BCT 2008 part 1

Hey guys, I am very proud to announce that I have succesfully completed Army basic Combat Training, and in less than 24 hours I will be walking the graduation floor, hopping a bus to the airport, and flying to my advanced individual training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio texas. BCT was by far the most strenuous 9 weeks of my life, but at the same time the best use of 9 weeks I've ever done probably.. The physical aspect was a huge test of my endurance, but the part that made the physical work look like summer camp was the mental/spiritual part. The DS's mess with your minds for the first two or three weeks, but for the entire cycle I had to put up with some pretty rough stuff from other privates in training. I was CONSTANTLY made fun of in ways that make high school look like kindergarten for my refusal to stoop to looking at porn, reading my bible, not talking like everybody else, and for being a christian in general. It was not fun at times, even though I don't mind getting teased, but they just took it too far, and never stopped. I was constantly labled as a homo, or looser, and because I didn't want to get involved in fights I was a "wimp" etc... oh well, it was a test of my spiritual capacities, and God carried me through :) don't think of me as some spiritual giant because I'm not. There were times when I got angry and acted in ways I shouldn't toward those guys who have never had the light of Christ in their lives.. However, even though the scorn me now for my morals, hopefully someday they will remember me, and maybe even look into Christianity because of the influence I had on them. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but that's my goal for BCT.

Anyway, on to the FUN part!! here are a few pix.. I'm in almost all of them, I'd put up more, but without a long explanation they would be boring... lol

Heeh.... turtle head!! before qualifying with the M-16A2 rifle you have to wear a plain green helmet instead of getting the ACU cover on it like in later pix. This was week 2, and that's me attacking a dummy with a bayonet :) yea...

Pugils, yup.. beat the crap out of each other with padded sticks.. one of the more fun things.. week 3 :)

He went down first, but to win you have to do three proper attack moves, so we tied after going at it until the DS got bored of watching us ;)

Our first obstacle course.

That's me with my thumb up getting ready to go into the gas chamber :)

Sorry.. no "after" pix.. they didn't get me :( anyway, at AIT I'll get to have a camera, so I'll get lots of pix :) I'm out of time for now, so I'll get this posted. After today I won't have internet for a little while, but after 2-4 weeks at AIT I'll get my laptop, cell phone etc.. so this time it's not so long away as basic was :) I've got nearly 800 unread email notifications, so I'm going to try to catch up on a little of my other cyberspace life now.. until next time, ADIOS!! :) God bless!