Harassing increased. SFC [Hotel]
whispered something to SGT [Delta] which started
harassment bout--no sweat. Push ups,
sit ups, raider dance. Strained right arm.
Little sleep--coughing LT kept me
from dozing at one point in class. [Son of famous singer]
heat stroke--seems OK. Worried at the time.
So I had to go to the drill sergeants' office for some reason. Sergeant First Class Hotel and Sergeant Delta began screaming at me to enter the office and when I entered the office to get out of their office. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I entered the office and assumed a position of attention. Then I about faced, stepped out, about faced, and stood at attention. I did that until they tired of the game. I guess they were trying to rattle me. Why, I have no idea. If there even was a reason.
We did lots of exercising in basic training. Generally, after doing them, we'd have to call out "Thank you, drill sergeant, for training my mind and my body!"
And of course there was the crowd favorite, "More PT! More PT! We like it! We love it! We want more of it!" We neither liked nor loved it, and most certainly did not want more of it. The raider dance was a particularly brutal form of exercise where you started in a kind of sitting position on your heels (feet touching together) and raised up off the ground by your arms. You'd kick up to bring your knees up, kick out to extend them, kick to the side so your feet were now spread apart, kick up to bring your feet together--and then continue the process until told to stop. Ouch.
And I was saved from doing push ups in a boring class when a lieutenant coughed and snapped me awake. On small things like that rest victory or defeat. Even small victories or defeats.
And we had a heat stroke injury to our celebrity child. He ended up being OK, but obviously treating him interrupted training. His famous mom actually sent flowers to the drill sergeants. For the life of me, I can't remember who she was (is?). We teased each other about our respective inferior schools (Him: Brown University. Me: University of Michigan in Ann Arbor). Oh, his nickname was obviously "Hollywood."
Training was tough. But I never forgot that it was designed to be passed by just about anyone who starts--barring injury of course. So I wasn't discouraged even if I was not happy at all.
