ECHO-182

HISTORIAN LOG

WEEK Ø3

24AUGØ9

Today marks our first day in week Ø3.  We are definatley keeping busy.  Many of us are coming down with colds also called “the Cape May Crud”.  Within a day or two the domino effect had taken place and the colds spread.  We were timed on a run to see how we are progressing for our Physical Fitness assessment coming up next week.  It went pretty well for the most part.  We also had our core strengthing class today and we seem to be doing better than last week.  We had a brief introduction to our piece nomenclature and are looking forward to more.  On the disciplinary side of things we had a drill to remind us to use military time, slash our zeroes and sign in and out of the company correctly.  As of tomorrow we will have another company come in to Cape May and although there is already one newer company than us we will really have to step up our game since we will be senior to two companies who will look up to us.

3Ø AUG Ø9

This has been a good week but we are glad to see it end.  It has been filled with many new and exciting events.  Early this week we had a survival float class where everyone had to don a Mustang Suit and we learn a few survival techniques, one solo and the other as a small group (Ø3-Ø6).  Some recruits described floating  in the water as what they would imagine floating in space would be like.  On the academic side of training we learned about the history of the CG and some of us were unaware of the CG’s involvement in every major war and conflict.  We also learned about many significant people and their roles.  We learned about vessels and aircraft and how to distinguish them.  Another important class we had was the Military Code of Conduct.  Most recruits took this class to heart and developed a new respect for all military members, past and present.  Not all of our classes are taught by our Company Commanders, however we are taking a liking to those taught by them more than the others.  They don’t just read out of the book, or lesson plan. They elaborate and include experiences they have had and pertinent information that will help us in the fleet.  They teach a lot more than what is in the lesson plan.  Thursday night we practiced for ZULU-181’s graduation and Friday we, along with other weeks of training, marched behind them.  This will take place every Friday for us until we graduate.  It felt good to see a the graduating company  and have their families cheer them and us on.  Saturday we spent all in Seamanship class.  We had practical learning and tying Ø5 different types of knots.  We learned to distinguish synthetic from natural line and line made from different materials.  We had a helm simulator exercise which tested our ability to receive an order, execute it and properly respond.  Essentially, it was similar to a video game where you are in charge of steering a ship.   After spending all day in Seamanship class the entire company really came together and started working as a team.  Most of the week was extremely rough and we felt it from our CC’s and the remedials they had us do to correct our deficiencies especially for our lack of self discipline and being dirty!  We were told that night that we were sounding off louder than ever before and then we really started to get revved up and in gear.  We met time objectives and the night just went smoothly.  We had group incentive training session on the parade field with Ø4 other companies that was very motivating.  We were trying to be louder than anyone else when responding and counting our repetitions.  In part, a few reasons we may have found how to start working together is we have had a few recruits reverted back a week in training this week (Ø2 just today) for various reasons.  And we see how easy it is to lose our place in this company.  Our CC’s allowed the squad leaders to hold a meeting with the company, just us, the recruits, to talk about our struggles and what we needed to do to fix them.  Whatever the reason, we finally are figuring out how to work together and hope we can keep it up.  We hear next week will be very busy.

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