September 8th 2009

I am so excited about family day. This week is full of training and also stress, but most of us are just letting it roll off our backs because we are keeping in mind that we will see our loved ones very soon. Yesterday and today we have been at the range working our butts off in the blistering heat. We got a crazy smoke session last night for no apparent reason, but it turned into "extra pt" due to our high motivation. We ran a mile and a half in full ACU's and combat boots followed by heavy sprints and calisthenics. Our Drill Sergeant turned the last event into a competition. We had four squads of 15 people and we split up, 7 carrying a 400lb log and 8 carrying a 500lb tractor tire. We had to carry it around the PT track and race the other three squads, and the first squad finished got to use the phones for 15 minutes tonight. My squad really worked together and we ended up winning the event, so I get to call my Dad tonight which is pretty cool. After that, we took showers and had to go downstairs for final formation.. which we were late to. Our grand prize: A 20 minute smoke session that resulted in completely canceling out the fact that I took a shower 30 mins previous to this happening. Awesome.

Today was much easier however, and I got to shoot a crap load of ammunition which is always fun. Currently the guys are circled up in the center of the bay, two men armed with a wet towel, wearing only shorts. The objective: Who can take the most lashings without giving up. Lol, maturity at it's finest! I already packed up my ruck sack and it's ready to head out into the field tomorrow. We will stay out in the field tomorrow, tomorrow night, and all day Thursday. We will have to ruck back 10 miles Thursday night, and Friday morning we will have a Drill and Ceremony competition against the other platoons. All of the above will be rough and certainly challenging but hey, when its all said and done, we will get to see our families. I talked to my Dad on Sunday night, and he seemed to be very excited as well which in return is only making me even more anxious to see him. He will be bringing my computer with him, so instead of sending this letter in the mail as usual, I'll keep it on me and just blog it myself. I'll also be making a blog to let you all know about family day and what not, as well as be on facebook most of the night. I'm sure I'll have to catch up with a lot of people who have written me since i've been away at BCT. I got the chance to check my facebook the other night on someone's phone and I was surprised at how many messages I got from people who happened to stumble across my blog and read it on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to responding to them and their messages as well. We had our class B uniforms sent to the dry cleaners today to get ready for Saturday morning, so we are all very excited. We were all informed officially today that we are all finished with BCT and we all passed (for the most part) and are now onto AIT. Not too much longer now. Okay, that is all for tonight. The next time you hear from me will be on Saturday night from me personally unless I get a chance to write more before then. Take care everyone.

-PFC Zaleuke