Hey,
I heard that the weather's getting a little better in NC, that's good. It's still pretty cold here, but it hasn't affected my shooting much. :) My scores are looking really good, and if I can keep it up, I should be getting an Expert Medal for my uniform.
Lilly, thanks for the stamps. They're awesome. (Lilly ordered custom-made stamps with the Marine emblem) and I got them just in time as I ran out of the old ones.
Firing week has been a blast so far, and I've really enjoyed learning about all the fundamentals of marksmanship. You wouldn't believe how much more there is to shooting than just pointing the weapon at the target! There's a lot of simple math, sight setting, data-book stuff, and the pit work/scoring. The "pits" is the long concrete catwalk behind the firing burm. When you go to the pits, your job is to pull the carriers, plot the shots and fill in the holes. It's fast paced, but fun. Working with all the numbers and the sights gets a little confusing, but it's one of those things that just takes practice.
I'm glad you liked the picture, (contraband gift to us from an "official" visitor) He was trying to get me to sit still and smile, but my mouth was so busy eating, that it didn't want to cooperate. :) My skin is looking great though. I haven't had but 1 zit since being here. And I don't think I can thank my diet for it either. For instance, here's what I ate today:
Breakfast: Eggs and rice with sausage, a hash brown triangle, canned peaches, pears and tangerines, grits, a slice of french toast, rice crispies and chocolate milk, water.
Lunch:(Boxed) Turkey hoagie, boiled egg, and apple, and orange, 2 granola bars, a box of raisins, gatorade and water.
Dinner: Lasagna, butter beans, bread, stewed tomatoes, salad and powerade.
Sounds good, doesn't it Winston? Yeah, I drink about 16oz. of chocolate milk a day (1/2 with my cereal) and hey, it seems to be working. (It's just to ease the cravings) They pump us full of Power/Gator-ades too, about 32 oz a day.
That's one thing I've learned while I've been here. Marines LOVE energy drinks. I mean LOVE them. You've never seen so many cans of Monster and BeStrong in your life! I think it's just the pace of everything that keeps everyone skinny; like hummingbirds.:) I've just got to be careful when I get outta here. I'm ALWAYS hungry!
Andrew sent me 3 Valentine's Day cards last week. One on which he recorded his voice, and the other 2 were sweet and flowery. I was the envy of Plt. 4008. He's such a tender-hearted guy.
I am doing so many things here that I am sure many guys would love to do. I can see why this training makes the men feel like real men. All those challenges and male bonding do them good, and it's important for guys.
Well, gotta go to bed now. It's 7:40 pm and we get up at 3:40am this week!
I'll write again soon,
Love Ruby
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
SAT. FEB. 14th
Hi, everybody,
Thanks for the letters, they're awesome. Mom, you can stop worrying about me changing my MOS (job) I found out that my contract is for 5 years instead of 4, so I couldn't switch over for another 2 years anyway. Besides, I want my job. Senior DI worked in the airfield and she said Marines would kill for the job I got.
Today was PFT (Physical Fitness Test) and I did really good. You have to get a 225 for a first-class PFT, out of a possible 300, and I got a 293, with a max-out dead hang, max-out sit-ups, and a 22:03 3 mile run. I was a little disappointed with that, because 3 girls came in ahead of me with run times in the late 21s, and I KNOW I could've gotten it if it wasn't for the fact that we had to run with the males. There were SO MANY of them, that in order to pass them I had to run through the grass and loose dirt. I don't like the male recruits. They're so dramatic. They were actually WALKING during part of the run!! (It's probably because they get away with eating so much crud). This morning at chow, some guys got 2 pieces of bread, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, etc. It's crazy how much easier they have things, even the male DIs admit it.
Yesterday 2 males got TOTALLY BUSTED. In the ISMIT building there's a snack machine for the Marines (not recruits). Well, this male recruit found a dollar, took a buddy as a lookout, bought a Snickers bar, got caught, (not much of a lookout) and they both got dropped back to FORMING DAY ONE !
We start firing slow and rapid fire on the 200, 300, and 500 yd line on Tuesday. I can't wait. I'm in a little competition with Rct. S on the range. S is from way back in the sticks around Knoxville TN. Like, her family doesn't even have a mailbox, so she has to write to her town's Post Office!:)
We're really close, score wise, and it makes it fun.
We had a rifle control class with DI SSgt. T (one of the little DI twins) and it was so funny. No one in the back could see her, so she had to stand on a footlocker while demonstrating the positions. Well, she was yelling out the ditties, "thumbscrew! pocket of the shoulder! firm pistol grip! seat!" But when she got to the "seat!" part, instead of dropping down in the sitting position, she missed the footlocker completely, and plopped backward, fell on her rear-end off the locker and we all about died laughing. All you could see was her tiny boots propped up on top and her campaign cover, and the tip of her rifle sticking up in the air. It was even funnier when she tried to play it cool, and yelled, "See? See that control? A Marine can ALWAYS keep control of their weapon, even if they fall off their footlockers!" dead serious.
Next week is team week, and I'm looking forward to it. It's basically 6 days where the platoon is split up into small groups ans assigned a spot on the island to maintain. It's to test our responsibility because we'll be unsupervised the whole time! Some recruits will get the chow hall, some the rifle range, the chapel, etc. I hope I get the chapel. I love all the windows. The sanctuary is surrounded by giant stained glass windows depicting battle scenes from the different wars, and one of the gates of heaven, (guarded by two Marines in dress blues, of course!)
LATER:
Well we just got the pass/fail papers for the PFT and only one girl failed. It was R. , and it really sucks, because I like her. and she'll more than likely get dropped to PAPRA Co. Both her parents are Colombians.
I've been having some trouble with the other 3 squad leaders lately. I don't know exactly what it is, but K., the guide on, and Rct. F. have formed this kind of clique that I'm excluded from. I confronted the guide, and asked if there were any issues that I needed to work out, and other than take more firm control of the recruits, there were no problems. But I know somethings up. When F. messes up a movement, its funny. But when I do, its "Open your freakin' ears, B!" They don't talk to me anymore, and they look at me with this kind of, "I'm so tired of having a weak link like you in on this" look. I think it's because they are all 3 the same race, kind of street-wise, so the mesh well. That's OK, most of the time I'm with L. AKA "the other white girl" and she cracks me up.
I wondered how long it would be before the platoon "cliqued up" and it took exactly 35 days. The groups are formed, and I kinda float around. Like always. But, hey, enough of the pity party. I bust my rear, count down the days, and deal with it. Only 4o or so more days to go!!!:) :) We've already decided to put our hair up in little braids for the crucible:) Yeah, getting close and we know it. So do the males. Today at chapel this HUGE, like 7ft tall male recruit with a neck like a steel cable came prancing up behind me, said, "Beck!" and when I turned to look, he did that little eyebrow thing, and said, "How's it going? Nice name!". I just looked at him for like two seconds with my "Are you aware that I can pop your head like like a cork?" look, and said, "Yep." as I walked off. It must have looked pretty funny, cuz he turned red. I found out later that he had gotten the phone numbers of all the girls in FRP. Hee, hee. Oh well, good luck next time, Mr. Man. Shouldn't have been talking in church...to me.:)
It's sad, cuz they know that the females are "love sick" and they(males) think they're ALL THAT. Bad combo. DI L. said that almost 40% of the girls will be pregnant during their first 4 years in service. I look forward to being able to prove myself in a place where those statistics are so high.
Love, Ruby
Thanks for the letters, they're awesome. Mom, you can stop worrying about me changing my MOS (job) I found out that my contract is for 5 years instead of 4, so I couldn't switch over for another 2 years anyway. Besides, I want my job. Senior DI worked in the airfield and she said Marines would kill for the job I got.
Today was PFT (Physical Fitness Test) and I did really good. You have to get a 225 for a first-class PFT, out of a possible 300, and I got a 293, with a max-out dead hang, max-out sit-ups, and a 22:03 3 mile run. I was a little disappointed with that, because 3 girls came in ahead of me with run times in the late 21s, and I KNOW I could've gotten it if it wasn't for the fact that we had to run with the males. There were SO MANY of them, that in order to pass them I had to run through the grass and loose dirt. I don't like the male recruits. They're so dramatic. They were actually WALKING during part of the run!! (It's probably because they get away with eating so much crud). This morning at chow, some guys got 2 pieces of bread, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, etc. It's crazy how much easier they have things, even the male DIs admit it.
Yesterday 2 males got TOTALLY BUSTED. In the ISMIT building there's a snack machine for the Marines (not recruits). Well, this male recruit found a dollar, took a buddy as a lookout, bought a Snickers bar, got caught, (not much of a lookout) and they both got dropped back to FORMING DAY ONE !
We start firing slow and rapid fire on the 200, 300, and 500 yd line on Tuesday. I can't wait. I'm in a little competition with Rct. S on the range. S is from way back in the sticks around Knoxville TN. Like, her family doesn't even have a mailbox, so she has to write to her town's Post Office!:)
We're really close, score wise, and it makes it fun.
We had a rifle control class with DI SSgt. T (one of the little DI twins) and it was so funny. No one in the back could see her, so she had to stand on a footlocker while demonstrating the positions. Well, she was yelling out the ditties, "thumbscrew! pocket of the shoulder! firm pistol grip! seat!" But when she got to the "seat!" part, instead of dropping down in the sitting position, she missed the footlocker completely, and plopped backward, fell on her rear-end off the locker and we all about died laughing. All you could see was her tiny boots propped up on top and her campaign cover, and the tip of her rifle sticking up in the air. It was even funnier when she tried to play it cool, and yelled, "See? See that control? A Marine can ALWAYS keep control of their weapon, even if they fall off their footlockers!" dead serious.
Next week is team week, and I'm looking forward to it. It's basically 6 days where the platoon is split up into small groups ans assigned a spot on the island to maintain. It's to test our responsibility because we'll be unsupervised the whole time! Some recruits will get the chow hall, some the rifle range, the chapel, etc. I hope I get the chapel. I love all the windows. The sanctuary is surrounded by giant stained glass windows depicting battle scenes from the different wars, and one of the gates of heaven, (guarded by two Marines in dress blues, of course!)
LATER:
Well we just got the pass/fail papers for the PFT and only one girl failed. It was R. , and it really sucks, because I like her. and she'll more than likely get dropped to PAPRA Co. Both her parents are Colombians.
I've been having some trouble with the other 3 squad leaders lately. I don't know exactly what it is, but K., the guide on, and Rct. F. have formed this kind of clique that I'm excluded from. I confronted the guide, and asked if there were any issues that I needed to work out, and other than take more firm control of the recruits, there were no problems. But I know somethings up. When F. messes up a movement, its funny. But when I do, its "Open your freakin' ears, B!" They don't talk to me anymore, and they look at me with this kind of, "I'm so tired of having a weak link like you in on this" look. I think it's because they are all 3 the same race, kind of street-wise, so the mesh well. That's OK, most of the time I'm with L. AKA "the other white girl" and she cracks me up.
I wondered how long it would be before the platoon "cliqued up" and it took exactly 35 days. The groups are formed, and I kinda float around. Like always. But, hey, enough of the pity party. I bust my rear, count down the days, and deal with it. Only 4o or so more days to go!!!:) :) We've already decided to put our hair up in little braids for the crucible:) Yeah, getting close and we know it. So do the males. Today at chapel this HUGE, like 7ft tall male recruit with a neck like a steel cable came prancing up behind me, said, "Beck!" and when I turned to look, he did that little eyebrow thing, and said, "How's it going? Nice name!". I just looked at him for like two seconds with my "Are you aware that I can pop your head like like a cork?" look, and said, "Yep." as I walked off. It must have looked pretty funny, cuz he turned red. I found out later that he had gotten the phone numbers of all the girls in FRP. Hee, hee. Oh well, good luck next time, Mr. Man. Shouldn't have been talking in church...to me.:)
It's sad, cuz they know that the females are "love sick" and they(males) think they're ALL THAT. Bad combo. DI L. said that almost 40% of the girls will be pregnant during their first 4 years in service. I look forward to being able to prove myself in a place where those statistics are so high.
Love, Ruby
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
