I don’t even remember what day it is – does that tell you something? We got in from land navigation at 2 am, and I will be functioning off of 3 hours of sleep today. Fortunately it is one of the lanes I have down pretty good.

Yesterday on land navigation was tough for our platoon. We started out with 30 individuals, after the daytime portion 11 had been eliminated. 3 appealed and were successful and were able to stay in. We started night land navigation with 22. 5 were eliminated. 2 made appeals, and we don’t know how that will go. At this point our platoon has been cut in half to 17.

The points were still tough; the difference was the familiarity with the course at this point. I had gotten done with my daytime points after about an hour. During that time I was walking areas that I wasn’t familiar with to find points and increase my knowledge with the terrain. Even after I found my points I continued walking new areas for another 45 minutes.

At night I had one point I had already had a different night, and the other 2 intermediate points I had found earlier in the day.

In another hour we will take off for our next lane – evac and radio.

One of the platoon members SPC Naboa presenting me with a special gift – denture adhesive. Not sure if that was because I’m a dentist or because of my age. At 35 I am one of the oldest competitors. I am also the only major here. There are a few captains and lieutenants. The only person that outranks me is the test board chairman. That doesn’t really mean anything; I just thought there would be more officers here.