Monday, 02NOV09

There are some really exciting things happening this week. First is our range test with a SIG Sauer small arm, followed by company pictures. Miles down the road of success we will remember these 08 weeks.  We have been anxious to get to week 04 to get heavy into seamanship, SAR, and firefighting.  There is a sense of family building in the close ranks more and more every day. It is our responsibility to clean the entire Munro Hall, as we are currently the only company taking residence. Along with our cleaning duties, we have polishing, studying, shaving, brushing, laundry, religious services, as well as these hours being the only time we have to read letters.  The weather here has been strange, sometimes it rains the same day its 70 degrees this late in the year.  The erratic weather has been a challenge, but we are Semper Paratus (Always Ready). No snow yet, but here comes our month.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

Tuesday, 03NOV09

Today we finished up all the remaining pictures and small arms practice, lunch and safety measures at Goff Hall and The Range (The Firearms and Firefighting building here at Cape May). The pictures went well, and we all look sharp, as we ordered many pictures on behalf of our family’s sake. Our small arms practice however did not go as well  many of the recruits learned their limitations at the range, it's not as easy as it looks in Die Hard, senior recruits believe that given another opportunity after familiarizing themselves with small arms would qualify, or even rate marksman. We became anxious to shoot and we began to make any of a myriad of simple mistakes. Although we are not independent, we have been given more responsibilities, and most of the day we are working towards functioning without the direction of our direct superiors, as they will not always be around to hold our hands.  The company now has a multitude of responsibilities, including but not limited to clean-up, historians, photographers, brass polish, shoe polish, watch duty, color guard (responsible for paying homage to the red white and blue), drill team, religious petty officers, yeoman (the book keepers), the guidons (the recruit charged with carrying NOVEMBER's colors) laundry crew, and the squad leaders (charged with keeping us in check) the list goes on and on. We've come a long way from our lazy beginning, and we may have a long way to go, but most of us look at this task with new reverence as we are not only learning how to save lives, but to live them.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

Wednesday, 04NOV09

The dreaded Wednesday, physical fitness test day, to see if we have to be rebuilt in order to serve the needs of the service.  Surprisingly 90% of our company remained triumphant after the test and will not have to worry about all the physicality of boot camp... at least until tomorrow. I suppose we can attribute our success to our Company Commanders, everything they do is for a reason, 40 years of busting recruits' butts they know that enough IT (incentive training) and all these physical tests will be a cake walk. Tomorrow is seamanship; most of the sore recruits are excited for some new knowledge as we all have push-ups down to a T.  After the physical tests, we spent a good deal of time polishing our polishing techniques, reading our loved ones letters, and cleaning the squad bays, as well as cleaning out Quebec company's new living arrangements, followed up by a visit from the Chaplin who lead those faithful in a prayer and told us a bit about the outside world we so sorely miss. Another day down, less than a month to go.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

Thursday, 05NOV09

Good things come to those that show up to get them.  Today, we had two great events that we were looking forward to all week.  Having our Vice Admiral and Master Chief Sponsors show up and speak with us about what's going on in the world of Coast Guard, and getting to write our dream sheets.  The Admiral and Master Chief showed up wearing their flight suits which was great.  They were very attentive to our company and answered all of our endless questions.  We thank them for that and for honoring us with their mentoring.  We also voted today and are trying to jointly schedule our company picture with the Admiral and Master Chief.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed.  Then the dream sheets were finally written.  The entire company, with a very few exceptions i.e. (people with guaranteed jobs), wrote down the 12 geographic locations we request to be stationed.  From exotic places such as Hawaii, to possible danger in the Middle East and finally to complete isolation in Alaska.  The world is now our oyster (or at least will be after boot camp.)  We won't find out till about week 06.  Lastly, another dreaded event is about to occur tomorrow, our mid-term exam.  We were just studying and writing notes so don't worry too much, but wish us luck anyway.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

Friday, 06NOV09

Good morning, now, go run a mile.  After our physical fitness test Wednesday the run this morning felt like a leisure stroll.  Today we took the dreaded midterm; plenty of butterflies in our stomachs were masked by our military bearing, as we dare not make a move in hopes of making our way into week 05.  After "Pencils down."  We made our way back to the squad bay with mixed emotions about our exam. After a dismal start to our manual of arms practice with our M-1s, Chief Howe entered with the Scantron results of our mid-term examination.  NOVEMBER averaged just over 95% and earned an award pennant for our guidon. After the good news and an impressed Chief left, we were happy to continue practicing our Manual of Arms to perfect another part of our training here at Cape May. Hopefully when all is said and done here, we will have a copious amount of awards hanging below our colors.  After chow we made our way to the gym for a Cybex gym workout.  After such a frenzied week, we come again to Friday, to see another company graduate off base, and we stand exhausted... at attention.  After a quick sea shower and we changed again into our ODUs (Operational Dress Uniforms) we headed to our neighboring Healy Hall and donated blood for the Red Cross.  We found out that a certain % of volunteers was required to earn yet another award pennant, we met the quota.  The evening blurred by with cleaning, muster, showers, granola bars, and more polishing and ironing.  The last few minutes of the evening we devoted ourselves to reading and writing a few letters to our loved ones, and then if you've heard the news we had a prayer and moment of silence for our fallen servicemen and women of the United States Army. Our hearts go out to their friends and families and we pray for the wounded to make safe. Time for taps.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

Saturday, 07NOV09

We started the day with an unexpected compliment from Yeoman First Class Durrant about our improvements with close order drill movements.  This brightened our morale, and the morning seemed to be progressing well. The morning and into the afternoon evolutions we spent our time learning more about proper procedures to First Call, Attention, The National Anthem plays (Retreat in the evening), and Carry-on IE procedures for Colors. We spent a good deal of time learning proper techniques and both offensive and defensive forms for pugilism class, an Esprit De Corps class in a melee environment teaching us what it is like to not only be hit, but be in a high adrenaline situation while taking charge of our emotions.  The afternoon to evening evolution was where we all fell apart. Chief Howe gave us a uniform/required knowledge inspection on the quarterdeck (the senior enlisted/officers deck), it wasn't nearly as bad as what we had to look forward to back in our own squad bays. We had Chief Operations Specialist Heinzman (our Section Commander) pay us a visit for inspections. Three 'F's under our belt for both the male squad bays and the female squad bay. Very disappointing turn of events to end the evening.  Tomorrow is free time, which I can guarantee will be spent getting ourselves squared away to ensure that we learn from our mistakes. Time for Taps.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

Sunday, 08NOV09

This Sunday was by far the best day so far in recruit training.  Hands down.  The morning started with a "Fire Fire Fire" drill that sprang NOVEMBER into action, only to shortly find out that the drill was meant for our new neighbors QUEBEC-182. So back to bed for a half hour, then our quiet 0600 wake up by the watch staff, and we moved equally as fast to prepare for morning muster.  Everything went particularly smooth into our 'Divine Hours' the morning was spent writing letters for our snail mail service, and preparing our ODUs and boondockers for the Battalion Commander inspection.  We ended our free time shoveling chow down, then we got on line in front of Munro Hall for an off-base run.  The run was the most surreal experience we've had here at TRACEN, it was done in formation, in step, with cadence supplied by Petty Officer Durrant, Chief Howe, and our Section Commander Chief Heinzman.  We ran through the local housing while our civilian neighbors watched, some with cameras, some standing with their children waving, while cadence was provided about everything from coast guard pride, no pain no gain, to beating up Spiderman. The run ended far too soon for most recruits as NOVEMBER seemed to have in addition to second winds, third, and fourth winds, granted by the sense of pride we felt showing off our Guardian spirit.  After the run we lined back up in front of Munro Hall, where we were elated to be presented NOVEMBER Company's Colors, a cross checkered sea blue and white. The company rebounded from one of the worst days for morale, to the best. It was hard for some recruits not to smile, but we maintained our military bearing. Petty Officer Sutton joined us after the run, and was our teacher for the rest of the day, he taught us about performance evaluations and went in depth on how to succeed when we reach the fleet.  This advice was much appreciated by the recruits as it should put us days ahead.  Week 05 is just around the corner, and we are planning on escalating the discipline level to the Nth degree to avoid the "Week 05 Dive", as it was described to us.  Overconfidence, lack of discipline, putting our guard down, and dust bunnies are our enemies now.  Bring on 05.

Goodnight, NOVEMBER-182

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