So I know I promised to write about the movie, but really all that happened is we went to the PX and sucked down some Monsters and pizza, then caught a cab to main post, saw the movie and then came back. The movie itself was quite good, I'll definitely pick it up on DVD when I can.
Monday it was back on the ranges, Mabre 24, the same place we live fired the 60 mm from for our familiarization with the 120 mm, then we rucked 2 miles uphill to Mabre 25 where we made camp and prepped the rounds for the 81 mm night fire that night.
I was one of about 20 that actually got to fire before nearly back to back misfires of the Vietnam era rounds shut us down.
Tuesday was spent prepping the 81 mm HE and 120mm rounds to be fired, then waiting for COD to dispose of the misfire rounds for about 5 hours. Since I qualified Expert, I got to fire the 120mm which was a literal blast. To put it in perspective, an 81mm round weighs about 7 lbs. , a 120 round weighs about 35. Big boom. We had to fire them just under a mile away and we still heard the blast easily, the concussive force of the cannon firing could be felt from 35 meters away.
After all rounds were fired, we caught trans back to the bay to get ready for our 10 mile ruck in the morning.
If your wondering how long it takes to ruck 10 miles, the answer is about 4 hours. That may seem slow, but it's actually a fairly quick pace.
It was only 6 miles to our training location, so we took a nice 4 mile detour. The last mile of the march was pure hell, almost completely uphill and at a very steep grade. Once we finished, everyone was passing out. We ate chow then stood in the rain which had been pouring down all morning waiting for instructions, only to be told we were being pulled out due to flooding. On this ruck, I earned my nickname of Top Gun and got to carry the quidon from the chow point to trans, only a quarter mile but still. We've pretty much just cleaned the bay all day, though DS V gave us a class on squad tactics which we'll be using tomorrow. We were supposed to be in the field, but we're just gonna do a run in the woods here instead. By the way, we finally got Team Leaders. I am one of the two leaders for 1st squad, though whether we keep our spots depends on how we do tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes when I get a chance.
DS V told us the long awaited Buddy Team Live Fire is on Saturday, we're looking forward to it. Also, we're apparently done with rudimentary, the only one left is FTX and is only 8 miles, possible even shorter depending on what site we're at.
Our final APFT is Monday, and if I pass that and the upcoming Eagle Run, I'm basically cleared to graduate baring any major illness or injury.
Mendoza from 3rd platoon is back, he went AWOL about 3 weeks ago because his 15 year old girlfriend was cheating on him. Apparently he tried to fight the guy (who is also 15) and lost big time so he came back to the Army. He's hanging around until they take him to jail.
8 days until 36 hour pass, everyone is excited. We are so close to the end.
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