~~My Boot Camp Baby~~

Something happened to their post from last week.  It never posted on their web sight.   November 184 weekly journal Graduation 3/11/2011

Week 07 Our days are starting earlier now, 0515. All morning and afternoon we learned about CPR and First Aid. While we were practicing CPR on our dummies our squad bays were being inspected by our Battalion Commander. We passed yet again with flying colors as a company we were punished for the dishonesty of a few shipmates and made to square our meals and stand with our noses against the wall. After admitting and owning up to their mistakes, we carried on with our evening routine. On Tuesday we had our seamanship final. All of our hard work has paid off because as a company we got an overall 96% average out of 100%, earning our seamanship pennant. After our final we learned about line handling and how to moor lines from our vessel to a dock. Then we had our last swim circuit. It was intense but we all did it proudly. Then we had minutes to change out into our Dress Bravo Uniforms for our inspection and then immediately after we had our Close Order Drill Test. We nailed it 10 out of 10. We even got to march in them to chow which no other companies do. It made us even more proud. On Wednesday we had our line handling practical. We put to the test what we learned the day before on paper.  We threw lines from a makeshift barge to a dock and practiced proper way to tie up the barge to the dock.  Few of our shipmates went down to the shooting range to get qualified as Marksman. We lost our military bearing at seamanship which ended up with us doing some I.T. in the grass next to our building. Later in the evening we went down to the beach with our pen lights to take a company photo at night with just our faces being illuminated. On Thursday we had a surprise, at breakfast we were greeted by Chiefs, Senior Chiefs, and Master Chiefs and we got to talk to them as we ate. They shared their experiences in the Coast Guard. After that we were on the go all day, we learned about STD’s, Contraceptives and Pay and Allowances. In between classes we were able to talk to few more Master Chief’s and Chief Warrant Officers about different jobs in the Coast Guard. Our evening was spending studying for our final. Friday we took our final. We ended up scoring a 94% average, earning us an academic pennant. We also added our PF Pennant to our colors today; more and more pennants are showing up on our flag pole. As a senior company on the regiment we headed down to Sexton Hall to clean up squad bays, talk to new recruits of Tango Company. We finally got to tackle the confidence course. We cheered everyone one as they jumped over obstacles.  Our evening was spending preparing our dress uniforms for our off-base liberty we have on Saturday. Saturday came and we were ecstatic. It was off-base liberty time. We took cabs to Cape May, Rio Grande, and Wildwood. We got to experience the world outside Training Center Cape May. 12 hours flew by fast and now it’s time to go back to training. We are almost done. Week 08 is upon us and we need to keep up the good work to finish on a good note. Our graduation is on Friday, we get to see our families and loved ones. We get to go home and off to our new units. We grew a lot in these past 8 weeks; we’re ready to tackle whatever else comes our way. Our learning experience hasn’t ended, it has just begun. Let’s hope we take pride, honor, respect, and devotion to duty with us for the rest of our Coast Guard careers.