Oct. 24, 2011 Day 38

Today was a pretty good day at BCT. A cloudless sky, mid-70s, no major issues.
We spent the day at Range 7 for qualification. I shot in the third firing order and got 29 out of 40 targets. One short of sharpshooter, so of course I was kicking myself because of that one shot. But it still isn't that bad of a score. The main thing was to qualify. I killed on the prone supported position, lost a couple of 150s/200s in the unsupported position, then 150s kicked my butt in kneeling, which has not happened before. Time to move on from that though and focus on the next goal, a 12K ruck march on Thursday and an itPFT (physical fitness test) on Saturday.
The rest of the evening was spent doing some personal PT, getting mail call, etc. I'll be on detail tomorrow when we return to the range for those that didn't qualify, so that should keep me from boredom.
One thing I forgot to mention from Sunday. At the chapel service they gave out Bibles. The Bibles are distributed by "Operation Worship." The sponsors were CBA, Tyndale, K-Love, and Spirit West Coast. The cool thing about these Bibles is that people have written messages in a small section in the front of the Bible. For instance, mine reads, "Dear Soldier, Thank you for all you do to protect and keep our country free! Praying for you!" This was very encouraging to me. My "on the fence" battle buddies who received them enjoyed the messages too.
I honestly didn't pay that much attention to the ministries and organizations that support and encourage the military, but now that I am on the other side, I can see the strong, positive impact it has at Basic Training. I can only imagine how much more powerful it can be when one is overseas.
One last thing to leave you with. The three "infected" privates saw the doctor today. The doctor ruled out MRSA, saying the rashes were poison oak/ivy. The private with the worst rash got that way because it became infected. Thank God that there has not been a MRSA outbreak. At the same time, please pray for this private. He is in quarantine right now for an undetermined length of time. He has already been NSO's once, waited months to heal, and has been suffering in our cycle due to foot issues. I can see clearly from here that your prayers are being answered daily, and I would appreciate all the prayer you can lift up for my battle buddy.