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