Final Week!!!

Here I am, 9 weeks complete, with one final push to go.

Words cannot express what an experience this has been. Well, I'm sure I could think of a few, but overall, this has been one hell of a journey. I am getting ready to go into week 10, which is going to be a very easy week. Lets start with this past week...

Monday we had our final Physical Fitness Test (PFT) in which I ran a 20:35 3-mile, 14 pullups, and 100 crunches. My run time was a little slow just from being beat down and all cramped up. However, I was pleased that my pullups have started to go back up as the upper body workouts have decreased over the past few weeks.

The next day on Tuesday we had the Combat Readiness Test (CRT). I improved to 17 seconds on the rope climb, ran a 24:05 3-mile in boots, pants, canteens, and rifle, 34 seconds on the firemans carry, and maxed the 50 pushups in 47 seconds. Needless to say, it was a damn good effort. That same afternoon, we had our "Wooded Engagement" pugal stick battle versus Delta Company, in which we went 3 vs 3. The group I was with won our battle but Charlie Company lost overall. I had to fight some big guys as I am about the 10th heaviest in C Co. and I only weigh in at 200 lbs!! Yes, that means about 265 more candidates are lighter then me. That night we went to bed at our usual time of 2100, and woke up at 2200 to step off for our 12-mile hump at 2230. Wow, that was fun......we got back to the squadbay around 0300, showered and got bussed over to TBS (The Basic School) for breakfast. So there was no sleep for us at all.

Friday, we had the 5-mile Medal of Honor run, where we ran through some tough VERY hilly trails and stopped every so often to read Medal of Honor citations posted on trees followed by pushups. It was definitely motivating to be able to read one of them to my squad. Later on in the morning we had our Drill Competition. Our staff instructors have been training us around the clock to look good and boy did we ever. There was a lot of grumble from all of the staff that thought 2nd Platoon was going to win it but we came up short. Our staff sure were pleased though as they have put a lot of time and effort into us.

To cap off the week, we had our Company Commander's inspection yesterday where we were inspected in our Service Alpha uniforms. It felt a little odd wearing them already even though they don't have any insignia on them yet. However, in 6 days that is about to change!

So yeah, busy week heh? Not to mention I went to medical to get an ingrown big toe nail cut out the afternoon after the 12-mile hump. So the 5-mile run Friday morning wasn't fun.

All and all, it has been one heck of a way to spend a summer and I absolutely cannot wait until this coming Saturday.

Many thanks once again to all the mail, cards, letters, goodies that everyone has sent. I look forward to posting next week having earned the official title.