Land Nav. & Explosions! ........Wed. July 14th

Hello there desperate people clinging to my every word! HAHA!! I need you all, so keep reading and writing.

So far this week we have done Land Navigation (Tuesday) and Claymore/IED training today. Land Nav. was fun, especially when we got out into the woods for almost 2 hours without the DS's on our backs. We had two Land Nav. events. The first, was a day event. We had to find 5 points in the woods at varying distances ranging from 300 to 600 meters apart using just a compass and a heading. We found all 5 points on our map in about a hour and thirty minutes. Then we had a night Land Nav. event that involved 2 points. As you can imagine, it was pitch black. All we had was a red tinted flashlight and our compass. We found our first point, but not the second (we were off by 100 meters). Overall, it was a good day, but we got back late and I had their first fire guard watch at 0:00.

Today was also a pretty cool day. We finally got to see something EXPLODE!! We went over grenades, mines, anti-tank weapons. After the class, we went out to a field and watched 2 claymore mines explode. I was really surprised at how big the explosion was considering that a claymore isn't that big. I want to say it blew water about 200 ft. into the air!

After that, we had a couple classes on IED's. We saw some videos of attacks and learned about the different types. We then used that knowledge and walked through a makeshift "Baghdad (spell?) to patrol and search. It was a good practical exercise, and I hope to get more training on IED's.

I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday! We are almost done with 3 weeks!!! Next week, we start heading to the range and firing our weapons. The platoon has done a pretty good job so far this week, so we'll see about Red Phase ending. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Embrace the Suck!
SPC Martin

One last thing......For the most part, the food is good. We just don't get enough to make us "full"! So I'm sure I've lost some weight. How much? No idea, but I'm losing it day by day.

Today was Hot & Humid. I had sweat through my uniform by 07:30.... We had 2 guys go to the hospital today because of the heat, so add that to the tally.

Overall, I'm doing well. I've passed everything so far and seem to be finding a rhythm. Keep up the good work on the Letters!!!!!! I've been making quite a few people jealous!!!!