It’s all over. The march sure was hard, but it’s over. 10kms there and 15 kms back with all our equipment, 2 night 3 day stay, eating 8 packs of MREs. We dug foxholes then played some war games. We attacked each other after setting up a 360 perimeter, but we were still too good for them. We stole their banner and magazines and such, but Schuster gave it back (everyone got pissed, including the drill sergeants when he did). We shot lots of blanks. Then, we had night infiltration course. It was alright, we had live rounds fired over us. The crawl kicked my ass though, and my elbows got torn, some people bled through BDUs. Then a 3km march back into our camp, a 0400 sleep till 0830. (The road march back took about 6 hours and 30 minutes, probably close to 11 miles or 12 miles of marching. I had an ingrown toenail on that march, which killed me. My lower back hurt, I limped the whole way, my feet felt like it was broken in every part, and my ruck sack and my weapon got heavier and heavier. I told my drill sergeant that I might not be able to make it, the toe killed me. But he told me flat out that if I don’t make this, I’m not graduating. For 6, 7 hours of the worst night of my life, I looked to God, my family, and my 10 weeks here for motivation to take my mind away. My toe went numb, but it still hurt. I tried to walk normally, but I hit a small rock, and almost fell behind. But I carried on, limping again in pain, in case I bump into something even bigger.)
Now, we’re just kicking back. The ceremony for Victory Forge was nice. Now, we’re cleaning our weapons, donating blood to Red Cross, cleaning everything they gave us, and making inventory of everything. We’re almost done with that too. I guess inspection’s the only real part that’s hard to get ready for. Family Day on 29th, we got lots of time to go around the post and relax, and graduation on 30th 0900 hours. I leave on the 31st, so I guess even more time, too, on the 30th for me to go watch a movie or something. 5 more days to go, 3 days of relaxation. I can’t wait to go back to my real home, not this ‘home away from home’ as they call it. I miss my family, freedom, food, damn I feel so limited around here. Well, so like I said before, this whole thing is over, and so are my letters, annoying, interesting or not. But to me, all that matters is that I get to go home now and see my family, eat some real food, and have phone privileges for more than 5 minutes every other week. Was it really 10 weeks? Already?
PVT KIM