Easy day--reinforce. Weapons maintenance.
Polish brass. Early to bed for
the PT test is tomorrow.
We'll eat a Snickers bar 1/2 hour
before test. I hope I don't
screw my leg up too much on the
run. I know I'll make it but at
what price to my right leg?
Fuck it. I'll graduate and then
recover. Drills continue to be cool
as Hell. Almost unnerving. Am I still
in the same Army I joined?
Basic training is finally winding
down.
I never did go on sick call as I wanted. I was so close to getting out and could see that despite my leg I'd pass the test. I did ask one drill sergeant (Tango--the really foul-mouthed one) if I could go easy on my leg. He asked me what my last PT scores were and agreed I could be unofficially on easy physical duty until the test. So with the days getting easier and that, my leg was not getting worse at least.
We went over the tasks we'd be tested on some more. More weapons maintenance. Didn't we finish that up? I guess not. And there was always brass to polish. My memory is that you could buy non-brass replacements for that stuff in the PX to avoid the need to constantly polish it to avoid tarnish. I can see how active duty soldiers would pay for that luxury.
We'd get sleep and a burst of sugar and protein right before the PT test.
And the ability of the drill sergeants to be one of us after the constrast of "Day One" treatment was pretty amazing. Another reminder that modern drill sergeants aren't sadists but using harsh treatment for a purpose--to get us used to operating under stressful conditions so that if we were in war we'd have a shot at operating under actual stressful life-and-death conditions.
