Well, I’ve moved the site to it’s new home www.stonesand.net. All previous sites now refer to here. It’ll be a few days while I sort out the visual look, but everything should be functional. Some of the advanced features, like email notifications of updates and the Xbox 360 gamertag callouts, have not yet been replaced. I’ll get there.

More exciting, Corvallis Technical is running full-steam ahead! We do IT support for small and medium-sized businesses in the Corvallis/Albany area. Check out www.corvallistechnical.com for more info.

Greetings Ladies and Gentlefolks,

Today’s installment touches on graduation from BCT and my first couple of weeks at AIT. Graduation at Ft. Knox took place in a theater just down the street that’s also used to show movies and host other formal ceremonies and functions. I always thought that BCT graduations took place outside on parade grounds with lots of marching and bands and pomp and circumstance. But our graduation was inside of an air conditioned theater with multimedia presentations and just a little bit of marching…

Amy and I had a great time at the graduation and the few hours we had to spend afterwards. It was rather disappointing that Amy couldn’t rent a car at the airport. Apparently car rental businesses only take major credit cards, not debit cards. Of course, being the debt conscious individuals that we are, Amy wasn’t carrying a credit card. In the end it turned out alright because we spent less money on cabs that day than the price it would have cost us to rent a car. Of course we missed out on seeing all of the ranges and other highlights from around Ft. Knox and we pretty much could only go to the PX for entertainment (it’s a good thing I was starved for fast food and cany….yum).

At the end of the day we had to load up into big charter buses and I had to say goodbye to Amy….again. The bus ride to Ft. Jackson South Carolina was roughly 12 hours long and it was full of sleeping, eating junk, drinking junk, watching movies (on the TVs they had in the buses), reading, talking on my cell phone, playing my Gameboy and eating more junk. By the time we arrived at Ft Jackson I was ready to swear off junk food for good (but of course that didn’t happen). There were two other soldiers that were 42A (read “forty two alpha”) like myself, the rest were 63B (light wheeled vehicle mechanics) that were also stationed at Ft Jackson for AIT but at a different location. So the three of us chairborne rangers unloaded at Delta Company, 369th Adjutant General Battalion — our new home for the next 8 weeks.

I was lucky enough to be put in the same bay with the rest of my Ft Knox buddies and also be roommates with a bunch of cool guys that I clicked with right away. Coyne, Christensen, Amato, John (yes that’s his last name), Tenny, Gilispie (we call him “Gypsy”), Kennedy, Arvin, and Domingo. All of us get along really well and it’s these guys that are probably going to be the ones that help me through AIT without going crazy.

Because, let me tell you, there are plenty of things here that could drive you crazy. First of all, the discipline here compared to Knox is like night and day. With the Death Dealers we were being trained at an all male post with combat arms MOS drill sergeants that all had combat experience. At Ft Jackson we’re training to be paper pushers, our drill sergeants are also paper pushers so they aren’t as intense as I’m used to. Half of the soldiers in our company are female (not to mention the female drill sergeants) and everyone here has a much more laid back attitude toward training and the Army in general. It’s almost like being in summer camp rather than training with the Army.

However, all of the new privileges that we get at AIT make the frustrating things a little more worth it. We are allowed to use our cell phones and pretty much any other electronic device (laptops included) during personal time. Personal time, by the way, is after dinner chow (around 1800) until lights out. One the weekends we are allowed varying levels of passes depending on our status. For instance, if you pass the PT test you can eventually get an off-post pass that allows you to leave Ft Jackson for a specified amount of time (either overnight or same-day). Otherwise you can get post-passes that allow you to go anywhere on post. Finally, if you for some stupid reason screw up during the week you might only get a battalion-pass or no-pass, which allow you to go anywhere in the battalion area or nowhere at all respectively. I’ve been getting post passes since I’ve been here. I passed the PT test the other day which is good for me but I still don’t get an off-post pass until I’ve been here for a couple more weeks.

Let’s see…what else. The work of a 42A is pretty interesting and actually very important in the Army. After all, the military runs on paperwork and bureaucracy so there’s no place better to be than a 42A if you want to have real power to get things done. It may not be the most glorious job in the Army but, hey, I’m only doing this until I graduate from OSU. Then I’ll be going into super-duper-secret Military Intelligence. Which is glorious in my book.

The training that we do as 42As, on the other hand, is extremely boring and tedious. Not for everybody, I’m sure, but for someone who has had 3 years of university level classes under their belt and 3 years at a job where I wrote technical documents constantly–this stuff is a cake walk. I could take and pass this whole training cycle in 3-4 weeks, easy. But at the Army’s pace it’ll take a full 8 weeks….sigh.

We still have to do field training while we’re at AIT. We have one 3 day FTX starting this weekend and then after that we’re done with soldier skill training for good. We’ve gone out to the field for the last two Saturdays to practice such things as MOUT, reflexive fire, first aid, reaction to IEDs, patrolling, etc. It’s all been pretty easy and straightforward stuff because we’ve all been to BCT and know everything already. Instead of learning new stuff we’re just reviewing and refreshing. Which is a good thing actually. I didn’t want my rifle skills to go dull while I was at AIT so I have welcomed the opportunity to work with an M16 once in a while. But I still pine for my trusty M4 from basic.

To tell you the honest truth, the only thing that’s going to be worth writing about for the next six weeks is the FTX that we’re going on in a few days. After that, all I have to write about is boring class work, shopping at the PX, and going to the gym to workout every day. Sooooo….it might be kinda sparse here until I get home.

Hmmmm….I can’t think of anything else aside from a new habit that I’ve picked up: sunflower seeds. Mmmmm. I can thank my wonderful Drill Sergeants at Ft. Knox for that one. They used to eat sunflower seeds all the time. I have to admit that it looked satisfying and very macho cool so I’ve picked it up since I’ve been here at Ft Jackson. Yay for me! I’m macho cool!

A very big Army HOOAH to all of you out there! Now that I’m in Advanced Individual Training (AIT) I have access to a LOT more priviledges and free time than I did in Basic Training. I’ll be posting my weekly letters directly to Ben’s website now so there won’t be any delay at all. Although, I have to admit…Human Resources Specialist training is really not as exciting as Basic Combat training. So letters from Ft. Jackson might be more bland then they were from Ft. Knox.

But regardless I will be online now and relieving the Brewster family from having to type my extremely long letters (which I thank them very much for doing). The following is my last letter from Basic Training. I will write another post about my first experiences at AIT later (mainly because this next letter is so long)

—

Saturday, 26 May 2007 (the 26th is the start date of this letter, it was written over the course of several days)

Well this is it everyone. I can’t believe this will be my last letter written from the School of Hard Knox. If you get this little correspondence by Thursday (like I expect) I will be having a family day with Amy here on Post [Of course this didn't happen, hence you getting this letter on the internet instead of by mail]. I plan on taking her to some of the locations where hightlites from Basic Training occured (BRM, gas chamber, road march routes, barracks, chow hall, etc) [This didn't happen either because Amy was unable to rent a car and we had to take a taxi everywhere we went]. And in addition to that I’m going to take the opportunity to eat whatever the heck I want whenever the heck I want. I plan on hitting up junk food or fast food every couple of hours during the whole day. Yeah, all that good junk food and candy and fast food you guys take for granted and probably try to avoid most of the tim? It’s like yearning for the promised land to a private in Basic Training. A little bit like what missionaries feel when they’re in the field and lead restrictive lifestyles…on like fifty times more intense.

First off, before I get into my updates for this week (which are awesome by the way because we had our blue phase FTX) I need to respond directly to some letters that I received [Obviously these are old letters and I'm about to write answers to some questions that people asked a while ago].

My parents asked how I did on my PT test. Not too shabby would be an appropriate answer. The APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) is composed of 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups, and a 2 mile run. For my final PT test I did 46 push-ups, 58 sit-ups, and ran my 2 mile in 13:48. I was actually kind of disapointed in the results because for my previous PT test I managed to get 52 push-ups (grrr…). But I’m very happy with my run time. I have been consistently improving my time the entire time I’ve been here. When I first got here my 2 mile run time was something like 15:54. While I’m in AIT I’m to going to shoot for the Army PT badge. It’s a little nifty patch on my PT uniform that signifies I’ve scored at least a 270 on my PT test with at least 90 in each category. That doesn’t mean 90 push-ups though. Each raw score (exact number of repetitions) is assigned a number score. These are added for an arbitrary indicator of how Army Strong I am. My final APFT score for BCT was 238 (the max is 300). I’m really going to shoot for that 270 at AIT. A high PT score looks really good in a personnel file being reviewed for approval in branch application, and I really want to get into military inteligence as an officer…really, really, really.

Let’s see…Amy asked what time we wake up in the morning. On average we wake up at 4Am. Some days are different, like Sundays when we wake up at 5am or so. Lights off is usually 10pm but on weeks where we were doing tough training we went to bed at 9pm. Amy also asked if my battle buddies have thick accents. Uh…yeah. Like you would not believe. I mean not all of them but I have heard accents so thick (especially the southern ones) that I have to ask them to repeat what they said two or three times. There’s also some really thick Eastern accents (from New York City for example) that I’ve been around too. And of course there’s the midwestern accents that are occaisonally a cross between southern and western accents. You have to remember though that pretty much ALL the civilians here have really thick southern accents because they’re all from Kentucky. And no, fortunately, I am not picking up a southern accent but occaisonally I catch myself speaking with one if I’m talking to someone with a thick accent themselves.

Mom Murdock wrote me a great letter about visiting Amy and the kids a while back. I am SO glad that we have such awesome extended family support and such great Grandparents for Marcus and Emma. Both sets are the best any kid could ask for. Thank you all for keeping me abrest of what the kids are doing–it is so hard to be away from them while they’re in the middle of growing up so fast. I can’t believe how much older Marcus sounds on the phone–wow!

Alright, now to the part where a lot of you tune out…my gamer buddies. Nate, thanks for the update on the Halo 3 beta. How many of you were ultimately able to get into it anyway? Does it dynamically update in response to feedback? Or is Bungie making a laundry list of changes and doing it all later? Hey, any update on the single player game yet? New trailers? Media campaigns? Sinch this is the final Halo installment I expect Microsoft to get in on the marketing of this one big time but I guess we’ll wait and see.

Any other games out there right now perking everyone’s interest? Did ya’ll get GRAW2? Has ther been any updates or new content for RS:V yet (like the M4 Carbine)? You know what’s kind of strange? With all of this tactical Army combat training and indoctrination, you konw what game I’ve been craving the most lately? Oblivion. Go figure eh? That game has such a strong replay value and addiction factor. Any word on new RPGs coming out soon for the 360?

Alright, alright, alright…Let’s get down to business–the Blue Phase FTX. This FTX was a culmination of all skills and training that we had done up to that point. It was as close to being actually deployed in the field under combat conditions as one can get. We started the week out (yes the FTX was 3 days and 3 nights long) by marching from the barracks to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) with loaded rucksacks. Our rucksacks weighed about 50 lbs. The road march to the FOB was approximately 10 km. The US uses FOBs all over Iraq and Afghanistan as semi-permanent bases and staging areas for company or battalion size forces. It usually consists of a seven or eight foot wall of some solid material (ours was made of stacked railroad ties) surrounded by Concertina wire on the outside with intermitent guard towers and watch stations. Inside the walls are large tents or prefab buildings set up for different purposes - barracks, TOC (tactical operations center), aid station (sometimes a full field hospital in larger FOBs), ammunition point, mess hall, classroom, etc). There was also a front gate and checkpoint facilities right outside that. Thingks like road barriers, holding areas, guardhouse, machine gun nest, etc. Our FOB was set up by the 146th Infantry Battalion and is used by all BCT soldiers during their final phase of training at Ft. Knox. Once we arrived at the FOB we set up camp and assigned duties and tasks among the 4 different platoons including 24 hour guards posted in the towers, at the gate, and around the walls, a quick reaction force, and a detail that worked in the TOC and at the ammo point. While I was there I pulled duty as guard in the towers, around the walls, and manning the radio in the TOC.

Everything was realistically played out while we stayed at the FOB. We carried our weapons at the low ready 24/7. We were all issued 70 rounds of blank 5.56 mm ammunition for our M4s (and we had M249s and M240Bs with blank ammo in the guard towers) which I was actually put in charge of distributing. Every night we were there we experienced enemy contact of one kind or another. The role of the OPFORs was played by our Drill SGTs and cadre. Everything was very Iraq and/or Afghanistan in feel and flavor. Right down to the OPFORs Middle Eastern accents, attire, and tactics. We were mortared, probed, assaulted, and simply just approached by civilians and we had to react appropriately to it every time. Unfortunately, we weren’t successful all the time (rules of engagement don’t sink in right away to immature 19 year old soldiers who grew up on Rambo movies and violent video games). It was still a pretty fun time though. More than once we received indirect fire or an attack at the gate and we all had to jump out of our cots, throw on our full battle rattle and run to our assigned posts. The whole time we were at the FOB I never fired a round (fire discipline my friends, fire discipline) but it was still lots of fun nontheless.

I especially like pulling duty at the TOC. It was fun being in the nerve center of the action and seeing how the engagements or encounters developed from inside command and control. There were always at least 2 Drill SGTs on duty in the TOC that were on our “side”. We also had a map of the area inside, a large SINCGARS radio that we monitored and used to communicate with Ft Knox range control, a map of the FOB, and a telephone that was connected directly to all four guard towers (if the towers wanted to report anything they would just pick up the phone in the tower and it would automatically call the TOC).

During the days at the FOB we were transported to different sites to conduct “missions”. We did some patrols in the woods, a convoy live-fire exercise where we fired at targets from a moving vehicle, and my personal favorite, urban combat operations with paintball gear. For the convoy live fire I actually pulled front gate guard duty for the rand all day long with another soldier — so that consisted of chilling out in the shade all day long just waiting for vehicles to come in or out and checking their ID and calling it in to the Range Control tower.

We also did some AA (assembly area) and fighting position procedures trainging but I missed that too because I had a doctor’s appointment in Elizabethtown for my nose. I rode with one of my Drill SGTs to the appointment and we shot the breeze a little on the way there (that was kind of fun and a change of pace). At the appointment they offered to completely straighten my nose which is still about 1/8 of an inch off center. But I said no because it would have to splinted and I’d be on bed rest for 10 days and miss a whole bunch of training and the 15 km road march back to the barracks (which is a graduation requirement).

The urban ops missions were the hi-light of the week for me. It was quite frustrating at time because of how un-tactically minded most young BCT soldiers are (especially non-combat arms ones). I was thinking the whole time how much more effective I would be with a team of soldiers consisting of my close friends and brothers.

It was still an adrenaline pumping time though. I took the role of RTO (radio telephone operator) in the squad. I was in charge of the hand held radio which was used to call in Sitreps (situation reports) , LACE (liquid, ammuntion, casualty, equipment) reports, and 9 line medavac requests. It was just like in the movies at times. Gunshots (ok, well paintballs) roaring over head, soldiers yelling everywhere, and me screaming reports and requests for medevac over the radio. It was great.

Everything culminated in a long 15 km road march back to the barracks starting at 12am at night and ending sometime around 5:30am. Only this time it wasn’t just a road march. Every 2 km or so some of the company cadre had set up an “encounter” of some kind. Such as sniper fire, civilians requesting help, IED, a news media crew, etc. It kept the road march from being too boring. My pinky toes bore the brunt of the miles we marched and by the end of it all I was limping with huge open wounds on my toes for the next week or so. Nothing an Army Strong soldier can’t handle though!

After we returned home safe and sound from the FTX we had roughly a week of recovery and gear cleaning and returning that we had to do. We had to turn in all of our TA-50 gear (everything that isn’t our basic uniform issue like rucksacks, helmets, vests, etc) at the end of the week and I was one of only twelve soldiers in the entire company that got first time GOs for gear turn in. Meaning that we didn’t have to go back outside and clean or fix equipment. Because there were so few of us the Drill SGTs decided to give us a nice little pizza party for 9 of us. We ordered 6 large stuffed crust pizzas from Pizza Hut and enjoyed the feast in DS Pentz’ office watching Full Metal Jacket on his personal TV. Heh, heh, heh…after 9 weeks of doing things right it felt good to finally get rewarded for it.

Next week I’ll be writing a letter about graduation and family day and my transportation to AIT in South Carolina so stay tuned for more exciting developments!

Oh yeah, and for the last week after our FTX I pretty much ate dessert every meal so there isn’t any one piece of pie I can tell you about. Hey, it was the last week, so sue me!

—

Like I said before, it’s a great feeling to be writing letters in real time now. I look forward to telling you about my graduation and first week at AIT next time (it could be next week, it could be sooner depending on when I can get on the computer next).

Thanks for all your support!

PFC Christensen

Sorry this one took me so long to post - it came late, and came during final projects. I’ve finally got it posted… thanks to my wife for typing it up.

May 9, 2007

Hey Everybody!

Since I slipped everyone a letter last week I’ve decided to write one this week mainly because we just completed our white phase FTX and we’re about to move into blue phase at the end of this week.

The white phase FTX was all about U.S. weapon familiarization. Which means that we received classes on numerous different U.S. small and heavy arms and then were allowed to test fire them.

Before the actual FTX we did our grenade training. That was pretty fun stuff! We learned how to arm and deploy a fragmentation grenade from several different positions. For practice we used M67 frag grenade shells with just the fuse and the primer in it. When the primer/detonator went off it was about as loud as a .22 rifle. It’s very difficult to throw frag grenades because of how stinkin heavy they are. They’re definitely heavier then a rock of comparable size (which is probably the most people’s perception of their weight.) The [way to] get the good 35 meters that is preferred is to whip your arm like you’re throwing a baseball and throw as close to a 45 degree angle as you can. Even then it’s still a lot harder then they make it look in the video games. (All of you non-gamers out there will have to bear with me- I’m going to do a lot of game-real live comparisons here) Yeah Ghost Recon has it right by making grenades a weapon you have to switch to and take time to throw. Deploying a frag grenade defiantly not as fast and instantaneous as a button tap like in most games. As far as the look and sound of a frag grenade going off – it’s visually interesting and audibly deafening. Seriously, these things are LOUD. There is no way a video game or sound system will ever do it justice (well there’s probably a sound system out there somewhere that could do it but you get my point). So pretty much, the louder game developers create grenade explosives the closer they are to realism. But it’s not a really huge thunderous roar of an explosion. It’s more like a crack, pop, and echo with the most thunderous base and reverberation you’ve ever felt. As far as what it looks like- in the split second that it first explodes it looks a lot like the splash made by a drop of water in a larger body of water - but it’s made of black smoke and dust and dirt with a small yellow flash in the center. But immediately after that millisecond of uniformity it just turns into a cloud of rapidly expanding black smoke and dust about five meters square that very quickly dissipates and leaves a big black splash mark on the ground.

OK, so enough about hand grenades. They were fun but let’s get to some other things. Like the M-2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun! Yeah Baby. Now there is a man’s man weapon. The M-2 has been in the service with the U. S. military since 1934. Thirty four! And it has been left unchanged since that time. Basically Browning made a heavy machine gun that was so perfectly designed that no one wants to mess with it. BTW - did I mention John browning was a member of the [LDS]church?

We were given some classes on it at the range and then allowed to shoot about 20 rounds from it on auto fire. Man, you have not shot a weapon until you have felt a .50 cal thumping into your hands (I’m sure Brent knows what I’m talking about). The machine gun doesn’t cycle very fast because it relies on gravity to cycle another round down into the chamber. Also there’s the fact that the bolt has to travel back and forth a much farther distance because of the size of a .50 cal round (yeah those things mean BUZI-NASS) ; of course it doesn’t matter that it has a somewhat slow rate of fire. The effects of a round of .50 cal are nothing like what they show in the movies. Stuff explodes when it is hit by this round. The ground, vegetation, buildings, and what we like to call in the army – soft targets (people). They all just literally fall apart when a .50 cal round slams home at center of mass. Not that I shot any soft targets (just big metal ones that were ½ km – 1 km out) but our instructors (sergeants) told us stories from Iraq that were pretty gruesome.

Next we shot the M249 and M240B. The M249 is commonly known as the SAW (squad automatic weapon) and is the primary light machine gun used by dismounted and mounted infantry. Not too many people can say that they have fired a fully automatic machine gun. I’m one of those that can. It was so fun to feel the raw power in my hands and watch the tracer rounds go streaking down range (tracers really show just how much bullets ricochet off of anything: a lot, they ricochet probably 35% of the time). It was also interesting to watch the speed of the 7.62 mm rounds going down range (from the M240B) compared to the 5.56 mm rounds of the M249. I’m not positive on the specs but the 7.62 sure appeared to be faster.

Also were instructed in some heavy weapons used as well. Like the AT4, M203 grenade launcher, and claymore mine. We practiced firing the AT4 with models that only fired little 9mm tracer rounds. But it was till fun to aim at the derelict tank bodies down range and watch the rounds bounce off the target or treads or side. The real AT4 demonstration that we saw was awesome.

The concussion from the launch was big enough that we could feel it 100 meters away in the bleachers. What I’ve been consistently amazed by is how much smoke is created by detonating, firing, or otherwise employing one of these heavy weapons. There is usually not that much smoke at all generated by similar weapons in video games. I think the only game that comes close is “Black� for the original Xbox.

The M203 grenade launcher really is as easy as it looks to operate and its blast radius is about the size of a standard M67 grenade so no surprise there. What is a bit of a surprise is the range of these things. Heck with firing grenades at targets 50-100 meters away… try 400-600 meters. M203’s really have the power to reach out and touch someone. Oh yes, and it is 10x more satisfying to load and lock a round in the chamber in real life then it is in any video game. We were able to shoot 10 orange chalk rounds at the tank targets on the heavy weapons range. I think I hit 6 out of 10 tries (they’re rather difficult to aim properly - or I should say consistently).

While we’re on the subject of video games I would just like to point out the fact that our drill sergeants (probably some of the best and toughest drill sergeants in the army) play video games. Albeit it’s a PS2 but still! When they have breaks a lot of the time they’re playing video games in their office. Ha! So tell me now that only losers, teenagers, geeks, and nerds without lives play video games. Every day that old-school notion is blown out of the water even more as video games grow further entrenched in every day society. OK enough preaching… just thought I’d mention that.

There’s a whole other letter worth of stuff to write about individual and squad movement technique that I could tell you about but I think I’ll give Ben’s fingers a break. [Actually Amanda is typing this - and it is stink’n long]

Thanks for the comments that were sent my way, I enjoyed them all.

Specifically…

Yes Nate I did get your letter. It was one of the first I received at basic and it was much appreciated. Although, at the time I was rather alarmed to hear that Keith Nye had my 360. I still am not 100% cool with it but Hey, Keith is a nice guy and if anything bad does happen I’ll take it out of Ben’s hide, not Keith’s.

Thanks for the letter Grandma! I was very happy to see that familiar return address and handwriting on the envelope. Have fun with Garrett at your house (work him hard!) And thank you again for planning to attend Amy’s graduation. It really means a lot to her.

Mom Murdock, I can’t tall you how awesome it is to have in-laws that I consider just as much family as my own extended family. It means a lot to know that you support me and approve of my decisions and the way Amy and I lead our family. You’re the best! Before Amy and I take a well deserved vacation when I get back at the end of July I want to spend a few days with both of our families up in Hillsboro.

Mommy. I still wonder sometimes how you can stand seeing your sons do the military things when it was so hard for you to go through at times. I really do think I have the best mom not just because of how much you love and care for me and my family but just how much you support all of us kids in whatever we do. Thank you so much for raising us like you did mom, pretty much all the good choices I make I can trace back to a consequence of how you raised me.

Daddy. I don’t even remember telling Wayne he sang funny! Dang… sorry. I really was a poop-head back then though. You know Dad, seeing as I’m starting my army life now I have to thank you for making the military life something positive and a source of pride for you. The army values and warrior ethos were very easy for me to adopt because of the straight and honorable way you raised me. Hey, BTW, did you know a young sergeant in Germany by the name of Cornell? My company’s 1st Sgt. here says I look very familiar and he served in Germany at one of the same bases we lived at the same time we lived there. When and where did we live in Germany exactly again? That would be pretty cool if you knew my 1st sergeant and he’s training me all these years later.

Ben. Dude, what’s this about starting your own business? No more mad scientist A.I. programmer? No more doctorate then? I guess there’s ultimately more money to be made in entrepreneurship anyway right? Well good luck with the preparations you’ll be putting into your new business… I’ll be there to help any way I can. I also can’t wait to see Asher and Holly again. It’s so much fun seeing our families grow up together isn’t it?

Oh ya… one more thing… For all my Halo buddies out there. Search the Halo predictions, ruminations, and conjecture threads out there that we wrote. Did I or did I not hit the X-button feature on the freakin’ head?! Ha! I at least deserve a candy bar or something for that one. Man, I’m awesome.

PFC Christensen

P.S. Pie this week was actually cake. Banana Cake… mmm… my favorite.

P.P.S. Ben, post this letter first and then the one about me breaking my nose.

That toughness I mentioned earlier? Now he looks like he’s tough…

18 May 2007

Hey All,

As I write this letter, I can feel the effects of percocet start to slow my mind and hand. I am so sorry that there has been an absence of correspondence coming out of Fort Knox lately. I have my (hopefully) good reasons:

1. Our screw-up platoon is finally getting lockdown treatment which means tough & demanding days for the next couple weeks.
2. My bookman duties are keeping me very busy. The closer we get to graduation the more paperwork there is to finish.
3. Drumroll… I broke my nose! Hence the reason percocet is almost keeping me from writing this letter.

I have a huge letter about all the weapons and tactics training that we did in the past couple weeks but with all this stuff happening… I think you better wait until I start AIT [Advanced Individual Training] on [Here, Sharpie's writing becomes illegible, and a note says that he fell asleep here :)] June 4 before you get that letter.

I guess you probably want to know how I broke my nose. Well, it was an accident that happened on an obstacle course. On one of the stations we’re supposed to assist eachother up a multi-level structure in 4 man buddy teams. One man would stand on the lower level, grab the ledge of the next level up, hoist himself up feet first while men on top and bottom pull or push him up. Well I was one of the guys pulling on the second level and one of my battle buddies (that’s what we call eachother… kind of like calling Elder’s “companions”) swung his feet up faster than I though he was going to. His boot caught me square on the right side of my nose. It was a pretty bad break. My nose was offset about an inch to the left side of my face. Bleeding profusely, my drill sergeant pushed me to the emergency room where I spent the next few hours being treated. Then they had to take me in an ambulance to Elizabethtown to Hardin Memorial Hospital because they wanted to do a CT scan on my head just in case but the staff that knew how to run the machine had already gone home for the day. So I spent several hous at Hardin where they finally reset my nose with copious amounts of pulling, shoving, & crunching… ouch. It’s still slightly offset about an 1/8 of an inch to the left but I have another appt. on Tuesday with a nose specialist or something. Either he’ll fix it some more, or call it good and I’ll have a crooked nose for the rest of my life - a permanent reminder of my stay at the school of hard Knox. Any way I’m going to finish this & write more in my other letter about the upcoming 4 day field exercise. Don’t worry about me - I’m doing fine. But I could always use your prayers to keep me going and ensure that I graduate on time (these unforseen injuries can really screw up a private’s graduation plans if he gets hurt bad enough).

Well, write to you later.

PFC Christensen

The Shower. A poem by Stonesand.

I am protected by a thin plastic curtain
Where I may hide from things uncertain
Warm running hope washes Night’s fears
And I may scrub behind my ear.

I linked all of the equipment Nathan talks about - plenty of good readin’ there.

6 May 2007

OK, OK, I know I’m late but, man, the farther you get into basic training the faster and more furious it gets. This letter is also going to be fast and furious because I still have to write a letter to Amy.

So here’s what we’ve done in the past two weeks – all of our basic rifle marksmanship training. Yep, I’ve been trained for two weeks on the M4 carbine and I qualified as a sharpshooter on it. BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) is all about engaging targets with iron sights at ranges form 50m out to 300m. We shot at a lot of different ranges for about a week and all of them were ranges with pop-up silhouette targets. They pop up at random and we’re supposed to lay them down with well placed, precisely executed (but quickly performed) semi-auto shots.

I’m getting really comfortable with my rifle now. I can clear it, reload, perform a clean, zero, and shoot it all very quickly and very comfortably. We do all of our firing wearing full battle rattle just like they do in Iraq and Afghanistan (flak vest with ballistic plate inserts, knee pads, elbow pads, and helmet). If you haven’t figured it out by now BCT [Basic Combat Training] is now almost exclusively tailored to training soldiers in skills they’ll need for Iraq or Afghanistan.

In BRM we fire from the prone position (supported and unsupported) and the kneeling position. We don’t fire from fox holes any more (for you ex-military guys out there who know what I’m talking about). You wouldn’t think it but firing a rifle from those positions in full battle rattle is very uncomfortable. It’s something your muscles have to get used to over time (like mine are now). It was also surprising to learn that the trajectory of a 5.56 mm round out of a M16/M4 rifle is not straight. It actually arcs up and then down slightly (a height of about a foot and a half or so). Which means it shoots like how a quarterback throws a football – spiraling and at an arc to get more range. This means that when you aim at targets over 50 meters away but less then 300m you have to aim slightly above or below the center of mass of the target depending how far away it is. And you do all of this in your head on the fly as targets are popping up at random all over a range 3x the length of a football field. It’s not an easy task let me tell you, but with practice it starts to come naturally.

One of our drill sergeants said that when we hit a target at 300 meters with an M4 we’ve done something 99% of the U.S. population can’t do (or hasn’t done, one of the two). Sounds pretty HOO-HA to me.

So anyway, that was BRM. There are a ton of stories I could tell about everything we did. Everything from firing at a million-dollar range with sensors and computer displays at each station to show you exactly where you shot, to shooting in pouring rain and six inch puddles, But I don’t have room or time… sorry.

We did some ARM (Advanced Rifle Marksmanship) this week (week after BRM). ARM is where we train to move and shoot like the soldiers do in the movies or you see on the news. We got to practice with the army’s M68 CCO (close combat optic). It’s essentially a red dot sight that attaches to the picatinny rail of an M4 when you remove the carrying handle.

In ARM we engage targets that are significantly closer then BRM. There aren’t any targets at the ARM ranges that are farther then 30- meters. We learn to hold our weapons at the low or high ready and engage targets with a double tap of the trigger and both eyes open, looking through the M68 CCO on top of the rifle.

Unfortunately, we only get two days of ARM but I wish we had more. It’s the bomb. I really feel like a lethal killing machine walking forward at the low ready and then quickly stopping and bringing up my rifle to double tap to pop-up targets in front of me. It looks totally Hollywood – it’s freakin’ awesome.

But wait! It gets even more awesome! Yesterday we did a night fire exercises with night vision sights! You know those flip down NV sights that you see soldiers have attached to the front of their helmets? Yeah, we got to shoot at night with those. We also had this IR laser emitter attached to your M4 that we used to aim with. It shot out a laser you could only see through the NV scope. Everything was tinted green through the scope and the lasers were a very bright green. We had to fire our weapons form under our arm pit because we couldn’t put them up to your eye or the recoil would hurt the NV sight and our eye socket. Final verdict? Love NV, Love the M68, Love the M4, love being a soldier, and the army has some pretty awesome toys.

One more thing, one big reason I haven’t had a chance to write very much in the past two weeks is because I’m the new platoon bookman. I was relieved of my squad leader position because I inherited the bookman job after the last bookman got fired for screwing up. Since being bookman and squad leader is impossibly time consuming the D.S.’s decided to just make me bookman. The bookman is essentially like a cross between a scribe, a record keeper, and a quartermaster, and keep all the paperwork for the platoon updated and accurate. I keep track and secure a lot of the office type equipment that the platoon is issued. I’m in charge of keeping track of how many sick calls there are out of the platoon, any specific accountability of gear out of the platoon, I coordinate info and paperwork with other platoon bookmen, and I’m asked to keep a lot of things secret because I see a lot of sensitive stuff (having access to all the personal files for privates in my platoon).

So there you have it. That’s pretty much it. I’m improving a lot in my PT and getting pretty toned and shaped. I’ve lost at least one pant size (probably two) out of my gut. I wouldn’t say I’m “ripped� yet (my stomach needs work) but I’m getting darn close. I can knock out 40 push-ups now without stopping our breaking a sweat. And I run 2 miles in 15 minutes flat.

My knees are starting to bother me though and I think I need some prayers in that regard. I have to pass my final PT test on the 17th of May or I don’t graduate and I stay here. If my knees give out I obviously won’t be able to run. So pray for my knees please! Take care and please write!

PFC Christensen, Nathan

P.S. Almost forgot… pie last week was peach. Pie this Sunday was apple. Mmm… only 3 more slices of pie to go! 3! Wow.

Write the bugger!

22 April 2007

Ahh basic training. The best of times and the worst of times. The beginning of this week was awesome. The end of this week was pretty much the worst since I’ve been here.

The red phase ftx [test?] was a lot of fun, but very tiring. The cadre put together real operation orders and we busted out for a remote place at Fort Knox (right on the border in the deep woods) and set up a loose camp formation. We conducted a day time land navigation course which was very invigorating and mentally challenging. I was the team captain of my group and led us to four out of four of the points we were supposed to find. Of course everything we did that weekend was in “full battle rattle� (Kevlar helmet, vest with ballistic plates, LBV, rucksack, M4 carbine). Luckily we were allowed to ground our rucksacks during the land navigation course.

We didn’t get any MRE’s because the army is kinder and gentler these days and loves to contract out jobs to civilians. We get hot chow that is trucked out to our location wherever we’re in the field and sometimes at the barracks.

That night we did night land navigation course that was ridiculously hard. Ever try to navigate through the Kentucky woods in the middle of the night in a helmet and bulletproof vest with a group of privates that really have no idea what they’re doing? I have, it gets no where fast. Needless to say we didn’t get the night land navigation point we were supposed to but our platoon did win the land nav. Course streamer for our banner overall – that made our drill sergeants happy.

The whole rest of the weekend was full of red phase testing, and the rest of the week off and on as well (now I realize why I feel like so much has happened this week, I’m writing for two weekends… wow).

During the week (on Wed. or TH. I think) we learned some basic combative exercises. You know – hand to hand fighting? The army has a new style that’s a cross between wrestling, judo, and some Russian style martial arts. We had a lot of fun with that and I’m happy to say I can confidently kick butt if I have to now. I need a lot more practice but the fundamentals are there (so you better hope my Xbox is in good shape when I get home Ben and Keith…)

This weekend we had some red phase testing on first aid. I passed with flying colors and even got a complement from a drill sergeant who said I made the best splint for a fracture that he as seen all day. I’ll tell you what; it really helped to have all that training as Boy Scout. A lot of the first aid felt like refresher course. I was one of the main three authorities in first aid in my platoon – Everyone came to me for advice (not to blow my own horn but its true).

Also this weekend we did our first PT test. The full 2 minute push-up, 2 minute sit-up and 2 mile run. I think I might have mentioned before how I was worried about my diet and weight and not improving my exercises. Well, my PT test surprised me quite a bit. I did 42 push-ups, 45 sit-ups and ran the two miles in 15 minutes and 26 seconds. Not outstanding I know but before I got here those scores were considerably less (or more as the case may be).

My goals now for the end of basic training are to do 65 push-ups, 70 sit-ups and run a 14:30 two mile on my final PT test. Then at “pit” I can hopefully bump those scores up even more. I will be one seriously ripped dude when I get back. Oh yeah… Good times, good times. The soldier comes home to pound on all his geeky, couch potato friends.

Well, like I said before, this week didn’t end well. Our primary drill sergeant at the end of the week was D.S. Twocrow. This guy has a perpetual chip on his shoulder, is never happy with anything, and has a temper that would scare the terminator. We didn’t eat fast enough in the chow hall on Saturday and some other small thing and he flipped out on us. It wouldn’t have been that bad if it weren’t for the 2nd platoon. They were having a locker inspection at the time and their D.S.s [Drill Sergeants] started finding contraband crackers, cookies, cereal, and other food in the barracks. If you couldn’t figure it out - that’s a big no, no. Automatic counseling statement and article 15 UCMJ punishment (look it up, not enough time to explain it here). Well 2nd platoon’s drill sergeants got all worked up and told our drill sergeants to check our bays too. Fortunately, they didn’t find any food. Unfortunately, they found something even worse – a cell phone. One of our platoon members had a cell phone plugged into the wall behind his locker. Wow, we got totally screwed for that one. It was only a handful of people that knew about the phone and used it but the entire platoon got smoked (P.T.ed to death). Most of all the platoon guide and squad leaders, and guess what I am? Yay! All the leaders got smoked in the sand pit for a good 20 minutes while the rest of the platoon watched, it was bad. I was totally exhausted when we were finished. I mean. Totally beat. Basically what you do in “the pit� is run in place until the DS says�Hit it!� Then you drop to the push-up position and immediately stand back up again. In the course of 20 minutes a D.S. can say “Hit it!� easily 100 times and by the time we were done, everyone was running in foot deep hole in the sand they had dug with their feet and body. It was intense stuff man. All the D.S.’s from all the entire company were royally pissed off today. We lost all privileges (Px, phone calls, free time) and were smoked hardcore 2 or 3 times as a platoon and a company. Another reason our platoon was in trouble was because we constantly fight and bicker at each other and don’t work as a team. It’s getting really old and I completely understand why the D.S’s are getting ticked off about it.

As a squad leader a lot rests on my shoulders now. I have my squad to take care of and I’ve been put in charge of making sure our floor of the barracks is clean. I have a lot less free time now and I feel like I’m babysitting a lot. Especially one 17 year old Private Castleberry, from Tennessee who has ADHD and seems to make enemies anywhere he turns. I don’t know what to do about him. Everyone in his baby [?] hates him for good reason. But then again no one yet can be mature enough to work out their own problems. It is very mentally taxing to have to figure out how to best handle this matter. I don’t want to tack it to D.S. because both of them are already sick and tired of hearing stories about how we hate each other.

*sigh* Anyway this letter is a lot longer then I thought it was going to be so I’ll end it here. This next week we actually start white phase and weapons training and marksmanship practice - Woot! Expect a good letter next week.

I didn’t have any pie last Sunday cuz we were in the woods… but I did have some Oreo cookies with dinner Today I had apple pie mmm…. Only five left! Wow. Crazy.

PFC Christensen at Fort Knox

P.S. - Oh ya, I forgot to mention that at the PTX we had to post 360 guards around our camp all night long. People hardly got any sleep, myself included because the drill sergeants would periodically probe our lines and set of huge M80 fireworks (you know ¼ stick of dynamite kind?) next to our camp to simulate mortar attacks. Aaahh gotta love the United States Army.

P.P.S. – So am I to assume that no one is commenting on the website to my letters? Or is Ben just not sending them to me? [There have been six comments, none of which have real value; I have not been sending them] I’ve been here four weeks and only received three letters not from my wife. [One from me!] I guess “Support the troops� is just a bumper sticker huh?

Another letter from Sharpie. In it, we learn that our friend, husband, and dad is a much tougher guy than we thought!

15 April 2007

Hello from Fort Knox! I have so much to write about and so little time. Wow, I have a lot to write about. I have hardly any personal time anymore (I’m writing this in my bed after lights out) because I’ve been appointed squad leader of first squad. That’s right, first squad leader of first platoon. I am at the extreme front right coorner of the whole company formation. It’s a whole lot of responsibility to keep track of 11 privates and their needs and strengths and weaknesses and what they need to be doing & when. Sheesh. Of course I’m eating up the opportunity to serve and command & lead in this capacity. But its not like I asked for it. I was getting my antibiotics (for my pnemonia) at the Drill Sgt’s office one day this week and Drill Sgt Twocrow just asked out of the blue if I could handle leading a squad. Well of course I said yes. It’s a lot of work and a lot of pressure because the Drill Sgts will smoke (or “peel back” as they sometimes say) the leaders if something goes wrong in the platoon. So if my letters start getting sparse its because I have so much to do during personal time - I’m really sorry in advance.

So I guess the biggest news this week would be the gas chamber! Woohoo! That’s right, I survived the CS gas. One of the “highlites” of basic training is now over! It was quite an ordeal. While you’re in the gas chamber (without the mask) it is just as bad as you can imagine. I didn’t realize that it would burn my lungs so bad. It also irritated my eyes and nose until they started running like crazy but that was nothing compared to the burning in my lungs and shortness of breath. No wonder CS gas is so effective at flushing people out of houses and dispersing crowds. That stuff freaking works.

There were at least half a dozen guys that bolted out of the back door before exercise inside the gas chamber was finished. They were all very desperate and just freaking out. A lot of them were screaming that they couldn’t breathe and that they wouldn’t go back in. It took a lot of Sgts and Drill Sgts to get them back inside. One private never did go back inside - he resisted to the bitter end and the Drill Sgts still give him a hard time days later by instructing the entire company to shout out a loud “Boo” whenever they call out his name. I’m glad the gas chamber experience is over but I’m glad I did it.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we will go on our first overnight field training exercise. We’re packing tons of gear in our rucksacks and we’re going in full “battle rattle,” which means we wear out helmets, flak vest w/ ballistic plate inserts, LBV (Load Bearing Vest - the one that has ammo pouches and canteens and stuff), knee pads & elbow pads, and our weapons. We’re going to do our Red Phase testing (its kind of like a midterm I guess) and a big land navigation course. I love land nav so this should be fun. Plus we have to pull security and guard duty all night. And the Drill Sergeants said they would simulate artillery and morter attacks all night long by tossing huge firecrackers (like over-sized M80s) into the middle of our base camp. And while we’re on our guard duty we’ll have people try to penetrate our perimeter. So we have to challenge them, identify them, and let them through or detain them depending if they know the challenge/password.

Everything they teach us here is extremely modern training. Everything from getting our rifles issued 2 days into training to learning really modern first aid techniques and how to set up checkpoints and carrying our M4s everywhere and doing lots of tactical road marches. And everyone is always talking about Iraq. The rules of war have really changed. It sounds corny but basic training is not our daddy’s boot camp anymore.

It’s pretty fun to always be carrying my M4 everywhere. We can only not have it when we’re taking a shower (but we still have to leave it with a battle buddy). I’m getting really fast at doing functions checks and clearing the weapon & breaking it down and reassembling it. I know that by the time I get back and buy my AR-15, that thing will feel like an extension of my body…

Well there’s tons of more stuff I could write about but its late and I have to get up early so I’ll sign off now and say goodbye till next time. Oh yeah… this weeks pie was apple, mmmm…

PFC Nathan Christensen

Sharpie has an exciting time this week. And by exciting, I mean he missed the exciting thing to do a less exciting thing.

9 April 2007

Hey Everyone,

As I’m sure you know, the BCT life is a hectic one. The only time I get to write letters is 50 minutes in the evening everyday from 2100 to 2150 (9:00pm - 9:50pm), and that time also has to be used for laundry, shower, cleaning lockers etc, etc. So forgive me if my letters start getting spotty in regularity or lacking in detail.

The big news for this week (last week technically) is that I had my first, and hopefully only, big sick call. We had some pretty hot weather on Monday & Tuesday of last week and the PT and activities we were doing under the sun finally caught up with me. We ran a killer obstacle course and practiced drill & ceremonies in a parking lot for 2 hours. This was all in 85+ degree weather with hardly any breaks in the shade. It was pretty intense stuff.

When we finally got inside the barracks my body just called it quits. I was extremely hot, I felt faint and dizzy. I was sore, dazed, wasn’t sweating. I had heat stroke. I was drinking plenty of water the whole day but apparently my mom is susceptible to heat exhaustion & I didn’t know. It didn’t get any better and to make a long story short I went to the emergency room with a temperature of 104.5. Woohoo!

I stayed the night at the hospital and most of the next day. They kept me all happed up on IVs and tested my blood at least 3 or 4 times. I was dressed in those stylish hospital gowns and wheeling my IV stand around everywhere I went (which was usually just from my room to the bathroom down the hall). It’s a weird sensation to constantly have to pee even though you’re hardly drinking anything.

The hospital was an army community hospital but very top of the line. If it wasn’t for the staff (some of them) walking around in uniforms, you would’ve thought it was a new civilian hospital. I had TV in my room, room service, great beds, the works. They even had plasma screen TVs in the waiting room.

Anyway it was a fun stay but I ended up missing bayonet training and qualification. No big deal though. I can make it up. And the funny thing is that the next day (Wednesday) and ever since then its been in the low 40s with a big wind chill factor. Heh… such is life. Anyway everything is great now - I even got a blessing from the senior missionaries and a member doctor. Elder & Sister Jones lead the serviceman’s ward here. They’re a swell couple of people. OK End of the letter now. And the flavor of pie this week? Cherry. Mmmm… love that cherry pie.

PFC Nathan Christensen

New Sharpie letter…

29 March 2007 , Thursday

The night before shipping out to basic: I’ve decided to chronicle my experiences in this short diary/letter format. Every night I will write a very short paragraph or two about the days -activities. Then, at the end of the week I will have a full letter to send off with a bunch of nitty gritty details about a basic training experience. (I decided to go back on my decision to preserve the mystique of bct.)

I decided to pass the weeks in basic by counting pies. Yep, nine pies to be exact. Every Sunday, and only Sundays, I will allow myself some dessert for dinner. This will give me something to look forward to and I can count down the number of pies until the end! Whoohoo! So every week look forward to a new update on the pie countdown!

Today during one of our day-room stints we had trouble keeping quiet. Not me, mind you. You’d be surprised how hard it is for some people to just not talk. The drill Sgts. gave us a speech about learning to shut up when we‘re supposed. But as soon as they leave us for a few minutes quite a few of the group start talking. It’s really frustrating. Today the group singled out one particular pvt. (Casleberry from Tennessee) and threatened to best the crap out of him if he didn’t shape up (they dole out “mass instruction� in bct – if one guy screws up everyone gets smoked). When he got back to his bunk tonight some privates had torn it up. He later apologized after a bunch of guys visited his bunk with a few words of “encouragement.� Well, I think that’s it for today. Tomorrow we have our first real day of bct. It’s going to be a real big wake-up call for a lot of these guys but I think I can handle it.

I think I’m going to send this letter on Monday to start the schedule correctly. Start my letter diary the same Monday. That means you should get my basic training the same day as the weekly Bungie updates!! Cool…

Later everyone…

PFC Nathan Christensen

30 March 2007, Friday

Uh—yeah. It’s just as bad as everyone thinks it is. I’ll just start off with that. It would be quite a shocke3r to anyone not prepared for basic training to get a dose of a first day with real drill sgts. Yeah, so you think you know what a drill sergeant is like by watching TV or movies?? Pfffft… These guys at Delta Company 2-81 Armor Brigade are 100% more intense than anything you’ve every heard or seen before (unless you’ve been in the military and seen it first hand). But in all fairness (if it can be called fairness) these armor brigade serpents are supposed to be the best they have at Ft. Knox since Ft. Knox’s specialty is armor (tanks, mechanized infantry, etc.)

So to give you a little taste of what the first day was like, check this out… Our first task after getting off the bus that transported us form reception was to form up, “meet� our drill sergeants and then retrieve our duffle bags that had been transported over on another truck. To a civilian this sounds like a rather simple, unassuming task. Enter the untied States Army. The drill sergeants all had their “A� game on which meant the y yelled, screamed, cussed, cursed, bellowed, and shouted louder, longer, angrier, and more intimidating then civilians even think its humanly possible. You think you’ve ever yelled when you’re mad? No… You were whispering compared to what these guys do. Anyway so the duffle bags are all thrown onto a huge pile at one end of the parking lot where we formed up (there are 200 pvts. in our company so that’s a lot of duffle bags). We had to run to the duffle bags and try to find ours and then run back to formation. Ha! Pure and utter chaos. We did it a few times till l everyone got their duffel. Longs story short - it was a killer first day. I’ve got to end this cu I’m running out of time here…

31 March 2007, Saturday

I’ve been appointed “tag man� of the platoon. It’s supposed to be like really important or something but all it consists of is hauling around a little tripod sign and plastic signs that hang on it that designate what unit we are and what we’re doing when we have to do stuff outside. Anyway I’m in 1st platoon of Delta Company 2-81 Armor. We’re the “bandits�. It’s pretty cool so far, our platoon seems to get along ok and not have too many screw ups in its ranks. But we did get thrown in the “pit� today because some of the pvts in our platoon couldn’t fill out some freakin’ paperwork the right way. The pit is just a huge sand box/pit that can fit about 20- people at once. They make you do push-ups, running in place, a while bunch of things when you’re in there. Our two drill sergeants for 1st platoon are Drill Sergeant Twocrow (he looks Hispanic but his name almost sounds Native American doesn’t it?) and Diediker. Twocrow is the toughest by far. He’s the senior drill Sgt. Of our platoon.

1 April 2007, Sunday

Hey, I’m really not at basic training I’m at a Disney world resort for the next 8 weeks. Ha… Ha… Ha… Sometimes April fool’s day is cruel. The two big things that happened today were church and weapon issue. Church was absolutely awesome. I really needed the boost. We had fast and testimony meeting and watched some pre-recorded priesthood session talks. It was all I could do to not start crying quite a few times because the spirit was so strong. I also volunteered to lead the music since I think I was the only one there that knew how (out of soldiers.) The meeting took place in a small little building on the base and a lot of the leadership was handled primarily by two senior missionaries, Elder and Sister Jones.

We were issued our weapons today! I wasn’t expecting to get them until next week but we got them before the first week officially started! Yay! We got M4 carbines instead of the bulky M16s. We have to go everywhere with theses babies. I mean everywhere except the shower. And even then a battle buddy has to take charge of. Well it’s getting late again so I’ll end it here… This is getting long anyway.

Oh yeah! Almost forgot. This weeks pie was … Lemon marangue (or however you spell that)

PFC Christensen

P.S. - sorry Ben, I’ll try and keep the letters shorter from now on.

Next Sharpie letter! Uncensored! Opinionated! Wish he was here!

28 March 2007

Hey, this is my last letter from reception and then I’ll be in full fledged basic training! Reception has been a very strange, enlightening, and frustrating experience. None of the days that pass here actually count toward my nine weeks over at Ft. Knox.

Last night (and early this morning) we had our first experience with a Kentucky thunderstorm. The lightening was pretty spectacular but the thunder wasn’t that threatening so I guess it wasn’t close. It poured pretty dang good for a few hours in the morning so we had to march around in our ponchos outside.

We had our initial P.T. (physical training) assessment yesterday. It consists of 1 min. of push-ups, 1 min of sit-ups, and a 1 mile run. I did mediocre at best with the push-ups (25) and I did ok with the sit-ups (35) but it was the run that became an interesting story. I ran my 4 laps around the track (that equaled 1 mile) in pretty good time (7:40) but when I got to the end and told the drill Sgt. that I had finished my fourth lap but I think he thought I was on my fourth lap, so he told me to run another one. Far be it for me to not do what a drill Sgt. tells me to do so I ran another lap. I finished my fifth lap ahead of quite a few people that were still running their fourth and I timed that one at 9:05. I told the drill Sgt. that I did an extra lap and I’m pretty sure he shaved the last lap time off. I sure hope so because I’ve heard that they divide up the different platoons in basic training according to our P.T. scores (I originally heard that it was alphabetized separation but I’m not sure if that really makes sense.)

I have to tell you about this guy here that’s from Arkansas. He’s typical of the vast majority of the guys form the south (Alabama, Tennessee, Carolinas, Georgia, etc). These southern guys with their southern accents and southern disposition (crass and loud mostly) can be a bit too much for a northerner like me.

Anyway, this one private form Arkansas is like nobody I’ve ever met. He looks like a normal middle class kid with maybe a little bit of Hispanic background in him. But his southern accent is so freakin’ thick and deep that I don’t even understand half the things that are coming out of his mouth – literally, I’m not joking. If any of you watch King of the Hill, he talks almost exactly like the mumbling dude that you can never understand. And to top it all off guess what is name is� Jimmy Jack Huckaby… I kid you not, no joke, totally for real. So there’s just a taste of the southern soldiers here – most of them are form these southern states so it’s all around me all the time.

Well anyway, they’re starting to turn the lights out so I’ll end this letter. I’m doing fine, I’m thankful for all your support and I ask for your prayers to help me through the next nine weeks!

Nathan

Here’s the next letter from Sharpie.

25 March 2007

Well, I have time to write another letter so I think I’ll fill you in on some more reception stories. Reception is like purgatory. It’s painful, it’s damning, and it feels like eternity. The last two days have been a very strange combination of civilian and soldier life. We are basically “pacified� most of they day by being stuck in a big “day room� full of school desks watching movies on a big screen TV. And we’re not talking about a few movies, I must have seen at least seven in the last two days. And about 90% have been rated R – sigh.

Well let’s see here what can I tell you? We all got our haircuts our first full day here. Now we all look like proper soldiers and it’s a lot easier to be friends with people when they all wear the same clothes and have the same haircut.

The ACUs are awesome – I love wearing these things. I feel like a real high speed soldier when I am in these things. It was really interesting to see how guys changed as soon as they put on these uniforms. Not so much in our group but when other soldiers go their uniforms all of a sudden they turned in to drill privates (i.e. royally arrogant pricks (you can edit that if you want Ben?) Nah -Ben)

So I’m the official time keeper in my group. I think out of 45 privates only two of us brought watches. I really don’t understand it. So technically we’re not supposed to be sleeping in reception but that’s only technically. I’ll tell you about a little experience we had on Saturday. So we’re sitting in the day room watching movies when suddenly Sgt. Soto bursts through the door and turned off the TV. He had two Pvts in tow; apparently they were caught sleeping upstairs in the bays (the room with the rows of lockers). We were all supposed to be in the day room so those privates were in big trouble. But the army in their superior discipline techniques (and I’m not being sarcastic) doesn’t punish the offenders directly – instead Sgt. Soto ordered the rest of us to hold our full canteens out in front of us with both hands at eye level. The offending privates stood at the front of the room but didn’t hold out their canteens. We held these canteens up for easily 8 minutes probably 10. Try doing that yourself – not easy. And we had to keep them up straight the entire time. While we were doing this we shouted things to the privates in the front of the room (what ever Sgt. told us to) like, “thank you privates� and “Why did you sleep privates?� and “you are stupid privates.� The Sgt told us to stare at them while we did this. Man those two privates really got the tongue lashing from all of us. Gotta love army disciplinary strategy.

This letter actually has been written over the course of two days so some more interesting stuff happened today. For one, we go tour dog tags and military I.D. card. I tell you what; I.D. tags (dog tags) increase the cool/sexy factor exponentially. And the picture on my I.D. card makes me look like I am bout to kill something. I think I finally have all the gear I need to be a proper soldier, minus my M16. But I’ll be getting that in about 3 weeks and I’ll have it for the rest of basic.

I guess I have some more stories to tell but I’ll leave it for some later letters. Take care everyone!

PFC Nathan