Wednesday 5/29- Juicing Day 4

Alright. Good news, and bad news. we'll start off with the bad news. Rough day, maybe it wasnt and im just being a "loser" lol. But i woke up like 5 times again last night. I woke up at midnight, and it felt like i was fully rested, but i was pumped i still had a lot more sleep ahead of me. I lay on a already made bed, and just have a blanket as a well- blanket. not very heavy or warm. So i sleep with toms sweatshirt now XD. Anywayyy, woke up at like 530, caught the bus by 6. Got over to my work at 615, needed to be there for 630. Meow this was my first real day of actually being on the job. So we started right off with pre-ops flight check. Just getting everything ready for the day, mostly the jets. Got my cranial (helmet) assigned to me. Its actually pretty cool, attatched is some earphones/muffs, cuz these jets are loud. So basically we just launched jets, and received jets. We added more oil to them if they needed it, bleeded the hydraulic fluid if it needed to be, and we even washed a jet. We were basically a car shop, but for a jet. Whatever was wrong with it, we got it up and running. All my shipmates were teaching me new things every second of the day. little overwhelming, but it was nice to start learning stuff. Then evetually they just handed me something, and expected me to do it. And i did it just fine! thank you. So it was a good learning experience.

So after launching a couple of jets, and taking some back in, we all went to lunch real quick because we had some more jets returning to us. I got a salad with tuna on it, and a little cottage cheese with some water. mmmm so good. Drank one of my juices when i got back, im doing pretty well. Oh yeah, had my other juice for breakfast. tasted 10x better than yesterday. Maybe my stomachs shrinking, but im not at all as hungry as i used to be.
After lunch, we returned some jets, and got them ready to fly out. We had another jet that we were in the middle of washing when the guy who was in charge thought it would be nice for me to get qualified on duct diving. Its when you dive into the air intake duct, and spin the rotors. its like a closed in slide from mcdonalds- like 12 feet long. So i go in there, when i reach the end i realize it was a mistake, because we were washing this jet. They had a hose. So they sprayed me pretty good lol. I just accepted it, cuz it felt good cuz it was so hott out all day, it kind of refreshed me :). Then it was time to go home. mmm. I got home and thought about just taking a nap, but i had to much work to do! Had to juice a little for tomorrow morning, and for the next afternoon too. Did that, then i was really debating between a bath, or the gym. I struggled with this debate quite a while when i decided to go to the gym. Went to the gym, ran a 6:50 mile, personal best mind you. It was a pretty good run, did some sit ups, and then i decided to hit up the sauna. Came out of the sauna and weighed myself. Dont mean to brag but i was down 6 pounds. Boy was i super excited to see that, kinda made everything worth it so far. So i guess ill keep on truckin'. So i just took a shower and meow im back here blogging. Tryna hurry through it cuz i started watching the office, and boy do i love it. Jims about to go on a trip to australia during pams wedding. ahhhh whats gonna happen!?!?!
Some side notes though: If i ever do read this in like 4 and a half years, my mind really wants to get out and explore, without being under a government contract. AKA hike the appalachian trail, cuz bever is making it seem like a lot of fun. Sounds like such and adventure!! But hey, thats way to far away to start considering. Seems fun though. Also- other thoughts- bungee jumping in the near future. need to do it. theres a place down in san diego area. Once i get muh jeep, ill visit briski, and bresnahan. mmm good things to come.

Tuesday 5/28- Juicing, Day 3

What a day it has been!! I woke up this morning, after waking up like 5 times during the night. I went to the fridge and drank my juice made up of a bunch of green vegetables. It was awful, absolutely awful. i had to chase it with water, lots of water. caught the bus at 7 am, and was off to work!! I got there and expected a long day of doing nothing, but i took matters into my own hand. I asked them if they needed anymore information from me at all, they didnt really give me a direct answer, so i went down to my shop area, where i will be part of the "line shack." this is to get us adjusted to the jets and how they work, etc. I didnt quite start any jobs today but i watched them refuel jets, and switch pilots out of the jets, which is a lot harder than it seems. It was actually a pretty cool site to see. I was on the runway, and saw the jets take off right in front of me.

So it was getting around lunch time, and i had brought a bottle of my green juice. Wasnt looking forward to it, but i knew i had to stick to the plan. Then i got put on a list of people going to lunch, and they offered to drive me to the dining hall. I was like, alright ill go and have a water or some veges that they have there. We get there, and the food is so tempting. I end up getting a slab of fish and some corn. i know i may have strayed from the path a little bit, but i feel as if it was a really good choice, and i got to bond with some team players. After we got back from lunch there wasnt really much left to do, so i just hung out and chugged my juice that i had. We got out at 2pm today because we have command PT at 3. I asked a person from lunch from a ride home, and they gladly gave it to me.

Got my PT gear on and headed to the gym. Had myself a great workout, and even better sauna, lol marc. I dno what it has been but the past 2 days i have not had any allergy attacks, and i have been sweating like 10x more when i have been working out. I was dripping sweat the whole time at the gym, it was awesome. Probs google "sweating more when fasting" or something like that. Anyway it was a good day today, and my uniform did fit a lot better than it has been lately, i feel like this is too good to be true.

But for dinner, im not gonna lie, i went out and bought a yogurt with those little crunchy things in it. That was probably the most deliscious thing i have ever tasted. It was so flippin good. Call it cheating, call it whatever, it was amazing. While i was there i bought a ton of strawberries, blueberries, apples and oranges. Came home and made some mixtures for tomorrows breakfast and lunch. Its gonna be a really good day. Im excited.

Monday 5/27- Juicing, Day 2

Happy Memorial Day!! I made it to day 2 alright. It's now monday night, it was a pretty easy day. This juicing kinda does make you full after have a cup of it, so its nice. I also have water whenever i can too, cuz ive been seeming to be a little dehydrated too. Went to the gym today as well. I did a crap ton of cardio today, it went really well, dont think its from the juicing just yet, dno if you can see results this quick energy wise, but hey whatever. So that was nice, then we had a fire drill today. Alarm accidentally went off, so we all met outside.

It's funny, cuz most of the time you think youre the only one in the building. But i counted 60 people that came outside. That is a crap ton of people! I was like holy smokes, all these people are just cooped up in their rooms too? It didnt make me feel as bad for not doing anything anymore. Didnt know it was this dead here, i really didnt. Hopefully a vehicle will change that though. 

So monday night, made some juice for tomorrows breakfast, and lunch so i can bring to work lol. I already had a little bit of it tonight, oh mother nature. I just have to laugh and think ive been able to eat whatever i wanted for the past 22 years, i should be able to take 30 days off. Its only 30 friggen days, i have to stay strong. But tomorrow should be interesting. I'm probably going to be one pissed off person, just calling it out meow, in case my blog is just a bunch of hatred towards the world lol. I just have to sit in ADMIN, get some more signatures, then i should be able to start working on the aircrafts soon. Im excited, gets my outta this dang room, and interacting with human beings lol. But lunch tomorrow, im already having nightmares about it. ughh. But itll be day 3 by then, the guy in the movie said day 3 was a turning point anyway. We'll see.

Im about to watch TREMORS, and probs head to bed. wish me luck!!

Sunday 5/26 - Juicing, Day 1

I think that blogging about my experience will make it better, than if i was just writing something down on a piece of paper. If some people still decide to read this blog, then i have them to let down, meaning i cant quit. And if i do quit i have to write about it on here, which wont feel good at alls, and ill let myself down and my readers.
So i bought a juicer, pretty expensive by the way. Went food shopping, was really excited to start this adventure off on the right foot. I figured why not get into the best shape of my life before beach season comes AND i get my jeep over here on base. It should be about 30 days, which will be perfecttt. Once i get my jeep here i plan on leaving and traveling a lot on weekends, so why not do this challenge when i have nothing else better to do?!!?!? right?!?!!?
So i started the juicer up, and was feeling good about my journey. The guy was extremely overweight, and lost a crap ton of weight in like 10 days, and even lost a crap ton more in 30, and then 60. So i thought to myself, if he was way over weight, what could it do to a person like me? I'm shooting for like 30-40 pounds. High standards, but i think i can do it.
Back to the juicing. I put an apple in, put and orange in, just start juicing a bunch of fruits and vegetables. Pour myself a glass and drink it. That stuff was pretty good. It was until i started mixing a lot of the stuff together that it tasted like mother nature. It truly did.

Just wanted to try things out, but i may just stick with apples, oranges, strawberries, and blueberries. that stuff is sooooo good. The only pain about this is cleaning up after. They never show him doing it in the movie, ughhh tv magic. but im getting a lot better at it. 

I also went to the gym today, got a really good workout going, but the first day was pretty easy, maybe cuz i was going in to this head strong, and i was ready for it, besides it was only day one.

backstory- i was eating a lot of junk food like candy, and drinking at least one or two monsters a day, and i thought to myself that i couldnt be doing this anymore. I poured out alls my monsters i had left, and am starting a new. By the time 30 days is up, this juice should have reprogrammed my body into wanting more fruits and vegetables naturally. should.

Memorial Day Weekend

So! Being stuck on base, in the middle of the desert, is not as fun as it seems lol. We had friday off as well, so it seems like forever since ive actually done anything productive. Friday night a couple of the guys and I went out in Fresno for some dinner at Applesbees. mmm got half off apps, so i got 20 wings. mmm. Then we ended up going to a club. Met a couple of girls and had a pretty good time. Got home around like 1am. I was exhausted, and i had to get up at 8am, which wasnt that baddd.
Got up that morning for like 10 minutes, then went back to bed until like 2 pm. lol. Did not expect to sleep that long. I was suppose to go to the gym but i didnt feel like getting out of bed. So i subscribed to netflix. Probably my best decision ever since i got here. Ended up watching some documentaries called "Fat, sick, and nearly dead." There were a bunch of documentaries on stuff like that and the obesity epidemic in America. It got me thinking, and sometimes, i think too much.

There was another documentary on how food meowa days is made out of turrible turrible stuff, that gets us addicted to it and wanting more. They put one ingrediant into the food, and it makes us coming back for more of the bad stuff. And all the manufacturers also lie to us when they tell us like 99% fat free, when everything is cocnverted into fat when it enters our body. We are also intaking a lot more sugar than we ever have, and it is in everything that we eat, always coming back from more, even when we are not hungry. Our bodies were used to eating only when we caught stuff so we could eat, and it would store fat when it had it because it would need that later on in case we couldnt catch any food. Meow our bodies are just storing food for a famine that will never come. So we become addicted to this fried food, and barely get enough fruits and vegetables in our diet. They told us that the food pyramid was wrong, and that fruits and veges should be the first thing on there, with fried foods barely on there, if at all. People are running a business out there, and how do they get consumers to come back? They put drugs in the food that make us crave more and more. Great business strategy huh? Related to cigarettes, in a sense that the more nicotine you have, the more you want. People claim they love smoking cigarettes, and they are happy smoking cigarettes, just like food. People actually like being fat, they are comfortable that way.

Well this guy decided to get to the root of the problem and get rid of all foods that came produced or manufactured, etc. He went straight to nature, and got apples, oranges, celery, tomatoes, etc. And he put all of these neccessary nutrients into a juicer, and made a juice out of them. He replaced every meal with juice for 60 days. He had a tough first couple days to a week. But after he was getting used to it, he had more energy, losing drastic amounts of weight, and not breaking out in the hives (disease he had). His system was "rebooting." By rebooting his system, and shocking it with just pure nutrients from fruits and vegetables, it gave his system the oppertunity to clean itself out and get rid of all the stuff he didnt need. By eating like crap his whole life,  he is paying for it now, and to think that his body is just eating off the burgers he has already had in the past, and it is just stored fat. Fruits and vegetables have all the nutrients that we need to live off of. how do you think we got to were we are meow?

So i decided to experiment with myself:

VFA-2 Squadron- Indoc

Another round of indoc to go. This should be fun. I was told to be at the hangar at 0700. This was monday morning. I was like alright, i can do this, ive woken up at worst times. Finally beginning to adjust to the new time, i know its only been like 3 days, but it was a lot better. Had to learn the bus schedule, cuz i dont have my vehicle down here, and there is a bus stop 2 seconds away from my barracks lol. So i got on the 625 bus i think it was? Which got me to my hangar at 645 which was fine by me. Better to be early on your first day, than late.

I get there and am told that no one is going to be in the Administration office until 0800. I was like shoot!! But then they told me to go hand in the shop with a bunch of my coworkers. So I was started to meet some people. They were a pretty cool group of people, talking about sea stories, and all the times at bootcamp, since i was just coming from there. We talked for like an hour and a half before i was sent upstairs. Thus i was already late for indoc, which i didnt mind, cuz people knew were i was, thats all that mattered. I went into the room and it was death by powerpoint for the next like 6 hours of my life.

Seems like thats alls the navy uses these days. Powerpoint everywhere you go. Seriously the hardest job i had this week was staying awak during class. You find yourself unconcious at times, and you just have to stand up to keep yourself awake. That or drink monster energy. I love that drink, maybe im addicted to caffeine, though. Anyway the navy spends a crap ton of money on drinking programs, and drug programs to help people out. Its amazing how many programs we go through learning about these programs. We have something every month- heck every end of the week, telling us to be responsible drinking. Yet people still go out and get DUI's and alcohol related incidents. This ruins it for everyone else because meow we have to go through these programs, which just repeat themselves for like 8 hours a day. Whatever, a kid in my class kept nodding off and got asked to stand up, at least i didnt get asked, i just did it on my own. But that must suck. Youre up there teaching through powerpoints, and everyone in the audience is falling asleep? theres something wrong with that. Oh well, i made it through 3 more days of that. brought an energy drink erryday, and looked forward to having it everyday <3

Lol. Next on my list of things to do was get a bunch of signatures from people who tell me different things about the squadron. VFA-2 by the way just means these jets are fighter/attacker jets. So i was meeting alot of people of higher levels. Met all the kids that i would be working with for my first job, which would be line shaq- just maintaining and upkeeping the aircraft. Got a lot of my signatures done today actually. Debated on getting my duty section signature done today, in fear of having to work this weekend- which ended up true. he assigned me to duty section 3 which has work this weekend. Work meaning we have to muster in the lounge at 0800 friday, saturday and sunday. thats it, unless you have watch. and i dont have watch this weekend. Easy weekend. I cant go further than 30 minutes off base, but i mean, i still got a lot of freedom. Probs go to the gym a lot- maybs some double sessions?!!? i dno. Signed up for a triathlon for next weekend for some reason lol. swim 400m, ride a bike 6 miles, and run 1.5 miles. Its all indoors, too. And im really working on getting in shape, so i signed up for saturday at 10am. there was like a list of 5 girls on it before me, i was the only guy so far- pshh so what. trying to meet people, remember :).

Anyway, i also had to go to medical. there they did a vision and hearing test- which is unbelievably hard. i passed though, somehow. they also did the color/number test- immediatly thought of you marc!! Then they had to give me a hepatitus A shot, i hate shots. But it wasnt that bad.

Everything isnt as bad as it seems at all here. Ive been noticing that alot. I called my parents up and told them i got assigned this weekend as duty weekend, they were bummed out for me, but then i told them i only had to meet once at 8am everyday, they seemed very relieved. I guess i should too. Life aint so bad, it never is. Just gotta have some bad days to enjoy the good days, i guess. and the good days are coming, coming quick. "The path to Heaven runs through miles of clouded hell."

So our squadron has friday off, budget cuts i guess. 4 day weekend. Hooyah.

Lemoore, CA- First Reactions

At this point im already appauled at all this freedom i had, i immediatly went out and bought a 12 pack of natti light. mmm so good. If anyone ever decides they want to join the navy, tell them that they will walk a lot, like a lot a lot. Everywhere i have been i have walked for such long periods of time to get to my destinations. I dont mind it really, enjoy the view as i go along- but when my work center ( a hangar) is 6 miles away, it would be nice to have a car.

So friday night hits, and i throw all my stuff down, make my bed, and pass outtttt. like cold. for a good 3 hours. it was amazing. Not even close to being used to the 3 hour time change between NH and here. I thought it was gonna be rough, but naps always make everything better. So i take a 15 minute walk over to the shopping centers where there is a panda express- chinese food. mmm. Got some chinese food too, and a mountain dew. of course. It was a very good meal. Then went back to my barracks, and unpacked all my shtuff.
I still had no agenda whatsoever, so i was just hanging out. Had a nice 3 day weekend, to relax and get my bearings. Saturday and Sunday I just explored all over the base, found the gym, which is like 4 times bigger as the one in florida. It has a cardio center, 2 sets of dumbbells, machines, bball courts, locker rooms, sauna,  steam room, and an indoor and outdoor pool. It was amazing. I think the facilities are so nice here because were in the middle of the desert. I started getting back in to the swing of things, and started gyming everyday. Its just so weird, cuz you walk around everywhere on base, and its literally like a ghost town. no one is ever out, youll see like 1 or 2 people walking too, but thats it. So weird.
Thats when it started to hit me. I better get used to this place, cuz ill be here the rest of my time, unless we get deployed for a couple months at a time. I started to get a feeling of lonliness, and of course questioning what i was doing in the navy. These feelings come over me all the time whenever i start somewhere new. Stranger in a strange world. Thats when i started blogging, so i can look back on this and remember that it really wasnt so bad. Pensacola- had the same feelings like the first week or so. but then you start making friends, everyone has the same things in common, same age, etc. The beginning is always rough, it has my whole life, you just want to retreat and forget everything. But this is the point in which you grow and learn a lot about yourself. It always gets easier. Heck, i even went down to the nearest gas station and bought an arnold palmer one day just to get some interaction with a human being. I knew NO ONE here, it drives you crazy, and you cant always keep your mind off that stuff.

West Coast lovin'

After my brief, but amazing time in londonderry, i had to ship off to lemoore, california for my final stay. Papa bear drove me to boston and dropped me off. Everything flowed smoothly, talked to a couple people on the way there. It was like a 6 hour flight to LA, and sometimes i get a little anxious thinking about that stuff, but i just ended up sleeping the whole way there. From LA- which seemed scary, we walked on the runway to a small, small jet to bring us to fresno. Sat next to a pilot, and we chatted about a lot of things, it was nice.

Lots of people ask where it is exactly. I just learned this too, right smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Straight up desert- but the good thing is that 2 hours in every direction you got like beach, skiing, forests, and LA. So ill be making some trips around cali when i get my jeep out here.

But yeah, from fresno i got alls my shtuff and grabbed a taxi outta there. It was a friday, and the whole command had it off for some reason, so there was limited people on duty. I got to the front gate and had to call someone from the inside to come get me, in which they did. I checked in, but it wasnt a full check in. Only got my room assignment which is amazing. Only one roommate, desk, dresser, WALK IN closet, and a full bath... tehe. Oh yeah, we got to control the air conditioning that was coming into our room too, which is awesome.

Cuz it fluctuates between like 70 and 100 here everyday... But once I got here, i learned all the rules from my roommate Arce. It was jaw dropping to learn what we could do. It was more or less what we cant do, which is like nothing. We can have beer in our room, only one room inspection a week, and only one command PT a week too. These were most of the rules that changed since A school. We could come and go as we please, whenever we pleased, as long as we made it to work on time. It was amazing.

12 Days of Leave- L-town whaaaaaaaat

Home sweet home!!! I get off my flight after a nice long nap of course, and whose there to pick me up?!?! Christopher John Bowen!!! aww yayy!!

Oh man, i couldnt have been more happier. He decided to park really far away, so we had a long treck ahead of us, but boy was it good to be home. We were headed up to UNH for the night, to birdpoo for the night. I change out of my whites and we zoom on up. I walked into a great gathering of all the people i would want to see in one night- minus dave garside of course. It was a huge pig pile, and i think jared even kissed me!! mmm. So we immediatly started smashing shots, and getting hammered, but i was really itching for a car bomb. We ended up going to libbys for a solid- what seemed to be 2 hours, but i think it was only like a half hour? I ordered 8 irish car bombs for everyone (obvs cuz im rich). Then we grabbed some beer and went to the dance floor. That was probably the most fun i had dancing, ever. We were just shaking our beer bottles and spraying it alls over the place. Oh what a night. Then i went in to mama macs with marc, made some mac and cheese, then ate it with our bare hands. I later passed out in andys bed :).

Went home the next day and hung out at toms for some grillin like men do, with extra cheese this time, gross. And thomas cracked my back, it had been a long time :/. 

That week we had a couple get togethers, and i just wanted to swing by peoples places to say hello. I also had what they call RAP duty which is recruiter assistant program, i go in every morning and help them out by like shredding paper, or what not. Even went on a couple school visits which was nice. Saw a lot of old teachers there too! wow.

Wednesday was survivor night at marcs. mmm. Mrs. Robitaille made her deliscious chocolate chip infused brownies, and of course buff chic dip. Holy smokes it was really really good.

Friday came around and i got out of work early so i decided to work on the fire pit out back because i was having a little cook out saturday, and i wanted everything to be nice. I cleaned that up and got a ton of american supplies for the party- and also 2 kegs. mmm.

Saturday came and what a great group of people to show up! dave garside was there! thats alls that really mattered, but anyway, the rain held off, and people ended up getting really really drunk. By the time it reached like 2 am, i was ready to hit the hay, but the party still continued. But before this, some chick came over from some other party slurring her words and alls, and i had to kick her out:/ did not want to be responsible for her.

That pretty much somes up how happy i was. Orzo salad. nothing gets better than that. Shout out to Mary Mack on that one!

The next day was wonderful Mothers day, which i had a fantastic one, as so did my mother. We literally hung around at home and did nothing alls day. She wanted Jay House for dinner, which i was in total agreeance with. mmm. Then we watched the bruins over toms house for a final goodbye to him.

Right when i got home i turned on survivor. I would say i enjoyed this season very much. Happy that Cochran won it alls.

This next week was the last week i was home for. Very lazy- cuz everyone was at work so i just HAD to lay on cloud alls day and watch price is right. maybe get some dunks, a calzone. whatever i wanted. ended up gaining 7 pounds on my whole trip home by the way ;) hawttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

On Wednesday, i promised marcs little kids that i would go in and see them, and talk to them about the navy. They sent me a crap ton of pictures at bootcamp, and i enjoyed them very much, so i had to say thank you. I bought them a lil model jet and let the class keep it. Boy were they full of energy! i coulda been there alls day just answering their questions. Luckily Mr. R. stopped them and they had to go to PE :)

Yeah i know it was from snapchat. boohoo. Love the kids. That thursday night, we did wing night at the 99, which was probably the best decision of my life. Got 20 hot buffalo, with blue chee of course. And a crap ton of beer. It was awesome, made a couple of friends, and did terrible on trivia, and bingo. So it was an overall great night to go out. Sad night, but a good night.

Went to bed in cloud for the last time that night, and set my alarm for a shocking 430am. It was on to CALIIIIIIII!!!!!!

14 Days of Leave- South Carolina

I get dropped off at the airport, and have never been more excited. I breezed through security, and parked my buttox on a chair near my gate and just listened to music in peace with a smile on. Now for some strange reason, I had to take a flight to North Carolina, then a flight back down to South Carolina. Meow when they start the boarding process they always announce like families with kids under 2 years old, and all uniformed military personnel. Boy did that feel good. All the people in first class had to part like the red sea for me to get through. You know what its like when all the people in first class gather around the entrance to try to be the first ones on. Its annoying, and they have no disregard for anyone.

So it felt extremely good to push on past them, one of the ladies who worked there even yelled at them to get out of my way, it was awesome. So i got up to the ticket counter, and she saw that i was sitting in a middle seat, and she immediatly said she wasnt having that, so she switched it to an aisle seat. Percs of flying in uniform :). Always a great conversation starter too ;).
I landed in South Carolina around 10pm I believe it was, and my mother and father were there to pick me up! It was so nice!! We had like a 45 minute ride home, which was nice. We get to my brothers house, which is in a very nice neighborhood. We walk in and are immediatly greeted by a horse and a small rat.

These two are a ball of fun to play with!!! Seems like they are always having a good time. We said hello to big bro, and Christie, and hung around and just talked for a little. Wasnt long before i was ready to hit the hay cuz i had a long day of traveling.

Woke up the next morning ready to go, had some dunkin donuts, mmmm. And then it was time to start on some yard work!! I planted some plants in the backyard and raked a little. I thought i did a great job.

After a bit more yard work, we went to buffalo wild wings. boy are those wings good. went during happy hour and ended up getting some great deals, it was awesome. We went home, and it was time for bed once again. Woke up the next morning, and got some more dunks lol. I love my dunks. We then went to a grand opening of a hunting store. Got some free BBQ, which was wicked good. We even got to shoot a bow and arrow. I ended up hitting the target, but got a bloody lip, my dad lost his arrow, and my brothers friend got the wall. It was harder than it seemed.

By the time we got done with that, it was time for mother and i to go to the airport, and head into boston!!!! yayyy!!!

A School- Strand/ Graduation

Our last week was focused on what types of aircraft (Helo, Prop, Jet) we would be working on. I was working on jets, so i got a 2 day class on info particularly pertaining to jets. wow that was tough to write. We cruised through that, no more study musters, we were on top of the world. One last test for everyone that didnt count, i got another 97 for record ;). But during this time our whole school house was going to $h!t. People were showing up late, junior classes were failing, people were leaving trash everywhere, we werent loud enough when we marched. everything was hitting the fan during our last week. All up until the day before graduation they did a random inspection. They checked everyones pockets for cell phones. Whaddya know? my class had 3 cell phones, the only 3 in the entire school house mind you. So they got in a lil bit of trouble for that but nothing major. We also found out when our flights were gonna be outta here. Mine was on May 2nd hours after graduation. I was pumped.
Graduation day came, and we spent like 2 hours doing practice grad. Finally it came time for the real thing, and it took like 30 minutes, and we got the heck outta there. Not without one last picture with the honor graduate!!

I ran back to my room packed up the rest of my stuff and threw out a lot of stuff, and then checked out. My buddy Graham offered to drive me to the airport, so it was very conveniant. Except for the fact that his truck was lifted, and i leaned up against it, and got huge tire marks on my dress whites. Guess thats why they give you two pairs! lol

A School- Core 2

After core 1, i was feelin pretty hawttttttt. def went out that night and got pretty drunk, cuz ya know, i deserved to after a lot of studying, i wanted to enjoy myself.

So me and a couple of the guys went out and got a couple irish car bombs. great night. Next day though, it was back to the grind. The instructors were claiming that the core 2 test was harder than core 1, which i took to heart, cuz i take everything to heart. Had me worrying again. But i literally finished all the homework for core 2 the week before cuz we bs'd in class for about 4 hours a day out of the 7 hour work day, so there was nothing to do but get ahead. So i went ahead, and then we went over the stuff that week, which made sense to me, cuz i already went over it. I ended up just making flashcards in class to help me study, cuz i wasnt getting anything from the class- and lets face it, its 8th grade material. I  was a little bit more lenient on the study musters that week, cuz i cant make people study. They know i know the material, so you would be stupid not to come to the study musters so i could help you out if you were having trouble. a lot of people failed the first test too, so why not try to do better? I can only open the door, i cant lead people through. So we studied that week a little bit and took the test on Monday again. Our instructors told us to ask questions during the exam if we had any. i had 5 questions to ask, but i only asked 4 cuz i felt like 5 was way to much. I ended up getting 1 wrong and scoring a 97. I was second highest in the class. As long as i didnt screw up the final week, i had the advancement secured. I was pumped. Once again, it was party time.

They told us that "work hard, play hard" was the motto in the navy, so i did just that. I played hard, and boy was it a great night. This week was our strand, and lab, so we didnt have to do much of anything.

A School- Core 1/ Parents Weekend

So it came to our time in the learning experience where these tests actually mattered. The average of these two tests would put us in the running of getting an accelerated advancement, so i was ready to study my butt off. The only problem is our test was on a monday, and my parents were coming this weekend. They got the sweetest hotel on the beach, and im not gonna not get away from my barracks for a whole weekend. So, friday came, and i wasnt about to have a study muster, cuz i felt as if i didnt have to hold my classmates hands through this, if they wanted it bad enough they would study on their own. We got out at about noon time, and i wasnt having ANY study musters this weekend, cuz i wanted my own down time. My parents landed and were ready to come on base around 2ish. They didnt call liberty yet, so i had to go out in a uniform to greet them, and i couldnt even sign out of the barracks yet. So i showed them the base in my sweats. Boy was it nice to see them, another breath of fresh air. Granted i was gonna see them in like 2 weeks, i havent seen them in like 2 months. So i showed them around the base, and lucky for me, liberty was called during that time, meaning i could sign out with my dad and leave base. I brought them both on the quarterdeck- which is a very sacred place to the navy. She stopped every kid that she saw and gave them a hug saying "this is from your mother." I immediatly ran upstairs and grabbed my stuff as quickly as possible. I came down to find them in the lounge (thank GOD), and we left for the hotel.

The weather was crappy the first night, but the rest of the weekend was beautiful. We went and got some wings friday night, probably the best wings i had. This was on pensacola beach by the way. The hotel had a hot tub, and two pools, and you could drink on the beach. It was awesome. Saturday i brought some flashcards down to the pool, thought i would try and study. Boy did i look like a loser! Two pretty good looking chicks joined me, so i immediatly cover the flashcards up with my towel. They were talking about some marines they were meeting down there, but they were on restriction, so they could only wear the unifrom everywhere, they couldnt even go in the hot tub- losers. So i naturally sparked up a convo with them. I went and got some beer, and they got some liquor as well, and we had a good time.

Then my parents came down, and i got out and hung out with them, at which point my mother kept ordering margaritas, and ended up getting pretty shwasty off fancy dranks. It was their vacation, why not? Then we order pulled pork nachos, omg, so good. and we just kept drankin. Mother wanted to play catch, cuz apparently she got better when she was drunk, so i played catch in the pool with my mom, some nice bonding.

She kept throwing the ball way to far, and hit two guys that were together like 3 times in a row, they were getting a little fed up so we stopped. She then went on to somehow get like 2nd row in a wedding that was happening on the porch area. I have no idea how she stumbled upon that, but she got a pretty good seat. I went and took a good nap, and my parents went on a ferris wheel. When i woke up, i had some ice cream, and asked for a little help studying. So we all studied together, so it was nice. We woke up the next morning, visited my dad's sister which was like 5 minutes from base. Finally met them for the first time in my life by the way- great group of people, so nice. They sent me off with some delish choco chip cookies, and i returned to my base. We held a study muster that night for a little, and that was about it.

Took the test on Monday, and got a whopping 100. Anyone who got 100 got an AD coin from our teacher, which was nice. It was me and my buddy the warrent officer that got coins.

This coin really boosted my ego, and blew up my head. So if anyone ever had a problem with me, i would just whip out the coin, and they couldnt say anything. mmmm

A School- AWAT/ Corrosion

Our class 13-240, was the last class to go through a schooling known as AWAT. It's a brief, pointless overview of what to expect during the core lessions of studying. All the AD's about 6 classes full of about 15 navy/ 10 marines, all met up in the school house everyday. Every class had a class leader, and ours was appointed to Graham, who had some inside help ;) on getting the position. But that all came crumbling down when he failed the first AWAT test. So our teacher had to appoint a new class leader, thus i was minding my own business getting ahead on the homework in class, and i got chosen. I still had the mindset of never volunteering for anything, but i was volunTOLD, which happens all the time. So meow I was in charge of all this goofballs in organizing study musters, and keeping them in line and accounted for, thats alls it was really.

The first 2 tests didnt really count for anything at all, we were more or less worried about the Core 1 and Core 2 tests, which if we were the top 2 in the class, would get accelerated advancement to the next pay grade, which sounded good to meh. So i got all these guyss numbers^^ and tried organizing study musters for everyone, which people chose to come/ chose not to come. I was just there to see who really did come, and help anyone out in areas they needed help in. We reveiwed for tests like 3-4 times a week. Took a lot outta ya. It was getting hotter out as the summer months come upon us, thus making us have to do Physical training in the wee early mornings- like be ready to go by 430am. It was awful. i was going to bed at like 8 on a good night. ughh, but they werent hard at alls, we ran a couple miles and did some pushups. big whoop, about half the people struggled with it though. new navy.

A School- Phase 2+3/ Night Watch

I get a couple energy drinks, and i think im ready to go. I got a partner in crime that walks around with me, one does flashlight, one does radio. I did the radio, just for the heck of it. This other kid- carroll did this for like a week before me, so he showed me the ropes. We walked around aimlessly checking doors, making sure they were locked, and watched out for coyotes, etc. We had to report to the main quarterdeck every hour on the hour, so we made it so 2 laps around the entire building equals an hour total, so about 12 laps would mean our shift was over. That was harder than you think. By 3 am I was hallucinating ghosts, and just totally out of it. We got out at 5am, and i ran back to my room to pass out, until whenever i pleased. Or 10pm- my next watch. i usually would wake up around noon, go eat lunch, and then come back and go to bed. It was a great pattern, and my roommate and i would both do this. I soon became a master at my profession and pitied those on barracks support. I could walk around in the middle of the day in my civilian clothes, i was beginning to rush it, love it.
Phase 2 and 3 were coming up quickly already, thats how i was able to walk around in civilian clothes, it was simple enough, cuz i didnt do much of anything wrong. It was so nice just to wear shorts. mmm, shorts.
The night shifts were going along great, but some nights, i would just get so tired, and it would get like realllllly cold outside that we had to bring a lot of layers, i would shiver so incredibly bad praying for the morning to come.

After about a nice 2-3 weeks of working the night shift, I was about to get classes!!! The reason i was at A school! Finally!. It was normal for AD's to class up about a month and a half into being in pensacola. I was right on schedule!

A School- Phase 1/ Barracks Support

Oh phase 1, otherwise known as phase fun. No civilian attire, had to be in by 10pm every night, including weekends, had to take attendance at like 915pm every night too. That was the first 2 weeks. Phase 2 was the following 3 weeks, and phase 3 was the final phase which you stayed in. Phase 2 was civilian clothes allowed, and had to be back in by 1159pm on weekends, also you could drink alcohol, and drive a car. Phase 3 was all the above, except stay out over night on weekends.
So as the indoctrination week passed, the next stage of being at pensacola was barracks support. Ohhhh barracks support. Cleaning inside your building from 6am until 2 or 3 pm, with an hour for lunch, and 2 hours on MWF for physical training and showering.
We would meet like 6 times a day to take attendance, make sure everyone was there. To resemble life on a ship. Pshhh yeah right, so many lies. It was so annoying, cuz you clean the same stuff over and over again. We went up and down the hallways like 50 times with a push broom. I think i measured it out to be a half hour for push brooming the whole floor. You would constantly look at the clock, waiting for the next muster (attendance), cuz that would usually take a half hour or longer, which was awesome, cuz you didnt have to do anything. There were cameras everywhere so you couldnt slack off because "someones always watching you."

 So this job was already getting old, and I was looking for a way out, people always talked about having a night shift watch, which means you stood watch for like 6 hours at night time, and then you were secured all day. Sounded like heaven to me. One day my roommate and I were on watch together, and the night shift coordinator came into the building, so we stopped him. Just so  happened that like 4 night shift positions were open, we wouldnt let him go. Gave him our numbers and hoped he would contact us later that day.
Couple days pass and he gives us a call, I'm in the room and he comes up looking for us both. He offers outside roving watch 11pm- 5am, which i snatched immediatly, cuz i could be outside the whole time. I called my roommate and he got internal fire rover 11pm to like 4am, lucky. Just so happened that we needed to start that night, so we both already did barracks support that day, but we had to do the night shift that night if we wanted it. What a terrible night.

A School- Culture Shock

Stranger in a Strange world, seems to be a reoccurring theme here. I feel like its some disease, cuz i hate it but love it all at the same time.
I finally get my room assignment at 330am. I go to my room smelling terrible with all my stuff, and we wake up my roommate, probably not a very good first impression, but i was ready to pass out. I dropped all my stuff, apologized for smelling so bad and hit the hay- till 7am. We had orientation and a tour of the base then.
We put on our NSU's, and met down stairs for a tour of the base. We formed up and marched around the base. So much freedom already. Just having our own room- even sharing it with one other person was awesome. A bigger bed, my own closet, a shared bathroom between 5 people instead of 80. We walked around, saw the chow hall, the navy exchange (all you could ever need/want shop), school house, gym, and beach. This was amazing, cuz the weather was hott too. First thing i did was grab my buddy and went to the beach just to walk on it, and not have any worries. Then went back and took a nap. Another top 10 moment of greatest naps i have ever taken, which means a lot.

I talked to my roommate, played like 21 questions with him, but it was more like 100 questions, felt bad, but he was extremely helpful.... thanks bri :) He basically tells me everything here is chill, and a lot more freedom than bootcamp. Im already shocked beyond belief in that i can just lay in my bed (it was a sunday), and roll around all day if i wanted to.
This upcoming week would be indoc week, where we learn the basics of living here at pensacola. Thats what i thought, but it basically told us dont drink alcohol underage, and dont sexually harass people. So we went to that everyday, had a lunch break and then finished the classes up in the afternoon. It still wasnt a bad gig at all. We were also assigned duty sections- its an extra work day throughout the week that the navy has so people get put on watch, and clean up around the base/ their ship. We had 4 duty sections, and they would alternate everyday. My name was never put on the list for any duty section, but i still went to every single meeting for duty section 1. I told them to write my name down, but for like 3 months, my name was never on the roster sheet. I had no problem with it. And we also had to work 1 weekend a month while we were there, just so happen that the first weekend was my weekend, so i had to stay in and couldnt really do much, which was just fine by me. :)

Departure to 'A School' (Pensacola, FL)

Saturday morning a bunch of the guys have already emptied out the compartment. It was me and like 15 other guys turn to leave. We got up at the crack of dawn and brought our sea bags down to the bus. We arrive at the airport about 45 minutes later, waiting in line for further instructions cuz theres a ton of other airmen there. We got to the airport at about 7 am, and our flight wasnt till 5pm, so our group had a lotttt of waiting around to do. A couple minutes later, to my surprise my parents showed up!!! What a great day! They took a picture of a bunch of us together, and we hung out and just talked.

From here we went through security, which is a breezeeeeee might i add. They treat uniformed military personnel extremely well at airports. They let us go through the quick security check, and my parents were even allowed to come through too. They ship all our luggage for free, and we just had one carry on the whole time. Once through security we grabbed some food and just hung out with each other. It was just nice to be in their presence. We went to the other side of the airport and we all took a nap in some comfortable chairs for a long time. Round about 3 they decided to head out, and I met up with my shipmates to board the plane. We all boarded the plane and sang anchors away on lift off, everyone seemed to love that.

Had a layover in Atlanta which is a huge airport- about 10pm right meow. We get settled near our next gate and have about an hour to kill time. Get on our flight and head to Pensacola Florida.

We arrive at Pensacola and are immediately greeted by "happy times" bus company, a great start, and even more beautiful weather. We went from freezing temps to like low 70s, truly amazing.

We check in at like midnight, and head over to our new dorms around 1ish. We have a briefing from our Yeoman (secretaries of the navy), and that went on for like 2 hours. We just filled out some paperwork and asked him a bunch of questions. It seemed unreal what information we were receiving.

Boot Camp- Graduation

Friday comes, and its time to graduate! Finally were all thinking. We had two graduation ceremonies, one for the commanding officer, and one for our parents. The first one flew by, and we were all just excited to see our parents. It was a beautiful day, and we marched over to a huge building. We marched in formation, everything was going perfectly. We get inside the building, and nothing but tons and tons of people/ family members. We get to our section, and get situated- the kid next to me dropped his glove on the ground so i had to like shove it in my pants because everything had already been collected. We turn around and we immediatly start looking for our parents, even though we werent suppose to. There was a set of events that we went through, that everyone knew by heart at this point, so we were just running through the motions. Top row middle of the section i spotted my parents and brother. I dont think ive had a bigger smile than that. It was the best feeling in the entire world. They were doing a bunch of stuff to get my attention, and i couldnt get the smile off my face.

After about 30 minutes it seemed. Liberty call, liberty call. We were free to hang out with our parents. They came rushing down, a lil teary eyed, and we all just hugged. I told them i had to go back and get some stuff before i left for the day, so me and my buddy ran back, picked up our stuff and were off to see our parents. We took a taxi off base to a hotel, and my parents rented a car. Immediatly went out to lunch, which was wonderful, and stopped at dunks a little after that. Ended up going back to the hotel were we all just hung out and i took a bath, and then a nap. Everyone else took a nap too, so it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

When we woke, it was just about time to head back to base, they would see me the next day at the airport to give me my cell phone. Everyone came back with lots of treats, and smiles on their faces. It was a great day. Had to be at the airport at like 7am the next day, so we all packed our sea bags and slept for the last time in our compartment.

:)

Boot Camp- Last week!!

As the last week approached, things were just getting out of hand. We had a final fitness test that we had to pass, a final exam we had to pass, and battlestations we had to pass. It was getting pretty fun, but everyone was ready to get the heck out of there. We had such a crammed schedule that our last week we literally had no free time, like other divisions did. The fitness test, mostly everyone passed. I think there were like 10 kids that either didnt pass swim, or missed the mile and a half by like 7 seconds. Such a shame to see them miss it by 7 friggen seconds. Then we had an exam we had to take which people either studied for, or they didnt. 3 kids ended up failing that test, and they had to wait like another 3 weeks to graduate and take the test over again. The same day we passe the test, that night we went right into battle stations. That was a wednesday- battlestations started that night, and lasted till the morning hours, so we got no sleep. It was a pretty fun experience though, nothing i can talk about unfortunately :/. But by that morning we were all absolutely exhausted. We got breakfast, then we had to go straight into graduation practice- 3 hours of doing the same thing over and over again. We stood in formation for those 3 hours. From standing at attention, to standing at parade rest. This is when people started falling asleep. Its amazing, you close your eyes for like 2 seconds and you end up falling asleep for a pretty long time. The only way you wake up is if you catch yourself in time from hitting the floor. I fell forward like 3 times i think it was. Everyone was falling asleep, and was late on all the moves we had to make. It was pretty funny.

 After that hell, we got a pizza party, which was basially all you can eat, it was sooooo good. Then from there we went to make our final phone calls to tell our parents we made it. At about 7pm that night we were on our way back from the phone calls, and it was snowing heavily, perfect snowball making snow. The marching formation went from shortest to tallest so i was always in the back. Our Chief just wanted to get back so he was in the way front, far ahead of the first person in formation. It was dark out so us in the back just started making snowballs and throwing them at people up front, and they couldnt really do anything about it. Everyone was slipping and sliding around everywhere too, it was a bunch of fun. We got back to our compartment, and went to bed at 8pm for another great night sleep.

Boot Camp- Week 5

2nd to last week of being at boot camp, and we are all beginning to get excited and slack off, and not care about anything anymore. Our marching has gone to hell, everyone is beginning to turn on each other, and going for an "honor division" has flown out the window. People are still trying to pass the swim test, and people are starting to rat each other out. Everyone starts to make "lists" of people who talk when they are not suppose to, or talk when everyone is trying to go to bed, when in reality everyone talks during chow, and everyone talks all the time. I did talk every night with my friend, but we were like two racks away from each other. People need to cool their jets. So as everyone got on each others nerves, there were groups of friends already made, and some odd people out. Everyone was ready to graduate, and loved when other people got in trouble. Our Chiefs were getting fed up with us as well, and couldnt wait till graduation. It was the perfect time for the gas chamber.
We had been doing firefighting all week, and got to use a fire extinguisher, and control some hoses, but it was nothing to brag about. Just stuff to keep us busy this late in the game. Friday morning came the gas chamber, which everyone was getting excited for. I was nervous as hell, but was pumped to experience something like i had never experienced. We all grabbed some face masks, and canisters to filter the air, and went into a lecture hall to be taught how to don (put on our masks). When we put on the masks, you could already feel a burning sensation that was left over from previous use. By using my ship staff knowledge, me and my shipstaff buddies were told to sit in the back, that way we would be first to leave the gas chamber. Turns out that was right on spot! We all leave to go into a cemented gas chamber room with a hot plate, and a fan.

This picture is literally the same thing that our division looked like. My buddies and i started out on the red line, and i was right in front of the fan. The instructors sprinkled the tear gas onto the hot plate, and alls you felt was burning. Once they sprinkled a few tabs on, they says masks up, cups up (make a cup and put in near your mouth for puke/ spit/ etc). So the first row had their masks off, I immediately freaked out and wasnt able to breath and my eyes immediatly shut. We had to say our name and our division number. I only made it to my name, and they passed on down the line. Once they reached the last guy in the line, we were free to leave. cept the door was probably 100 pounds and very hard to open. Everyone was freaking out at this point- crying, puking, spitting. And their were like 10 sinks on the way out we could spit in. I didnt want spit all over me or in my hand so i kept it in, but i was still crying and trying to breath. After about 30 seconds the pain stopped, and we got to sit back down in the lecture hall. This was the fun part, we got to watch the remaining kids come in freaking out and throwing up on each other. Well worth going first. Never laughed so hard at my life, most kids had strands of spit hanging all over them. 

Boot Camp- Week 4

Week 4!! my favorite week of bootcamp! This was weapons training week. Considering the only time i ever fired a gun it was paintball, or a revolver with my dad, i was really exited. We had to go through like a 5 hour class on how to train with the weapon (fake ones) and get a lecture on it. You were advised not to fall asleep during this because you wouldnt be able to shoot the guns. My buddy bresnahan was thought to be falling asleep, but i know for a fact he wasnt, and he got kicked out, which sucked, chiefs were really upset with him over that.

So after all the classroom teaching we finally got to do some shooting simulation, we had what felt like the real guns, attached to like air pumps to reenact the kickback. It also felt like we were shooting lasers at a dart board, a lil lame but i felt i did pretty well. The shotgun wasnt as powerful as i thought either. Oh we shot a 9mm hand gun, and a shotgun. We had to practice shooting with our strong hand, and switch mid shot to our weak hand. We also shot from one knee, and just regular standing up.

The next day we went to a new building which included thick walls and lots of danger signs. They gave us ear plugs and ear muffs. We put a harness on that held the gun on our leg, which was pretty cool. Felt bad ass wearing it. There were some kids that still wanted practice, so they went and practiced. I just wanted to fire so i was one of the first people to shoot the 9mm. We got in the firing range, and had our guns, and 2 full magazines full of ammunition. We loaded the magazine, and stood in the ready position. The lights turned on, and we had 4 seconds to shoot like 4 rounds, then the lights would shut off. We shot at 3 yards, 5 yards, and 8 yards i believe. Its a lot farther away than it seems. 

The next couple of rounds we had to switch hands, this was the hard part. We had like 8 seconds to shoot 4 from our right hand, switch and 4 from our left hand. The only danger here was getting a Parana bite because you didnt move your hand all the way over to the other side. Within 2 seconds you hear some of the trainers yell "parana bite!!!" and some kid a couple slots down from me got a bite. Its when the slide assembly ejects the casing, and it bites between the thumb and pointer finger. They made it seem like it was worst than it was. After that we got to fire the shotgun. Cept we got 6 shots total. 3 from the hip, and 3 from the shoulder. The trainers held on to the gun while we held on to it, and we just pulled the trigger and loaded the shotgun. It was nothing special, kickback was a little intense, but they didnt let us get the full effect. new navy lol.

Needless to say, i ended up getting sharpshooter, which was pretty good, but not an expert.

Boot Camp- Week 3

Week 3 was pretty boring. Finish up some testing, which really didnt matter if you failed or not. Alls you had to do was pass the 3rd test and PRT, thats it. Cept they dont tell you that of course. We started doing some online classes, which were wicked boring. Had to put headphones on and then take a test at the end of it, in which every single person helped everyone else out with to help them pass.

During this week we also had basic seamanship, which was learning how to tie knots, and we went on a fake ship and learned how to untie from a port, hook up to a port, and man over board procedures, it was really nice. we ended up doing better than i thought.
By this time we were getting our like 2nd haircut. i know i forgot to mention our first haircut the 2nd day we got there, but these people were ruthless. We were in and out in like 5 seconds. had to tell them about my mole so they wouldnt rip it off. but they did terrible the second time around, they really dont care about you whatsoever.
Other things i forgot to talk about- Sundays were holiday routine, which meant we could do pretty much anything from 7am-1pm. it was meant for cleaning racks, ironing, showering, writing letters, shining boots, etc. People mostly just wrote letters and showered. You were not allowed to sleep or even lean against your bed. Thus people started sleeping in the bathroom, and taking hour long showers and falling asleep standing up. I didnt think it was possible to fall asleep standing up, but now i am a true believer in it, because it happened to me later on down the road.

Every night (cept weekends) we would get mail call at 730pm, which was the best time of the day. We would all look forward to getting mail from loved ones, and became ecstatic when we got one. There were so many letters that our mail PO (petty officer-shoemo!) would bring up to our compartment, so if you didnt receive any mail one day, you would def. receive some the next day. 

Boot Camp- Week 2

Coming in to week 2, everything was becoming a pattern. Waking up around 530am to get ready for our chiefs at 6am. They would barge in telling us to get the heck outta bed, and make our racks, and be dressed and ready to go. Then we would go to breakfast, literally the same thing every breakfast. I started to like yogurt a lot, and putting those little crunchy things on top. mmm so good. after breakfast we would normally pt in the compartment, which was stupid cuz we would sweat everywhere and then have to swab the deck with a mop.

Week 2 was also when i got my "ship staff" job. I tried to stay under the radar and not volunteer for anything, but they picked the kids who passed their PRT, and also passed their swim. Little did i know, these  guys (like 8 of us) would become my best buds at boot camp. We has ship staff everyday at 530pm i believe it was. and we would have to eat before that, so we all ate together. we were an elite group seperated from our original compartment. After we ate, we would do our daily duties of cleaning our "ship" aka our building that fit like 32 divisions in. My job was on the quarterdeck, but a bunch of us just went off and joked around with our kids from different divisions, and asked them what was going to happen in the up coming weeks. There were recruits from every week in bootcamp on ship staff, so we got most of the answers/ advice from these kids.

We also had "watch" which was basically the first line of defense for the "ship" which was stood for like 4 hours all throughout the 24 hour day. We could usually schedule our "watch" during important inspections and with fellow shipmates that we liked, so the time would pass fairly quickly. Some watches i would be in tears laughing so hard, which made it extremely fun.
Week 2 also consisted of getting a lot of our uniforms and stenciling them with our names. NSU's (Khaki top black bottom) NWU (Blue Camo's-sweet) Dress whites/blues. Each and every one of us had to get fitted, and it took 5 hours. Then we had to spend another like 2 days learning how to stencil our names on them, and fold them correctly.

Boot Camp- Week 1

Processing days were week 0. So after those horrid days we were FFD. or fit for full duty. Ive never seen our chiefs (3 people in charge of us) more happy. They got to physically train us, and IT us whenever they wanted. Except 30 minutes after we eat. new navy. They made us do a couple pushups every now and then, but it really wasnt bad at all, unless you couldnt do pushups. They told this one kid to do push ups, and he couldnt do like more than 10, so one of our chiefs asked him if he held out a donut in front of him would it motivate him to do pushups. The chief then went on to say that he hopes the kid never reproduces later on in life because they dont want more "weak" people in the world. That kid ended up dropping out later in the weeks to come.
Moving on to the swim qualifications. We marched over to the pool, and we all changed into our PT shorts. We then all got in line to walk up a ladder to jump 10 feet into a pool. Not that hard right? Then we had to swim around the perimeter of the pool. I actually enjoyed this part, except when you get out of the pool you are freezing your butt off. It was actually quite fun to watch people jumping in, cuz they just lost it when they surfaced, and were flailing around for their lives. lol. So a lot of people ended up failing the first time (you get like 26 times to retake the swim tests before graduating). Then we had to tread water for 5 minutes, pshhh. me and thomas treaded water at his home for like 30 minutes before, it just gets boring after a while. but it will "save your life." Next was the dead mans float for 5 minutes, same thing except your head head to be in the water, and you kinda just laid there, looking dead. Last but not least was the Coveralls float. You had to put coveralls on and put air in them, and then close it off to use it as a life jacket. simple enough. And thats how you got your third class swim qualification.

Next up was the PRT. like physical requirement training or something? Everyone had to do 60 pushups, 60 situps, and run the mile and a half in less than 13:30. Many people lied about their pushups and situps, but the mile and a half, they attatch a tracking device around you to make sure you did your mile and a half. I finished mine in like 11? A lot of people failed, but it was so much fun because it was one of our first times exercising in like 3 weeks, so it felt good.

This whole week we had to practice making our beds, and stripping our beds most of the day, cuz we had an inspection coming up (come to find out it didnt even matter). But we had to make our bed, and our bunks mates rack in accordance with RDC instruction in less than 12 minutes. My bunk mate and i had our rack perfect in 7 minutes, we were good, we were reeeeeeal good.

Everything had to be tucked in, blankets folded correctly, 45 angles on every corner, pillow squared away, sheet folded over like 8 inches away from the top, and towel hanging perfectly touching your numbers. Walk in the park.