The time since Tory left has been bittersweet in many ways. I miss him verrryy much and think about him often, but I am filled with a sense of peace and strength that I didn't know I had. God is so good. I continue to rely on Him and He has yet to let me down. This time apart has taught me that marriage has not replaced my independence. It has also taught me that taking out the trash, replacing batteries in the fire alarm, and killing spiders don't have to be "blue jobs" (although I will be happy to hand the reigns back over to Tory when he returns). :)
I addition, I have realized that my friends are angels and they will stand beside me always.
It has also given me the opportunity to rely on the unconditional support and love of my family.
I'm especially grateful to Tory's family for checking in on me and making it a point to spend time with me while Tory is away. It has really meant a lot to me.
Here's a glimpse at Tory's life a Fort Benning this month! I will pull bits and pieces from the letters I've received the past couple weeks. Sorry I haven't been more consistent in updating. Work, school, dinner dates, and Baby D have been keeping me busy.
October 5, 2011
So today was our first day out on the BRM range. 25 people from each platoon who shot well on the simulator got to go and zero their weapons today. Basically that means making adjustments until your sights are accurate. It was awesome to actually shot some live rounds. I got to fire 40 rounds today and will get plenty more in the coming weeks. I have never fired anything other than the .22 and my grandparents farm so I was a little nervous about firing an assault rifle, but I did fine. The recoil isn't too bad, but it's loud. It's hard not to flinch with guys directly to both sides of you shooting. We shot in the prone supported position, meaning laying down using a sandbag. We shoot 5 rounds, go out to our targets, make whatever adjustments the DS (drill sergeant) tells us to, then fire another 5 rounds and so on until we're zeroed in. It was actually a lot of fun. Like the DS say, "This is what we get paid to do, so have fun with it." We could see airborne troops over the tree line jumping from planes. It was so cool. You could see the plane flying low and then a whole line of green parachutes. A lot of guys in BCT are trying hard for Airborne contracts so it was cool to see them in action. Between that and shooting my M4 I felt like I was in the Army today.
October 6, 2011
I had PT (physical training) this morning and now we are doing bay and weapon maintenance. I don't think I ever told you about morning PT. We go out to this big sand pit and do warm-up exercises and then whatever our main workout is. It isn't usually that hard, it just sucks doing it in the sand. It gets everywhere and we aren't allowed to wipe it off. We do it every morning about 5am, eat chow around 7:30, then do whatever training is planned for the day.
October 8, 2011
Good news! Today is officially our first day of White Phase! We had a company run this morning for a couple miles to make the transition as a motivational type of thing. It's a big run in formation where we sing cadences the whole time. I love doing cadence, so I thought it was fun. It's a pretty slow pace since it's the entire company which is 220 soldiers. ...
I'm not exactly sure what will change in White Phase except the DS backing off a little bit. I hope we get some other privileges but these will only depend on people not screwing up. I think we'll be able to walk to church with our battle buddies instead of getting marched by the DS. Stuff like that seems dumb, but it means a lot when your used to having everything you do controlled.
October 10, 2011
The week is BRM week which means shooting all week. Unfortunately, only 2 platoons from our company can go to the range at once so 1st and 2nd went today and us and 4th wont go until tomorrow. ...
I didn't do much today except clean my weapon and clean it some more. I spent a little time practicing my shooting techniques, but you can only do that for so long. I think we have to qualify either this week or next. There are 3 levels you can qualify at; marksman, sharpshooter, and expert. I'm more concerned with qualifying at this point than hitting a certain level, but hopefully I'm decent enough where I can start thinking about sharpshooter or expert.
Until next time, Lynette
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