Another day down. PT this
morning. Just push ups and sit ups
but lots of it. My feet hurt
like Hell now. Manual of
arms drilled into us today.
2 letters from [fiance]!
Made me very happy.
No in as a good a mood as
yesterday but not down though.
Get through these 2 weeks ...
We marched everywhere. In boots. While singing cadence. I just was not used to that. So yes, my feet hurt a lot.
Funny, for years after basic training I sang cadence while I walked. And I still curl my fingers when I walk. Indeed, I periodically start to sing some of the cadence that I still remember when I run. And after 9/11, I marched instead of walked for a number of weeks. I just felt at war even though I knew I wasn't going anywhere near the war. The old training just kicked in.
The manual of arms was stuff like "order arms" and "present arms" and "right shoulder arms" and learning how to go from any one of them to any other of them. I'm sure it was really important when we fought shoulder-to-shoulder in long lines. It is basically ceremonial. It does look pretty cool, I'll admit.
Actually one thing we did every day before being dismissed to the barracks at the end of the day involved a rolling facing movement by squads (with the trainees loudly repeating the commands) through all the platoons followed by our company song:
We are the Demons of Echo Three Ten!
Motivated, dedicated infantry men!
When Sam calls us we'll be right on time!
Kicking butt, making them toe the line!
Drive on drill sergeant, drive on!
Duty! Honor! Country! Freedom!
And then it would be still and quiet for a while as the drill sergeants looked on.
"Demons" was our nickname. That's routine for units. The rest meant Echo company of the 3 battalion of the 10th infantry regiment. A training regiment, of course. We were not a real infantry unit. Rumor had it that if we went to war, we'd go with our drill sergeants and other cadre leading us. I burst the bubble by telling anyone who claimed that was true that the Army would not send such a half-trained bunch of near-civilians off to fight. Remember that this wasn't long after a clash with the Iranians in the Persian Gulf. Actually, I might be getting ahead of the story. We'll see what I wrote after 3 JUL 88.
We were also part of the third brigade at the base for administrative purposes. Which led to confusion when someone in the platoon asked one of our drill sergeants what E-3-10 meant. He said we were Echo company and that he thought the "3" was for the third brigade and he didn't know what the "10" meant.
I did not offer the correct answer. Keep your head down and don't attract attention was my motto.
I assume my comment on getting through 2 weeks was a reference to the "total control" we were on of intense (and loud) supervision by our drill sergeants. We'd been told that things would loosen up for us a bit after that. As we were to discover, that was not to be. But for now, we had that hope held out before us.
