Oct. 27/28 Days 41/42

I'm joining these two days as they were both FTX2. Lately there have been several things worth writing about. I'll split them in two: Training and Drama.

So training...we were surprised to get up at 0330 and step off at 0400. (Oh, if I haven't explained it yet, the wake-up time is when you're supposed to be ready.) To our pleasant surprise, it was pushed to 0800 step off. At 0800, we started our 12K ruck to our FTX site. The hike wasn't that bad. Just a few large hills. I did have an ingrown toenail though that bothered me the whole way. Sometimes though, you just have to suck it up. Trust me when I say you don't want to go to sick call at BCT.

When we arrived, we had lunch and I got a challenging assignment. I was placed in charge of a ten-man detail to unload and setup the warming tent. The warming tent is a 20x40 canvas tent similar to the sleep tents you may remember from "MASH." I was told to figure it out. No direction was given from there on until we were ready to raise the center posts. It took us a lot of time, but we were able to get it all setup.

After that was finished, it was on to our patrol base that was setup deep in the woods. In the 30 degree weather, I pulled 50/50 fireguard throughout the night, even having to jump on the SAW a couple of times. The night was filled with the sounds of challenge calls, sim round mortars, and gunfire. The good thing was it came from the other bases. We had a patrol encounter another platoon's squad coming to find us and attack, but our base was never assaulted.

That morning, we packed up to move to our MOUT site (Military Operations in Urban Terrain). Basically, it was a simulated middle eastern city. We were trained to move through quickly and securely, then we were given a mission. The DSs were our opposition and they hid our XO. It was our mission to rescue him.

I was on a gun team with a saw. I protected the gunner and carried the extra ammo. We unloaded out there and had a great time. There is probably a 1/4 inch of powder residue in my weapon now, so I know what I'm doing this weekend.

When we got back, it never felt so good to walk into our bay: somewhere warm, with running water. The shower was heaven.

So now the drama part. We stopped 3 miles into the ruck march on Thursday for a latrine break and water refill. One problem though; it was my platoon's duty week and no one loaded the truck with water or duty equipment. DS was livid to say the least. It is going to take a lot to make up for that mistake, if we ever can make up for it.