BLog Note:


[Updated as information is declassified.]




Click the images for a larger view…

Feel free to leave thoughts/well wishes below the posting (click ‘Comments’).

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Greg’s Third Letter.

                                                                                    4  Aug  2011

Dear Dad & Sandy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I would've sent you a gift from the shop here but we aren't allowed. They have some pretty cool stuff there.

Last Monday, we had people that work with Jostons  [A High School Class Ring Vendor]  come here and I made a ring like my class ring but for the army.

But about the gas chamber… It sucked! We went into a building that had 2 rooms. "Hot room" and "Cold room" The Hot room has the burner that cooks the capsules and makes the gas, thats why they call it the "hot room" there is no temp. change between the rooms. The cold room is a room that gas seeps into through a door way.

We went into the cold room first and formed a line around the whole room. In there we just broke the seal of the mask and "cleared & sealed" it to make sure everyone did it right. As soon as you walk in the chamber, all exposed skin started burning… pretty bad too. They made everyone leave their contacts at the barracks because the gas will fuse them to your eyes! then your in trouble. Then they took us into the "hot room" and brought 10 people to the ready line at a time. I was in the second group to go in there so I got to watch alot of people coming out and it was pretty funny. But once you were on the ready line, you had to take the mask off, keep your eyes open, and take deep breaths. It burned my eyes and skin, and breathing was horrible. I can't even really describe it. It kind of felt like you had acid in your eyes. and someone giving you constant indian rug burn when your sunburnt.  ["Indian rug burn": Grasping a persons arm with both hands next to each other; and twisting back and forth in opposing directions. -A kids 'game']  Some people paniked, some people threw up from choking so bad, a couple peoples noses started bleeding, and everyone had slobber and snot running everywhere. The good news, it cleared my cold… today I found out it's allergies…

What were the pictures that you saw of me?

We're shooting our rifles all week. Monday we zero'd them out (make the line of bore match line of sight) Tuesday, and yesterday we were target practicing. We shoot targets that are 50, 175, and 300 meters away. I shot a 34 out of 40 which qualifys as sharpshooter. Expert is better. My goal is to get it. I need 36 out of 40 to get it. Monday is the qualifying range and that'll be harder because the targets pop up in certain areas and stay up for about 3 seconds. Wish me luck.
If I make Marksman, Sharpshooter, or expert, they'll acknowledge it on graduation and I'll get a pin for my uniform.

But HEY !  You get 100º !  add a couple more to that and you'll be where I am on a daily basis  haha. The Drill Sergeants said the past few months have all been in triple digits and we're in a drought. I haven't seen lively, green grass since Michigan.

I got my phone on Sunday for a like 20 mins. It wasn't a long time, so hopefully I'll get it for a longer time next Sunday. I'm calling you guys first next time cause I called my mom last time.

I can get internet, but its kinda slow.

Our unit is one of the only ones without women. It's a good & bad thing. It's bad because we're all guys, so its a sausage fest… But its good because we don't have to worry about fraternization, or getting article 15's,  ["...being charged with a minor offense"...]  so it keeps us out of trouble.

From the bottom of the totem pole: There are 4 platoons in a Battery. (Blood Knights (Us), Ghost riders, Death dealers, and reapers) then there is 4 Batterys in a battallion (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta (Us).) then it keeps going up, I am in 4th Platoon Blood Knights, Delta Battery, in the 1/40th FA (first and 40th Field Artillery) Battallion. There are 33 of us in a platoon, minus the quitters.

     Aug 5
But our weekends are only Sundays. Mon-Sat are normal days. Sundays we get to sleep in until 7 and we go to church, then pretty much nothing else all day besides hope to get our phones, After that, the weekly routine starts all over again. Monday we should start White phase of basic training. Theres 3 weeks of red, which is supposed to be the hardest, then 3 weeks of white which is supposed to be easier, and 3 weeks of Blue. I heard blue was really easy without much to do.

I got a card from grandma & grandpa K with your letter, it's the first card I've recieved here and it's hanging in my locker. I just got back from the firing range. I was sent to another range as a battle buddy for someone to zero their weapon. I sat in the bleachers and talked to people from a different Battery. We're a few days ahead of them. They were at the zeroing range today and we were there on Monday or last Friday. But it felt good to talk to girls  haha  there aren't any in our platoon so that was something I missed.

Now that we're back, there isn't much to do besides sit around or straighten things up around here, but everything is pretty clean here so today is another day where we got alot of free time and we can't sleep. This is where long letters come in real handy.

We got a regular routine down now. You just focus on what task you have to do when you finish your current one and don't count down the days. It'll make them go by slower, but every Sunday we count down the weeks. I've been gone a month, and I got about 1 more until graduation.

I went to sick call for a cold and shin splints and they hook you up. they put me on profile which means I take my pace in runs and gave me 325mg ibeprofen and 800mg tylenol, 1200mg allergy and another 10mg allergy. I didn't pay anything and being on about 2400mg of meds can space me out if I don't eat.  haha  But I'll sign off for now. Miss ya and love you guys too

               -Greg-

[edited by Dad.]

If you haven't seen it, Greg's first gun shoot was recorded, and is here:
http://therossfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/gregory-at-range.html
...Good instruction from Grandpa Ross!

No comments:

Post a Comment