My squad just returned from a mission. We had a run-in with a group of "insurgents" who mowed down most of my squad members from behind their position on a hill. I did not "die" during the mission. My tole is that of the RTO, or radio operator. I had to call in a report to the Drill Sergeant... "Nightstalker 7! This is Alpha Team RTO. Enemy encountered. Size: three, maybe four insurgents at twelve o'clock approximately 100m up from our position on hilltop. Activity: enemy has fired upon us and thrown grenades. Bravo Team flanking to the right and laying down suppressive fire. Unit: insurgents in ACUS with patrol cap. Time: encountered at 11:00. Equipment: enemy appears to have M-16s, grenades and artillery..." and so on.
I have to admit that sometimes this kind of training is fun. I just wish my body wasn't in pain from the road march. I have some killer blisters, including ones between my toes, my foot is very sore, and I must have pulled a hip flexor muscle. Everyone is beat up, though, not just old fogeys like me. Just about every person here has something wrong with them. Newman thinks she has a stress fracture. Bucking has a urinary tract infection, mad blisters, and likely bronchitis. Jackman's foot is killing her. One of my buddies from another platoon couldn't make the road march and has been limping around out here in the woods on crutches. This training can be physically tough on a lot of people.
The one whiny girl in my platoon was asking me earlier for some ibruprofen. Some of the folks here are mooches, and she is notorious for it. I am greedily hoarding my dwindling supply of drugs for the rest of the week. The road march on Friday night is 1/2 as long as the way here, but I want to be sure that I can make it. Sadly, I am in a lot of pain right now, and my foot has not been getting any better.
Last night I had fire guard, er, roving guard duty. I was on from midnight to 1am with White. I hate walking around the woods in the pitch dark. White was nearly knocking over people's tents... lol. Actually things have been going well with her, and we've been getting along ok.
Ugh... I just evicted a brown recluse spider from my foxhole. I also found one in White's sleeping bag while I was moving things around in the tent. These are nasty little buggers. Someone had a brown recluse bite at sick call recently, and it looked like a gunshot wound!
...
It is 5:28pm, and I have a few minutes to write. We are eating dinner, some nasty hot As. I spent most of the afternoon helping other people in my platoon to dig their foxholes. I am exhausted! I'm going to ask people in my platoon to save me the instant coffee from their MREs. I might need it to get through the next 5 days here... Wow... I just can't believe how exhausted I am. Just a few more days, I keep telling myself - just a few more days of training, and all the hard stuff will be over. Friday night when we return to the company cannot come fast enough...
Most of the platoon is ready to kill Jackman by now. They've been screwing around out here in the field, and she isn't putting up with their bullshit. It's getting to be ugly. She is expecting a mutiny soon. A few of the saner folks in the platoon are coming to her defense, but mostly everyone is against her at this point. The irony is that she is the best PG they've had, and they don't even realize it.
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