13 SEP Ø9

Week Ø5 has been pretty shameful for ECHO company.  But first, lets touch base on Sunday of last week.  We had our first off base run.  It was also our first company run in formation.  It was approximately Ø2 miles just outside of the base.  We learned how to sing cadence as a company while our company commanders took turns singing their own cadences.  It did not take long before we noticed civilians coming out of their houses to watch, wave and take pictures as we passed by.  For many of my shipmates this has been their favorite experience thus far.  Shortly after the run we practiced for the Sunset Parade.  The parade was similar to how we are during graduation. The only big difference was we had our pieces.  Overall, we did a good job.  Fast forward to Monday morning.  The first day of week Ø5.  It began with our pugil stick matches.  It was one on one, three rounds and the recruits with more strikes or blows wins.  We were able to cheer on (professionally) and encourage our shipmates.  There were some really great fights and some not so great ones but overall it was a good time and a good confidence builder.  Later on in the day we went to Seamanship for a Radio/Telephone Procedures class and practiced communicating over the radio properly.  Tuesday morning we were issued our dress uniforms and it took approximately Ø3 hours to have them issued and fitted properly.  We have seen senior companies in later weeks of training wear them and we were all itching to finally receive them.  Wednesday is where things began to get sour.  We had a uniform inspection performed by our Battalion Commander, Senior Chief Wong.  We had 24 discrepencies which wasn’t too bad for such a large company but 1Ø of those were faults on behalf of the females for their hair, which really disappointed and ticked off Chief Stanton.  After the inspection we rushed to chow and then over to Seamanship for our midterm and a personal flotation device drill.  We don’t know our overall score  from the test however, we were told it was the highest our instructor had seen.  None of that mattered though.  For when our CC’s picked us up from Seamanship we were in trouble.  Before heading to chow earlier that day we were all in a hurry and did not stow some of our gear correctly (we were being lazy) and the squadbays were not up to Chief Stanton’s standard.  Any progress we made earlier in the week  was now gone.  We let our CC’s down and they could not even be happy about our inspection or Seamanship exam.  It was time for us to pay!  That became the extent of Wednesday night.  Thursday turned out to be an exciting day, we received our orders to our first units.  Some recruits couldn’t be happier with where they were being stationed while others were down right miserable upon their future destination.  Some units have multiple shipmates being stationed together so their experiences with each other will surely not end here.  We were told that “week five takes a dive” because once recruits get their orders they have a tendacy to think it’s official and training is over.  That mentality is completely wrong yet we can see it is taking effect on some of our shipmates.  Although few and far between we continue to lose more recruits.  Friday morning we received our small pox vaccine and we practiced our manual of arms for a while.  Then our long night began with Chief Reno and Petty Officer Morgan, with various drills to test our self discipline, stamina, and teamwork and left us both physically and mentally exhausted.  Saturday morning we got to meet with our mentor, LT Hannah.  We were able to ask questions about anything  however most of us asked about our new units.  Following we had a field day where we did lots of cleaning.  In the midst of the field day Chief Reno noticed some racks did not have their locks on Ø and initiated a rack inspection.  He found dirty laundry in 25 recruits personal dity bags.  For a week Ø5 company to have this is insane.  Of course we were incentively trained for this.  We have our Manual of Arms and Close Order Drill Tests coming up so we were given time to practice.  Some of us have made five minute phone calls home pertaining to our travel arrangements.  If we do well this week and do well on our MOA test we will receive on base liberty Saturday.  Week Ø6 is right around the corner and we still have not earned our colors for our guidon so that is our focus this week.

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