FOB Ops

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Well, we're @ the FOB. It's 1400, so we have been here for ~6 hours. We left at 0330 this morning! It took us roughly 4 hours to go 15k. We took 2 breaks where we had to get off to the side of the road and act like we were watching for the enemy. Usually people dose off. Anyway, we went down "Misery:" it's 17% grade; up "Agony;" it's a 20.4% grade; and up "Heartbreaker:" it's 21.5% grade. Heartbreaker broke everyone off. I got up it by saying Psalm 121 over and over, "I look forth to the hills, whence comes my strenghth? From the Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of the heavens and the earth." Anyway, the march sucked! We had our IBA, LBV, Kevlar helmet and ruck sack on. Probably 35 lbs or so. A little bit less since we didn't have our armor plates in. A lot of people fell back in the formation, but we only had 3 that fell out and had to get on the truck. I just can't describe how much of a bitch those hills are. 21.5% grade = 38.7 degree angle. That's pretty close to a 45% angle. Those suck but there is also many more hills; there is few flat runs. I was completely soaked from head to toe with sweat. I drank about 5 quarts of water in that 4 hours. My pee is still clear, so that's good.

I hope this FTX goes by fast. The word on the street is that on Thursday, we are suppose to do a 10k back to the barracks. But, if we do well, we do a 2k up a hill and buses are waiting at the top. They then give us our graduation coins and we are basically graduated. Oh yea, on a map, if you look at where the FOB is, it's like 3k from the freaking barracks! We pretty much marched in a big circle.

15:13... We've just been hanging in the tents. We had MRE's for lunch. I got meatballs and marinara sauce. It was good. We're allowed to eat our candy, but I didn't get any. I hope that when we get back and we're "done," I can go to the PX. I can't wait for some freedom. I need to get away from these morons. Right now they won't shut up. Everyone just keeps talking about stupid stuff and it's entirely too loud in here.

21:16... Well, we've been busy this evening. We still have lights out at 22:00. After dinner chow (which sucked), they simulated an "incoming." We had to get in full battle rattle and set up a perimeter. Then, we had to put on our pro mask because they called "gas, gas, gas." It was all simulated. I don't really get into that stuff, but there were people running around like it was the real deal. I'm just burnt out. I wanna come home. It'll probably be better when I get to AIT, but this is just another one of my 'woe is me' kicks. I'm just feeling sorry for myself.