Great pain. 4 mile road
march in pack. Back
out again from hand-to-hand.
Did well on BRM [basic rifle marksmanship]
Marched back, 3rd platoon trooper
"dragged" me for 1/4 mile or
so until we resumed march.
Then I made it.Back went
out in barracks. Hurt like hell.
PT after. Ran 2 miles plus
some exercises. God I'm tired.
Let this shit be over. Really
miss [fiance]. Feet have more
blisters. One looks like a 6th
toe. Sergeants don't like our
barracks. Got my bunk torn
up. Much work to do.
Very tired. Morale not too
bad. Tonight I finish 2
letters regardless of time
pressures. Must write [fiance]
and mom and dad. August 88!
Wish I could call [fiance].
Good grief. I'm starting to feel sorry for myself reading this! My miracle back cure was apparently not real. Now I can't remember if this is the day that I nearly allowed an amateur barracks doctor to work on my back or yesterday was.
We must have had to run in formation for a while. Another trainee let me hang on to his pack while we ran. My back must have been pretty bad. But I made it on my own marching.
And my feet continued to be a constant enemy sniping at me from below my ankles. God damn them.
But at least I felt like I was hanging in there. Really, the psychological pressure wasn't so bad and neither was the lack of sleep. And even the pain wasn't so bad since I clearly had gotten used to a lot of chronic pain as background noise. What was disturbing was the possibility that the accumulated injuries would exceed my hit points (man, haven't played role playing games in ages and that comparison still leaped to mind) and prevent me from finishing basic training.
And with a wedding planned for August, it would be difficult to explain that I couldn't make it because I had to start basic training over again. Not to mention the second year of graduate school waiting for me in the fall.
Oh, and our sergeants tore up a perfectly good barracks. It was torn up to impose stress and not because it was sub-standard. We had to put it all back together quickly and then get outside for the next training activity. I won't say there isn't method to the madness. But it was unpleasant.
And we'd only been in Fort Leonard Wood for three weeks.
