SUN. MAR. 15th, 9:00am

Hey, guess what? 144 hours till I become a Marine! That means that this is the second to last letter y'all will receive from me as a recruit. On Senior Sunday, when we get to mess around on base, (Starbucks, Taco Bell, Subway, Bowling, Backyard Burgers, etc) I get to make phone calls, so you'll probably hear from me 7 days from now. :)

We got the results from BWT and Table 2 firing and we won the trophy for that. We also got the trophy for the field meet we had yesterday with Plt. 4009. ( We beat them again, which makes us undefeated so far.) There are 3 trophies left: PFT, Final Drill, and Final Knowledge. If we win 1 more trophy, we get Honor Platoon.

The field meet was soooo much fun! There were 10 events: push-ups, crunches, dumbell lifts, chin-ups, ammo can lifts, rifle relay race, obstacle course, rope climb, rifle assembly, and stretcher carry. Each platoon picks the recruits that are best in each event, and then compete for the flag and trophy. The DIs compete against each other, which was awesome!

Me and DI Sgt. R. competed against Rct. W and DI Sgt. A.(4009) on the obstacle course, and completely owned it. (duh) :) The adrenaline was pumping like CRAZY. Y'all should've seen us, leaping over walls and logs, swinging over bars and climbing ropes like Jackie Chan. DI Sgt. R. even stopped on one of the walls and did a little hopping dance. Everybody was screaming and yelling; it was great. When we finished, I noticed that my hand was kinda sticky, so I looked down and there was blood running down my palm and fingers from busted blisters, but I didn't even feel it. (till today, anyways)

I also competed with Big L. in the ammo can lift, where you take a 30 lb. box of ammo and lift it from your chest straight up over your head as many times as you can in 2 mins. (the box is covered in sandpaper, so my hands weren't so happy) I still got 75 lifts, and again, we won.

Oh, the DIs also competed in the dizzy-izzy (the nose on bat, running in circles, then sprinting) It was hilarious! They were falling all over the place, and trying to beat each other and we were cheering them on, as they pushed each other over to get to the finish line.

The DIs are a lot more open around us now, and we get to see their personalities a lot clearer. For instance, yesterday at drill, DI SSgt. L. had a sore throat, and of course had no medicine for it at the time. Well, the recruits aren't allowed to carry meds in their pockets, (but they do, and the DIs know it) and the the DIs aren't allowed to take recruits meds from them. So SSgt. L turned her back to us, closed her eyes with one hand, and held out the other, saying, "Ok. I'm going to close my eyes and open my hand. When I open my eyes and close my hand, there will be a cough drop in it. I won't say anything." (of course, it happened)

They've been talking to us a lot about our careers in the Marine Corps, and the opportunities open to us on base. I've decided that the first things I'm going to work on when I get my first duty station are earning my MCMAP Black Belt, and learn Arabic through one of the courses available. We've already touched on it a little bit. (numbers, "hello", "goodbye", "drop the i.e.d. or I'll blow your turbaned head off", etc). You wouldn't believe the amount of money Marines that speak Arabic can earn. Rct. M. is fluent, she can read and write it, but she's kept it from the DIs because she "doesn't want to be deployed." I about smacked her when she said that. Over half of the rest of us are hoping we'll get the call to go, and here she is, with a needed skill, whining that she doesn't want to take a chance at being sent overseas! Oh, well, you've always got that one, or two. She'll probably get sent anyways. Half of DI Sgt. R.'s last platoon got deployed 6 months after they signed in to their first duty station. And with the us being shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan, and changing from Okinawa to Guam, we have a pretty good chance, we've been told. Maybe I'll get to work on C130's and carry troops to and from deployments.

We packed all our MRE's for the Crucible today and they look good. My favorite is the shrimp and ham jambalaya. They come with dessert, too. There are brownies, cookies, shakes, lemon pound cake, carrot cake, cobbler, etc. Some even have sweet tea and lemonade mix! We only get 3 MREs (for 56 hrs) so I hope I get good ones.

I can't wait to see y'all in 11 days! The place we're staying at (in Beaufort after graduation) sounds great!
xoxox Ruby

Random fact: Did you know that more Marines have been killed in motorcyle accidents than in Iraq? Crazy, huh? DI Sgt. R says that male Marines get a little reckless when it comes to bikes.
She also said that the REAL reason we're getting kicked out of Okinawa is because the Japanese are getting tired of the Americans drinking all their beer, and breaking stuff :)
OK, well I gotta go. Senior just walked in with her pet turtle, Pedro.
xo Ruby