Saturday, July 18, 2009

You're faking it, right?

Welcome ya'll to this week's addition. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed going through it. This past week has been very eventful. We started out by doing Land Navigation stuff. Which means they give us a map and some dots on the map, and then we find those dots with a compass and a protractor. It's really quite fun and I enjoyed doing it. That night we were supposed to sleep under the starts, but after we set up our little pup tent things, it started raining, thundering and lightning. So they had to bus us back. But since they had to bus us back at night, we still need to get back there in the morning to finish our training. So naturally we did one of our road marches. it wasn't too bad, it was only like 2-3 miles away. Anyway, this is where things get exciting. I'm sure I told many of you that one of the things I was worried about was the gas chamber, and guess what was on the agenda for that day? The GAS CHAMBER!!! So as a quick disclaimer, I don't think I can put in writing the true experience for you to understand what it is like. So if you would like to know more, just ask me when I'm home and I'll be glad to tell you. Anyway, so we get a little bit of training of it and they tell us some ways of making the pain a little easier to handle. Which was nice of them. They then told us to put on our masks, they marched us up there and they walked us in. So there are like 60 of us crammed in this room full of fog(gas) so thick I can barely see the other side. Of course the whole time this is going on we're getting yelled at. So they have about 10 or so people take off their masks and sniff in the tear gas. I wasn't in the first group, so I got to witness these people bending over in pain, looking like they're about it die. At this time I'm thinking in my head, "I wonder if this is all fake, there is no way they would put people through this." I then got instructed(meaning yelled at) to take off my mask. It was at that point I realized that it was all real. To answer my previous question, yes, there is a way they'd do this to me. So getting back to gas: First off, it burns your skin, that part wasn't too horribly bad. Second, it makes you feel like you can't breathe. While at the same time it burns your throat right down to your lungs. So whatever breath you can get, it kills you to breathe it. Also, your eyes are on fire, and any snot type substance that you once had trapped in your nasal cavities are now dripping out your nose and down your face. They only left us in there for like 30 seconds but it felt like forever. The only good thing that came from it was the knowledge that it's over and I don't have to do it again. :)

Well I guess this blog is getting kind of long and I don't know what people want to know but I think I'll end with one more quick story. This one is more of a pat on the back to myself. And I only mention it because I need some good to come from this week. About twice a week for PT we split up into ability groups. These are groups based on your 2 mile run. There is an Alpha group, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta group. Unfortunately I was slightly too slow on my first timed run that I got put into the B group. The other day we had a race between our group. It was pretty much a two mile run with some hills in there. Anyway, to make a long story short, I'm now officially the fastest person in the B group. Next time we test I should move into the A group, which means I will then be the slowest person in the fastest group. Hope ya'll enjoyed this week's updates. Just as a reminder, I would love to hear from ya. My address again is:

PFC Harding, Jared
C-Co 1/61 In Regt (2nd)
Fort Jackson, SC 29207

1 comment:

  1. Oh my gosh! That gas story is horrible! Good job on the 2 mile run thingy!

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