20120702-03

Hey everyone,
    Well things are going well. Well, as well as can be expected. :) One third of the way through!
     I'm going to try to do better at letting you know what I'm doing. So I'll tell you what we do everyday. First, morning and evenings area almost always the same. Mornings we get up, use the head, get dressed in the attire for the day (normally desert cami's and boots), then we make our racks and go to chow. At night we come in, get undressed into our sleeping clothes (PT gear- green t-shirts and green shorts), to hygiene, have some square away time, then do some nightly lock checks on weapons and foot lockers, drink a full cantine then get into the rack.
     So, on Monday July 2nd, after morning chow we went to the swim tank and did swim qualifications. You are dressed in boots, trousers, and a blouse. They are not yours so my trousers and blouse were a little big and my left boot sole was a little messed up. To pass swim qual you had to do 5 things. 1st swim 25 meters in the shallow end of the pool without touching the bottom. It was a little harder than I thought it would be but I made it. 2nd you had to jump off a 15 ft platform and swim 25 meters in the deep end. That was a little hard but again I made it. 3rd you had to float for 4 minutes. I was really nervous about this one in the beginning but after they showed us some techniques I felt a little better. When it was my turn, I got in and did really well. 4th you and to put on a flax (?) jacket, a helmet, and sling a rifle on your arm then jump in the pool and in 1 breath go under and take everything off in 10 seconds. It was really easy. 5th you had a pack that you threw in the water and had to swim 25 meters with it. It might sound hard but the pack floats.
     After swim qual we went back to the squad bay and changed and for the rest of the day we worked on drill except for a short MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) that dealt with knife strikes, chokes, and counter to chokes.
     Today, July 3rd, we got up did our morning thing, went to chow, came back and took 2 practice tests in the squad bay. I felt pretty good about both. After that we drilled until we lunch chow. After that we changed into woodland cami's and went to the confidence course. We had already done the low obstacles so today we did the high ones.
     There were 3 high ones that we did . 1st was one that was basically a ladder going 30 ft in the air, but the further up you got, the further the rungs got. You had to go up one side and down the other. [Bryson drew a pic but I'm not sure how to show it. But it looks like there was a pad at the bottom.]
     The next one you had to climb up a rope 20 ft until you could pull yourself onto logs that were in the air. You had to walk across then climb down some other logs that were at an angle then reach out and grab  a rope and slide down 30 ft to the ground.
      The last one you climbed a ladder onto a platform that was 30 ft up. Then you had to get on a rope and slide down on your chest, the half way through they told me to flip over. Then a little farther they told me to dead hang on the rope, then re-wrap your feet and continue. If you lost your grip you fell into a pool of water. That was considered disrespectful to your SDI. I didn't fall in.
     After that we had chow and I got to go to church for the prayer leader training for the rest of the night. :) Church is great. We talked about Helaman.
     After that I came back to the house and did the nightly routine.
     Well hope you all have a good 4th of July! Thanks for the letters and prayers!
                                                         -Bryson