We received a letter from Michael last Friday. It was postmarked Oct. 30th. He was writing about the week prior - Field Week (Oct. 21-27). Here's the latest...........
"This week has been CRAZY! Monday morning we woke up went to chow and then started our first hike. We hiked about 2 miles with our packs which weigh about 60-75 lbs. with new gear and MRE's packed for the next couple of days. We stopped at a range where we were given instructions on how to operate a SAW249 machine gun, a safety brief on the SAW249 and then fired a string of about 20 rounds. It was AWESOME. Then our next period of instructions were over the AT4 AKA bazooka. We got a safety brief and then fired a tracer round. The company high shooter was supposed to fire a real round and blow up a gag tank (?) but the weather conditions prevented that from happening. After that we continued on with more hiking. Four miles or so later we arrived at our final destination - the top shelf. It's a big flat area. We ate our afternoon chow and then set up our tents.
Our platoon was the first platoon out of the whole company to have our "house" (lines of tents) set up. It took us awhile, but we finished and then PT'd. As they (various exercise stations) are found everywhere we split half of the platoon doing pull ups on the pull-up bars while the other half did crunches and sit-up exercises. We switched four times, each cycle lasting about 5-8 minutes long.
The next thing I remember doing is hygiene. That was interesting! There is a 3-ft high wooden fence forming a square. Inside the square are racks. We took our blouse and shirts off and shaved and brushed our teeth. For our shower we wiped our faces, arms and chest with a wash cloth using water from our canteen. It was definitely something new. We then had evening chow and hit the racks - well not racks, but sleeping bags.
I had not fire watch, but guardian angel watch. On the perimeter of the shelf there are fox holes (holes about 5 feet in diameter and 2 ft. deep). Another member from my fire team and I sat in there and watched for anyone entering our area or anything unusual happening. After an hour of that we went back to sleep.
Tuesday we learned hand and arm signals first thing in the morning.Then our fire teams did a short patrol using them. It was sweet and I started feeling like a Marine...moving around all tactical and stuff :) After that was gas chamber.
Our gas masks are the M40 gas masks. Basically it's just like you see on TV. A small room and smoke. I didn't throw up and was not fortunate enough to experience snot pouring out of my nose. Then all hell broke loose!
A wild fire started getting really close to base so we were evacuated. Our tents were packed and all our gear got loaded into a convoy of 7-ton trucks. Then we hiked back with just our LBVs and rifles. We arrived on base in the early evening, say between 4:00 and 5:00. We got to our house and unpacked all our gear and then repacked it, making sure no gear was lost or left behind. The sky by this point was a dark brown and the sun was still above the horizon. We ate chow (MREs) in the house. We then got to properly hygiene and hit the racks. Once the lights were turned out I watched the fires from my rack. They were just like you see on TV in the news and movies. Helicopters from Miramar were busy protecting the base too. Although it was a little scary, it was very neat to witness. Wednesday and Thursday went on as planned. The fires got within a mile of our house but were contained in time. We had to wear dust masks to prevent breathing in the ash in the air. By Friday it looked like it had snowed. Wednesday and Thursday we received classes and experienced live combat fire at moving targets. It was pretty fun. Then on Friday we had pre-qual and qualification. I feel I did pretty well. Because of the fires we missed alot of field week. We packed all our stuff up on Wednesday and were ready to leave base to head south, but it never happened. Then there was talk about us leaving on Saturday but that didn't happen either.
Tuesday night, the fires I saw was the crucible burning up. We are still doing the crucible, it will just be a little different. We may not hike the reaper (a really steep mountain), may not do obstacle courses (they're a bunch of coal and ash now), and may not sleep on the shelf where crucible recruits sleep. However, most of the crucible is patrolling and it is done here on the base. So that won't change and we have another obstacle course here on base as well. We'll see what they have us do. Well that's all I got for now. WAIT! Meals and food I ate.....
I don't remember everything but there are some things you may ask.... 'would he ever eat that before now?' I ate cranberries (I never ate cranberries), rye bread plain, chicken with mushrooms and black olives, jambalaya (which I LOVE), and Dad, I ate clam chowder. (Ken loves clam chowder) Hey when it's all you have to eat, you'll eat it. Alright, now that's all I got. Time is running short and I'll be seeing some of you soon. Hope to hear from you. I miss you all so much!"
Love, Mike
Ahhh... he sounds good doesn't he? Won't it be great to hear all the little details and other stories Michael will have to tell when he's home? We haven't heard how the Crucible went but I'm assuming that since we didn't get a phone call all went well. They're really toughening him up! I'm having a hard time getting a sense of excitement over shooting a bazooka or even shooting at live targets. Must be a guy thing! Thank goodness we've got guys like this to protect us.
I have to thank everyone out there for all the prayers that were lifted up for Michael this past week. I am truly humbled by this. Last Sunday night REACH (our church's youth worship team) gave a concert and dedicated a song to Michael since he couldn't be there to perform with them. It was the song "Joy" by Newsboys - a song that Michael always wanted the band to play. Pastor Art and our church family have prayed endlessly for Michael as I know many others have as well. He was truly covered in prayer during the Crucible. I know that God has one hand guiding Michael forward and another hand pushing him toward to the final goal. I'm sure Michael knows that he could not have gotten this far without the support of his fellow recruits and God's presence working through them.
Ok...this is Swim Week for the recruits. I see on the schedule that today and tomorrow is uniform issue. Oh boy! Can't wait to see him in those dress blues and the awesome hat :) Wednesday and Friday are MCMAP test (?). Saturday is Defensive driving and Series PFT (personal fitness training?) Only 4 weeks to go! We'll be seeing him in 25 days!
Until the next letter comes............ love ya' all! Julie
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