WE'RE SHIPPING !!!! Thursday 6/24

Okay, so as you can tell mom, I made a new purchase. I bought a sweet new Army trapper-keeper. It's Awesome! And, it included a new pad for me to write on which I am very excited about!

Besides all that, I have some great news! I am finally heading to Basic Combat Training starting 09:00 (9:00AM) Friday morning! When we all heard the news, no one could contain themselves. We are finally leaving this hell hole for some Sand Hill action! We knew we should be shipping this week, but it wasn't really ever official until today. Most everyone is leaving except for about 20 guys. The look on their faces, as they watched all of us set up our bags and get in line, is something I am so glad I did not have to do. They will be in Reception for at least another week. That sucks......What sucks even more, is what happened to this guy......

So the DS had already called out the platoon and the people's numbers within their platoon to line up and organise our bags and the order in which we would leave. So everyone is lined up and the DS starts going over every one's roster number again, just to double check. So everything is going great, he's even added a couple of people who didn't hear their number called earlier. Then he gets to my platoon and the #10.... When the DS gets to this number, he kicks the guy out of the line. His pretty exact words for crushing this guy, "#10 that sucks, but get the f**k out of my line." Damn...Now the guy who replaced # 10 is a good guy in my platoon, I wish sometimes the DSs would have a little more tact. But considering it was DS "Duck", I'm not surprised. The guy is an ass. I knew DS's aren't supposed to be my friend or anything, but this guy just seems to love being a dick, and extremely unhelpful. Oh well....at least it wasn't me.

That pretty much wraps it up for me right now. I'm excited as hell to finally get my training started. With that in mind, there is one thing I would like to ask from all of you, and that is, when you think of me and have about 5 minutes, recite Psalm 91 for me. It's known as the protection psalm and has a large following who recite it among soldiers It is as follows.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty
I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!"
For it is He who delivers you
from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge:
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
or of the arrow that flies by day;
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.
You will only look on with your eyes
And see the recompense of the wicked.
For you have made the Lord, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.

No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your tent.
For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and cobra
The young lion and the serpent
you will trample down.

"Because he has Loved Me,
therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high,
Because he has known My name.
"He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
"With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him behold My salvation."

I should have my address Soon! Love you all.
SPC Martin

Note from Matt's Mom 6/25/10

I know Matt has been writing a lot lately, I think it's good for him, but once he actually starts Boot Camp - he probably will not be writing as much. This is when he is going to need the letters from family and friends even more - to keep him positive and motivated. He sounds so positive now, but the goal is to break these boys down and build them into "ARMY STRONG" - I'm not sure what all that involves, but I know when Ben joined the Coast Guard - we did not get that many letters from him, maybe 1 a week. He was exhausted when he finally had some free time and sleep would win out over letter writing. I wish we had facebook; Blogs when Ben enlisted in the Coast Guard.

Anyway - here's Mom's SHOUT OUT - write to Matt.

I am hoping to have Matt's address next week - I will get it posted as soon as I get it.

Tuesday, June 22nd -

Hello Everybody!!!
So we're getting close to finally getting out of reception and actually start training!!! I finally got my boots and it only took 4 times before I finally received the 3 pairs they hand out. We get 2 pairs for warm weather, and 1 cold weather pair. Today we also received our Dob Tags and wait for it ............
my glasses!!! If there was a way to describe these things it would be EPIC! I am now a cross between Erkle and Revenge of the Nerds. Seriously, these are the goofiest looking things. Hand me a pocket protector and I'll go teach middle school science, because these glasses qualify me for that position on principal alone.

I'm very excited to head down range and so is everyone else in the company. We're just bored now and want to get things started. The first 3 weeks are going to be hell, especially considering that the DS's will separate all the platoons we're in now and put us together with new people, So I won't be training with a lot of the people that I got to know over this past week. Not knowing who you're going to be with is frustrating because you just spent the last week learning people's strengths and weaknesses, who you can and cannot count on, and who are the one's most likely to get you into trouble. Now we'll have to do that again, and this time DS's will be on our ass for every mistake, running us into the ground. But for as crazy as it may sound, I can't wait for it because it will end the monotony of reception and I'll be that much closer towards graduation!

That's it for now, I don't think -----wait--- 1 more thing. DS's love to have fun with last names and our company is no different. We have some great last names. For example, Early, Yess, Stiffler, Sergent, Gno (pronounced "NO"). If I'm right, I think Stiffler's name is Ryan Stiffler in American Pie, and so is this kid. Anyway, I think you can imagine how the DS utilizes guys whoses last names are pronounced "Yes" and "No"
Until Next Time,
SPC Martin

Matt venting - AWOL's - Monday June 21st

Okay everyone, I guess I wanted to write this letter to bitch/vent/discuss. So here I go. I can't stand people who go AWOL. Seriously, they are the biggest jackasses, not to mention the fact that they represent just how stupid people can be. Honestly, I can't believe people panic that much to actually try and run, in an Army base, surrounded by woods. Where the heat index hits 100 almost everyday, without food or water. No mode of transportation except their legs. They have limited sources for cash and their name is automatically entered into the FBI & US Marshall national database. When caught, you go to Federal Prison for 5 years, will never get a job due to your dishonorable discharge. In times of war, it could be punishable by death. All this trouble because you can't handle 3 months!!! Unbelievable!!!

So you may be wondering where this rant is coming from? Well, I'll tell you. Sunday night I'm asleep. I have Fire Watch for the Third night in a row, this time at 2 AM. So I went to sleep right? Well, it just wasn't meant to be. Because at 00:30 (12:30 AM) "Pvt. W" comes screaming hell and high water that the DS wants all of us up now and lined up in formation in 5 minutes. Well ......Shit!!!! Turns out our DS just chased some guy who he saw outside. Obviously the guy got away, but needless to say we spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out if the guy was from Reception or if he was downrange at Basic. Turns out the guy was in Basic.

Here's where I have a problem, and I hope someday this shit head reads this and realizes that I'm talking about him. Hopefully he's still in prison, asshole. So back to my problem with all of this. Even at night it is still hot outside and sweating occurs from just standing outside. I had just showered and I'm sure probably about 7 - 800 soldiers besides me did as well. The DS's would have made everyone fall in formation and do accountability check to find out who went AWOL. Sleep is a hard commodity to come by and both sides have been working their asses off for what they signed up to do. So this 1 person has just turned the base upside down as they try to figure out who it is and he ends up pissing off about 800 soldiers.

For those who go AWOL all you need to know is that you are an inconsiderate piece of shit. You're selfish and self-centered which is why you couldn't handle it in the first place. You obviously didn't think very hard about your "commitment" to the Army. You could have puss ed out anytime before you left for Ft. Benning, but instead you made the worst possible decision you could have made, and have most certainly ruined your life. I'll get over the inconvenience you made me go through, knowing that soon you will be rotting in a prison cell. I'll assume foresight is not your best quality. Enjoy you 8X10.

On another note.... There is a pretty cool guy I get along with since he's not a dumb ass. Hughes sent his mom the blog address to read. And if she is reading this, well, consider this your SHOUT OUT from your son! I hope (me personally) that it helps you stay in touch with John a little bit more. So enjoy.

To everyone else, I Love you.
Make sure you have those letters ready when I finally get you my address.

PS. Updated Random List Totals.

2 - AWOL

4 - Longest consecutive streak of Fire Watch duty

SPC Martin

RANDOM PIECES OF INORMATION -Sunday, June 20th

I thought I'd try a random information thing for the blog. This may just be a list of stupid/funny/interesting things for you all to enjoy. So far ........

5 - Number of people who have passed out from the heat (This is all without working out/running .......just walking)

7 - People who have thrown up after breakfast

120 - Discharges of soldiers who either can't/don't make it so far

1 - AWOL - Supposedly this kid took off for the woods in the middle of the night and got lost. Was found, but haven't heard anything. DS made sure to point out what road to take if we really wanted to bail.

2 - Number of true assholes I have met so far

3 - Times I went to get boots.

0 - Pairs of boots I have .....maybe the 4th time ??????

WORST/BEST OF RECEPTION SATURDAY 6/19

Alright so reception has been very slow considering it is the weekend. We got an extra hour of sleep so we woke up at 0515 (5:15 AM) !! Very Exciting! Fire Watch was a complete failure last night. I had the 0300 to 0400 shift, but was woken up 3 times before my shift because one person put down a fake name to avoid duty (more to come) and twice people couldn't find those to wake up for the next shift. Needless to say I was confused when the light came on and I looked at my watch that read "00:04". Overall the day was kinda annoying. Our Drill Sgt. assigned my platoon to clean out another platoons barracks until we were told that we were relieved. Well I guess Drill Sgt. forgot about us because 3 hours later we were sweeping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, etc. for the third time. Half the platoon quit cleaning and were just screwing around, while I led the other half to keep cleaning. Eventually I found out the Drill Sgt. had left. I found this out when I asked for more to clean. I reach out for more the DS isn't even there..... I would think normally they would drool for the opportunity.

Anyway, we then hit the rain as we headed to chow (dinner). This is where the night started to improve. So we line up in formation as a way to organize almost 500 people who are in reception right now to get chow and eat as quickly as possible. So while it's raining and we're in formation Sgt. "G" asks for someone who can sing. So we get this guy up there and the Sgt. whispers the song to sing into his ear. Turns out to be the the Nation Anthem. So to visualize this, imagine ^ 200 soldiers, some in ponchos, some covered by the roof of the walkway leading to chow, singing the National Anthem at the top of their lungs in the pouring rain while waiting to eat. Needless to say this has been by far my most memorable and favorite part of being here so far. You already have friendships forming and you can see how other people are looking out for those in their platoon.

But for as great as that was, we still have a lot of 18-19 year olds' who just don't know when to shut up. Dinner chow always ends our day. We file into a final accountability check. Well the Drill Sgts. have no problem waiting until we're completely quiet. Well, 30 minutes later .....an people still won't shut the F**K UP!!!! It's so simple to do! Just shut up, stand in formation, and have some patience! It also fails to show that when people are yelling for everyone to "Shut the f**k up" then for everyone who yells that, two more people then yell the same thing and then four people yell it and it snowballs until half the room is yelling " Shut the F**K up to get people, to put it plainly, to shut the F**k up. They all fail to realize just how counter productive their yelling is. (Sorry for the language, but it's a word use frequently here) NOTE FROM MOM - I edited this a bit just couldn't type the word all the way out -

Well once that was over with (we finally got quiet) we called out our platoon. Basically the Drill Sgt. calls out your platoon number (ours is Charlie Oscar 662) we all come to attention and yell "HERE DRILL SGT. !!!!" and then count off our roster number until the last man who then says "Charlie Oscar 662 all present and accounted for Drill Sgt.!! HOOAH!!! Well, one group I guess is still struggling to do this: DISCLAIMER: These are words my DS used, not my opinion, just forwarding the information. If you are offended by the word retard, STOP READING.

So the DS goes into reaming the platoon by calling them retarded "Band of Brothers!!? More like Band of Retards. How F**king difficult is this? F***** retard Deja Vu. Lets try this again. Ready......???? 1...2...3... " (They Fail
AGAIN) I'll let you guess at the rest of what he said. Once that DS was done, then we had the other DS take over. And that was entertaining to say the least. He called out two people who were complaining about Fire Watch and made them explain why in front of 250 soldiers of whom everyone of them as done fire watch. The the DS pointed out that their refusal/fake name were just a giant "F**k You DS" which he returned by calling them "pussies" and definitely came back with his own version of "F**K You" which had it been the "Old Army" would have involved getting "physical".

So an annoying day turned into a pretty fun and entertaining night. I just finished my fire watch detail (23:00) and am heading to bed.

PS - I'm starting to enjoy my shaved head, and also took my picture which should all be ready at graduation.
Love You All,
Matt.

SATURDAY 6/19

Well I'm pretty sure I didn't answer some questions some of you may be thinking. So I'll do my best to read your mind and answer these questions.

So, I'm not the oldest person here. The oldest I have found so far is 27. I've met at least 3 - 18 year olds who are either married or engaged. In some cases to girls who are 16...... a little weird in my book. For the most part, I think my group of guys work well together. Everyone seems to get along with one another. Yes, there are a couple of people who were beaten with the stupid stick, and will get us run into the ground. Hopefully they don't stick with us past this next week, but we'll see.

The first few days have been somewhat of a culture shock. It's not easy right off the bat to have all your freedoms stripped. The mind games have seemed to Begin. There is one Sgt. who we will refer to as " Sgt. Z" who makes every single action you make feel wrong. You can never move "Frackin" Fast enough. He loves using the word "Frackin" For the most part though, the rest of the Sgts. relax a little around us and will joke with us.
When I get my address, I'll let you guys know. Then please send letters/pictures whenever you can!!!!
Love you All,
Spc. Martin