2nd phone call from Beast at halfway point

AirsoftRanger

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DS called at 13:30. He had an hour total time to call. He called his girlfriend first. Even though he was the easiest delivery, he's supposed to call his Mama first, not the girlfriend. We talked to him for 26 minutes. He had a lot of pushups and situps that were not counted on testing. They completed the 6 mile 'ruck'. "It was up a little hill. It wasn't that bad, really, not bad at all.' He told his mother 3 times that "our family vacations are harder." "We have to pass a land navigation test to graduate from Beast. I got a hundred. You use a compass, map, and protractor, and find 12 points out in the hills out in nowhere. a lot of people failed. we ran around a lot in the woods. it was fun." "I've spent seven dollars. soap and toothpaste. I need soap to wash my clothes. Lots of guys are having their parents send more money, but I don't need any. I have a lock box where I put my letters" "Can you bring my headphones, ipod, and a blanket? and black underwear. they don't ever check brand names for underwear, just as long as they don't show a brand when you are dressed. " "the past 3 days it's been really hot and humid, so we got to roll up our sleeves. The PT workouts are really easy." "We run up six flights of stairs six times a day. run the stairs, go to your room, run the stairs, go to meals, run the stairs, go to white time..."

He went to the gunnery range. " We were lined up, not yet on the firing line, and I didn't have my safety glasses on, they were in my pack, i didn't say that, and I got in trouble. I had to write 300 lines of " i will not forget my glasses'. My cadre didn't pick up the list, I guess he forgot. One guy had to write 1100 lines "I will not talk". My room mate keeps forgetting his rifle. we keep them locked under our bunks." they shot targets at 300. 200. 150, 100, and 50 yards. Here he was obviously the most excited. "Targets pop up, and I hit 39 of 40 targets. but they didn't count 15. the machine was off. there was a guy there who usually hits 40 of 40, and the machine gave him a 25. A lot of people had to do it fifteen times. I know how to zero the sight. There were 2 negligent discharges. Those cadres were fired. Altogether we shot 30,000 rounds in one day. At the end, the guys in charge wanted us to hurry up, and had us put our weapons on automatic."

"Our company was in first place right up until yesterday. everyone is really mad about that" (some controversy about a hotel.) "the company that wins gets a free pass home, travel paid by the Army." The next competition ends at the end of Beast.

2 girls and 2 guys have dropped out of his unit. "sometimes out processing takes six weeks. if you can check on that i would appreciate it...very much"

Football tryouts are tomorrow. 'it will be like a combine' - sprint timing, max lifts. (why doesn't anyone tell anybody this information ahead of time?) I know some of the guys who went to USMAPS last year, and they're not even going to try out. they're considered walk ons, too. they already quit. About 21 are going to try out. But they say they hardly ever look at a walk on." .

He has prickly heat. "everyone has it, but I don't have it as bad as most, because I don't eat any salt. I have it because I wore the same 2 shirts all week. I don't use the laundry, because you told me it is no good. Everyone sends their clothes to the laundry, then lots of people run out of PT clothes because the laundry doesn't come back. Now I just do a 'ranger wash'. I did dry clean two shirts. they did come back. they put gum in our MREs and that helps digestion. we had steak again, and chicken cordon bleu.'

With five minutes to go, I told him to call his brother, and reluctantly said goodbye. Big brother called us back: "I think I might stay 2 years." Last letter, he said maybe one year. "that watch you gave me really helps, that vibratory alarm" (Casio Men's W735HB-1AV Super Illuminator Vibration Alarm) he gets up early with the alarm to get ready 'before the cadre start yelling at us. We had 8 hours sleep last night, we're supposed to have six, but usually it's about 4, sometimes 5 hours." Big brother couldn't believe this was his hard to wake up younger brother talking. "No, i haven't taken any naps. I fight it hard when I am in the room. i fought it once. You're not supposed to sleep at all during the day. Lots of people do. all the time. every second. if you get caught, they wake you up, make you do pushups, stuff like that..."

and then he was gone. Mama's facebook USMA contacts are revealing some 'difficult' phone calls, and some didn't get any call. I feel badly for them.
 
"Our company was in first place right up until yesterday. everyone is really mad about that" (some controversy about a hotel.) "the company that wins gets a free pass home, travel paid by the Army." The next competition ends at the end of Beast.

The winning company gets an extra pass during the academic year. This just means they can have privileges to leave that weekend.
 
DS called at 13:30. He had an hour total time to call. He called his girlfriend first. Even though he was the easiest delivery, he's supposed to call his Mama first, not the girlfriend. We talked to him for 26 minutes. He had a lot of pushups and situps that were not counted on testing. They completed the 6 mile 'ruck'. "It was up a little hill. It wasn't that bad, really, not bad at all.' He told his mother 3 times that "our family vacations are harder." "We have to pass a land navigation test to graduate from Beast. I got a hundred. You use a compass, map, and protractor, and find 12 points out in the hills out in nowhere. a lot of people failed. we ran around a lot in the woods. it was fun." "I've spent seven dollars. soap and toothpaste. I need soap to wash my clothes. Lots of guys are having their parents send more money, but I don't need any. I have a lock box where I put my letters" "Can you bring my headphones, ipod, and a blanket? and black underwear. they don't ever check brand names for underwear, just as long as they don't show a brand when you are dressed. " "the past 3 days it's been really hot and humid, so we got to roll up our sleeves. The PT workouts are really easy." "We run up six flights of stairs six times a day. run the stairs, go to your room, run the stairs, go to meals, run the stairs, go to white time..."

He went to the gunnery range. " We were lined up, not yet on the firing line, and I didn't have my safety glasses on, they were in my pack, i didn't say that, and I got in trouble. I had to write 300 lines of " i will not forget my glasses'. My cadre didn't pick up the list, I guess he forgot. One guy had to write 1100 lines "I will not talk". My room mate keeps forgetting his rifle. we keep them locked under our bunks." they shot targets at 300. 200. 150, 100, and 50 yards. Here he was obviously the most excited. "Targets pop up, and I hit 39 of 40 targets. but they didn't count 15. the machine was off. there was a guy there who usually hits 40 of 40, and the machine gave him a 25. A lot of people had to do it fifteen times. I know how to zero the sight. There were 2 negligent discharges. Those cadres were fired. Altogether we shot 30,000 rounds in one day. At the end, the guys in charge wanted us to hurry up, and had us put our weapons on automatic."

"Our company was in first place right up until yesterday. everyone is really mad about that" (some controversy about a hotel.) "the company that wins gets a free pass home, travel paid by the Army." The next competition ends at the end of Beast.

2 girls and 2 guys have dropped out of his unit. "sometimes out processing takes six weeks. if you can check on that i would appreciate it...very much"

Football tryouts are tomorrow. 'it will be like a combine' - sprint timing, max lifts. (why doesn't anyone tell anybody this information ahead of time?) I know some of the guys who went to USMAPS last year, and they're not even going to try out. they're considered walk ons, too. they already quit. About 21 are going to try out. But they say they hardly ever look at a walk on." .

He has prickly heat. "everyone has it, but I don't have it as bad as most, because I don't eat any salt. I have it because I wore the same 2 shirts all week. I don't use the laundry, because you told me it is no good. Everyone sends their clothes to the laundry, then lots of people run out of PT clothes because the laundry doesn't come back. Now I just do a 'ranger wash'. I did dry clean two shirts. they did come back. they put gum in our MREs and that helps digestion. we had steak again, and chicken cordon bleu.'

With five minutes to go, I told him to call his brother, and reluctantly said goodbye. Big brother called us back: "I think I might stay 2 years." Last letter, he said maybe one year. "that watch you gave me really helps, that vibratory alarm" (Casio Men's W735HB-1AV Super Illuminator Vibration Alarm) he gets up early with the alarm to get ready 'before the cadre start yelling at us. We had 8 hours sleep last night, we're supposed to have six, but usually it's about 4, sometimes 5 hours." Big brother couldn't believe this was his hard to wake up younger brother talking. "No, i haven't taken any naps. I fight it hard when I am in the room. i fought it once. You're not supposed to sleep at all during the day. Lots of people do. all the time. every second. if you get caught, they wake you up, make you do pushups, stuff like that..."

and then he was gone. Mama's facebook USMA contacts are revealing some 'difficult' phone calls, and some didn't get any call. I feel badly for them.
"Our company was in first place right up until yesterday. everyone is really mad about that" (some controversy about a hotel.) "the company that wins gets a free pass home, travel paid by the Army." The next competition ends at the end of Beast.

The winning company gets an extra pass during the academic year. This just means they can have privileges to leave that weekend.

yeah, the phone call was good. We've only received two letters and those were on the same day about 10 days ago. DS likes it quite a bit overall and is used to the routine. he is looking forward to it being over though and getting started with academic year. DS is a recruited athlete (not football) and said that so far the practices are his least favorite part but it is early and he'll see if he wants to stay with it after season begins.

He said many have dropped out numbers from about 10 days ago were probably between 40-50 but sounds like it may be more now? several have been hospitalized from heat and infections from blisters. he echoed same thing about rifle range not working correctly and bad conditions during qualification. usually he is a crack shot and I was expecting him to say he hit everyone. Instead he said he was scored like 24/40. Also said it turned out his compass was broken for land nav and he needed up lost so he'll have to take that over. He did say he has gotten a lot stronger already and weighs the same overall as when he started. He also reported a lot of the big strong guys have lost about 10-15 pounds and have gotten weaker so far. Reported that one new cadet (from a different company) allegedly was firing blanks at one of the cadre and was supposedly flattened by other cadets to stop it. Hopefully that is inaccurate but it was also reported on a facebook group??
 
Glad your son or daughter is coping well at Beast. This is probably a good time to remind everyone not to post potentially identifiable information on the Internet regarding their cadet's experiences. There are many stories of cadet leadership getting ahold of such material and having some "fun" at the new cadet's expense. These kids are very good at figuring things out.
 
DS called and had a nice chat [mostly with Mom ;);] he seems to be doing quite well. No blisters or foot issues [I think thanks in large to being a 3 sport athlete and just having toughened them up for 4 years. I mean he destroyed athletic shoes - serious foot pounding.] Did have some chafing and is loving the baby powder. Don't think he had any issues on the ruck marches; we did a 4+ mile hike before R-day and he had 30 lb on his back thru some hilly terrain so he was pretty well prepared from what I saw.

Qualified 31/40 with the M4; said that was top 10%-15% of his company. I expected a higher curve; wonder if the scoring system bugs dragged down the scores. No big deal; they can earn the Expert badge at any time in their career. Even liked the 'bivy' sleeping in the field with his rifle inside the sack. Did some land nav and liked it but has to go back and finish; not sure if it was weather or what but they have had a lot of storms go thru since R day.

He says the food is actually quite good and thinks he has even gained weight; having said that he was incredibly lean to begin with so may just be adding muscle mass. Says he crams in all the breakfast he can and its a big help. He has always been pretty nutrition conscious and knows the value of the right food; its valuable fuel not just to enjoy.

Did very well on his APFT test and is striving for a 300 when it counts. He had no news on company / unit standings so I cannot say. The major competition is last few days before the 12 mile march back so I'm not clear on how significant the ongoing rankings are or not.

And yes - called GF first and was going to call her back after we hung up . . . but they should call whomever they need the most; this is a long 6 week battle and little wins mean a LOT to all our NCs. Sometimes 'no call' just means they wanted to spare you the pain of hearing how hard things are from them but no news is good news; if they were quitting you would have heard. At the very least they got some downtime Sunday to hang with their buddies and talk to the host families. Its all good and they will come through this !!
 
DD sounded good, washing clothes in sink, hit 24 @ range, passed but thought it was low, after reading what your NCs said about the range, I guess it wasn't that bad.
Land nav was tough didn't think she did that good but ended up scoring 14 out of 16 and passing. She hate rucking but has not fallen out and hopes not too. Dislikes low crawl more than rucking, but it was real hot when they did it and that may have been it.
They are on 6th floor of older building, real hot and legs are always tired from going up and down stairs. Liked outgoing Cadre hopes incoming are just as good. Eats vegetables now, eats everything the give them, never enough time to eat. Does well with running and PT. Got extra pass for company coming in first, would like to come in first second detail so when they March back they would lead. Has blood blisters on toes. Says no place she'd rather be.
 
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