packages in front of our drill sergeants. That night, Drill Sergeant “K” who is our most…lively drill sergeant made me open it. That little girl’s family sent me a box of cupcakes, candles, mini-birthday balloon, confetti, and a long note and stuff. I automatically hung my head as if saying “damnit” to myself. My drill sergeant goes, “Wellllll, Private. What do we have here? It appears to be someone’s birthdayyy!” He took the food and that’s where it all ended (or so I thought).

I thought I had made it without getting smoked for my birthday because all my friends and family had done such a good job keeping all Birthday mail inconspicuous. Monday evening rolls around and Drill Sergeant “K” calls my friends Thomas and Wisdom up to his office and he goes, “Zaleuke, get your ass up here too.” So I double timed it up to the front of the bay and before I even got there Drill Sergeant goes, “Get the fuck down and do pushups Private!” Now I had thought maybe it was because I was only wearing shorts and sandals, but he goes, “Do you know why your doing pushups, Private?” I said, “No Drill Sergeant”. He told me I could think of the reason why while I do them while he goes into his office. The entire platoon is standing perfectly still, drill sergeant is in his office, and I’m looking at all of the guys as if like saying, “WTF did I do!?”

A few seconds later, Thomas and Wisdom came out of the office with my drill sergeant holding a cupcake with a single candle in it singing the Happy Birthday song. LOL. He asked me how old I was, and made me do 22 pushups, 22 situps, 22 squat benders, 22 downups, etc. When I was done however I got to eat my cupcake (which was damn good by the way) So basically by writing a simple letter this little 9 year old girl got my ass smoked. FML. For all of you who are laughing too, you can kiss my ass.. AKA: Daniel.

That is about all of the news for now though. I got 24 letters in the mail for my birthday, and that was pretty cool. I got about 8 letters tonight too! My dad sent me some really cool letters, lol, most of which contain pictures and quotes from our favorite movies. Everybody has been sending me unique and cool letters lately as well, and I have saved every letter I have gotten since I’ve been here and it is filed away in my binder. It will be something I can keep and look back on, and I enjoy keeping up with it nightly. For those of you who have not received letters from me, bear with me, I am slowly getting around to writing you back. Don’t think I don’t appreciate all of your letters though because I read them all.
I’m not sure what we have planned tomorrow, probably more shooting. For some reason we keep hearing hints about Ft. Bliss in Texas, and how we will “possibly” be deployed in six months or so. It is a mathematical certainty that I am going, but when and where is yet to be determined. It’s kind of nerve wracking and somewhat cool too. The army has officially made me terrified of IED’s now though (google I.E.D) It’s apparently a big big deal over in Iraq. Sweet….

LOL, alright it’s bed time. I love you guys and I’ll write again as soon as they give me free time. I always do. Good night.
-PFC Zaleuke