23Apr2010

Hey Everyone,

So I just got back from STT, which is training in movements and defensive fighting tactics. I called it a campout which it was. LOL. So we left Wednesday morning for AO Goodblood range. We got to the huge area whith tons of holes that have been dug up and filled back in over the years, and tons and tons, and I mean tons of fire ants. They covered just about every inch of land and I am not exagurating. It was bad. They taught us a movement called "wedge behind wedge platoon file." It looks like an upside down V, well, no, better, it's like an upsidedown checkmark. It's made of four people and then they put us into a giant file so we had to wedge teams and three gunner teams.

After they showed us the movement we went down into the tree line. The recon team went to scout the area, which I was apart of, and found where we would set up base camp for the next couple days. Then we waited and waited for the rest of the platoon to show up. When they showed up, we set up a triangle security perimeter where we were in two man teams all the way around and then, my favorite part, we had to dig all day. We had to use our tiny little itty bity shovels to dig what called a hastings. They look like box letter Y's, but instead it's a flippin awesome hole for a two man team and their packs. YESSSS!!!!!! What sucked more was that weith each two man team, one person had to post security while the other was digging and then we would switch when their side was done.

So all night we slept in these holes with 50% of our platoon on security, which is one person from each team posts security at a time while the other slept for one hour. We did that all night, which was cool because we used nigh vision optic scopes to see. It was so cool. So the first night wasn't too bad. Just sleeping outside witha loaded weapon is just a bit different. LOL. The 2nd day was way better. We got all our blank ammunition and and loaded everyone with 100 rounds. We didn't do much, but the other platoon were constantly moving their base, which was hilarious.

Drill Sergeant Ballejo was going to have us pull off an ambush on the other platoons, but Drill Sergeant Nun didn't have to have fun. So the whole day we were making sure our base was completely secured. Everyone's hasting was complete and everyone had whatevercover they wanted for the night. Well, none of our DS's were there and all day we heard the other platoons getting attacked. (because it was a defensive fighting practice) The Drill Sergeants were going to each platoon and attacking them with grenades and weapons, trying to breach everyone's security except ours. When it came time for chow (dinner), no one was telling us to pack up to go to chow, but all the other platoons did. So we kept working until 40 minutes later, when DS Asienbury came running down the hill telling us to come eat and just leave two guards. We we all ran to chow, and the drill sergeants said that no one got us because they didn't know where we were at, which was awesome because an ambush on the other platoons would have been sweet to pull.

We came back and finished, and the drill sergeants came over to tell us that they are going to get us good and hard all night. 3rd platoon finally came and set up their base in the woodline south of our position where we used to dig holes so we could take a crap. So 3rd platoon was sleeping in our poo which was flippin awesome. So 2100 hit
(9pm) and 33% of our platoon pasted security with a M240 at our 6 o'clock and 2 o'clock, and M4's and M249's all over the perimeter. No one attacked for the first hour, and I finally went to sleep. Not too much long after I went to sleep, 20 minutes later, everyone to my left yelled "contact" and a couple of grenades went off, and I immediately launch out of my hole, grabbed my helmet and threw it on, picked up my rifle and started firing because I had night vision and saw DS Cramer and Eisenbrey attacking us.

So the DS's were attacking us with M4Carbine Assualt rifles and greandes, and 10 of us were just unloading our ammunition on them. It went on for about two minutes and then ended. I went back to sleep and woke up 40 minutes later and Jackson started unloading the M240 Machine gun yelling, then greandes starting going off and I launched out again and started unloading more rounds, yelling and flying over hastings, shooting at this time. Half our platoon was up and we were all unloading magazine after magazine for 40 minutes, and Jackson was just blasting away. 3rd platoon, who was 30 yards away saw more DS's and they were even unloading as much ammo as we were.

It went on all night.

Ryan

Sorry everyone....This is where Ryan's letter ended. He started the letter right before his 36 hour family visit weekend, and was not able to finish it prior to seeing me. He put it in my purse and intended to finish it, but when I left, he forget to take it back.