Tear Gas, Obstacle Course and Marching

FRIDAY, JULY 2ND
Note: This letter was written by Matt a day before the last letter I posted, we received the letter yesterday, July 9th.

Hey Everybody!

Greetings again from Ft. Benning, GA where the heat will knock you out at 8:00 AM! That's right, we had a kid pass out at 8AM from the heat today before we ran the obstacle course. But really today started like any other. We got up at 0400 and cleaned, showered, etc and got ready for our first road march. We did 2 miles each way today and my heels are now covered in blisters. Oh well, it's part of my job now. We marched up to a different obstacle course and ran it a couple times. It will put you on your ass! After we ran it twice, we did a platoon competition where the best 10 from each of the 4 platoons competed against each other for the first platoon challenge. I was not a part of this. Why? Because I cannot climb a rope for the life of me. Anyway, my platoon finished in 2nd. Not bad, but in the Army you are just the first loser.

After the obstacle course we headed over to the confidence course. This has things that are about 50ft in the air and the only thing to save you is a large blue cushion...They make us do things like this to gain "confidence" in our ability to overcome fear - (mainly heights). There was one guy who froze on the obstacle. You climb up about 25ft. and then lean up against basically a light pole. You then have to walk across planks that are separated by about 2-3 ft. Once you cross the planks, you go up a ladder about another 20 ft. and then crawl down a cargo net. Well, this kid froze at the planks for about 20 minutes refusing to move. There is a net under the planks if you fall, but it's not that difficult to get across. We did a few more obstacles around the course and then marched back to base where we were finally shown how to clean our weapons. As as of right now, I can fully disassemble, clean, reassemble, and perform a functions check on my M-4 Rifle. I'm badass, I know!

So that was today, but let me tell you about yesterday.......
Yesterday was the gas chamber. They throw us into a room filled with tear gas and make us take off our masks. First when you enter, you're calm for the most part. You see the smoke through your gas mask and you breath and you're thinking "this isn't so bad..." WRONG!!!! Out of nowhere, any exposed skin starts burning. So just imagine razor burn on your sunburned skin. constantly burning sensation for about 5 minutes. First they make you pull your mask away and say your last name and last 4 digits of your social security number. You put the mask back, clear it and reseal the mask. Then they tell you to take off your mask and put on your helmet, put your rifle in your right hand, your mask in your left hand and put your left arm on the person in front of you. Easy enough right???WRONG!! The moment you take off that mask, it's like getting punched in the stomach by Mike Tyson and then have someone squeezing acid in your eyes. It's miserable, for some people. I only had to do it once, but others had to do it again for screwing up with either their helmet, rifle, etc. So it left me with some good stories!
First story involves my platoon. So they break us up into groups to organize the chaos. The first group pulls off their masks and this one guy immediately went down on his knees, dropped his helmet and had it roll to the other side of the room. His group had to wait until he gathered all his gear before they could leave. They were in there without their masks for at least twice as long as everyone else, and they were struggling. The next story involved a kid who literally walked in the the chamber, took his mask off, and passed out. I was in the bleachers when all the sudden I see the door slam open with the DS dragging this kid by the collar and dropping him in the grass while immediately walking back to the chamber... it was hilarious! And finally there was the kid who refused to go back. He screwed up in someway and the DS wanted him to go again and get it right. The guy didn't want to go. Solution -----DS grabs kid, drags him to the door, opens door, and throws kid in chamber with no mask on....sucks to be that guy.

The rest of the day the DS's smoked us like crazy. At least 3 hours of PT once we got back. It sucked bad, but at the same time it's good, because I'm feeling stronger overall. Almost all smoke sessions occur because people make stupid mistakes over and over. It's almost to simple to screw up, but yet, it happens everyday.

On thing that I have learned over the past day is that my company the 1/50 is supposedly the toughest of every company at Ft. Benning. We are already doing things that other companies don't touch until at least week 2 or 3. Apparently the 1/50 has a reputation around other bases as well. Hopefully that helps with my actual duty station. We'll see!

On another note, I would like to tell my niece Brianna HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!!
I know it's not until the 5th, but with this being a letter and all, it will get posted after the fact.

I can't wait until I finally get some mail!!!!!
I Love You All.

EMBRACE THE SUCK
SPC. Martin