Fun Day, Wednesday June 30th

Hello Everybody! Greetings from Ft. Benning, GA where the thermometer constantly reads H-E-L-L + 10...

Recently, we've been getting into more Army related tasks. Yesterday, we did the Eagle Tower where we repel down a wall. It was fun, but not as fun as I thought it would be. However, today was a different story. We had to take a 25 minute bus ride to our training today which was a leadership obstacle course. Basically we separated into groups and then had 8 minutes to accomplish certain tasks. All of them (about 10) have either a pipe, rope, wood, and we had to use only those items to accomplish our tasks. It gave the DS's a good laugh because of all the weird things people try and do to make it. I swear my group had at least 2 ideas the DS had never seen in two years!

The best part came though when we got to go "swimming." Half of the obstacles is on land, and the other half is over water. So if you fail, you fall in the water, which was amazing! The DS's made us swim around in it for about 15 minutes to cool down and then we had MRE's (meals-ready-to-eat) for chow. The great thing about MRE's when we have them, is that we got like 20 minutes to eat them instead of our usual 3 minutes whenever we eat. The time and relaxation is wonderful to say the least!

There are a couple things I left out of my first letter from BCT that I want to tell you all about. My battle buddy is the youngest person in our platoon. He's 17 and doesn't turn 18 until December! But we also have a good amount in common and he's not stupid! He's actually pretty mature for a kid his age which is a plus.

I took my first PT test and did 25 pushups in 1 minute. 31 sit-ups in 1 minute, and I ran a 7:40 mile. Not bad considering the DS had been making us do shoulder and chest exercises the previous two days to the point of muscle failure. I was really surprised by my mile time, considering just 3 months ago I was running a 9:30 mile. Look like P90X paid off a little!! So my mile time put me in the "B" group for PT. Basically, I'm in the second fastest running group. "A" is the fastest, then "B," "C," and "D." "D" is for those who can't run for more than like 5 minutes without being winded and start walking. Anyway, I'm proud of what I've done so far, and I know I'll only get stronger as the weeks pass.

You all have my address so start sending me letters!!! Update me on all current events! I'm going crazy not knowing what's going on in the outside world!

I Love You All!!

Embrace The Suck

SPC Martin

P.S. There is a rumor that Michael Jordan died in a DWI accident! Confirm or Deny PLEASE!!