Michael Dunn's Blog

Let me start by saying the weather today was miserable.  To top it off, I didn’t wear long johns and I forgot my gloves.  In spite of all that, today was still awesome.  Once in a lifetime kind of stuff.  Maybe not for me since I am in the Army but you get the idea.  Today was part 1 of U.S. Weapons.  We learned how to operate the Mark 19 grenade launcher, the M203 (I think that is what it is called), which is a grenade launcher mounted to the bottom of an M16, and then the shoulder fired AT-4 which is an anti-tank missle.  Afterward we got to shoot the AT-4 using tracer rounds (not live missles) for practice so we could get used to handling and aiming it.  Then I got to shoot the M203 (noob tube for all my fellow call of duty players, haha) using practice smoke rounds.  That was a lot of fun.  After all the “class” type stuff was over they did  a couple demonstrations for us.  They set off a real claymore.  The explosion was a lot bigger than I expected it to be.  Then they fired a real round out of the AT-4.  That was pretty sweet.  You could feel the impact even though it hit a few hundred yards away.  It hit the ground and a flash, followed by a huge plume of dirt, erupted from the ground.  It was like something out of a movie.  Cool stuff, and like I have been saying, I’m getting paid to do this.  That is what I keep reminding myself.  Yeah, I would rather be home most of the time, but it really could be worse.  Going into the military is something that most people will never do.  It will be cool to be able to say I have done the stuff I have done.  I’m getting some great experience out of this place and gaining tools I will be able to use for the rest of my life.  Today starts week 6 of basic training.  Less than one month left of basic then I move on to AIT.  That’s when the “real” MP training starts.  All the stuff I have learned so far everyone in the Army has to go through.  The stuff in AIT is specific MOS (military occupational speciality).  Stuff like qualifying with a 9mm handgun, getting pepper sprayed, advanced room clearing techniques, combatives (hand to hand combat), evasive manuevering (I get to drive a police car and possibly a hummer).  All that stuff I get to do in AIT plus countless other things that I will tell you about as I get to them.

I got my birthday package today from my parents, including my oreos.  I only had 60 seconds to eat them but I enjoyed every second of it.  I’m glad it was the drill sgt. that still lets us eat food that was here today.

I’ve got range detail tomorrow so I need to get ready for that.  Talk to ya’ll again soon.

PT test this morning.  It was a mixture of disappointment and satisfaction.  Disappointment in the fact that I only did 54 push ups.  Satisfaction in the fact that I did 85 sit ups, which is pretty ridiculous.  Keep in mind that these are timed 2 minute events.  You only need like 74 sit ups to get a perfect score.  I am short like 20 push ups to get a perfect score still.  I am going to work on those in my free time now.  My two mile time was great though.  For me anyways.  I ran the 2 mile in 13 minutes 10 seconds.  That is a huge deal for me.  I have never been that great of a runner (for running standards anyways).  The perfect score is 13 minutes flat in the Army so I am almost there.  My goal is to get a perfect score on my whole PT test.  I’m almost there.  After the PT test, we ate, showered, and got ready for training.  We did MOUT training.  That is like urban warfare.  How to clear rooms and all that fun stuff.  We went out to this training area that was out in the middle of nowhere.  It was a sweet set up though.  It was set up like an Iraqi village/city.  It had multiple roads with all kinds of buildings ranging from little concrete sheds to 3 story apartment complexes.  It was pretty well done.  All the buildings had Arabic writing on them and everything.  I have to admit, I felt like the real deal running building to building in this mock city, wearing all my battle gear and totting my M16.  It was pouring rain the whole time, which usually makes the day miserable, but it kind of added to the whole experience today.  I had a lot of fun.  This is the kind of stuff I joined for.  Only 2 days until my birthday.  Can’t believe I’m going to be 20.  It even sounds weird to say.  Wish I could spend it with friends and family but instead I will be spending it in the U.S. Army.  Haha.  Got a couple letters to read.  Write again tomorrow.

Well, technically I already wrote a blog for today but that one is already in an envelope.  Sealed and in the mailbox, so it would be quite difficult to add on to that one.  I have about 45 minutes until lights out with nothing to do so I figured I would write.  It’s a good way to gather my thoughts and reflect on everything that is going on.  I have nothing in particular that I want to write about.  Who knows, this may just end up getting tossed in the trash.  One thing I have realized, especially today, is that my eating habits have changed drastically.  I’m not just talking about how fast I have to eat, or the fact that I have 3 meals a day and nothing in between.  I’m talking about the stuff I will eat now, and even enjoy.  For example, fish.  I don’t even like fish, but here I eat it at least once or twice a week and I will put it down.  At breakfast, I eat oatmeal.  Plain oatmeal at that.  Throw some raisins and maple syrup in it though and you have the best part of breakfast right there (unless they have french toast sticks available, haha).

Besides food, I have changed in other areas as well.  Cleaning for example.  At home, I’m not exactly known for my cleaning ethic.  I’m not a slob by any means, but I’m also no perfectionists.  Here though, I spend my free time cleaning.  Taking my personal time to ensure that every item of clothing is perfect.  Every sock aligned, every uniform hanging and crisp.  At home my clean clothes usually end up sitting in a pile until I wear them.  Haha.  Another big change has been the fact that I have no tv, no computer, nothing like that.  All the luxuries that I had at home I no longer have here.  It has forced me to adapt to life without those sources of entertainment.  In ways though, it has been good.  For instance, I read my Bible more now than I ever have.  When you take away those other distractions it makes it a lot easier to pick it up and dive in.  That is on thing that I am thankful for.  Yeah, I miss all that other stuff, but being here has shown me that I can do without it and it really isn’t as important to me as I thought it was.  I hope I don’t lose sight of that when I leave here.  I will say, I am going to be killing some UFC when I get home for break.  I am missing so many events.  I can stand missing watching the football games, but I hate missing MMA events.  That is one thing this place hasn’t broken me of I guess.  It’s not going to happen either.  Haha.  I hope I haven’t bored ya’ll to death.  Like I said, I had no intentions on writing this earlier.  Time to go to bed (close enough, that is).  I will write again tomorrow.  Good night.

I was calm all morning. I was able to control my nerves until it happened. “Pvt Dunn, you are lane 16.”  It was time for me to qualify. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I get up there, and settle into my position, asking God to help me do what I had done  the days prior.  After a few nerve wrecking rounds I collected my magazines, stood up, and waited.  After a few seconds I heard the words that I have been waiting to hear, but I was afraid I wouldn’t.  Lane 16, you are expert. I was so excited. I wanted to shoot expert so bad. I walked up and was handed my expert badge. You have no idea how big of a relief it was walking off that firing line, expert badge in hand. I got to talk to my family this afternoon and they were all happy for me. We haven’t gotten the numbers yet but I’m pretty sure my platoon did the best out of the whole company today. We should find out later this evening. I am supposed  to still have my phone but apparently someone messed up and ruined it for everyone. Oh well, I got to talk to my family so that was good enough for me. BRM is over so White Phase should be coming close to an end as well. We are about to start some real deal stuff, (like some of the stuff I have done already hasn’t been good enough haha).  We start urban operations tomorrow, that should be cool. I’ll write again when I have some more news. Thanks for reading everyone, hope ya’ll enjoy reading as much as I enjoy sharing.

Kind of disappointed with today to be honest. I had the chance to qualify early at the range but it just didnt happen. The commander approved it that if anyone shot expert today that they wouldn’t have to qualify tomorrow and it would count today. I have been shooting expert all week so I thought I had it in the bag. Unfortunately, my weapon didn’t think so. I had two weapon malfunctions back to back. I have never had a weapon malfunction and I had two back to back, when it actually matters. I was pretty upset. I can’t get stressed about it though. Tomorrow is a new day I guess. Im going to go out there and hope for the best. I want that expert badge so bad. I know I can do it, I just need to pray that I don’t have any more weapon malfunctions. We were told today that if 90% of us qualify tomorrow we get a 4 or 5 hour pass this weekend. That means I will be killing some junk food. Haha. I hope we get it. The weather was great today, but I think that it is supposed to change tomorrow. Oh well, I enjoyed today at least. Got some mail today. That always makes the day just that much better. I’m gonna prepare for tomorrow, big day. Thanks for reading guys, wish me luck.

I wasn’t even planning on writing a blog tonight but I got everything done to get ready for tomorrow earlier than I expected, I really don’t have much to say about today.  It is a Sunday so no training happened.  I went to church this morning, that was nice as usual.  Actually, cool thing about today is about half our platoon went to church.  Slowly more and more people have been going each week.  It is cool to see, especially the people who have never even been to church before who got talked into trying it out.  Most of them liked it too.  I talked to the guy in charge of the music this morning and I might start running sound for them in a few weeks.  I have been reading my Bible a lot in my free time since I have been here.  It has really helped me out, not just in a sense of getting through basic, but I can see how reading my Bible on a consistent basis has bettered me as a person.  It is a habit I look forward to keeping.  I’ve got range detail in the morning ( remember that from previous blogs).  So as I am sure you can imagine, I am not looking forward to that.  I need to get some sleep though.  Good night everybody.

Today was actually not that bad.  Range detail went smoothly, it was a nice day (60 degrees!), and I shot well again.  I hit 36 out of 40 at the range today, which would qualify me for expert if I can do it again Wednesday.  The range we shot at today is the same one we qualify on in a couple of days.  I am kinda anxious about it, I really want to make expert on my rifle.  You get a badge to wear on your uniform and everything.  Not many people can do it.  Out of the 200+ that shot today, only five or so of us qualified as expert.  Unfortunately it doesn’t count until Wednesday.  We shot at the 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 meter targets today.  Same deal as Saturday where they were popping up a couple at a time at different distances and they are all on a timer.  I have been loving it though.  I don’t like to brag on myself that often but I will say that I have been tearing it up with this rifle.  Might have to buy an AR-15 or something when I get home.  A drill sgt. actually gave me a compliment on my shooting today, it really took me by surprise.  I didn’t even know what to say. Haha.  Tomorrow is one last practice day before the real deal.  I am ready to qualify and get it over with.  We get to sleep in tomorrow until 5:00 am (might not seem like much but that is an extra hour of sleep), don’t ask me why.  I am not going to compain though.  I really don’t have much else to talk about.  I was able to stay busy today, so the day went by fast.  I found out we have another PT test on Thursday.  Hopefully I will show some improvement since the last one.  I don’t feel like we have really even done much since the last PT test.  I am going to be glad to get home and be able to work out on my own again.  I am slimming down too much here.  I am a little more cut now but I have lost some of my muscle mass and it is a little discouraging.  They aren’t training me to be a body builder here though, they are training me to be a lean mean killin’ machine. Haha, thats what they tell me anyway. Things are going good and I’m not hating life like I was in the beginning. I’m actually having some fun now. Only 59 more days until Christmas vacation, can’t wait. Talk to ya’ll again soon.

Today has been a pretty fun day.  For me anyways.  We had our first taste of moving and multiple targets.  I also found out that qualification is on Wednesday!  That is going to be here fast.  I know a lot of people are nervous about it.  If you don’t pass rifle qualification you can’t graduate from Basic.  Qualification is like the main thing in Basic.  Back to today though.  We got out to the range early and fired at “pop-up” targets at 75, 175, and 300 meters.  We fired from the prone supported, prone unsupported, and kneeling position (look them up).  I did good on that round.  The next round was at the same distances and using the same positions, but multiple targets would come up at the same time.  Keep in mind that they are timed as well so you can’t take all day long trying to aim at them.  You also only have just enough ammo to hit each target once.  It was a challenge but I really got into my zone and hit 42 out of 44 targets.  I even hit every single 300 meter target.  There is a cool feeling you get when you knock down that 300 meter target in one shot using icon sights (aka no scope).  I really enjoyed it.  Afterwards I was thinking to myself, I can’t believe they are paying me to do this.  Back home I spend my own money to shoot, here they pay me to do it.  They even came over the loudspeaker at the range at the end of the round with, “good job lane 3, you hit 42 out of 44 targets.”  It was nice to actually get a compliment for once.  Haha.  I’m looking forward to Monday, more shooting.

I got some pictures from my family yesterday.  A lot of pictures from the property in Brazil.  It got  me excited about going down there and seeing it for myself.  I’m really happy for them and I know great things will come out of it.  Hopefully I will be able to go down in the spring.  The property looks amazing.  I was told there are some good hiking opportunities nearby too.  That is enough to get me down there all in its self.  Time here is finally starting to go by.  I’m pretty sure I have 61 days from today until Christmas Exodus.  I can’t wait.  I’m trying not to think about it too much though because I know that it will only make the time go by slower.  I’m trying my best to take this thing day by day.  I was sitting around yesterday and pulled out my little notepad that I keep in my jacket and started a list of places I want to eat when I go home for Christmas, as well as foods I want to eat.  It got pretty long in a short amount of time, haha.  I can’t think about it right now or it will make me hungry.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we get to sleep in until 6:30.  I am going to get some serious sleep tonight.  Should be a good day, even though I have to get a haircut.  It was finally getting to a good length too.  Oh well, don’t have a choice.  Thanks for reading, talk to ya’ll soon.

Didn’t have the time to write yesterday.  Loooong day!  We were at the range all day pretty much.  Of course it was overcast, wet, and cold just like every other day for at least the past week.  I heard it is supposed  to clear up next week so I am hoping for the best.  Besides the weather I really enjoyed yesterday.  We shot at 75, 175, and 300 meter targets.  300 meters was no joke.  It gave a lot of us problems.  I still was a GO though.  You are either a GO or a NO-Go at each range.  I think 86% of us were GO’s yesterday so we did pretty good as a whole.  After the range we took our 6 mile ruck march back.  That wasn’t exactly the ideal way to end the day.  Thank God I came here in at least halfway decent shape.  You could tell a lot of people were hurting on that march home.  Heck, I was even sore at the end of it.  My legs and feet from marching, my back and shoulders from the ruck, and my arms from holding the M16 at the low ready the whole time.  The whole way I was just picturing myself on one of my hikes back home or something.  Helped make it a little easier.  I’m pretty sure I sang to myself half the time too.  It was a tactical ruck march so there was like a   30ft  gap between everyone so it was almost like being by myself.  Kind of peaceful, a rariety around here.  There are about 220 of us in our company so the front of our formation was probably about half a mile from the back.  It looked kind of cool actually when we would get a long stretch of road and you could see people like a quarter of a mile away.  It’s hard to explain.  It just looked cool, take my word for it.

Today has been a little less eventful.  So far anyways.  We went to EST this morning after I had an amazing breakfast.  Easily my favorite part of the day.  I always look forward to breakfast.  I hardly ever ate breakfast back home but here I throw down more food then than I do any other meal.  For example.  This morning I had eggs, bacon, sliced potatoes, canalope, strawberry banana yogurt, a nutrigrain bar, raisin bread, two pieces of wheat bread toast with jam, and french toast sticks.  Washed it all down with a big glass of milk.  Perfect way to start the day.  I am getting hungry just thinking about it.  I feel hungry all the time here.  I wonder if they do that on purpose.  Good thing dinner is in a couple hours.  We got MRE’s for lunch today.  They never fill me up but I kind of like them. It’s like opening a present because you never know what you are going to get.  For example, today I had chocolate chip cookies in mine.  Amazing!  I ate those cookies too fast.  Stuff like that is hard to come by around here.  I can’t wait to get home and eat what I want, when I want it.  I like food too much to live like this. Haha.  Well, now that I have spent half my letter talking about food, I better get going.  I think I may make a list of all the foot I want to eat when I go home for Christmas.  Haha.  Talk to you guys later.

Today went much better than yesterday.  I was more prepared when it came to proper clothing, and it didn’t rain (or sleet for that matter). It was our Platoon and 3rd Platoon’s turn to group and zero our M16’s today.  Grouping and zeroing for those who don’t know is where you fire the M16, see where you are hitting, and adjust the sights accordingly.  Granted, it’s not quite that easy but you get the idea.  I grouped and zeroed without any problems.  It was pretty fun finally getting to shoot my rifle .  I’ve been taking that thing with me everywhere for the last few weeks and I’m finally starting to benefit from it.  Heck, I even sleep with the thing on my headboard.  It is never more than an arms length away (except when you shower or go to the latrine).  They are trying to get us in the mentality that this thing is our life, and if we lose it, we are as good as dead.  They take this stuff seriously around here.  We are finally starting to get treated like soldiers.  We are even starting to feel like soldiers, I think.  It’s kind of hard not to be when you are in full combat gear shooting an M16.  It is a cool feeling, trust me.  We go out and shoot some more tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.  We also have an 8K tactical march in the morning.  Should be interesting.  It will be our first tactical march. We didn’t get mail AGAIN tonight.  I was so disappointed.  Our drill sgt. is working CQ tonight so they couldn’t pass it out to us.  Hopefully tomorrow.  Got to go and get ready for the morning.  I think I have fireguard tonight too.  Not looking forward to that.  Talk to ya’ll tomorrow.  I’m sure I will have some stuff to talk about.