From the Company Commanders of Echo 182

From the refining fires of Training Center Cape May your new Guardian has emerged from a grueling training regimen, designed to challenge them far greater than many of them have ever been challenged before- both mentally and physically.  They have indeed accomplished a task that is not within the grasp of everyone.  It is always amazing to behold the transformation of the recruits from the individuals who stepped off of the bus the first night to the Guardians they now are.   They are still the same people today as when they arrived, but different as well.  When you see your loved one the next time, they will still be the same person who left you, now almost two months ago.  They will have many of the same mannerisms and quirks as before; however, you will also find that something almost intangible about them has changed.  As Company Commanders over the past 7 weeks, not only have we made a lasting impression upon your loved ones, but they as well have made a lasting impression upon us.  Your Guardians have not always been enthusiastic about every task which we assigned, but they have indeed adapted and overcame to meet these challenges with success.  Those rough gemstones who arrived off of the bus have been cut, polished, and shined.  They have enhanced the values which they had already possessed prior to their arrival, including Honor, Respect, and a strong Devotion to Duty.    I want to take this opportunity on behalf of myself and my fellow Echo Company Commanders to thank those of you who showed your loved one(s) the much needed support they received.  Our job is only made easier when the stresses which they encounter here, is balanced with the support of their loved ones at home.  I look forward to the opportunity to meet many of you, and wish you all the best.

-MSTC Reno (on behalf of the C.C. Cadre of Echo 182)

21 SEP 09

The second half of Sunday went exceptionally well.  We had our off base run as usual, only this time it was three miles long.  We ran deeper into town and wound up passing by the beach.  The senior company, Delta, had recruits dropping out of the run like flies; however, Echo Company prevailed.  Later on, after chow, Chief Stanton and Petty Officer Morgan had us pack our Seabags and we went for a march.  We marched down to the beach singing cadences.  It was incredible to see the ocean and for a few recruits it was their first time ever seeing it.  We had a drill to stack all of the seabags at one end and line up in a single file line, then pass them to the other end and restack them.  The purpose was to familiarize us with how to load and unload ship stores onto a cutter. 

Later, Chief Stanton had us all walk out to the water and take a tiny sip of the ocean.  She then told us to never forget that taste.  She reminded us that that is the last thing a drowning victim will ever taste.  It was an awesome moment that we all got to be a part of.  Shortly thereafter Chief Stanton read us an excerpt from Character in Action and BM2 Morgan told us a few stories of missions he was involved in during his career.  Overall this will most likely be one of the most memorable nights for us while training at Cape May.  Today, Monday, we spent the whole day learning about first aid and CPR.  The first half of the day was all classroom work, and first aid.  After Chow we went straight into practical training and practiced CPR on mannequins.  It was an informative day but wound up being very long.  You can tell the days are long and nights are never long enough if you walk into our squad bays after taps.  Many shipmates constantly call out phrases in their sleep and not quietly by any means.  One shipmate woke up the entire female squadbay about two hours after taps by yelling “Gangway Smallpox” multiple times in her sleep.  Other shipmates have been known to frequently call out their roster order numbers or shut responses to our company commanders.  These have definitely made for some comical moments and ad to the highlights here.

22 SEP 09

As we progress into week 7 we are finishing up with all of our tests.  Today we had another uniform inspection, only this time it was in our tropical blue uniforms w/ combination cover.  Our Battalion Officer performed the inspection and after all of our work on the uniforms he told us that we were “average at Best”.  After that, we really felt bad.  But after evening chow, we had our close order drill test.  Just minutes before our drill we were still feeling bad from the inspection, but Chief Reno ran us through a quick practice before the test started and it went pretty well.  The entire company was fearful that they wouldn’t pass and Petty Officer Morgan told us to just forget the events of the day and just pay attention to what was going on now.  Apparently we did just that.  Our Section commander who scored the drill routine scored us as a perfect 10 of 10.  It was the first time any of our CC’s had a company ace the test.  It was needed too.  Our company commanders made it clear that if we had not smoked that test that we would have been Incentively trained.  So we wanted to do well. 

25 SEP 09.

This week is moving quickly and our time at TRACEN Cape May is coming near to an end.  The company is doing great and everything we have been taught is pretty much second nature by now.  We have been given a lot of responsibility this week, from reveille and marching to chow alone.  We have been working hard all week to have our squad bay inspection, and it finally happened.  We nailed it!  Our scores were great.  We took our seamanship final and that went well.  Everyone passed and the class average was above a 90%, so we received yet another pennant.  Petty Officer Bechtler gave us his good luck /Farewell speech.  We had spend 60 hours with him as our Seamanship instructor and having him say good luck makes it start to sink in that we don’t have much to left.  Thursday morning we took care of Administrative tasks, preparing to report to our first units.  This morning we had our final, which everyone passed.  We made a trip to the armory and returned our pieces.  And later we had the Confidence (obstacle) course.  There was a series of hurdles to get over, some of the obstacles proved challenging for those afraid of heights.    We had a good time and many shipmates accomplished things they thought they could not.  We also received our Company Commander’s pennant, which is awarded when the company commanders approve of our performance as a company, and everyone is performing well.  Tomorrow is our off base liberty and everyone is excited to go out and see Cape May.

27 SEP 09

Less than one week left, so this will be our final entry in the log.  Yesterday we received our liberty from 0900 to 2045.  We were inspected in our uniforms by Chief Reno and once we were O.K.’d we went to the front gates of the base to the waiting taxi cabs.  Everyone went to Rio Grande for the day and hung out.  The most visited places were Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Sonic, The Rio Station, and the Movies.  We also went the new Hibachi Restaurant in town.  It was great.   It was so different being in public and we all found ourselves walking in step with one another and greeting civilians when appropriate.  The day flew by.  Many shipmates had civilians walk up and thank them for their service.  The time has come to end this blog, and we won’t be heard from again until we graduate.  Thank you for all your support!

Blog