July 24, 1997 - Where's my video?

Note: While at Basic Warrior Training, I was unable to write in my journal (the horror!), so I have one long entry that covers all three days. In order not to spoil anything here, I will only include the journal entry portion relevant to the given day.
970724 - Mon: morning, nothing really. Afternoon: moved out to bivouac area for BWT, set up hooches (tents). Evening: 6 mile night hump (hike)...very challenging. Tue: Morning: Mock PFT (7 pull-ups, 87 sit-ups, 20:40 run), rappelling off a 47 foot tower once with a wall, once as a free fall (FUN!); Afternoon: classes on tactical weapons, Laws of War; Evening: moved to a cabin because of the threat of lightning, M______ was on duty...Wednesday: Morning: class on Gas Chamber, Gas Chamber (we got in there w/ our masks on and they lit the gas. We then pulled our masks off over our heads for about 1 min. I was really struggling! We then put our masks back on and cleared the masks but I was still choking a little and my eyes were burning bad. We then removed our masks completely and waited until they said to put them back on (1 min). This time wasn't so bad. We then faced right, removed our masks and walked out of the room. Afternoon: Classes on field sanitation; camouflage, cover, and concealment. Platoon 1070 challenged us to a short drill competition and we swabbed the deck with their butts! Moved back "home." Evening: V__________ on duty and really jerky. Today: Haircuts, PX call, then we went to get pictures. I ordered pictures, a video of graduation, a yearbook, and a ring. Afternoon: cleaned and had our rifles inspected; I had to get mine replaced because it was busted. Then we came back here to prepare our cammies and boots for final drill. Evening: H__ was on duty and gave us a speech about how "nasty" and "undisciplined" we are. He's right. Anyway, 36 days left...
First of all, if you're reading this and you work for the company that produces the graduation videos: I'm still waiting to receive mine...

As has been the theme up to this point, we once again wrapped up a major section of our training and headed right into another, slightly less major evaluation. In this case, with the end of Basic Warrior Training, we prepared for Final Drill. As you may recall, my platoon "boogered" Initial Drill. Final Drill would be our chance to redeem ourselves, if possible. We had gotten much better at drill over the past several weeks, so there was reason to at least be cautiously optimistic. As long as we weren't the worst platoon, like we had been before, I figured we would be ok.

Mostly, I was looking forward to Final Drill because it was the last reason for us to have to spend hours in the sweltering heat practicing drill. On rare occasions, our platoon marched well together, executing commands as a cohesive unit. At those times, I could see what Drill was supposed to accomplish and could almost, almost get behind it. But I still generally hated it.

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