Military Matt

Bye

2005-04-20T10:42:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, thanks for reading. I've moved the blog over to the new MSN Spaces because it is easier to use. Go HERE now. Thanks.

Cleaning

2005-04-11T22:58:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning we all got up, shaved, showered and dressed as per usual. We then marched off to breakfast the same as every other morning and had the same thing as every other morning too. After breakfast, we had a little while to prepare for weapons inspections and section jobs. We all failed our weapons inspections and were given pointers on some ways to clean the rifles better. After putting our weapons back together, we marched off to the classrooms where we would be taught some lessons by soldiers on their PLQ course, which is a leadership course. They taught us a review on maps for two classes. We then went back outside and they taught us a lesson on Present Arms. After these lessons were done, we marched back to the mess for lunch. Upon entering, we were told to go back outside because we were supposed to have box lunches. After getting our lunches, we went back to the Barracks to eat. Lunch was the same kind of samdwiches and stuff that we always get, and it was good. Once we were done eating, we were told to clean our rifles some more...so we did. We thought that we would have another inspection, but it turned out that we didn't. After a while, we were told to put the rifles back together and have a good coat of oil on them. We then marched back to the weapons lockup and returned our weapons. Then, it was back to the Barracks to clean up. The busses were going to be early, and we wanted to get everything done before they arrived. Turns out they weren't really that early, so we got to sit outside in the nice spring weather. It was great. I love not having to wear a Jacket and gloves everywhere. The busses finally arrived, and we all piled on to go home. Everyone still had a huge grin on their faces from the day before. It was a good weekend.

The Range

2005-04-02T00:12:00.000-06:00

Didn't sleep very well last night. No one did. I think we were all too excited/nervous about finally firing our rifles. When the lights came on, most of us were already awake, so it was simply a matter of getting up and waiting for them to tell us what to do. Turns out they let us off of PT so that we would be rested for our weapons familiarization test. That meant that all we had to do was shave, shower and get dressed. We can handle that most of the time and it turns out that this was one of those times. We were outside and formed up on time for breakfast. Amazing. Breakfast was the same as usual. Following breakfast, we marched back to the Barracks where our section (3 Section) was told that we had about 5 minutes to get our stuff and be ready to go. Our job this morning would be setting up the targets at the range. We then went outside and transfered the targets from one truck to another and then we all climbed onto a third truck. This was the first time most of us had ridden on one of the bigger trucks and we thought it was pretty cool. Once we got out to the range, we set the targets up on the...uh...target holders? That works. With that done, we walked back to the admin area of the range to sign up for a relay and refresh our weapons handling drills. We also recieved our instructions for conduct on the range. Our course was split into half, with half of us firing and the other half working in the butts. If you have ever been on a range, you know what the butts are, but if you haven't, well basically the butts are kinda like bunkers at the target end of the range. They are concrete and they, and the targets, are below the level of the shooters. Our job was to raise and lower the targets so the shooters could see them and then bring them down and score and patch them when they were done. We also used pointers to indicate where the shots were hitting. We worked the butts for about 3 hours in the morning, raising, lowering, and patching the targets as needed. The sounds of the rounds passing through the canvas targets was much louder than I expected, as was the sound of the rifles firing themselves. At one point, someone said that waiting our turn to fire was worse than christmas morning. At around lunch time, the first relay was done shooting, so we went back to the admin are for our box lunches. We had sandwiches and all the usual box lunch stuff. Just as I was preparing to go to the bathroom after eating, our course officer came up to me and told me that I get the honour of babysitting his radio for him. This kinda sucked as I sorta had to pee and had little to no clue of what to do should someone call me on the radio. I put the headset on and prayed that no one would call. As luck would have it, the senty called and asked permission for someone to enter the range. I didn't know what to tell him so I gave him a Wait, Out and got a Warrant Officer to come and talk to him. Shortly after that, the Lt came and got his radio back and I grabbed my gear and walked out to the firing line.

Once on the firing line, we were told to load a 30 round magazine, which we did. We then fired a 5 round grouping at the target 100 meters ahead of us. After firing, we unloaded and went up to see the damage. My first grouping was terrible. So was the second. And the third. After the fourth grouping sucked and none of the advice I was given worked, I decided that maybe it was because I had to go to the bathroom so bad. Turns out I was right. After I relieved myself, my groupings got steadily better. Firing the rifle accurately was a lot more difficult than I thought. It is litteraly a whole body excersize to get rounds on target in anything resembling a decent grouping. For those of you who don't know, a grouping is the area where your shots land...the closer together, the better. You have to take into account everything...breathing, position, wind, everything. The rifle is also a lot louder than I expected. It was awesome. Everyone there had a permanent smile for the rest of the day after firing it. After firing quite a few practice rounds, we got to our test, which would be 5 groupings of 5 rounds in 4 different positions. We fired 10 from prone, and 5 from standing, sitting and kneeling. We were scored on the size of our groupings out of 25 possible points. I scored 25. When our relay was done, we were all brought back to the admin area. Everyone who scored 25, which was half the course, went back to work the butts, while the rest of the course got the chance to re-try to get 25. Everyone passed their tests. As we were working the butts, we were told that we were going to give 3 exposures of 20 seconds each with the targets. On each exposure, they were to fire 10 rounds. The awesome sound of that rate of fire was exceeded only by the sound of the fully auto fire which was to follow. By this time, everyone in the butts couldn't wait to get out there and shoot again, which we did. The recoil on auto was impressive...all those people in movies shooting on full auto and hitting stuff are full of crap. After expending all our ammo, we went back to the admin area for our haybox lunch of chicken and rice.

With supper done, we took all the stuff down and cleaned up the range. We must have picked up 30 pounds of spent casings. With the range clean, we marched back to the Barracks to clean our rifles. They were filthy. We have spent the whole course getting them as clean as they were and now we have to start from square one, but it was totally worth it. After spending the entire evening cleaning rifles, we all climbed into bed. I think we all slept better this time.

Range Weekend

2005-04-01T00:01:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I haven't updated in a while, but that's because we had time off for easter and stuff and we don't really do very exciting stuff on Tuesday nights, so I figured I would leave that stuff out. Anyways, we had a range weekend this past weekend and it was great. We all showed up at the Armouries on Friday night at the same time as usual. We were all super pumped...we finally get to fire our rifles! This Friday, the bus showed up somewhat earlier...a pleasant surprise. We got out to the base and began unpacking our stuff and wiping out lockers and doing section jobs. The same things we do every Friday night. This night, though, one of the other guys in my section and I were chosen to help load a bunch of stuff into a truck for the next day. So we went with the MCpl and Cpl and helped load the tent and various other things that we would be using the next day on the range. It wasn't all that hard and we were soon done and back in the Barracks where we continued to clean and get stuff squared away. When the other group arrived, we helped get them all set up and then we marched off to draw our rifles. We had to wait to get our rifles because there was some sort of problem with getting into the weapons lockup, but that problem was cleard up and we were re-united with our weapons. With rifles in hand, we returned to the Barracks for a good night's sleep.

Zombies

2005-03-21T15:20:00.000-06:00

The lights came on and we were told that the base was under attack and we were the only semi-trained troops on base and we needed to defend it. We got out of bed, threw our combats, jackets, webbing and helmets on, grabbed our rifles and ran outside. We then double timed it to an empty area near the edge of the base and were told that the enemy was dug in along a tree line to our front. In sections, we took turns advancing. Take 3 steps, prone, fire. 3 Steps, prone, fire. Our firing consisted of yelling "Bang, Bang". About half way there, two members of our section got ahead of us and were told that they were hit. The rest of the section came to their rescue, with myself and one other troop providing cover fire, while falling back, and the rest of the troops pulling the casualties off the battlefield. When we finally got back to our starting point, we were told that we had defeated the enemy, but there was another force coming in from a different direction. We double timed it to that location and went through the same procedure, only this time we made it to the imaginary trench and assaulted it. With that trench neutralized, we marched back to the Barracks to shower and get ready for the day. Best. PT. Ever. After showering and dressing, we marched off to have a brief breakfast, then back to the Barracks to get ready for inspection. Inspection went alright, although we still don't have those standardization problems remedied, and some of us need to work on our rifles. Then it was back to the classes for more nav lessons. With those done, we went for lunch.

Lunch was chicken wings and fries for me, which is a change. It was really good. Back to the classes after that for the finishing of the nav lessons, and WHMIS training. During the WHMIS training, we learned that zombies are a biohazard, but who didn't know that? With all our lessons done for the weekend, we cleaned up the classrooms and marched off to return our rifles. This was done without too much trouble and we marched back to clean up the Barracks. Since we had finished our classes early, we had time to clean the place up and get a quick nav review from our marching NCO. When the bus arrived, we were given our box lunched and sent on our way. Next weekend is a range weekend, so that should be fun, if a little nerve racking. I'm looking foreward to it.

Now I Have an Excuse for Not Asking Directions

2005-03-19T23:40:00.000-06:00

Not really sure what time they got us up on Saturday, but I think it was around 05:15. We had been told the night before that we would be doing a rucksack march, so we all got up, got dressed, put our ruckacks on and missed our timing. Crap. Since we didn't draw rifles the night before, we didn't have to worry about that. We simply marched along with the course officer. I'm not sure how far we went, but it wasn't really far. Since most of us are not used to carrying that much weight on our backs, some people were a little sore, but that soon passed. We returned to our Barracks and shaved, showered and got dressed again. Breakfast came next. Bacon and Eggs. After breakfast, we marched to the Barracks again to get ready for inspection. Inspection went ok, and we soon found ourselves on the way to the classrooms. Morning classes were all about proper radio procedure and stuff like that. Then it was lunch time.

Lunch was chicken and fries and once again, it was really good. Classes after lunch consisted of a little bit more radio stuff and then onto learning about maps, compasses and navigation in general. We learned how to actually read maps, how to use the compass and maps to figure out where to go, and where you are if you are lost. Most of the navigations stuff was fairly simple, and I think most of the people in class with me got it pretty well. At one point during the classes, we almost had to go back to Yelling Day because we were not answering loud enough or calling room loud enough. There's not really a whole lot to say about the rest of the map stuff. Following the afternoon of navigation stuff, we headed for supper. Porkchops and fries, again it was good.

After supper, we went back to the classes for couple hours to learn more about the maps and stuff, and then we marched to the weapons lockup to draw rifles. That went fairly quickly and we soon found ourselves back in the Barracks where some MCpls showed us how to cut down the maps to a more usable size and how to get them ready for use in the field. With that done, we were told that we had about 10 min to get ready for inspection. Inspection? In the evening? We were all super confused, but we did what they told us to do (or at least tried). We all had to mark time while being inspected again. Inspection was more thorough this time, and concentrated quite a bit on the rifles. We still have some standardization issues to work through. Following the inspections, we had an hour to fix up our deficiencies and clean our rifles. During this time, a soldier from another course came by and bugged us a little for having to mark time, but it was all in good fun. None of this stuff would be any fun if it wasn't for the fact that you're going through it with your buddies. With our rifles as clean as they were gonna get that night, we put them back together and got ready for bed. The lights went out at 23:00. This time without a lullaby to put us to sleep.

Sleeping Bags Within Sleeping Bags

2005-03-18T20:55:00.000-06:00

Got to the armouries at the usual time and like, like ususal, we sat around talking while we waited for the bus. Again, at the usual time, the bus arrived and we all filed on. After the short ride to the base, we all filed off the bus, grabbed our kit and headed into the Barracks. Since we left our beds made last weekend, we didn't have to make them, so we just unpacked our stuff and got our lockers all set up. We also took this time to do a little work on our section jobs and to clean the lockers that weren't being used. Once the other bus arrived, we took our rucksacks out pulled the sleeping bags off. After taking them, and all the other crap, out of our Valises, we tied the liner, inner and outer parts of the sleeping bags together and put them back in the valises. With this done, we made sure that our rucksacks were adjusted properly in preparation for the march the next day. We then had a timing in which to be in bed, the last section in bed had to sing to the other sections. Unluckily for the other sections, one of our guys got locked in the bathroom and we had to sing. Rockaby Baby was then song, and I'm pretty sure that no one on course was soothed by the sweet sounds of 3 Section. When no calls for an encore came, we went to sleep.

More Cool Stuff

2005-03-10T22:59:00.000-06:00

Now that I've actually had some time to read some of the blogs that I posted about before, I realized that the wife of the soldier who writes This is Your War has her own blog called Until He Comes Home. It's kinda cool. You get to see both sides of the deployment...the soldier and the people he leaves behind. Cool.

Cool Stuff

2005-03-08T23:21:00.000-06:00

Hey all. I was surfin the net for a little today and found some pretty sweet blogs. I made a section just for them on the right side of the screen. Check them out, I've only had like 10 minutes to read them but they look good from what I see.

Weapons Test

2005-03-06T19:21:00.000-06:00

I had the last shift for fire picket, so I was already awake when the lights came on. We all jumped up and got dressed for PT, which was a webbing march. It was raining outside and fairly warm so there was a lot of puddles for us to march through. Before we even started marching, we realized that someone had forgotten something, so we did the waiting position in the rain and in a puddle until they were ready because we should have been looking our for each other. I'm not sure how long the march was, but it was mostly just walking, with a few periods of slight jogging. While we were marching, we played a little game where the 2 people in the back run up to the front when the course officer called go. It actually made the march more interesting. After the march, we were back at the Barracks to shower and get ready for the day, and then it was off to breakfast. I had the same as Saturday.

Following breakfast, we went back to the Barracks to do section jobs. We didn't have inspection all weekend because of the need to study for the exams, so we headed to the classrooms for a little bit more practice before our tests. Somehow I was one of the last ones in line to do my test, so I got to stand there and watch everyone else come out from the testing rooms. They couldn't tell us what they did wrong or right, so they just stood outside and talked while the rest of us stood around and tried not to be nervous. When the time came to do my test I was a little nervous about filling the magazines, but I was fairly confident with my weapons drill. Turns out I can fill the mag in time and I passed my test. Yay. With our tests done, we marched back to the Barracks for lunch. I drew first sentry duty, so I went ahead of the group and started eating. I had 3 chicken fingers and a glass of water and then headed back to the Barracks to relieve the other sentry. Once lunch was finished and everyone was back from the shacks, we marched to the fire hall to learn how to use fire extinguishers. Since they are pretty simple devices, no one had any problems. With our lessons complete, we marched to the weapons lockup to return our rifles. Some people needed rifles with longer or shorter butts, so we all sized for our rifles and the ones that needed new ones got new ones. We also got different rack numbers because of people dropping from the course. While we were in the weapons lockup, we were told that the course was not working as a team. Obviously this is not a good thing in the Army. We then tried to do some team pushups but it didn't work out too well. I imagine that we'll be seeing them again. After that, we marched back to the Barracks to pack our stuff and clean up. There is another course staying across the Barracks from us and they cleaned the bathrooms, so all we had to do was the main part of our side of the building. With the busses waiting for us and the building clean, we grabbed our gear and our box lunches and piled on. We have the next weekend off, so maybe I can get ahead on some homework for once instead of trying to catch up.

Gas Hut

2005-03-05T16:07:00.000-06:00

The lights came on at 06:00 and we all jumped out of bed. The girls went and showered while the guys shaved and brushed our teeth. Then we traded places. When everyone was all dressed and ready for the day, we marched to the mess for breakfast. I had french toast and bacon. We then marched back to the Barracks to do section jobs. Our section had easier jobs than the others, so we helped them out. We also learned at this point that our section would have a new section commander. He just got back from Afghanistan and that is why he couldn't be there for the beginning of the course. Cool. Next, we dressed in full fighting order, grabbed our rifles and NBC suits and marched to the classrooms for our written NBC test. The test was multiple choice and I think we all did well, owing to the fact that we had time to study the night before. With the tests complete, we donned our NBC suits and practiced the drill one last time bafore the gas hut. Then we marched out to the gas hut. The snow around the hut was about a foot and half deep and we had to clear a space so we could put our rifles down without burying them in the snow. Our section was to be the last ones into the hut, so we stood outside and watched as the other sections put on their masks (MOPP 4) and entered the building. When no one came running from the building on fire or anything, our nerves were calmed a little. When our turn came, we put on our gas masks and gloves and zipped up our suits and walked into the gas hut. I expected it to be all smoky and hazy in there with a gas grenade or something supplying the gas, but instead it was clear and they heated little pellets to make the gas. At least that's what it looked like. Once inside, we did a little PT, just to be sure that our masks were sealed properly. Then we did drinking drills so that we can drink water with our maskes on. Next came the hardest part. We had to take our masks off while holding our breath and closing our eyes and go through decontamination drills. If you don't purge the air from your mask before breathing in, you get a mouth full of CS. I think everyone got some, but it wasn't too bad. It just made you want to cough a little. With this all done, we went outside and aired out our suits and washed our masks. We still had one other drill to do, so our section stood and watched the other sections while we waited for our turn. While we were waiting, one of the other recruits came out of the hut and was told to flap his arms to air out the suit. Some of us thought it was funny and laughed. We got caught laughing so we had to run about 100m through knee deep snow while flapping our arms. By the time I was done, my legs were rebelling and not listening to what I told them to do. I guess it wasn't that funny. I recovered quick enough. I had to, it was our turn to go back into the hut. With our masks off, we walked toward the hut and when we started feeling the effects of the gas, we went through the masking drill. We all did pretty good. That concluded the gas hut stuff, so we marched back to the Barracks. Once there, we took off our NBC suits, took a shower and changed our clothes. We also took the time to clean and oil our rifles, as they had been lying in the snow all morning and rust is a BAD thing. Lunch was box lunches.

After lunch, we went back to the classrooms for some lessons and practice with the C7. We learned the Immediate Action drills for stoppages and practiced all the stuff that we would need for the test the next day. We also learned how to compensate for wind and moving targets. The temperature on Saturday was about plus 5 so as we marched, we marched through puddles and mud. Puddles and mud equal dirty boots which need to be cleaned. Most of cleaned our boots about 5 times that day, instead of being smart and cleaning them once at night. Oh well. Water also equals dirty pants and, if you are unfortunate enough to fall in it, dirt everything. Fortunately, our combats dry quickly and do not show mud and stuff very well, so we didn't look like total crap. Following classes, we marched off to supper. I had a hot dog and fries.

Following supper, we went back to the classroom for more lessons. Most of it was C7 review, but we also had classes on the use of cover. Use of cover was my favorite class. We are finally getting into some real army stuff. When that class was done, we got our jackets, webbing and helmets on and went outside to practice using cover. We basically walked around and practiced finding cover. I learned some things about taking cover behind vehicles and beside buildings that I never knew before. After a bit of jumping into snowbanks and hiding behind buildings and trees, we went back to the Barracks. Once there, we did our section jobs and then began practicing for our weapons handling drill the next day. Our section took turns on loading the magazines because we didn't get a lot of practice on it. After practice, we turned in our bolts, and then hit the racks. Fire picket was uneventful.

Weekend of Insert witty adjective here

2005-03-04T15:35:00.000-06:00

I know I didn't update for last Tuesday, but we didn't do anything new, just a review of the last weekend so I didn't think it was worth updating. Anyways...I got dropped off at the Armouries at about 6:35 and basically just sat around with the rest of the group and talked about how we weren't really nervous, even though we knew we had to go though the gas hut and that we had a weapons handling test this weekend. We drilled a lot the last weekend for the gas hut, and they always review with us before a test, so we were fairly confident. The bus arrived and, to our dismay, we saw that is was just a yellow school bus that the bus company had bought. None of us thought that we'd all fit in it because there was more than just our course getting on and we all had our kit to put on as well. After some clever packing, we all managed to get aboard and started our drive out to the base. Once there, we did the usual. We made beds and unpacked our stuff until the rest of the recruits arrived and then we marched off to draw weapons. Once we had our rifles and marched back to the Barracks, we were told to start studying for our written NBC test the next morning. We were also told that there would be no kit inspection the next morning because they wanted us to study for the tests. We still had to do station jobs. After a bit of studying, we were sent to bed. Our section had fire picket this week so we did that too.

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Just a note about Acronyms. The military loves acronyms and I will try to provide meanings for them, but if I forget (or you don't feel like going back through to see what a previously used one means) I recommend the Military Words site.
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Prone, Crouch, Kneeling, Standing

2005-02-27T21:35:00.000-06:00

Sunday started off like any other non-PT day. We got up, showered, shaved, dressed, and missed a timing. Breakfast (same as yesturday) came next, followed by cleaning up and getting ready for inspection. Inspection went a little better this time, but we still need to get standardized, and I need to shave better. Section jobs also left something to be desired. Back to the classrooms next for some more lessons on our Personal Protective Clothing. We'll be going into the gas hut next weekend, so we practiced our drill for that. Next we did rifle drill. We learned firing from the crouched, kneeling and standing positions. After a very short time indoors, we moved outside into a field across from the classroom. We walked through the field while our MCpl called out positions. In some places, the snow was about knee high, so when you went to prone position, you almost dissapeared under the snow. I loved it. By the end of it all, we were soaking wet but it was fun. We were actually doing some "army stuff". Lunch time was next.

Lunch was burgers again and then back to the classrooms for more rifle drill. We did the same thing as in the morning, only this time we wore gloves and learned a little bit about using various things, like trees or berms for cover. Once again soaking wet, we moved inside for our test. It wasn't very hard as it was the first stuff we learned. After the test, we marched to the weapons vault to turn in our rifles :( and then we split into 2 groups. One group cleaned the Barracks while the other one cleaned the classrooms. With the Barracks cleaned and our kit outside, we got our box lunches and jumped on the bus. Another fun weekend over.

Army of Darkness

2005-02-26T19:50:00.000-06:00

Started the morning by getting up, getting dressed in combats, getting ready for outside and being late. With rifles in hand, we started marching, led by our course officer. I'm not exactly sure how long or far we marched but the marching itself wasn't too hard. The hard part was holding our rifles properly. It doesn't sound like much, but the rifles can get heavy if you are not used to holding them in that position. About half way through the march, we were told to stop and have a drink. Unfortunatly, only 4 people remembered to fill their canteens. This would come back to haunt those of us who forgot. After being reminded that we would die without water, we turned around and marched back to the Barracks where we undressed and showered shaved and got ready for the day. Again we missed our timing. Breakfast was the same as every other weekend, only this time I opted for the french toast instead of the eggs.

After breakfast, we marched back to the Barracks to get ready for inspection. For some reason unkown to man, we decided to do our personal kit and just forget about section jobs. Needless to say, that was a very dumb thing to do. Inspection was a short one because we had to get to class, but none of us did any good. With inspection done, we marched to the classrooms where we started learning about (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) NBC warfare Defence. We learned the different kinds of NBC agents, what they do, and how to detect and protect yourself from them. We then got ready for breakfast and started marching toward the mess hall. Or so we thought. In reality, we were marching back to the Barracks to start paying back the time we wasted earlier in the morning. Some of the things we had to do were duck walking, sitting in invisible chairs, and various other PT. Normally, it would have really sucked, but the MCpl in charge of us kept us laughing, so our minds were not on how badly we just wanted to stop and sit down. He did warn us that we might not feel the effects from the PT right then, but we would later. He was right. With that done, we marched off for breakfast. With that done, we marched back to the Barracks. Our MCpl told us to get inside and grab our kit and boomsticks. If you have never seen the movie Army of Darkness, I suggest you do so. The funniest part was when someone asked "What's a boomstick?" Hilarious. The afternoon was mostly NBC stuff where we learned more effects, delivery methods and detection methods and signals. That was about it for the afternoon, so we marched off for supper.

I got sentry duty, so I waited in the Barracks with the weapons and kit while the rest of the group went and ate. I was relieved by one of my course mates and made my way to the mess hall, where I has a very good chicken burger. Supper was followed by more NBC classes, where we learned about MOPP and how to properly wear our gas masks and suits. We were also given a review for a test we would have the next day. With this done, we marched back to the Barracks, where we thought we would have extra time to ourselves. As it would turn out, we hadn't fully paid back for the time we wasted earlier, nor made up for not filling our canteens. We started by getting out of our combats and into our PT gear and into bed. With that done, we did about a minute of bed drill and then we got out of bed and ready for PT. PT was all of the course, minus the four who had full canteens, doing pushups, SAS jumping jacks, spelling out the alphabed with our legs (kinda hard to explain), and finger extensions, while the aforementioned four finished thier full canteens, one at a time. It was a good workout. With PT done, we were told to go shower and shave. By this time, most of us were super confused. Maybe because we didn't know what was going on, or maybe because we were just as tired at 20:30 as we are at 05:00. Once we were shaved and showered, we got dressed in combats again and stood outside our bunks. Next, we got back into PT gear, and finally had the night to do our section jobs and clean our weapons. We spent until 22:10 doing section jobs and cleaning our rifles and setting up our personal kit. After that, we studied for our exam until bed time. Lights out was at 23:00 and we were told that for some reason there would be no PT the next morning and would get to sleep in until 06:00. We certainly didn't deserve that, but we'd take it.

Weekend 5

2005-02-25T19:25:00.000-06:00

Got to the Armouries at 6:40 and there was no one from our course there. I almost started to think that maybe we didn't have training, and I didn't get the memo. The rest of the group showed up a few minutes after that and we basically sat around waiting for the bus again. After a long while, the bus showed up and we were on our way to another weekend of BMQ. When we got to the base, we unloaded our stuff and started unpacking our kit. We left most of it the last weekend, so there wasn't a whole lot to unpack. Because so many people from our section were now off course, we picked up some people from the other sections, so we tried to get them all standardized to how we do things. After the other bus showed up, we helped them unpack, and then we got dressed and marched off to draw weapons. With our weapons in hand, we made our way back to the Barracks. Once back at our Barracks, we locked up our rifles and got in our bunks. Before we got to sleep, we were told that PT in the morning would be a rucksack march.

Twosday

2005-02-23T00:07:00.000-06:00

Since I forgot to update with last Tuesdays happenings, I'll do two in one. Last Tuesday we basically just did a review of our weapons drill and then did a lot of present arms practice. We needed it. That about covers last week, now for this week. This Tuesday we did something totally different and did weapons drill. We do a lot of weapons drill, but it's kinda important seeing as how we are in the Army. We also had our Chaplain come in and tell us about him and the services he provides. We also saw some other troops practicing with C9s or C6s and Carl Gustavs I think. Can't wait until we get to use those. I had one of the other recruits tell me that I sound kinda gun happy on this site. What do you expect....I'm going in for Weapons Technician. That's about all I have for now, so thanks for reading and I'll catch ya later.

S.H.A.R.P.

2005-02-13T23:13:00.000-06:00

For the first time on course, I actually slept through the whole night. Usually, I wake up a few times, expecting it to be almost time to get up, but it never is. We got up at 5:30 and got shaved, showered and dressed for the day. Just like yesturday, we got into fighting order and went outside and did some drill before breakfast. Breakfast was the same thing as ever other morning, and then we went back to the Barracks to get ready for inspection. Inspection focused mainly on our weapons and I found out that there are still places that I am missing in my weapons cleaning, so I'll work on that. After inspection, we headed to the classrooms where we learned about Sexual Harassment and Racism Prevention (SHARP). Most of it was common sense stuff but we learned that almost anything can be considered harassment, as long as someone is offended. SHARP training was pretty dry, but they did a good job of getting us into the discussion, instead of just talking to us. We even got to do skits! After a morning of that, we went to lunch.

I honestly forget what we had for lunch, but you can be assured that is was good. After that, we went back to the classrooms for more SHARP training and we did that until mid-afternoon, when we got all our stuff together and marched off to return our rifles. With our rifles back in their homes, we marched to the Barracks and packed up the stuff we were taking with us, and locked up the stuff we weren't. We then cleaned up the place and filed outside to get ready to go home. Once we had our box lunches (even the box lunches are good), we piled onto the bus that would take us back to the city. Another weekend of training completed.

Rifle Drill

2005-02-12T23:38:00.000-06:00

Started the day at 5:30 and since I was on fire picket from 05:00 to 05:30, I was already awake when the lights came on. Unlike every other morning, we were told to get up and shave, and then get dressed. So we did. We were then told to dress in fighting order and get outside. Our section actually made it out in good time, but that is because there is only 5 of us. I think that we almost made our timing as a course, but as I read somewhere, close only counts in horseshoes, nukes and proximity-fused missiles. Once everyone was all ready to go, we marched to an area where the snow had been cleared and worked on some drill. Since we essentially lose 2 nights of training due to the whole weekend training thing, we are now doing drill practice in the mornings. Cool. After drill, we marched back to the Barracks and dropped off our rifles and webbing and marched off to breakfast, which was bacon and eggs like usual.

After a good breakfast, we headed back to the Barracks to get ready for inspection. One of our sections' biggest problems is that we are not all standardized with each other, so we made extra sure to be all the same. There were some discrepancies, but we did all right. After inspection, we marched off to the classrooms where we learned how to load, unload and make safe our weapons. It was kinda fun, working with weapons is always interesting. Following that, we marched off to lunch, which was the usual.

Then we went back to classes for some more weapons drill and learning firing from the prone position. Prone position is pretty simply stuff. The challenge is to do it without hurting yourself on the tile floor. There were some people with some pretty cool bruises from not doing it right but no one was really hurt (they were all good the next day). Some of the weapons drill will take practice to do it in the proper time but, like I said, all it will take is some practice. The hardest thing is getting your magazine pouch closed with one hand. I'm not 100% sure what we did next, because I waited to update, but I think that we started some basic radio stuff and then went to supper.

Supper was roast pork, and it was pretty good. It was back to the classes after that for some more radio stuff, and then we went back to the Barracks for the night. Once there, we did a little bit more weapons drill on anything that we had problems with, and did a bit of prone position practice as well. We had a pretty decent amount of time to get ready for the next day, so our section made sure that our section jobs were done, and all the lockers were standardized before we started cleaning our rifles. We got some tips from the MCpls on what parts were tough to clean, and how to clean them properly, so it went ok. After turning in our bolts for the night, our section studied some of the stuff that we had learned during the day. Then, for some reason, our section didn't have to do fire picket, although we fully expected to, so we got to hit the bunks at around 23:00. It was a busy day, but like I said earlier, working with our rifles in interesting, so I would call it a good day.

Day Before Saturday

2005-02-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

I name this post on a tip from a friend. Got to the Armouries at the usual time and again, we waited for the bus to come and get us. Unlike last weekend, the feelings this time were mixed. Some of us were nervous, and some were not. The bus arrived, and we all piled on. Because we left some of our kit in our lockers last weekend, we had a lot less kit to pack. The trip out to the base was rather uneventful, and everyone looked like they were tired. When we arrived at our barracks, we all piled off the bus, grabbed our gear and headed inside. We didn't have to make the beds of the other people this time, because their sheets were locked in their lockers, so we made our beds, and then started unpacking our stuff. After our stuff was all ready, the other bus showed up and we helped tose guys unpack and get ready. Our section has had some problems with being standardized, so we made an attempt to fix that. We were then told to get ready to go draw rifles. We all marched down to the weapons lockup and got our weapons and put all our other stuff in our webbing. Then, we marched back to the bunks and got ready for bed. For some reason, our section didn't have to do fire picket last weekend, so we did it this week. Unfortunately, there were 5.5 hours of sleep time availiable, and only 5 of us (due to one of us being sick) so I got the first shift and the last shift, which wasn't too bad. 4 hours is more sleep then we've had some nights.

End of the Weekend, or is it Start of the Week?

2005-02-06T17:06:00.000-06:00

Today the MCpls let us sleep in until 06:00 again, and we didn't do PT either, which was kinda dissapointing because it really helps you stay awake during the day.

*****
Speaking of PT, I recently had someone ask me whether or not we had to do PT at home during the week. Well, since they aren't there, they can't really make you, but they can suggest that you do. In fact, I suggest that you do too. It will help you. Here's what we usually do. Start off by stretching. It would take a long time go to http://tms.ecol.net/fitness/strindex.htm for some good ones. We don't do all of those, but you can never stretch too much. Since it is cold outside, we usually just jog on the spot. Continually. Keep your heart rate up for the whole excersize. After stretching, we do a mixture of pushups, jumping jacks, lunges, and variations on running on the spot such as bringing your knees up high, and kicking your butt. We usually do this for about half an hour to 40 minutes. Have fun.
*****

After we all got up, we had 25 minutes to get showered, shaved and dressed for the day. Our section was outside and lined up in time, and we thought that we were doing good. Unfortunately, someone didn't make their bed, and the rest of us didn't check, so we had to go back inside to make that bed. Crap, another timing gone.

Breakfast was the usual, and then we headed back inside for inspection. Inspection wasn't as bad as the day before, except for the fact that we had to mark time during the entire inspection, and our section didn't really have time to clean our weapons properly, so we all caught crap for that. Luckily for me and my fire team partner (bunk mate) we were first in line for inspection, so the MCpls took it all out on us, and let everyone else learn from our mistakes. Oh well, take one for the team, and it isn't so bad being yelled at, as long as you don't take it personally. And whatever you do DO NOT SMILE. They hate that. Even when they say something funny, don't smile during inspection. There are times on the course when they will joke around with you, and it's alright then, but never during inspection. For some reason, inspection took a long time and we were late for class, which was blamed on us of course. I know that this is making BMQ sound like hell, but believe me, for the most part, it is an enjoyable experience. There is a lot of yelling, but as long as you work hard, try your best, and make some friends, it will be fun. Stripping and cleaning my rifle makes all the yelling worth it so far. (I know I won't be saying that after cleaning it for the billionth time, but I like it right now) Classes were first aid again, with CPR, chemical warfare, and combat stress disorder being the main topics. After a pretty normal morning, it was time for lunch.

Chicken Burgers. That's what we had for lunch. It was good. (I'm trying to use a variety of sentence lengths to make the writing more interesting, it it working?) We then marched back to class for more CPR and to write the test. I'm not sure what I got on the test, but they didn't tell me to re-write it, so I guess I passed. After the test, we were all gathered in the waiting area, thinking that we would be going to return our rifles. A MCpl came into the room and asked for 2 people from each section to come foreward to help clean. I figured it would be like the last weekend, where we would clean the class, while everyone else cleaned the bunks, so I volunteered. 25 minutes later, we finished cleaning and returned to the waiting room expecting it to be empty. It wasn't. Everyone was still there, still in their jackets and other winter clothing, sweating. Doh! oh well, I did extra work, but at least I didn't have to stand around sweating my arse off. All the cleaners got ready to go, and we marched off to return our weapons. It was all going so good, until one of the guys from another section realized that he had lost his BFA. Crap. Losing a part of a weapon is not a good thing, and they ended up recommending he be charged for the incident. I'm not talking like going to jail or anything, he might have to pay a little bit, but I still feel bad for the guy. After the yelling for that was over, we headed back to the Barracks to get ready to go home. It was then that we were told that these would be our Barracks for the remainder of the course and that we didn't have to take everything home with us. Wooo Hooo. I packed up only what I had to and then started cleaning. Because we were keeping these Barracks, we were told that we didn't have to strip the bed. They told us this AFTER I had stripped mine, so I remade my bed. Making these beds isn't like making your bed at home. The beds, if looked at from the sides, look kinda like this I____I , with the I part being the head and foot of the bed. This wouldn't be so bad if the mattresses weren't way too big for the frames. It is almost impossible to tuck in the sheets at the head and foot. It is not uncommon to take 10 minutes to make a bed. So we finally got everything cleaned, put away, and got lined up outside, when they told us to go back in and strip our beds. Ha Ha Ha. I went back inside and stripped my bed, again, and put the sheets and stuff in my locker. I went back outside and lined up, expecting to have to go back in and make my bed again. I didn't and they gave us our box lunches (for supper) and we got on the bus. Home time.

We thought that the work was over when we got back to the armouries, but it wasn't. 5 or 6 cars got stuck trying to get out of the parking lot, so we went and pushed them out. After a weekend of being yelled at and rushed, working along side and joking around with your buddies makes you forget all the bad stuff and remember why you joined the army. I'm looking foreward to next weekend, but if you aske me on Friday, I'm sure I'll be nervous as hell and won't want to go, but I always come home feeling better than I went in.

I Wish I had a Camera

2005-02-05T23:01:00.000-06:00

Sleeping in Barracks can be an interesting experience. You have 24 people sleeping in fairly close quarters. Unfortunately for my section, one of those people snores. The only time he doesn't snore is when he's talking in his sleep! I'm not talking a little mumbling. At one point in the night, I thought that a MCpl had come into the room and was chewing someone out. It was bad. I woke up for the 5th time just before 05:00 and figured I was good to go. At about 05:10 I figured we'd get up at 05:30 so I should get 20 minutes more sleep. That 20 min turned into 40 min. They got us up at 06:00 and told us to shower, shave and get ready for breakfast, there would be no PT today. Wooooo Hoooooo. We were given a 28 min timing, and missed it by about 2 minutes. Crap. We marched off to breakfast.

Breakfast was the usual bacon and eggs, and we were given a 15 minute timing. We were done in 10. We thought we were being good little soldiers by being outside and formed up 5 min early. Once again, we were wrong. By being formed up early, we forced our MCpl to rush to finish his breakfast. He didn't like that. By this time it was just before 7, and we had already caught crap for being late for a timing, and for being early for one. That was a new one on this course. We then headed back to the Barracks to get ready for inspection. I thought that I had my stuff pretty good. I didn't. I had most of the usual stuff, strings on webbing, bed not made tightly enough, that kinda thing. I also had a hair in my helmet that wasn't mine. I guess my girlfriend had tried it on, and left hair in it. The MCpl asked what color her hair was, so I told him and when he showed me the hair, it didn't look like it, so I said so. Then he asked me if I was cheating on her. It took all I had not to laugh. My fire team partner had a quarter in his helmet for some reason, so now he has to keep that quarter on him for the whole course. After cleaning up from inspection, we went to class. It was Military First Aid, which is the same as civilian first aid, but we learn about treating chemical warfare attacks too. Some of the videos we watched were hilarious, with Oscar caliber acting. After learning about emergency scene management, artificial respiration and how to treat shock, choking and severe bleeding, we went for lunch.

Lunch was cheeseburgers like usual, and after that we went to draw rifles. We did this pretty quickly and without much trouble, and then headed for more first aid classes. In the afternoon, we learned how to treat broken bones, head and spinal injuries, and chest wounds. The afternoon was pretty uneventful for a change, and we were all happy to not be doing drill. Supper came next.

Supper was KFC and fries, and then we started marching off to class. To all our horror, we were marching to the drill hall, which is basically just a gym. Imagine our relief when we saw the first aid instructors waiting for us inside. It was like being pulled over be the police when you were speeding, and having the cop give you a check...or something like that. You get the point. Anyways, in the gym we learned rescue carries. I now know how to make a stretcher with a blanket and 2 sticks, or just 2 sticks and 2 combat shirts, or just a blanket, or a stretcher...wait, cancel that last one. We also learned one person carries, like the fireman's (fire persons?) carry. The piggy back carry was hilarious to watch. Just imagine all these guys jumping on each others backs and running the length of the court. It was great. The other good one to watch was the neck drag. The injured person lays on his back, and the rescuer get's down on all fours over top of him. The injured person then puts his arms around the rescuers neck and holds on. The rescuer then runs on all fours, like a dog, with the casualty dragging beneath him. Just like the picture below. After that fun, we went back to Barracks, where we had 2 hours to clean up and get ready for the next day. During this 2 hours, 2 people from another section left their weapons out and unwatched, so for the rest of the weekend, and into next weekend, they have to have their rifle tied to them. Literally. Our section took our weapons apart and cleaned them somewhat properly this time. It was fun. I think I'm gonna call my weapon Trogdor. Follow the link to see what Trogdor is. We got to bed at about 23:00. It was a good day.

Look like fun?

Here We Go Again.

2005-02-04T19:40:00.000-06:00

Snow. Lots of snow. That's how this weekend started. For the 2 weeks that we had off, it was all plus temperatures and really quite nice outside. But not Friday. It was snowing so badly that the bus that was coming to get us was about an hour late. That just gave all us recruits time to talk about how much we didn't want to go this weekend. Everyone I talked to was nervous about this weeked. Turned out that some of this nervousness was founded, and some was not. The bus finally arrived at the armoury, and we all piled on, only this time we have a smaller bus, and some of us had to hold our kit in our laps for the trip. I actually didn't mind having to carry my stuff on the bus because that meant that I didn't have to walk around in the snow, looking for my stuff. Because I already had my stuff, I helped everyone else get their stuff off, and then we all headed into the Barracks. Just like every other weekend, we started making beds. At this point, there were only 3 people in our section who were there, so the 3 of us had to make beds for 10 people. Needless to say, the other sections got done before us, and we all looked slow. When the other people actually did get there, one of the people in our section decided that he should worry about his stuff first, and not help the rest of the section. He was wrong. All he managed to do was piss off the rest of the section. We lost 5 people already. That's right 5. We started with 11. Two of those people were good people to have in the section, so now, when we need to be picking it up to make up for the lost troops, we have someone who is not a team player. This is not going to be good. After we got our stuff put away, we thought that we would be drawing rifles. We were wrong. They sent us to bed. 12:00 on a Friday night, and we were going to bed? Holy crap. It's a surprise, but a welcome one. To top it all off, one of the MCpls told us that we would have CPR training all day the next day. Yay, no drill!!! Any time we can get away from the MCpls and into a classroom, we were happy, and to have a whole day of it!! Heavenly. We crawled into bed and got to sleep. For the most part, so far, so good.

10% Tuesday

2005-02-01T23:21:00.000-06:00

I name this post in honor of a friend who, while I was training with a C7, was working with produce. Did I say honor? I mean rub it in his face. You know who you are ;) Anyways, this Tusday started off really early because I had to get up to do the homework that I have been falling behind on while on training. So, after a long day of homework, I got ready for an evening at the Armouries.

This Tuesday at the Armouries started off pretty much the same as the rest. We stood around wondering what the heck we were supposed to be doing. A Sgt. came to our rescue, and told us to form up for directions. For those of you who are not in the military, forming up is when you march out onto the parade square, and form ranks. Ranks are just lines of troops, like when you see them marching on TV. For those of you who ARE in the military, sorry for the what is propbably improper use of terms, but it's the only way I know how to explain it. Sgt. W then told us to head to the weapons lock-up so we could draw weapons. Sweet. Unfortunately, all we did with the weapons was about a half hour refresher class on personal safety precautions, and some tech data on the C7. We then had to take our rifles back to the lockup, but not before writing the serial number down, so we could memorize it. Great, I get to remember MORE numbers, and we didn't even get to take them apart. After putting our rifles away, we got to do the fun stuff. Drill. Not the really fun stuff, there were too many other people around for that. We got to do like 35 minutes of Mark Time, and About Turn. We must have gone from Attention to At Ease 60 times. After that, it was all just admin stuff. Some of us don't know our blood type, so we have to figure that out. Basically, our night after that was just paper work. On the way home, I talked to a little girl who thought it was just the best thing in the world to sit beside an "army guy" on the bus. That was pretty cool. Well, it's time to go back to the homework now, I have 2 midterms next week, with no time to study this weekend because of training. Please feel free to leave a comment below, I like to hear what you think. Check back on Monday for another update on my weekend of BMQ. Thanks for stopping by.

Wow That Was Boring.

2005-01-25T23:51:00.000-06:00

Well, another tuesday night finished. This one wasn't nearly as cool as the machine gun tuesday. All we did tonight was drill practice and then had a Junior Ranks Mess meeting. All we did at the meeting was decide to buy a stereo and a couch for the mess. Because the army stuff was boring, I'm going to share a little experience with you.

I have NEVER had anyone who I didn't know come up and talk to me on the bus. Never. It just didn't happen. Until I joined the Army. Now, everytime I leave my apartment with my uniform on, I get these 35-50 year old guys coming up to me and asking stuff like, "Hey are you going to Iraq?" Ummm...no, we don't even have troops in Iraq. Why does everyone think that just because you are in the Army, you are going to Iraq? I also get the people, mostly young guys, who think it is cool to do dumb stuff like mock saluting you when you walk past them, or asking stuff like have you ever killed anyone before. No, I haven't, but if I did have to, I sure as hell wouldn't want some punk reminding me of it. I thought uniforms were supposed to attract girls, not weirdo's. I also get a lot of people who "were thinking of joining, but didn't want to have to kill people". Sorry to say, but that's what the Army does, and if you didn't want to have to kill an enemy of your country, then why the hell were you thinking of joining the Army? Maybe they are feeling guilty that they never had the resolve to join, and are trying to get me to say that it is ok that they didn't. Well it is ok, the Army isn't for everyone, heck I don't even know if it's for me, I've only been in a month, but I love it so far.

I don't mind the people who come up and just talk to me about being in the Army, like why are you in the Army, how long have you been in, that kinda thing. Those people are ok, and I actually like that they feel that they can walk up to someone in a Canadian Forces uniform and talk to one of the people who help defend their country. Even the people who ask if I'm going to Afghanistan don't bother me, because if it wasn't for school and stuff, I would probably volunteer to go. I guess what I'm trying to say in this rant of mine is that if you want to go up to a member of the CF and talk to him or her, go ahead, after all, your taxes pay our wages, but at least show a little respect.

Revenge of the MCpls

2005-01-23T17:40:00.000-06:00

I still can't figure out why I have more energy after 2 hours of sleep than I do after a solid 6. Needless to say, I am tired. PT this morning was rifle PT, meaning that we went to the gym and ran laps while holding our weapon above our heads, to our fronts, and off to the sides. Since we kinda went on pace with some of the less in shape people, it wasn't too hard this morning, but that will change. I can feel it. After PT, back to the Barracks for shower and get ready for the day. We missed our timing yet again (I'm starting to think they don't really want us to make them. They just like yelling at us. It's their job, and they do it well). We then had inspections of our lockers and bunks. Naturally, all of us failed. I didn't have too many major problems with mine, so they went with quantity over quality. They picked every little string on my clothes, every speck of dust on my shelves, and microscopic measurements of the positions of my kit in my locker. I'm exaggerating a little, but you get the idea. I also caught crap for not having my rifle cleaned. You remember my rifle, the one that I was told NOT to clean by another MCpl, but I think they had that planned. Missing our first timing of the day, of course, meant another quick breakfast, followed by a short drill lesson (present arms) and then we, sadly, had to turn in our weapons. Now when we were first issued our weapons, we were given magazine pouches, and a bayonet holder. These attach to our utility belt, and are a royal pain in the butt to add and remove. Someone told us (while we were waiting in line to hand in the rifles) that we had to turn these holders in along with the rifle and magazines. So now we are getting yelled at for something it turns out we didn't have to do in the first place, as we got yelled at for trying to turn them in with the rifle. By now we are very used to the yelling, and it is almost like they are just talking in their regular voices. One MCpl even takes this time to jack me for wearing a black toque that he said is not issue, but that I was issued from the armoury, and have been wearing since training started. Oh well. After returning our rifles *sniff* we head to the mess hall for lunch. Just when I think we are gonna get a normal lunch break; I get put on sentry duty, watching over our stuff. Just like that, I have about 5 minutes to eat. So, 7 minutes and 3 chicken fingers later, or were they fish sticks? I was back outside watching over the gear for the squad. Next up was more classes which by now is like finding an oasis in the Sahara. I love classes, no one yells at you, our course officer is a great guy, and they are almost stress free. Much to our pleasure, we have classes until about 17:00. On a side note, I think I'm gonna get life insurance, it only costs $.70 a month for 10k of coverage, we learned about that in class, because most other insurance has a War Clause, which would eliminate my benefits if I have to go fight. Anyways, after that our section was detailed to clean the classrooms, which we did, and by the time we got back to the Barracks, all we had to do was take our stuff outside. After about 3 minutes of standing out in the snow, we got on the bus and headed home. Glad that weekend is behind me, and looking forward to the next one, where I will remember to lock my locker, and wear an army issue toque ;)

Yelling Day

2005-01-22T17:39:00.000-06:00

5:15 came around early this morning. I still haven't quite figured out what time they are supposed to get us up. It's been different every day so far. Seeing as how the fire picket guys woke me up just before lights on, I was one of the first ones ready for PT this morning. PT was the usual crap, push ups, jumping jacks, sit ups, and variations on all of them. We can't go outside yet for PT seeing as how it's like -30 outside. We then get a whopping 10 minutes to have all the girls showered, the guys shaved and showered, and everyone dressed in their combat clothes and ready for the day. Needless to say, with 26 of us on the course we didn't make our timing. By the time we finally were ready, we owed the MCpl 15 minutes. This would come back to haunt us later. Breakfast was a quick bite of french toast, 2 slices of bacon, a glass of milk, and then a whole lot of running. We then headed for our morning classes. The day actually was fun for a brief, brief time during these morning classes.

Morning classes were basically weapons familiarization. At this point, our section 2iC (second in command) informs us that today is yelling day, and whenever we address him, we have to yell. At least we get to yell at them for a change :) In the first class, we learned the different parts of the weapon, what they do, and the technical data about the rifle, stuff like weight (3.3Kg), length (1m), rate of fire (700-900 rounds/minute), effective range (400m), and round size (5.56mm NATO standard). As you can see, I actually paid attention in these classes. We then did stuff like clearing the weapon, and safety procedures. Next came my favourite class so far of the course, The Field Strip, and The Detailed Strip. Ever since I got my rifle on Friday night (Saturday morning actually, but let's not get technical), I've wanted to take this baby apart. Now I finally get my chance. It's everything I ever hoped it would be. We even got to field strip and re-assemble the weapons blindfolded. I think I'm in love. After teasing us with only a 40 minute class, we have to go for lunch. I think it was cheeseburgers and fries, but we had to eat so fast, I can't really be sure. We then headed to the Drill Hall.

Drill today was all the basic stuff, only with rifles this time. Nothing too hard, except I guess I cow kick when I lift my leg up when doing drill, so I have to work on that. After a fun afternoon of being yelled at for not putting enough effort into our drill (not me in particular, but the group as a whole), we head in for supper. Again, I think it was roast pork, but speed (not the drug, get your mind out of the gutter, we're on a military base!) kinda dulls the senses, so I can't be sure. After supper, a few of us were saying that we should name our rifles, Full Metal Jacket style. I haven't thought of a name yet, but if you have any thoughts, leave a comment. We then headed back to Barracks and our squad took our weapons apart to clean them, as instructed by our 2iC. The minute we got them all apart, another MCpl came and told us to put them away and go clean. We then went and helped the rest of the group clean the bathroom. Apparently, we were not supposed to clean the entire bathroom last week, we were just super troopers, and this week, we stuck to our section. We actually made a timing. Amazing. Just to make the day a complete write off, one of the guys in our section, by no fault of his own, somehow lost a part of his kit, and so one of the MCpls decided to use this time to get his 15 minutes back that I mentioned earlier. We got to march in the spot (or mark time as the technical term) for 10 minutes, while he searched everyone's kit for the missing piece. In sandals. Once the MCpl learned that some of us were issued more that one of the piece that he was looking for, he gave up his search and sent us to bed. What we had forgot was that we still owed 5 minutes to the MCpl. He made us do 5 minutes of bed drill. Basically, we did the regular drill stuff, just lying down. After the bed dress we went to sleep. The time was 23:00.

The Calm Before the Storm

2005-01-21T17:33:00.000-06:00

It's weird. I was more nervous going back to training on the second weekend then I was for the first. Maybe it was because we would be drawing rifles, and all the responsibilities that come with them. Maybe it was because I kept thinking I forgot to bring something and would get jacked (yelled at hard core) for it. Or maybe I am just psychic. The weekend started out pretty good, we had the usual wait for the bus to come and get us, and while we waited, all us recruits debated wether this weekend would be better or worse than the last one. Once the bus arrived, we all loaded our kit on and climbed aboard, not realizing that this would be last time until we got home on Sunday that someone other that a recruit would talk to us in a voice that wouldn't drown out a jet engine. We finally arrived at the Barracks and unloaded all our stuff and started to make beds. The other bus was late again, and everyone on our bus wound up doing most of the work. Again. After all the beds were made, and the other recruits were settled in, we thought it was bed time. We were wrong. We were told to get dressed for the cold because we had to go and draw rifles. No, they didn't give us piece of paper and tell us to draw what we think a service rifle looks like, we had to march down to the weapons lockup, and get our rifles, and all the crap (magazines, magazine holders, bayonet and bayonet holder) that comes with them. We got this done without TOO much trouble (there was some) and got back to our bunks for some much needed sleep. The bright part of the night was that some of the MCpls were losing their voices already. We finally got to bed at about 1:30. The stupid people on fire picket (or sentry duty) had to wear their friggen combat boots while they walked around the Barracks. Nothing to keep a guy awake like an assault rifle in your locker and a clumsy, 200lb guy walking around on a hollow tile floor in combat boots. After a while, I did manage to get to sleep.

A Real Machine Gun!

2005-01-18T17:30:00.000-06:00

Most of you know that being in the reserves requires you to go to the Armouries every Tuesday night for training and work and stuff, or so I'm told. This Tuesday, it seems, everyone forgot about us lowly recruits and we had nothing to do. One of the MCpls finally noticed us standing around talking and told us to help the guys who were going out on exercizes get ready for the weekend. I just happened to notice a group of people working with the C6 General Purpose Machine Gun, and figured they could use my help. OK OK, they had a big friggen gun and I wanted to play with it. Well, I didn't get to even touch the machine gun, but I did learn how to clear it, and could probably field strip one after tonight. That's about all I did all night was watch them play with the gun. Can't wait until I get one.

So Far So Good

2005-01-16T17:27:00.000-06:00

5:30 came early again today, but after 6 hours of sleep instead of just 2, I'm feelin pretty good. Pt is inside again, and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Morning routine is the same as yesturday, with the exception of inspection (I failed because my soap bottle was standing up, and not lying down, but then again, everyone failed). We even had the same breakfast. Classes after lunch were about more discipline and the difference between a court martial and a summary trial. The course officer somehow managed to keep us all awake. We left classes early to go and do some more drill practice before lunch. Lunch was some sort of quasi-hamburger helper type affair, and was pretty good. To all you who thought I would starve in the Army....Ha, you'll have to find another way of getting rid of me. More drill after lunch, and then, thankfully, back to the Barracks to pack. I didn't bother folding anything, it all just got stuffed into my duffel bag. Our section somehow managed to get bathroom cleaning duty, so we all hustled (or so we thought, the MCpls would disagree) on in and started cleaning. When you have 10 people cleaning, it goes pretty quickly. With the Barracks cleaned, and the bus waiting outside, we all filed out and started helping each other load our crap onto the bus. We all got a box lunch containing sandwiches, cookies, pudding, milk, juice, and some sort of strange macaroni crap. 25 minutes later we rolled into the Armouries, called for our rides home, and got the hell out of dodge. Altogether it was a good weekend, and I'm looking foreward to the next one, we get rifles!

Into the Unknown

2005-01-15T17:08:00.000-06:00

5:30, way too friggen early to be awake, but here I am, standing beside my bunk at attention, praying to God that they won't make us go outside for PT. God answers, and our course officer comes into the Barracks to lead us on our exercises. After a nice workout, we hit the showers (after the girls of course) and shaved and all that fun stuff. We get all ready for the cold, and then march the half a block to the mess hall, and then get unready for the cold. Breakfast is pretty good, with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, all the usual breakfast stuff. After again getting dressed for the cold, we march about a block to the classrooms where we learn stuff like military discipline, dress regs and all that sorta boring, but important, stuff. Lunch (cheeseburgers and fries) is next followed by an afternoon of Drill. Drill is the stuff you see the soldiers do when they are on parade, like right face, about face, marching, saluting, all that stuff. With our legs killing us from all the drill, we now get to go for supper. Roast Beef and Gravy. It was good. More classes after that, and then back to the barracks for some cleaning up, and getting ready for inspection in the morning. Make sure everything is folded properly, everything is in it's proper place, all the strings are burnt off your combat clothes, and everything is labeled, good to go. We hit the bunks (our section anyways :) ) at about 23:00 (11:00). I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

It Starts

2005-01-14T16:46:00.000-06:00

Showed up at the armouries at about 18:45 Friday evening and sat around talking to the rest of the noobs about how scared shitless we were about the upcoming weekend, I can't give you their names because I honestly don't know them. We finally get the order to get our stuff on the bus and get on, so we carry all our crap to the bus, and get on, wow that was easy. After about a 25 minute bus ride, we get to the base where our training is to take place. The bus pulls to a stop in front of the barracks, and we all pile out and are told to grab our gear. Thankfully, I loaded mine last, and so I got it all out first, and was the first one ready to go, Unfortunately, this means that I now have to help everyone else pull all their stuff out and carry it inside. After this is all complete, and everyone has their kit, we get to do some fun paperwork. When the pencil pushing is done, we get to do some even more exciting stuff, We get to make beds! After the bed making, we get the good news that the bus carrying troops from another city has broken down, and they will be late, this is especially good because it's already about midnight. With that news, we begin unpacking our stuff, and trying to figure out where the hell to put all this shit, and wondering how to fold out t-shirts into 6 x 8 inch rectangles. We just finished doing that, when the other guys (and girls) show up, and we get to go through it all agin with them. Naturally, just to make out night more interesting, 2 of the new people in our section just got their kit yesterday, and have no friggen clue on how to put it together, so we start to help them. I forgot to mention that all this time, the MCpls (Master Corporals) have been telling us that we are going too slow. At about 2:30 they tell us that enough is enough, and send us to bed. After about 3 hours of running your ass off, your body kinda gets pumped up, and sleep is a long time coming, I figure it was about 3:30 - 4:00 before I even got to sleep.