Welcome back, everyone, to my blog. We're getting down to the final stretch here at the lovely Fort Jackson. Only two weeks left, YEA!!! I can't wait to get out of here. We've actually done a lot of stuff this week. Well, more stuff than the last couple of weeks. Monday we finished our last day on the firing range. I'm very very excited about that. And on Tuesday, we got our class A uniforms. If any of you don't know what a class A uniform is, it's the uniform I wear when I want to get all the ladies. Not that I will use it for that. I'm spoken for and would never do such a thing. Love you honey. Anyway, it's the way nice dressy uniform. And it looks good.
Wednesday I got to shoot some awesome weapons. I shot a M203(grenade launcher), a At4(a bazooka), a M249 saw(machine gun) and a M240B. That's the one that is mounted on a turret, hummer, or a tank. That one was my favorite. And to finish it off, we shot a 50 caliber machine gun. That one is just pure power with big bullets. It was a pretty fun day.
At the end of this week we had what's called Victory Hammer. It's a 3 day 2 night camp out in the forest where we do training. The whole time that weekend I was worried about getting hurt. Not that we're doing anything way dangerous. I'm just thinking that I'm almost done and I just have like 2 or 3 more required training events. I don't want to come all this way just to not pass because I got hurt. So do you want to guess what happened? On the first day of it I jacked up my back from carrying a kid that is around 230-240 lbs. So I couldn't even walk. It hurt so bad. My DS made me go tot he hospital to check it out. All they did was ask me what happened and where does it hurt. After that, he just gave me some Ibuprofen and muscle relaxers. So much for getting help. I was finally able to sorta walk and get through that day and the next. Unfortunately we still had our 9 mile road march, which I'm happy to say I completed. It was very painful and long, but I did it. I'm pretty sure that it was the most physically demanding thing I have ever done in my life. I thought I was going to be alright because back in scouts we did a 50 mile hike and one of the days we did 15 miles. The key word to that was "day". We did the 9-10 miles in 31/2-ish hours. Pretty much the best way to describe it was that it sucked, way bad. But hey, it's over.
So, as I end this week's blog, I'd like to thank you for staying informed on my experiences throughout these past weeks. There is a chance this might be my last blog while I'm here in Ft. Jackson. Next week I'm doing my final training which is a week out in the field sleeping in the tents, so I won't have access to mail. I'm still going to try and keep notes and send one when I get back from that. We'll see. And if I get really ambitious I'll write one next week right before I go in the field. Just keep checking back and see. I love you all. Take care.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Night Fire and Muscle Failure
Dear fellow bloggers,
How is everyone doing back at your nice comfy homes? Homes where people treat you like humans and you're allowed to actually talk to people, and eat at your own pace? Sorry, I'm not trying to complain, things are just getting annoying and I'm ready to get the heck out of here. The cool thing is that it is officially August, and I'm done with this stupid place this month. That feels good to say. What feels even better to say is that when you read this I'll only have 3 weeks left. :)
Honestly, things are going good. The best news of the week is that I passed the shooting portion of my training. All I had to do to pass was shoot 23 out of 40 targets. I shot 25. It's all about hitting that minimum. I know I'll do better next time, I'm just glad I passed. Also, we got to do a night fire. Which means we got to play with cool night vision stuff. It's really trippy, you only have it on one eye. So one eye you can't really see out of and the other can. It was pretty cool.
It's been overcast the past two days, which you would think is a nice thing, cause it's cool, right? That's what I thought too, but you see, when it's so hot, the Drill Sgt can't smoke you too long, depending on how hot it is. So when it was overcast, I could see the glimmer in the DS's eyes. They've been waiting for the day that they could have their way with us for as long as they wanted. And, boy howdy, they sure had their way. We got smoked for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. If you have never experienced muscle failure, man, you're missing out. I thought I was going to die. But hey, I'm still here and I'm stronger for it, right?
So that was pretty much the week. I want to thank all of you for reading this and leaving comments. Even though I can't read them, my amazing sister Angie tells me what you guys say, so thank you. I hope all of you are doing good. I'd love to hear from you (hint hint :)) But hey, I'm almost done. Remember to stay tuned next week for an all new edition of my blog. Until next week, God Bless.
PFC Jared N. Harding
How is everyone doing back at your nice comfy homes? Homes where people treat you like humans and you're allowed to actually talk to people, and eat at your own pace? Sorry, I'm not trying to complain, things are just getting annoying and I'm ready to get the heck out of here. The cool thing is that it is officially August, and I'm done with this stupid place this month. That feels good to say. What feels even better to say is that when you read this I'll only have 3 weeks left. :)
Honestly, things are going good. The best news of the week is that I passed the shooting portion of my training. All I had to do to pass was shoot 23 out of 40 targets. I shot 25. It's all about hitting that minimum. I know I'll do better next time, I'm just glad I passed. Also, we got to do a night fire. Which means we got to play with cool night vision stuff. It's really trippy, you only have it on one eye. So one eye you can't really see out of and the other can. It was pretty cool.
It's been overcast the past two days, which you would think is a nice thing, cause it's cool, right? That's what I thought too, but you see, when it's so hot, the Drill Sgt can't smoke you too long, depending on how hot it is. So when it was overcast, I could see the glimmer in the DS's eyes. They've been waiting for the day that they could have their way with us for as long as they wanted. And, boy howdy, they sure had their way. We got smoked for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. If you have never experienced muscle failure, man, you're missing out. I thought I was going to die. But hey, I'm still here and I'm stronger for it, right?
So that was pretty much the week. I want to thank all of you for reading this and leaving comments. Even though I can't read them, my amazing sister Angie tells me what you guys say, so thank you. I hope all of you are doing good. I'd love to hear from you (hint hint :)) But hey, I'm almost done. Remember to stay tuned next week for an all new edition of my blog. Until next week, God Bless.
PFC Jared N. Harding
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