August 16th, Monday. We started off the week with by going back to where we did the gas chamber, on the other side of the base (CBERNE). We went inside this huge overhang and learned how to do CPR over a DVD-video. It felt like Boy Scouts all over again. Learning CPR was not difficult for me. It was more of a time-passer than anything else. And for once, we didn't get yelled at by the TI's for simple mistakes. Seems like they're realizing we can figure out when we make our own mistakes instead of them having to remind us in a harsh fashion. "YOU HAVE A FRIGGIN' STRING HANGING FROM YOUR SHIRT!!!" Yeah thanks, I know that.
After the CPR lesson, we went outside and we were taught how to built T.E.M.P.E.R. tents! In Boy Scouts, you make tents by sticking poles in the slots and 5 minutes later wee, you got a tent. TEMPER tents are a little different. These things were meant to take a hit. With a very large rock. You could probably throw a small vehicle into these tents and it wouldn't break. These tents were made with poles as thick as your arm, pinned up, had thick canvas to cover the tent, and air holes for the air conditioner. And they took about 45 minutes to put together with a crew of 15 people. It was fun though. These tents are older than most of us are, so they are going out of commission soon, I found out. Oh well.
Back at the squadron, our TI's finally implemented the rule of being punished as individuals, not as a group. When somebody made a mistake, we all suffered for it. But starting in the 5th week, we pay for our own mistakes. This could be worse in some cases because if you got in trouble, you had to be embarrassed all by yourself as everybody else watched. For example...
Farting was a big and amazing deal when we were sitting in the Day Room. That room started smelling like madness after 15 minutes of men sitting in there. I never participated in that though. But one time, the TI caught one trainee zip a windy, and the TI said, "Did you just fart?" Trainee said, "Yes sir..." The TI said, "I want you to breathe it in. Does it smell good?" Trainee, "Yes sir." TI said, "Now, I want you to eat it. Does it taste good?" Trainee, "Yes sir." We were all sitting there, almost dying of laughter as this was happening.
We all got inspected on how well we could hang our Blues in our wall lockers this week. It was more of an appraisal because it wasn't an official inspection. I forgot my tags in my Blues so I failed the appraisal. Otherwise they were just fine.
Because we are an older flight, our Section Supervisor came in and gave us Airman's time personally. He's a really funny guy once you get to know him. It was a lot of fun -- he told us deployed stories and whatnot. It was hilarious. He was telling us how he got with this girl while he was deployed, and my section supervisor was a pimp! Haha not something you would expect from a mean guy when you're in week one of BMT.
Mail call was always an event. It was always at the end of the day before we all started to relax a little (yes, that is possible in BMT when you hit your final weeks of training). There were always those few trainees who got 27 letters from their girlfriends. No wonder the mail pile was always 3 feet thick. However, I got the reputation for having the strangest letters. And we always knew when my letter was coming next. The TI picked up the letter, and stared at the letter awkwardly for a good 5 seconds. Everybody immediately knew who it was for when the TI did that. The reason the TI looked at the envelope awkwardly was for one of two reasons: The envelope always had some sort of Spongebob sticker madness on it (my envelopes sometimes were COVERED in Spongebob goodness, you couldn't see the white of the envelope sometimes) or the return address had something really interesting on it (From: Mom, a special happy face for the TI who's reading this!). It was awesome.
And we had mandatory study time at the end of the day. Just thought I'd tell you that cuz it was in my written blog. :P
August 17th, Tuesday. I had a sensitivity appointment instead of CADM. CADM is another phrase for M-16 Field Target Practice. CADM was today for the rest of the flight, but I was scheduled to make it up later in my training. The sensitivity appointment consisted of filling out all the information I needed in order to apply for my Top Secret clearance for the job I'm currently training for.
I went to the doctor again for something (I was a sick man in BMT!!). I had pneumonia today. No wonder it was hard for me to breathe. I could barely make it up the 4 flights of stairs without getting severely winded. I know that sounds like a lot anyways, but it was usually no big deal. I also got an ear infection that morning that made my left ear completely deaf. And it stayed that way for about 2 weeks.
My flight also started to set up other dorms for new trainees that were coming in later that week. We were experienced in how to set up a dorm so they had us do a few for the new trainees.
When I was in line for breakfast one morning, I saw an ex-TI that I used to have in the first flight I was in. She loved me, and I have no idea why. She said, "Hey Donahue!! How's it going?!?!" Reporting statement, "Good morning, Ma'am!" She held up her hand, and I wasn't sure what she was doing. She then said, "Are you gonna leave it hanging??" I reached up for her hand, and gave her a hi-five! Holy crap. I got a LOT of eyes on me for a good while after that happened. It made my entire week when that happened. She was so nice, the best TI in the world.
We had to eat food at the 319th squadron for a while because our dining facility was under it's annual investigation and was closed down to trainees for a few days. At least th 319th wasn't far away, just across the street.
We had our first Deployment Briefing. This was a briefing to go over how BEAST is going to work in week 6 and what we should take with us, etc etc etc... They were treating it like an actual deployment, getting us ready for whatever is to come.
This is where I stopped taking notes in my written blog. Everything from this point is from memory alone.
After the briefing, we were given time to purchase anything we needed for the BEAST trip. Baby wipes were extremely popular because we figured were weren't going to be given enough time to shower at BEAST. We also bought an extra canteen because two canteens are required at BEAST simply because it's so hot and trainees get dehydrated there all the time.
We spent that weekend packing our stuff for BEAST. Everything we needed was put into our green military duffel bags. We also tagged our duffel bags with our names in big military letters. Everything barely fit, but it did!
We went to Church on Sunday, spent that day packing our stuff, getting our blue M-16's ready, and we were set to go to BEAST.
That's week 5. Stay tuned for week 6.
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