We are still in Red Phase. I suspect that the cadre will devise some details to keep us busy tomorrow so we cannot enjoy our normal Sunday free time. At least I will still have part of the morning to myself when the churchgoers go about their business (BTW they now keep the church services segragated by gender because so many people were going there to hook up since the Drill Sergeants weren't around!). The DSs made us turn in our black berets yesterday until graduation lest anyone again try to impersonate an AIT student on their way to Walmart or the PX. I'm surprised they didn't do that in the beginning, and remove the temptation! The rumor mill maintains that the people who were selling cigarettes and candy will probably get a "field grade" Article 15 punishment, will have to forfeit 2/3 of their monthly pay, and will have extra duty until graduation. They are lucky that they are still being allowed to graduate.
Today selections were made for the "soldier of the cycle" and "soldier leader of the cycle". Each platoon's Drill Sergeants nominated two people from their platoon to go before a board. Hints were dropped awhile ago that I might be chosen, but luckily I escaped unscathed because there were two better candidates, Jackman and the APG, a guy named Burt. The board selected a girl from another platoon as the soldier of the cycle, and Jackman won the soldier leader of the cycle award. I'm glad that she got it, as it's a nice way to start her military career. She has been the best platoon guide that we've had so far, myself included! One of the DSs remarked that she marches the platoon and calls cadence better than many of the people he knows from the NCO Academy. The funny thing is that the former PG, Kobe, was plotting to try to have Jackman removed as our PG so that she could try to reclaim her former position (the irony was that Kobe was a terrible PG). Hehe... I don't think it will happen now, as all the DSs and the 1SG selected Jackman as the best one here. Good for her. I don't know if the people in the platoon will stop being assholes to her, but at least she can see that it is possible to succeed in spite of the idiots around her.
My success on the last PT test is getting me out of having to participate in PT (and a dreaded AGR run) on Monday. Instead I am joining the others who passed their diagnostic PT test in a range detail - likely loading ammo, carrying around ammo boxes, passing out hearing protection, etc. Hopefully it will get me out of buddying up with White in what we have to do on Monday. It is a dangerous exercise, and people have gotten shot in the past. We will be on a range where each member of a battle buddy team has to run from obstacle to obstacle with a loaded rifle, stopping to shoot targets along the way, while their buddy covers them (you just pray that someone doesn't turn their M-16 too far in your direction). At the end of the course, you must toss a grenade into a simulated house window, and then run up to shoot the pretend occupants. I am crossing my fingers that I get a decent battle buddy on this one. Earlier today one of the mouth breathers in my platoon was talking about how the Army let him enlist despite his ASVAB score of 24. Things like this frighten me, with good reason.
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