Days 37 - 39

Day 37: We had our 10k (6.2 miles) road march this morning. It was not too difficult. The worst part was walking in the thick sand. Marches are very mental. I don't mind them because I get to do a lot of thinking. I was hot, exhausted, and sore by the end. After eating MRE's and setting up tents, we learned about squad maneuver. We had to act out scenarios and used blank bullets. In the lat afternoon we headed to NIC (Night Infiltration Course). We had to low crawl, high crawl, and maneuvering on our backs under barbed wire fences. For most of the way, we were able to high crawl. We had full gear on (helmet, bullet proof vest, and knee/elbow pads). While we were crawling, live rounds were being shot. It was pretty neat crawling under live rounds. I made sure that the guys behind me kept me motivated. They pushed me and I was one of the first ones finished. I was sandy, exhausted and extremely hot. We had to dunk our arms into ice water to cool down our air core temperature. Another graduation requirement is checked off the list. We got back around 2300 and I fell right asleep. The weather was much more comfortable in this FTX than the previous one.

Day 38: Like always, I woke up early. It was chaotic getting dressed in the pitch black. We learned urban fighting today & practice clearing out buildings in teams of 2, 3 and 4. We also practiced scenarios dealing with indirect and direct fire, along with IEDs. I can't wait until we head back tomorrow morning so that I can take a shower. 

Day 39: We woke up one hour early (0300) and the DS's were impressed that we were packed up by 0345. We had to wait until 0630 for the buses. After chow, I took the best shower! We spent 2 hours cleaning our weapons because we had a platoon competition on the cleanest weapons. They were extra dirty with sand since we had to low crawl with them. Didn't do too much else the rest of the day except organize lockers and do some laundry.