Red to White??? --- Friday, July 16th

Hello Everybody!

I'm writing this letter on my own personal free time before lights out for the first time since I came to Ft. Benning! So that means good news-- We made it to White Phase! We are already enjoying the privileges. Tonight at Chow, we were given 12 tables to sit at and eat without the DS's telling us when to get up. To give you an idea at how big this is, when we first started weeks ago, we were only allowed to sit at 4 tables. As mentioned above, we have finally received 1 hour of personal time, so currently I'm doing laundry and writing this letter.

This week has flown by! I can't believe Friday is almost over. As my earlier letters said, we focused on Land Navigation this week. However, me and my team sucked hard core last night on the actual test part. We didn't pass either event.... During the day, we plotted our points wrong on the map,and at night we screwed up our first point. Either way, I'll probably have a counseling session on it, an that should be it, but we'll see.

Today was really relaxed. We got back around 00:00 last night so we got to sleep until 06:00, which meant no PT this morning, which is good for my blisters. After chow, we started cleaning our lockers and bay for our first inspection by the First Sergent. We made it through pretty clean, only a few minor things that need to get cleared up among the platoon. We also received our Red Phase Counseling which included peer reviews. We review the people in our squad. There are 14 people in each squad, so we have 4 squads. The peer evals. rank each member of the squad and has room for comments. 1 is the best and 13 is the worst (you do not rank yourself). Overall, I had about 3 or 4 - 1's, same with 2's a couple 5's and one 8. I guess I pissed that person off or something..... I don't know..... Either way, DS "B" looks at me as a leader within my platoon as well as a few other guys. I'll take what he sees in me more seriously than a peer review. Since DS "B" thinks I'm squared away, he picked me and 4 others from my platoon to go and meet with the Battalion Commander who is a Lieutenant Colonel. So my group and the other groups from the other platoons sat down and talked with him about Red Phase. What was good/bad/could be improved, etc. That was about an hour long meeting, and I feel like we were able to accomplish a lot (maybe not for our company), but for future one's at least.

So from all this today, I learned that I'm doing just fine, but there is still room for improvement (there always is). DS "B" is looking for me and a few others to really step up and lead, which I have been doing, but I know where I can get better, now. I have to set the standard and follow it day in and day out no matter what bullshit happens. The good new is this though....almost all the guys causing problems are leaving this next week! They are either being restarted, ( redoing red phase) or discharged. This will definitely help out my platoon.

I have been receiving letters almost everyday! The exception has been when we were out late in the field doing Land Nav. Today I received 7 letters and it was AMAZING!!!!! You all have been doing such a great job keeping me updated on the Cardinals, Fantasy (Oz), News, etc. Your are keeping me sane, especially Aunt Molly! (I show these to everyone!) So with all the mail I have been receiving, I figure now would be a good time to answer questions and commentary in no specific order.

1.) I am in 2ND Platoon
2.) I have lost 4 pounds & weigh 195 lbs. My stomach is much tighter. I feel like I've lost about 15 lbs., but have also gained a lot of muscle.
3.) The only women I see, are the one's who serve me chow......
4.) LeBron to Miami!! Not surprised really, but it will be interesting to say the least.
5.) Cardinals.........STEP IT UP!!!
6.) Lindsay, keep kicking 13 yr old ass, HAHA!!!
7.) There is hot, humid, hot and humid, and then Ft. Benning!
8.) Next week we start firing our M-4's.
9.) Good to hear the kitchen is ALMOST DONE!
10.) Allie, you are drafting my Fantasy Football team. You and Oz need to talk.
11.) August 28Th will be AMAZING!!!
12.) Anything can be made into a sandwich
13.) There are thousands of soldiers training here each day. This is a very active base.
14.) I placed 8/9 out of 56 on the APFT test this past Monday.

Oh, and before I forget.... I have a cool story to tell, which really made me think and reflect on some things. Here it is.....
So tonight we had a motivational speaker come and talk to us about teamwork. The guy is part of a NASCAR Crew and (I think his name was Ken) works in the pit. What he had to say, is not what was important tonight. What was important was his 9 year old son. Me and another guy from my platoon were helping this guy set up everything before his speech. One of the other men there was kind of his wing man and was also helping set up. During a little break in the setting up, the wing man started talking about Ken's son and how he has always wanted to meet a Soldier because he thought they were AWESOME (which we are). So over comes the little 9 year old and we get introduced as Soldiers to him. The kid's eyes just open wide and his mouth drops to say,
"Oh, man! That's SO COOL!!!!! It was awesome to see how excited he was, and it also made me think a little bit more about the light at the end of the tunnel.

When we're kids, we still have that innocence where everything and anything can be cool. (Seriously, Rat Tails used to be cool).....Anyway, when you're growing up, there are always certain things that you are drawn to. Like me, I always was fascinated by Sirens, and police cars, and baseball. As you get older, it seems like these interests/fascinations fade a little as you begin to accept more of the reality of the situation and not the fantasy of it. But this kid helped me find that fantasy part again. He helped me find/realize why things seem so cool as a kid. I don't think we should ever forget why we are drawn to certain things. If anything, we always need to remember why they were important in the first place. Never lose sight of why things are "cool". Sometimes I wish I could still see the world through the eyes of a 9 year old. The world would be a better place!

"And that's all I have to say about that"

SPC Martin

PS - Happy Birthday MOM!
PPS - Happy Birthday Ben!