Coast Guard Recruit Company Golf 186 weekly journal posted Feb 22, 2012

Monday 13FEB12

 03 weeks into training! We are excited that time is not standing still.  But now we are all held accountable for knowing and regurgitating our required knowledge.  Just when we thought the heat was turned up, it just became 10 degrees hotter.  Today we had a surprise inspection and several chiefs picked our brains and annihilated our racks.  We were all looking like deer stuck in the headlights.  Long story short, we failed our inspection as a company.  A few recruits are even going to ramp.  And we quietly comforted them.  First day of 03 week training was a no-go.

 Tuesday 14FEB12

 Today was tough for everyone.  We lost a good chunk of our company to ramp for poor rack organization and poor performance with required knowledge.  On top of that freezing temperatures and the dusting of snow and wind we got over the weekend has taken a toll on Golf’s health.  Nearly half the company has a cold, making it hard to perform and stay awake for class.  Every time we line up, we sound off with a chorus of coughing recruits.  We just hope we can regain our health and energy.

 Wednesday 15FEB12

 I am happy to report that today was a good day for Golf.  We hit the gym hard lifting weights and yelling out “Golf 186!” after each rotation.  We also had two classes that were really informative.  The first one was on advancements in the coast guard, and the second was about leave.  Our favorite part of the day (besides the chewy bars) was our chaplain giving us sports updates, entertainment news, politics, and more world affairs.

 Thursday 16FEB12

 We just hit the racks after a long day. All week we’ve been trying to make time objectives and sluggishly missing our mark.  It’s almost the end of week 03, and we don’t want to be treated like a junior company anymore.  Our lead company commander gave us a unique opportunity to demonstrate self-sufficiency by allowing the squad leaders to address the company shipmate to shipmate.  We discussed Golf’s strengths, weaknesses, and how we are going to stay motivated into week 04.

 Friday 17FEB12

 It’s Friday! Not that we can party, but we are excited because it is the end of the week.  Today Golf woke up with a new-found determination to work out all of our kinks.  We are ready to make our company commanders proud, our families proud, but more importantly ourselves.  Today we had our second class on seamanship!   We learned about lines, knots, and how to distinguish boats and cutters.  As each day goes by, we begin to believe that maybe, just maybe, we can actually conquer boot camp.

 Saturday 18FEB12

 Today was a grueling night.  Watches have started, and those who have the graveyard shift are racked with sleeplessness.  On top of that, we had seamanship class nearly ALL day.  The only refresher was our knot tying course held in the brisk February air.  We’re looking forward to our divine hours because we know we need time for rack inspection, squad bay inspections, and uniform inspections which will happen during week 04.