Today started with my first day "on-duty." The group of privates on duty spend the day assisting the DSs in setting up and tearing down the day's activities.
At 0430, I was up eating my first MRE, some Mexican dish, for breakfast. It was cold because we were in a hurry and had no time to heat our meals. We then packed all the equipment, and 22 privates, into the duty truck to start the morning.
By 0700, we had 400 targets setup and 2700 rounds in 180 magazines. Everything seemed to be going great, especially when that first satisfying aroma of gun powder hit my nose. That always brings me back to great times with my high school friends, especially Dano. But then the waiting began.
The zeroing process is very tedious. Each private (in groups of 50) shot 3 rounds at a time, pausing to check the target and make adjustments before firing the next for a total of 15. I did not get to shoot my first round until 1530. That's right, I waited ten hours to shoot 15 rounds. I'm sure that will improve though.
Today was a particularly good day to be on duty as most of the company was continuously getting smoked for goofing off.
When we finally returned to barracks at 2000, we were told to get in formation in our sleep bays. For the next two hours, we stood at attention while we and all of the lockers were searched for contraband. One person in our 52 personnel bay was caught. He had an MRE tube of peanut butter. Punishment? An article 15 (a potentially career breaking legal action) forfeiture of pay totaling $350 and an extra 14 days of duty. That's some expensive peanut butter, especially when you consider they threw it out, so he did not even get to enjoy it.
Because of his actions though, we were told we won't phase on Saturday as we'd all hoped. No big deal to me though. So long as the graduation date stays the same, I'm happy.
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