Second Letter Received:

                                                                                           July 27

Dear Dad and Sandy

Thanks for the warning! haha
[...Sandy can’t recall the warning, just that it was silly...]

But quite a bit has happened since my last letter. I haven’t thought about the journal idea before so I’ll just go by memory.

We got our weapons issued and at first I thought it was sweet until I realized that we literally have to carry it everywhere.

Then we had to repel down a 50 ft tower which was fun.

The biggest thing was the gas chamber. We had to road march there which sucked because you’re in full uniform and carrying your ruck sack.
[We put the gas mask in a pouch on our leg. When we got there,]
We had to put the mask on, then clear and seal it on our face in 9 seconds. That was just for training. With masks on, we walked into the “cold room” of the chamber. The “cold room” is just a connected room where gas seeps in. The burner that [makes] the gas is in the “hot room”. But even in the cold room, all exposed skin started to burn. Then they had us pull the mask 3 inches off my face and clear and seal it again to make sure you’re doing it right.
Oh and before you walked in the chamber at all, they made sure you weren’t wearing contacts because the gas would fuse them to your eyes.
But then we walked in the "hot room" and the burning got worse, then they made 10 at a time get on the ready line and take the masks off, which sucked. As soon as I took the mask off, my eyes burnt so bad, kinda like getting soap in them times 10. Maybe worse, and you had to keep them open. My face and hands were burning and breathing sucked. We had to take deep breaths. My lungs hurt so bad, and my mouth and everything in between.
The good thing is -it cleared my cold for a day!
But it came back. : (   [-sad face]
It was probably the worse thing here, beside the constant heat, all day.

The barracks are 80º and it feels so good when we get to go in for the day.

A couple days ago we [went] to a team development course, which is designed to be impossible unless you use teamwork. My platoon is always fighting so it didn’t go well, but we got it done.

We just finished some first aid classes. They taught us some stuff that only helps a little bit. We aren’t medics, our primary mission isn’t the casualty, its to keep firing. Ninety percent of casualties die before reaching a hospital. We save about 17% of them.
We saw a bunch of really nasty pictures of blown off limbs, chest holes, burns, etc., and how to help treat them.

My shoulder is doing fine during combatives, I hurt it again, but it’s better now.

We got a couple more quitters now. They’re forced to do chores. I don’t see why they went though everything to get here and give up. It would be better to stick with it because the Drill Sergeants won’t let you leave until after we graduate.

[This is mostly a mental test:] They’re always telling us to raise our hand and give up. We have 2 people who are pretty close to being on their way out. They failed the PT [Physical Training] test and [are] bad at a lot of things. The Drill Sergeants got their names down quick.

I did 65 push ups in 2 minutes. The max is 71. I’m almost there. I did 50 something sit ups and ran 2 miles in 14:13.

Sorry if my letters seem all over the place. I have to stop and pick this back up again so many times and new ideas pop in my head.

Back to shoulder thing really quick, it’s not bothering me as much as my legs. I have shin splints now. I don’t want to go to sick-call because you can go there for a headache and they’ll tell you your foot’s broken.

After the last couple weeks, we pick up a little of what our Drill Sergeants [have] seen. Drill Sergeant Carroll’s Platoon captured saddam, and he said to pay attention to details because he seen humvees in front of him get blown up by IEDs [Improvised Explosive Device; also known as a roadside bomb or booby-trap] and there was 2 bodies on the side of the road. They had to stop and check it but as soon a they opened the door, they blew up. The only thing Drill Sergeant Crawford mentioned was while he was in a rage, he yelled at someone and asked if the knew what it was like to stare someone in the eyes and watch the life leave them as you steal their soul. Pretty messed up. I’ve picked up a couple good quotes from them like “The test of a true man: Will you continue to fight even after there will be no light at the end of the tunnel, or give up all hope? Because there is a wall blocking the light at the end of the tunnel, if you knock it down, victory will be on the other side.”

My mom mentioned that she saw me in a few pics on the facebook page. Have you seen them? Just don’t post anything on the page, the Drill Sergeants give people a hassle about it.

July 29
I’m going to put a new date where I start writing again.

Today we went to CCC or Combat Conditioning Course. It is full of different obstacles like rope bridges, wall hurtles, low crawls, monkey bars, and logs to balance and sprint across. We did them all but then had a competition where two people were assigned an obstacle, whichever you were fastest at. I was assigned the rope climb. They said I was up and down that in seconds.

Drill Sergeant knows my name because he is starting to know us from seeing us every day. But most of the time he calls me Fighter because he says I look like one. haha.

Ill write you again later when more pops up.

I love you, and miss you guys.

                                               -Greg-

[edited by Greg’s Dad.]