Postmarked 06/29/09

I TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT MY FAMILY
'CAUSE IT'S A LITTLE TOO MUCH TO TAKE

Had a pretty bad day today. We lost drill instructor Sergeant Lozano and picked up drill instructor Sergeant Satterfield. This whole mixing DIs in and out of the platoon hurts us so bad. Sergeant Satterfield is a vicious but fair DI. However, his skills in teaching drill aren't anywhere near our former DI's. It hurts me to say this, but the little faith I had left in the platoon is gone. No one works together anymore. Everyone just fights and yells at each other. I've always been a more sensitive, "let's all get along" type of guy, but even I have been getting in recruit's faces lately. Our DIs, and so called "father figure", our senior DI, have been calling us a garbage platoon for two weeks straight now. Not to mention, I'm top 5 most disliked by my Senior because I receive so much mail. He doesn't like the fact that people care about and support me. Hmm, ok.

In other news, we've been eating sack nasties instead of in the chow hall lately. Sack nasties are small, brown bags consisting of a bologna sandwich, an apple, small bag of Ruffles, and a granola bar-pretty much the same stuff your mom probably packed for you when you were in 2nd grade. It's even less food than before and my theory is they're preparing our stomachs for the crucible. It just sucks when it happens during PT week.

Now, on to fun and not-so-depressing news. We had final pugil sticks today and it was awesome . It was lead series (2161, 2162,& 2163) vs follow series (2165, 2166, & 2167). The setup was a big fort. Our senior drill instructors stood at the top and yelled down at their recruits. I remember hearing things such as "Look at me Bertroche, don't you fucking lose", "You better not let me down" and "Kill him! Keep hitting him!" I had to fight 3 times. The first time I broke the padding off the backside of the pugil stick from a horizontal buttstroke (cross to the face). The second time my opponent kept trying to push me away and was playing very defensive. The SDIs yelled at him and we reset the match. The third time I was finally able to finish him off. Out of our whole platoon of 48, 8 lost. Yea, we're juggernauts.

Now to end with random things. I haven't brushed my teeth in 5 days. I'm so used to feeling gross that it doesn't bother me anymore, and those that know me back home understand how hygiene conscious I used to be. I also screamed out "Aye aye sir" so loud in my sleep last night that I woke up my rackmate and a few others. Counting down the days til I get out of here. Love all of you, miss all of you.

Patrick