Week two is complete!  As you know Monday was a holiday so no Army Training.  I figured the Army would train everyday but the Cadre is made up of civilians who are retired Army and they had the day off.  Good for us.  Tuesday began 0400 and off to Ft. Sam we went.  We arived and drew our wepons from the armory at 0530 and marched to the on post field training area and were taught to assemble and dissassemble our M16.  Pretty easy stuff.  MRE (meal ready to eat is the army's prepackaged food that has a nonrefrigerated shelf life of 8 years) for breakfast and then marched to the indoor firing simulator to familiarize ourselves with sighting the weapon.  After a lengthy hurry up and wait we drew our duffle bags and were assigned to the long course and I was added to 3rd platoon.  We then bussed out to the FOB (forward operating base) to be assigned to our tents.  The fob is at Camp Bullis about 35 min. from Ft Sam Houston.  It is set up with 30 man tents, vehicles and training material.  We ate another round of MRE's and got to bed (cots) by 2300.

Its important to know that the M16 is your best friend while deployed so we too were expected to have it with us at all times at the ready.  That includes the 0200 bathroom run.

Wednesday began at 0330 with formation, breakfast and drive out to the sighting range.  I was placed on ammunition detail with 20 others so we spent the week handing out ammunition at the range and refilling the empty magazines.  50,000 rounds.  For the 350  that were not on ammo detail there was a lot of "hurry up and wait" to be had.  We all sucessfuly sighted our weapons and headed back to the FOB at which time we were told we were not allowed to return to our tents but rather had to undergo a random urine test...on all 350 of us.  5 hours later we were done...sucked.

Thursday began at 0330 with formation, breakfast and drive to the firing range.  I spent all day on ammo detail and then had a familiarization fire on the range in preparation for Friday's qualification.  We headed back to camp after and had an early night.  in bed by 2200.

Friday was qualification day and the ammo detail was allowed to fire off the remaining ammo which gave us each an extra 80 rounds to fire.  Cool Sh**.  The qualification was with the M16 at 50-300 meters 20 rounds in the supported prone position, 10 rounds in the unsupported prone position and 10 rounds in the kneeling position.  23 hits were required to qualify.  I hit 29.  Not as good as I would have liked but it was windy as crap and the 250 300 meter targets were awful small for an old fart like me to hit. Texas in the winter is hard to plan for.  It was 80 degrees on Thursday with no wind and on Friday it was 45 degrees with 40 mph winds.  Very few people hit over 30.  While on the firing range we had instruction in litter cary, land navigation and intro to the M9 pistol which we will qualify with Monday.  We then headed back to the FOB, patrolled our area and bussed back to the hotel for a long and much needed shower.  Did I mention we only had one shower on Wed. 

Sat. was a sleep in day.  didn't have to get up until 0615.  Spent the day in classis at Ft. Sam and Had the rest of the day to do laundry and relax.  Duffle is packed and ready to head back to the FOB at 0400 in the AM.  PT test on tuesday and the gas chamber on Wed.  Can't wait