My Boot Camp Baby

Praying for and remembering my boy today.  USCG Boot Camp  November 184 weekly journal Graduation 3/11/2011

Week 03 We are slowing starting to come together as a team however we still have a lot of work to do. Our training instructor Mr. Jones has our bar set high, we are confident that we can meet it. We don't want to disappoint ourselves. We went over our G.I. Bill benefits on Monday and how it works. It was very informative. Since our physical mid-term is next week, for those of us who need extra help with physical fitness, early morning PFE started on Monday. They get to the gym at 0530 and do different sets of work outs to help strengthen their muscles so they can pass. On Tuesday we got off to a bad start. We took too long to get out of our racks and so we had a FIRE FIRE FIRE drill. That woke us up and we began our day fully awake. After we got back to our squad bays our Company Commander noticed that some of our locks were not zeroed, that means you can just open them by pulling on them, so we did lock drills. We took our locks off, ran out to the quarter deck, then we would run back to our squad bays and lock up our racks, we had to meet our time objectives in order to stop doing the drills. We eventually did. It's all about speed and attention to detail, it’s the Coast Guard way of life. We are definitely living it. Our classes for the day included lectures about our health benefits and what we are entitled to as Active Duty members and also what Reserves are entitled to. The military identification class was the most important, we learned what our military identification gets us and what it is used for. We did some hands on training today as well. The survival suits you see people wear in the show "Deadliest Catch", well we got to put them on and jump in a pool. We learned different floating techniques both for big groups and small groups. We all were paying attention to every single detail in that class. In the afternoon we did some more sniper drills and piece I.T., once again we weren't on our best military behavior. We also are noticing empty racks where once people were sleeping, NOT everyone makes it! Our Wednesday was a long day. We started out with change in and out drills this morning, that’s when we changed from our physical fitness gear to our operational dress uniform of the day. It's all about speed and efficiency, when we are going to be out on the fleet or a small boat station we won't have 10 or 20 minutes to change, we will have 02 minutes to change. Our company commanders are doing a great job teaching us that, however not all of us get it. Today our gym class was preparing us for our midterm some more. We did a lot of pushups, crunches, lifted weights to build muscle, and finished with an Indian run around the track. Our classes were jammed packed with information, a lot to process about everything that goes on in the Coast Guard. We are doing everything we can to process it all. Our day ended up with squad bay leaders, there are 04 of them, doing clean up drills in each squad bay head (bathroom). This was done because we weren't listening to our squad leaders when they tell us to clean up the sinks, mop the showers, etc. Lesson was learned tonight!!! Let's just hope we don't do this again. Thursdays are cardio days, Lifecycles, the toughest of them all. We each get on a spin bike and start pedaling at a easy pace. Easy right? Now we do an hour of pyramid work outs, 1 minute sprints, upping the level every time. We didn't give up. We give our best every time. After that our training took a new turn, we started our seamanship. We are starting to learn about knots, nautical terms that we would use on a boat, what type of boats there are in the Coast Guard Fleet along with aircraft. Our day ended with intense cleaning session, finally our squad bays look sparking clean, let's hope we can keep them that way. Once again FIRE FIRE FIRE at 0530. After that we did manual of arms drills before breakfast. Now that we are starting to act professionally we are being treated more professionally. You only receive as much as you get, it's that simple! Every Friday a company graduates, parents come to the base and watch their sons and daughters become U.S. Coast Guard Members. We marched around most of the day showing off how much we have accomplished even though we are only in week 03 of training. We were walking tall and proud. Made us all feel good knowing we are one week closer to graduation. Today it seemed we finally got our act together as a team, our Company Commanders took notice and took us to see colors around sunset. We got to salute the flag of the United States as it was being lowered to be put away for the evening. Our Saturday can be summed up in one word...seamanship. That is where we spend our entire day. We went over emergency procedures on ships, how to read the assignment sheet on a ship and how to tie the 5 basic knots. We also got to drive a boat, using a simulator of course. Using proper commands to steer. Big day for us in other words. We learned 2 more manual of arms drills, we are up to 6 drills. We are starting to get pretty good with handling the M-16. On Sundays we have a lot of time to prepare ourselves, 05 hours to get prepared for the work day and or go the Church (this is called Divine Hours). However in that time our racks need to be straightened out, the head needs to be cleaned, floors need to be swept. It's our time to write letters, to read letters, and to make sure we are all squared away. We always have an inspection on Sunday afternoon which we didn't do so well on this week. One team one machine as P.O. Blair says, one person gets it wrong we all pay for it. We had to pack up our bags then unpack them in a certain time objective. We met them, few people were moved around to different squad bays for more organization, and leadership skills. Week 03 has come to an end. Week 04 is upon us and it is a busy one, midterm, physical fitness test, gun range, blood drive, haircuts, and a lot of other things. We got one thing to say to all that "We are here to train!".