04OCT09

Today was dedicated to practicing for our close order drill test on Tuesday. Petty Officer Bailey wanted our movements to be as close to perfect as possible because if we pass we will get our off base liberty given to us on Saturday After going over the routine numerous times we headed to evening chow. We spent the reminder of the evening working on our tropical dress uniform. We are trying to perfect our look because we have an inspection with battalion officer Tuesday.

05OCT09

Today we had our first aid classes; the class that teaches us the basics on how we are actually going to save lives. We got to bandage faux wounds and look at gruesome photos of actual injuries. Our whole company gasped at each bloody limb, knowing that one day we could be the ones dressing an open wound or treating a third degree burn. After chow we had CPR training. We thought that it was neat that the traing was realistic, with adult and infant mannequins. It’s a good feeling to know that if or when a emergency medical situation occurs we will know exactly what to do.

06OCT09

We had two major tests today…our tropical dress uniform inspection and the close order drill test. We anticipated that we’d pass both with flying colors since all we do is practice night and day for important tests in our training like these. We were disappointed to find that our inspection ready uniforms were not at all inspection ready therefore we failed miserably… Although we were upset over the results we still had one more test to go; our close order drill test. We were all so excited when we passed it with a 9 out of 10! At the end of the day we learned that you must take the good with the bad, and keep pressing on.

07OCT09

It was our last day of seamanship today… we were outside in the pouring rain for most of the morning handling lines and acting out scenarios of mooring in a cutter. We all took our turns trudging around in our soaked gortex jackets and pants trying our best to remember correct terminology to the instructions were being given. We also took our seamanship final, and we all passed! Because of our good performance throughout all our seamanship classes, we received the seamanship pennant. The pennant will hang next to our colors and other well deserved pennants on the guide on that gets carried around with us everywhere we go.

08OCT09

We spent the day in classes learning about work/life. We learned about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and self examinations which altogether didn’t seem too exciting but it was taught to inform us on what we can experience on a regular basis in life.  Tonight we studied for our final, which is tomorrow! We all are thrilled we are finally taking our final exam, and we are all crossing our fingers we pass. This exam is unlike the midterm exam since the test is half open book and half closed book, which may make it a little more challenging.

09OCT09

Today was our long awaited final exam, we were all very nervous because it was half closed book. After a few hours of waiting for the results, we were relieved to find out we all passed.  We spent part of the afternoon completing the confidence course. Most of us found it to be an adventure, while others found it near impossible. To complete the course there are times where courage plays a big role, confidence to swing over bars, use all our strength to pull ourselves up the rope and other obstacles. We cheered each other on throughout the course until we all completed it; we get another chance to run the course in week 8, something we all look forward to doing again.

Blog