Goodbye nursing, hello sniper...

Yesterday was a great day, not only is it friday but I also qualified as "Expert" on the M16A2 rifle. Which is the highest you can get. For those of you who are unfamiliar this is that rifle:

  

  

The picture is actually me field stripping my M16.  It was really cool to learn how to do all that, and really interesting because you need no tools, and you can strip it and put it back together so quickly. After we learned this we went over some basic marksmanship and techniques. I guess I was paying attention because it helped. When we qualified with them we had 40 targets that would pop-up randomly, some as close as 50 meters and some as far as 300. A figure 300 meters away is but a speck! But I hit everyone of them which was surprising cause I could barely even see them. So when we were in a kneeling position it was very difficult to put the sight at center mass and keep it steady. You naturally will move the rifle because of your muscles, then you will move it because you breathe, so when aiming that far maximum muscle control and breathing is so important. It took quite a bit of concentration. We had some soldiers complain about shooting because we are healthcare providers. But they tell us from day one that we are a soldier first, a warrior second, and officer third, and a healthcare provider fourth. And that that is how it HAS to be. You can never switch your roles and begin to think any other way. Yes we are here to save people, but the first people we save are AMERICAN soldiers. If that means having to take up arms and defend then thats what you do. We defend, protect, heal, comfort, save soldiers. To do this adequately may take many different approaches, you may start IV's, perform life saving measures, just hold a hand, or even grab a weapon and set up a defensive position. All of those are ways of taking care of soldiers and thats what we are here for. "Ready to fight, trained to save"

Sorry if that was a bit of a soap box but it really got under my skin when people were saying that. You joined the United States Army, not the peace corps. 

On a side note, we went to a karaoke place last night and there were a ton of soldiers there (we don't go out in uniform but you can tell who is who by the haircuts) someone played Toby Keiths "American Soldier" As you can imagine the place erupted with soldiers singing. It was pretty emotional...

 

HOOAH!

Hooah (hü-ä or who-ah) is a U.S. Army battle cry. It is used by US Army soldiers "Referring to or meaning anything and everything except no."

We say this a lot. Everything is hooah this and hooah that. "You all ready to take a break?" "hooah!" "Did you get that paper work done?" "hooah!" "Where are all my nurse corps soldiers?" "HOOAH!" (in group unison) "Hooah?" "Hooah!" Almost every response is hooah. APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) today didnt go as expected. I ran my two-mile to slow. But that was a common problem, everyone said that they ran a lot slower than expected. I will be fine when I re-test. Just gotta keep working. Oh and during my push-up event a fire ant was biting my left pinky... I guess thats what "Army Strong" means. It hurt, but I wasn't allowed to stop or to pick my hand up to move it or anything or else I would have failed that event. 

I have had a couple of request about a mailing address. It has to be labeled exactly as follows:

2Lt. Grant Young

2250 Stanley Road

Unit # 464

Ft. Sam Houston, TX 78234-6404

I get to sleep in till 0430 tomorrow morning! Formation and PT isn't until 0530. That feels so late now! 

18 hour days...

These 18 hour days are getting old very quickly. But I really can't complain too much, it could be much much worse. It has cooled down a bit, but with that came some humidity. I like the 103 degree dry heat much more than the 96 degree humid heat! We are still having a lot of in-processing nightmares. There is a ton of paperwork and redoing paperwork. Kinda frustrating but hey I am getting paid to fill out papers. The first half of our Company took the APFT today. A lot failed, they mostly said they just couldn't breathe during the run because of the heat and humidity. I am sure I will have this same problem but hopefully I can push through it. The Cadre (instructors) said they expect over 1/3 of us not to pass... thanks for the confidence Cadre. We had a lot of classroom time today. A lot of military stuff like leadership, authority, making and receiving opords and opplans (operation orders and operation plans) It isn't too bad but it is a lil harder for us who are not prior service. There are TONS of acronyms to learn. Everything is a three letter abbreviation or some form of short hand. It takes a while to get used to all of them, and you have to constantly pay attention because it is literally like a foriegn language sometimes. This is all for now, gotta get some sleep because my APFT is bright and early (actually its not very bright at 4am!)

Hurry up and wait!

You always hear how the Army is 'hurry up and wait' well thats very, VERY true. If we aren't wait walking from one side of the post to the other in full ACU's, backpacks, and camelbacks in 103 degree heat then we are sitting in a room with a handful of paper work marinating in our own sweat that we just accumulated. We are continually told to 'acclimatize' which is a completely made up word I think. Basically we need exposure to the Category 5 heat so we don't get a heat stroke or heat exhaustion. By the way there are only 5 levels for the heat category, way to go all out Texas! Everything is really cool though, free all you can eat food at the DFAC (dining facility) tax free everything at the PX (post exchange kinda like a wal-mart with a mall) 

My APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) is Tuesday at 0430. It shouldn't be too bad, but its still 80 degrees at 0400 so the heat may effect my times. Oh well. We were assigned our Platoons today. We will be in these for the duration of OBC. I am in 6th Platoon 4th Squad Bravo Team. So that means to REALLY identify me it takes like a paragraph because I am 2Lt. Young with Alpha Company at 187th Medical Battalion 6th Platoon 4th Squad Bravo Team. And after writing all that I am exhausted. So I am going to bed. Gotta be up at 0400! 

First day musings

First of all, Texas is hot. And I don't mean hot like 'man I cant believe its 93 degrees' I mean hot like this: 

Yeah that was taken at 7 o' clock at night too! Thats the for real temperature, the 'feels like' is 110-112. blah. But its not too bad because it isnt full of that good ole Tennessee humidity (not yet anyway) 

The Army has put us up in a La Quinta Inn for now. Supposedly till August 1st. Who knows what we are doing after that. I don't have a roommate, and neither does anyone else, which is really interesting cause I have two beds. Or as I like to refer to them as a place to sleep and a place to throw all my junk onto. (no more floor mom) Today has been a bunch of nothing really. Got our lodging assignments, a welcome packet, and was told to be back in PT uniform at 4:15. No, not 4:15 in the afternoon, the A.M. version... 0415! I have no idea what they want to do with us at that early, or why we need to be in PT uniform, but I fear it. 

I did meet some cool people today though, some RN's, some medical support people. One guy has been here before so he was our tour guide through downtown at the river walk and the Alamo. And for all us TN natives, they people I was with was really surprised to know how much we know about Davey Crockett. Some of them had never even heard of him. Ha, it was drilled into our heads as children. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the wild frontier..." you know you know the song! 

I have a wonderful view from my hotel room though!

Oh how nice!

Well thats it for now, there hasn't been much to post about. I am sure tomorrow will be full of adventure!