July 16, 1997 - Punishment

 970716 - Yesterday I qualified WS-3. It consisted of wading 50 meters with flak jacket, kevlar [helmet], and alice pack [back pack]; jumping off a 5 foot platform and swimming 25 meters, both also with full gear. Last night M______ was on duty but he wasn't too bad. This morning consisted of a 3-mile run (21 min.) and 1 circle around the circuit course. We had a class on terrorism and then chow. After chow we had swim qual for WS-2 but there was lightning so I didn't get a chance to try. I'm tired because I have had firewatch from 0300-0400 for the past two nights. I can't wait to sleep but I'm very motivated. 44 days left...
 I really only have one thing to say about today's entry: There is only one reason to get firewatch two nights in a row, especially firewatch from 0300-0400. Punishment. As you may recall from earlier posts, from 0400-0500, the firewatch recruit announces the time every five minutes. This means that the recruits who have firewatch right before that are awake from 2:45 am and don't really get to  go back to sleep. The platoon usually goes through firewatch on a normal rotation. I think that in our case it was alphabetical. Clearly, though, I had done something significant enough to merit the worst shift of firewatch, two nights in a row. I have no memory of what it was, but it's possible that this was when I got caught talking during Early Chow.

Oh, and a note about Early Chow that I forgot to mention a couple of days ago. During Mess and Maintenance week, the jobs of early and late chow shifted around to different recruits. Be the end of the week, the two recruits who had Early Chow that week had caught on to how great the job was and they did not want to give it up. Well, me and C___ were having none of that. At the first meal on the first day back at our squad bay, when the call for Early Chow to go to chow came, we rushed to the hatch, ready to reclaim our job. The other recruits, the would-be usurpers, were there too. There was a short disagreement, in which I made sure to be just disagreeable enough for the Drill Instructor to notice, but not noticeable enough for him to be annoyed at me and C___ for causing the ruckus. He came over and asked what the problem was. I explained that C___ and I were heading to Early Chow just as we had done since training day two. The other recruits began to protest, but the Drill Instructor had heard enough. He sent C___ and me on our way to chow and the other two back on line. Victory.

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