20050923 Fri

0503 wake up.

0540 formed up in the driveway of Malone 3.

UPU for breakfast chow. Cocoa Puffs cereal, eggs, sausage patty, home frieds that I traded for grits, two waffles, and a banana. With milk and orange juice.

Conducted personal hygiene (shaved, brushed teeth, some of us changes some or all clothes but most just stayed in what we wore yesterday and overnight.) Moved to the bleachers for our safety briefing, got put into firing orders, then got reseated in the bleachers with 2 orders (?) per row.

Right around noon my firing order (number 7) finally went. Again, right at my order they decided to abbreviate the course. Just like with Delta, we walked all the way to the mortar pit, halfway down the course, before they fired the M2 simulator, our signal to begin IMT.

This time we had live rounds, so things were a little different. For one, if we screwed up a move, the drill sergeants yelled at us but didn't make us redo them. This helped keep things running a little faster. For another, we didn't just randomly fire into the distance--there were pop-up targets in our lanes for us to shoot at (until we got past them).

M2 fires, pop off 2 rounds, drop to the ground, high crawl to the closest covered and concealed position. Call off, "set." Wait for DS to tell us to go then 5-point safety check, "cover me while I move," "moving," then do low crawl, high crawl, or 3-5 second rush to get to the next covered and concealed position (either a log or a sand dune.) Call "set." When your buddy is moving, fire a round at the target every 9 seconds (12-15 per minute.) When you get to the end, rush to the barker, drop down, then drop in your hand grenade. Since we didn't do the mortar pit, both buddies took out the bunker at the same time. Fire all remaining rounds into the dirt (?), lock and clear your weapon, then repeat the (?) task (?) and purpose to CPT Gurri before getting rodded (?) off range. Go eat lunch chow and then do weapons maintenance/dick around.

(The task was to perform individual movement techniques wearing our BDUs, IBAs, kevlar helmet, load carry equipment, and M16 in buddy teams. The purpose was to engage and destroy all enemies in our sector/firing lane.)

While I was eating chow, DS Messinam (?) came into the mess area with 6 Romanian AK-47s. He showed us how to take them apart, told us a little about them, then passed them out and left. I finished eating, cleared my M16, then wrestled (?) an AK-47 from someone. Those things are so insanely simple. And about half as heavy as the M16. And they fire 7.62mm rounds while the M16 fires 5.56mm. So the AK-47 is like a lightweight M240B. Very cool. I want one.

Everyone finished by around 1600, then we had to police the range for brass (?) and ammo, then form up for brass and ammo shakedown. Fell back into our rucks and waited.

1720, trans shows up. Mad scramble to get aboard.

1740, back at the battalion complex. Mad scramble to get ready for chow. The DFAC closes at 1830 on the dot, whether everyone's eaten or not, and we still have to ground our gear and get the face paint scrubbed off. (There's apparently a regulation against wearing camo paint in the DFAC.)

Weapon maintenance, boot polish, showers.

2040, in bed.

2110, Gonnerron (??) wakes me up to ask if I'm awake and can he borrow my flashlight. I tell him to fuck off and then go back to sleep.

0243, woken up for shift. FG^2 (?). Whee (?) I am now (?).

0345, begin waking up next shift.

0354, relieved by Haworth (?). Goodnight.