June 21, 1997 - Attempting the Impossible

970621 - Today was sort of an easy day. We woke at 0500 and had chow. We then went to a class on History IV (Korean War; I slept through the whole thing). Then we had 1.5 hours of drill. We were supposed to have had 2 but the SDI decided to put the entire platoon in the pit. That makes 2 pit calls and 1 quarterdeck for me so far. After that we had Line II part I. Then Chow. After chow we spent the rest of the day in the squad bay where we had classes on core values, the Medal of Honor, and how to spit-shine boots and iron cammies. Then chow and the typical evening activities. I'm very glad it's Sat 'cuz that means I get 9 hours of sleep tonight and have chapel and several hours of free-time tomorrow. I'm tired and a little sore but not nearly as much as last night. The spirits of the platoon are pretty high. 69 days left.

Some of you might think you are or were good at sleeping in class. Let me tell you, until you manage to sleep through classes in Marine Corps Boot Camp on Parris Island, you are an amateur. I, however, was a pro, but it wasn't easy. Let's look at some of the obstacles between a recruit and the sweet, sweet mid-day slumber in the classroom.

1. All classes were taught by Drill Instructors. They weren't our DIs, but they still carried themselves with the intimidating air of a DI. 
2. Our Drill Instructors were watching us from the back of the classroom at all times.
3. The classrooms were not exactly comfortable. We sat in those desks-attached-to-the-right-side chairs, which are especially great for a lefty like myself. If I wanted to at least look like I was taking notes, I would have to contort my arm around the desk.
4. We weren't allowed to rest our heads on our hands. This made it nearly impossible to sleep without having your head bob up and down.
5. Fear. When a recruit was caught sleeping, he would usually first get yelled at by the teacher. Then the teacher would have him announce his name and platoon number to the whole classroom (our classes were always taken with 2 other platoons). If there's one thing Drill Instructors hate more than their recruits screwing up, it's when the recruits screw up in front of others. Getting caught sleeping in class meant an immediate pit-call after class was over.

As you can see, there were many things that should have convinced me that sleeping in class was impossible. However, many would say that boot camp is impossible, so I guess in a way I was being trained to attempt the impossible, like sleeping in class. Plus, I was exhausted. As you might recall from yesterday's post, I had the 0300-0400 firewatch shift. With the last shift (0400-0500) being required to announce the time every ten minutes, that meant I got about 2 and a half hours less sleep than usual. That's not ideal, especially when you're burning as much energy as we were every day.

And so, I managed to sleep through class. Because I was left-handed and had to wrap my arm around the desk to write, I was supported by both elbows. Then, I just had to keep my pen on my paper and sleep lightly enough that, when the instructor came near, I could "continue" writing my copious notes. A rookie mistake here would be to sit up quickly, but that is an admission of guilt. If he was dissatisfied with my posture while I was furiously writing, he could tell me to sit up. This happened a few times, but I never actually got accused of having been asleep.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the only class I slept through. Even more unfortunately, I often slept through classes I actually wanted to stay awake for, like First Aid. Now how will I ever know how to treat a sucking chest wound?

One last note: When I reread this journal entry as I was typing it for this post (believe it or not, I've never reread it until this project), I thought, "How cute; I was still keeping track of the times that I went to the pit or quarterdeck." That didn't last.