More from Ken

April 9th
Today was fun. We are on our BRM phase which stands for Basic Rifle Marksmanship. For the next 2 weeks we will do almost all rifle related drills and mostly ranges. Today we went to an indoor rifle range. It was a portable with a TV screen that took up an entire wall. IT was like the movie theater, but all it looked like was a rifle range. We shot M16s that had been gutted out and wires fed from them to a computer. 16 soldiers shooting at a time and the computer read everything, so that our DS could tell us what to change. We were trying to get a grouping. Basically a series of 6 shots at 300 meters in a 4cm diameter. I did it in 6 shots. That took all morning. After lunch, we worked on our shooting techniques then had dinner, then cleaned our rifles for tomorrow when we go to the live fire range that will give us immediate feedback with computers. I guess when we hit the target the computer tells us where on the target we hit.

April 10th
The first day of live ammo fire. It was fun, but we were at the range for 8 hours and I shot 35 rounds. The rest of the time I just sat around and watched and talked and had my chili mac MRE. It was probably the best I've had so far and it had a bag of Skittles. MREs also have these cookies that are bite size. They are called cremesicle cookies. Believe it or not they taste just like cremesicles. We came home around 4pm then cleaned our rifles, went to dinner. Then everybody who wanted to see "Passion of the Christ" went to some church and those who didn't got to stay in the bay and do whatever. It's been nice.

April 13th
It's been a good couple of days, busy though. I haven't been able to write because we haven't had personal time in the evenings. So here it goes. Monday (13th) was our first PT test. WE did our push ups and I did 41, then did the sit ups and I did 42. Surprised me! After that we were supposed to run our two miles, but the rain came first. And with the rain came the lightning and tornado warnings. So my battle buddy decided it would be a good day to get some teeth pulled. We went to the dentist for hours. He ended up getting two root canals. We got out and it was still raining and the platoon was messing around in class talking about nothing and reviewing.

April 14th
Tuesday we redid the push up and sit up part ofour test because they all have to be done at the same time. But they, the DS, told us that the scores from Monday were the scores to be used so I went light on the push ups and sit ups and ran a 14:59 two mile. I was pacing for a 16:00 two mile. Oh well. I'm going to shoot for 14:00 minutes next time. We take three tests, but only the last test counts. So now that I meet all the requirements I just have to maintain what I do. I plan to do 50 push ups and sit ups for the next test. Wish me luck!
We also went on a 3 mile road march with land navigation training and signal training. A 3 mile road march wouldn't be all that bad, but we have to do it with a 40lb backpack and a rifle. The rifle is the bad part because you have to hold it in a position that you would be ready to shoot at any given moment, finger just over the trigger and barrel pointing downward. It is 10lbs that gets heavy fast. The land navigation is basically boy scouts all over, compasses, protractors, and a map. Plot some points and find you destination. Our platoon needs a lot of help. Signal was cool. We learned the different phrases and numbers and letter for talking over the radio. It was a lot of fun.

April 15th
We went shooting again. My drill seargent puts a pirce of paper on a board and puts it 25 meters away. There is a black space on the paper and I have to shoot all the bullets inside the space. We went to the range where we will qualify next week. It has targets at 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 meters. We must shoot 23 targets out of 40 to qualify and I hit 29 my first try. They pop up and some times 2 at a time. We have memorized the order in which they pop up so we know where the next target will be. *For Duty Squad we had to load magazines for all 240 soldiers for that days shooting. We loaded appr. 15,000 rounds and they were all used.

April 16th
We went to a different range and this time we had targets 75, 150, 300 meters. Shooting is a lot of fun. I wish we could shoot more. The whole company of 240 soldiers go to one range. You are there for 8 hours and if you do good your first time you might shoot for 5 minutes and sit around for the rest of the day waiting for everyone else. Some ranges have 50 lanes, but we only have 10 DS so the process is slow. Because I passed my PT test I have been put on *Duty Squad, which gets me out of some early morning PT, but it is a busy job. Basically what happened was there are 8 people on duty squad and DS said that if you didn't pass your PT test you couldn't be on Duty Squad. Well, out of 12 guys in my squad, me and 1 other guy passed. So we became it with 6 other guys from 3 other squads.

By the time Wednesday morning was over I had had it and was feeling a bit on the sick side. So I decided to go to sick call Thursday morning. My left eye got mucous in it and by Thursday morning it was sealed shut. I knew exactly what happened. I had a cold and it spread. I also had a sore throat. After waiting in the Dr.'s office for 3 hours, I saw the doc and he gave me some sinus meds with sore throat suckers, eye drops for my pink eye, and nasal spray to help with the congestion. So now, at the end of Thursday, I fell much better and I still got to shoot. I hit 33 out of 44 targets and learned I need to steady my rifle more. Tomorrow we go back to the range where we will eventually qualify. I just need to work on my fundamentals.

*Side note from Heidi
We have talked to Ken on Easter, the 17th, and 19th. He sounded a lot better (cold-wise) on the 19th than he did on Easter. He said a lot of the other platoons have their cell phones so their DS let them use them. But in Ken's platoon there were only a few that brought their phones. So, no cell phone use, but to make up for it, they are now allowed to make 20 minute phone calls from the call center. I think that's once a week. Ken said only the LDS group gets 2 hours for church on Sunday. He also said that since they have started they have had 10 baptisms. He sounds like he's having fun, but ready to move on to the next phase and get done. He likes the letters, so write him and let him know how you're all doing. Thanks for all the support and prayers on our behalf!!