5-30-09
9 days left. Ok, so up at 05:55 as normal. I had iron time at 2330 last night so I got a good 5 1/2 hours of straight sleep, it may be a record.
Today’s big event, PI/DMI (Personal Inspection and Dynamic Material Inspection.)
We get 15 minutes to properly dress in our dress uniforms, then while at attention an inspector (a Chief today) looks at, measures and critiques your entire dress, while grilling you with military questions. (Chain of Command, etc.). Then you get 20 minutes to take that uniform off and stow it and redress in your uniform of the day. But everything has to be placed a certain way, folded exactly right or else it’s a hit (demerit). Get 3 and you fail.
So I did okay, except I got a stupid shoelace hit. My left shoelaces were left over right, instead of right over left. I know better, when I shined my dress shoes yesterday I laced the left one with the toe towards me instead of away so it made the laces backwards. DAMN! SO AVOIDABLE!
Oh crap. So I guess I should [have] fixed it during my 20 minute DMI portion because damn if he didn’t hit be again because they were stowed with the laces backwards. Generally stupid hits get a good IT (Individual Training) session. 30-45 [minutes] of continuous 8 count mtn. climbers, push ups, jumping jacks, sharks. It SUCKS ~ but not today, guess we are on such a tight schedule. Off to lunch chow. After lunch the rest of the division took off to do firefighting class. I’m finished with it so I stay behind to piddle away 4 1/2 hours. No naps, no fun, just studying and sitting. I am writing this journal but not really supposed to be. One of the girls, “Untalan” is getting ASMO’ed due to a stress fracture in her foot, so I’ll help her pack up her seabag. Wait, Petty Officer says its 1400 and she didn’t go to chow. So, yep, I get to double time (jog) across campus to get her a “bag ‘o nasty” (sack lunch) because she is on L.L.D. (Light Limited Duty) then double time back. Did I mention the weather? Has warmed finally and it’s almost 85 degrees out this afternoon. Jogging in long pants, shirt sleeves and boots in 85 degree weather, good times. Not 15 minutes after I get back now Petty Officer needs me to escort her to the Sick Ship and carry her seabag and garment bag. Keep in mind a full seabag weighs 75-80 pounds. Strap that thing on my back and smile, always willing to help. Aghhh. Oh yes and be sure to double time back home. You always double time outside your ship if you are traveling alone, are not sick, don’t have a seabag on your back [and] it’s not raining.
So now I’m back again cooling down. It’s 1630, can’t hygiene till after Ship Staff tonight and I stink. Great. 20 minutes till early chow, then off to Ship Staff. Maybe this evening will go by fast. T.A.P.S. is at 2155. Looking at tomorrow, we get to pick up our pictures and do our last PT test at 1400. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday are down days because of Memorial Day. I bet we do a lot of studying and drill practice. That’s all that’s left to do before Battlestations on Wednesday. Then we graduate next Friday. I don’t know if anybody is coming to graduation. I know Mom & Dad aren’t going to make it. So myself and Alverado (shipmate) may roll down to Chicago on liberty and go to the zoo. We shall see!
5-19-09
It’s Tuesday and I have 10 days left here. As it stands right now, I have got all of my “stamps” and I am actually about 3 days ahead of the rest of my group. Myself and a couple of others doubled up on our Firefighting classes so that we could be available on the days the rest of the division took those classes. Available to stand watch, or whatever. Mostly it has just made big holes of down time. Sitting around staring at my training guide or sweeping the floor that’s been swept 40 times already today. Not much else for now, going to to to chow at 1700 then to Ship Staff.
Sad news at Ship Staff. One of my male shipmates got word via the chaplin that his fiance, who is 8 months pregnant, was in a very serious car accident and both may not make it. He was so upset, crying like a baby. It was so sad. They won’t let him leave on Emergency Family Leave because they weren’t married and he has no proof she was carrying his child. Military rules are a bitch for non-conventional families. Head to bed hoping it all works out for him.
Leigh’s Scrapbook!
Leigh asked me to leave her journals intact so that she could put them into a scrapbook when she got out of boot camp. I did her one better and did her scrapbook for her!
It occurred to me that there may be some of Leigh’s friends who do not get to see the scrapbook that I am making for her. Basically, it’s set up so that she can add whatever she wants to it but the basic work is done. Here are pics for those who are interested!
Front Page
"Shipping Out"
"Boot Camp"
"Dress Blues"
"Navy Girl"
"Honors/Awards"
"Camo Babe"
"We're so proud of you"
"Patriotic"
"Serving America"
"Welcome Home"
Friday 5/16/09
Same as yesterday except add in division photos. After the hike to medical for 5 shots (ouch!), so sore. Ordered pictures so I will send ‘em out if ya want to when I get out of here. More firefighting today, Ship Staff, late hygiene (shower) -
OH SHIT! Handing back clean uniforms, that means I am gonna be up late ironing!
Thursday 05/15/09
Up early for early chow (0545) then we (a small group of 6) hiked over to in-processing medical for my 5-2 day shots. Oops, we were 5 minutes late. So we hiked 2 miles for nothing. Now we go to fire fighting training for 9 hours. Oh yea, surprise gas chamber this afternoon. It’s not too bad, not bad, not near as bad as being O.C. Sprayed in the Police Academy. Hiked “home” just in time to throw down some chow and run out the door to Ship Staff. After cleaning up the ship then hurry, hurry, late shower then clean up the head/shower. Thank God T.A.P.S. is 30 minutes early tonight. I am beat.
Wed 5/14/09
Boring day, only thing going on… we went and got weighed in. Looks like I gained 2 pounds. I told you they fed us all the time. We got our official orders.
Tues May 12, 2009
Test 2- OH CRAP! ~ Well, we were given all kinds of study questions and I had ALL THAT INFO DOWN, but dang if I got a different version of the test and I didn’t even study that info. Oh well, I got a 4.5 out of 5 anyway.
Not much went on today. I got awoken at 0510 by a phone call stating I was due at watch in 20 minutes. Nice, since 1) I had not ironed the night before and had no shirt presentable enough for watch and 2) I had no idea I had watch, someone had not posted the watch bill. So I rushed and got ready and stood “messenger” watch from 0600-0800. I ate late chow and went back to the compartment. We went to Freedom Hall (the huge awesome gym) for a 25 minute run. I am really glad I started jogging before I left home because now I don’t dread the runs like some do. Had some knee pain but ran through it, it’s too close to the end to have or entertain an injury now. I’ll grin and bear it and tough it out. Only a few more runs scheduled anyway.
Monday May 11, 2009
Today we got our service whites, dress blues and working uniforms tailored, looking sharp. After that we had some misc fun, in-house pictures taken with the RDC’s for our yearbook. We then got dressed into our dress blues and the females were allowed to put on a little make-up. We almost looked normal again.
While here we have very, very little time for ourselves. We barely have time to dress and use the restroom, shower **editor’s note, I have re-read this several times and I’m not sure what she means so I’m going to type as is**(undress, dress to PT gear, under gear, undress in the head, shower, dry redress into shorts/pt gear, then dress into our boots and utilities) has to be done in 15 minutes. We always are wearing our (sports bras, granny panties) (White T-shirts, white socks and shoes) PT/Nighttime undergear) – Utilities we we wear everyday – with the PT/Nighttime gear underneath. Yes, lots of layers, may pants are always stuffed.
No time for hair and we wear these huge, brown, super nerdy glasses (called BCG’s “birth control glasses”)
Anyways we got all dressed up and got our individual pictures taken. We really looked awesome our males looked really handsome.
After pictures we went to chow, did I say we eat a lot? OMG 3 full meals a day. I think I’ve gained weight.
After chow we studied for a bit. We have 2nd test tomorrow and it’s a ton of information.
Drill Time – time for our drill inspection, we’ve been working on this for weeks, basically since we got here. Everyone was really nervous because this one inspection is probably the biggest of all we have.
We march in ranks, all 68 of us, from the compartment about a mile to a big drill hall and we do all the ceremony that we will be doing at graduation. The entire thing takes about 1.5 hours, with chiefs and inspectors watching us and grading us the entire time. We did pretty good, got a 4.6 out of 5. We got our drill flag.
So now we’ve got our:
- Athletic Flag – for our PFA’s
- Scholastic Flags – for tests
- Star Flag – for our zone inspection
- (and now) Drill Flag
And these equal earning – Our Battle E Flag -
18 more days – but we are coming right along.
Those who slack, give up and are in general just lagging behind won’t make it past the next PFAs. (Some haven’t passed even 1 PFA – Personal Fitness Test yet). The next one is the final one and it is required to graduate. ASMO’s are coming, I bet we lose at least 3.
Ship Staff Meeting, after early chow at 1745. Ship Staff is every night and it takes me out of the division, into mix of 4-6 from 10 other divisions so Ship Staff is like another big division. During ship staff we break up into groups and clean the ship. I am on the office team and dust, collect trash, vacuum all the commanding officer’s offices, then I go to the RDC’s our all 10 divisions and have to announce and address them and properly request to get their recycling & shredding for the day. If you address them wrong you get your ass chewed out. Almost everyone else in Ship Staff is scared to death of the RDC’s but they don’t bother me. I’ve screwed up and I’ve been chewed out but they don’t dish is out to be personal attacks and I don’t take it personally.
** I think Leigh was either writing quickly or extremely tired b/c this particular journal was hard to type. Usually I can figure out what she’s trying to say and edit it for her but I really am lost. Ya’ll figure it out!**
5-9-09
It’s Saturday morning and this week has been so busy but it also went by really, really fast. Marlinspike was complete chaos, I was put in charge of changing the flags as the rest of my division manned their stations. And we got the U.S.S. Marlinspike underway, had a man overboard drill, and moored back at port in 23.58 minutes with 9 safety violations. The instructor gave us an 8.5 out of 10. Other divisions did better, quicker but at least we completed and passed.
PFA – Man gotta love getting physically tested at 4:45am on 3 hours sleep. I did 35 push ups, 60 sit ups in two minutes and did my run (1 1/2) miles in 14:35. I did better than many of the girls much younger then me. Some can’t even do 5 push ups. We had 15 PFA failures.
I have had to go to medical once or twice for minor stuff. (Got an over the counter cold pack and a muscle relaxer for neck pain) but nothing that landed me L.L.D. (Light or Limited Duty) or S.I.Q. (Sick in Quarters). Most the other girls have been on either one or the other at least once. Many have been on and off of it the entire time. Wimps don’t realize that it hurts and often you get sick when you retrain your body
Thursday and Friday were simulated and live fire. The simulated sucked because it was a demilitarized mg (Baretta 9mm – Just like I carried as a cop) but it had all these laser cords and air hoses hooked to it. Live fire was fun.The live fire range is super nice. I went through he course twice. time I had so much ear protection in that I missed 3 of the commands to draw. So I had to rush a lot of my shots. 1st score, 159 (need a 180 to pass and get a Marksman Ship Ribbon). SO I was given another run along with 80% of the others.
The second time I scored a 215 and the range target counter was like “You were totally sandbagging so you could go again, huh…?” So now not only did I qualify, I will get a Sharpshooter ribbon for my uniform.
Oh yeah, on Wednesday we had our P.I. – W.T.I. (Personal Inspection/Weapons Turnover Inspection). I took a hit on my P.I. (My inspection belt had 7 inches of excess opposite the buckle, only supposed to have 6). Basically I tightened my belt a little too much.
I took no hits on my Weapons Turnover Inspection. Thursday while at Fire Arms Training, we had our Zone (Compartments and Bunk) Inspections so all of our stuff was upside down and inside out when we returned. Great, since we spent 3 1/2 hours the night before making sure each and every fold was perfect and everything was in its exact right place.
Monday is our Drill/Marching Inspection and damn if our R-POC (leader) didn’t come down with Pneumonia. So, we have been doing drills over and over and over at every free moment so we can train and get in sync with our new R-POC (Houseworth <— the chick I know from home). Just shows the old gal’s got it going on, she’s 36).
20 more Reveille’s till graduation. Tuesday is Test Two, so far I have a 4.5 out of 5, grade average and have passed every inspection and qualification. Till next time.
Tomorrow is Sunday Routine, a little time to chill and write everyone. Miss everyone.
Love Ya’ll.
May 5, 09
Marlin Spike went okay. The instructor said on a 1-10 scale we performed it at an 8.5. I thought I was going to explode though because there were 68 people on the deck of this pretend ship trying to do all the procedures correctly and safely in under 25 minutes. No one really fully knew what the hell we were doing and it was insane but we did it.
After that we arrived back at the compartment to find our racks “tossed.” All our clothes thrown about, petty officer said that everyone (the females) had nasty improper racks, seems they do this to us every time we have a DMI inspection coming up. DMI (Dynamic Materials Inspection) is on Wednesday. Tomorrow we have our 2nd mandatory PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment) at 4:45am. Yep, that means reveille at 0400. It sucks because the rest of my division went to bad at 2000 tonight to be sure to get 8 hours sleep. But, however, I have a J.O.O.D. watch (Junior Officer of the Deck), another part of being part of ship staff. I don’t have to stand watch in our compartment but I do have watches every other day or so outside the compartments at what is the front door of the ship. It is my job to greet/challenge all that come and go. Nerve wracking because I have to be on spot with recognizing Superior Officers and they just wait for you to screw up so they can chew your ass.
Anyway, so tonight I’ll be in the rack about 2200. I am supposed to put in 30 minutes per night ironing but I am so skipping it tonight. Last night my ironing time slot was from 0130-0200 and we tapped out (went to bed) at 2115. Gotta love getting woken up out of a dead sleep to iron in the dark by essentially a night lite.
Tomorrow’s PFA, 1 1/2 miles in 15 minutes, 25 push ups in 2 minutes and 50 sit ups in 26 minutes. I can do it. Also tomorrow’s our 2nd P.I. inspection (Personal Inspection) and weapons turn over inspection.
4-2 day. Getting through this super busy week. It should be smooth sailing till graduation. Stuff we have yet to do: Small Arms Simulation, Live Fire, Firefighting, Gas Chamber, 3rd/Final PFA, Tests 2 +3, Captain’s Cup, Battle stations (May 27th), Drill Inspection, Several Zone (compartment inspections), 24 more nights, 23 more reveille’s till graduation.
