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.

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20SEP09

Sunday, today is divine hours and we can definitely say it is our favorite day of the week. After spending the morning at chapel services, writing letters, and squaring away our uniforms, it was time to get back to training. We were excited to participate in our first off base run! We ran 1.5 miles and sang cadences along the way. The run made us feel good about our company, our formation was squared away and the way people off the base looked and waved at us made us take pride in ourselves, our company and our country.

21SEP09

Today started week 05 in training, but by the way we acted we were nowhere near the expected behavior that our company commanders want from us. Our motivation and dedication is strong in our minds, as individuals, but our teamwork we present everyday is inconsistent. We constantly learn the hard way that this journey is not possible without working together, and thinking as a unit. Although times like this give us little hope that graduation day will soon, we should all remember that there is nothing worth having that doesn’t take hard work.

22SEP09

We spent most of the morning at the uniform distribution center. This is the second trip to the center since forming week four weeks prior. All of us recruits were dying to finally try on our new dress uniforms that we will be wearing on graduation day! This gave us hope that we desperately needed; graduation is so close. After chow we went to seamanship class to learn about using radios and the phonetic alphabet. We paired up with each other to practice mock search and rescue scenarios. It gave us a feel of what it feels like to be a guardian in the fleet.

23SEP09

Today most of the morning was spent in the gym. Each session we have is usually lifecycle or a cybex weight equipment workout. Today it was lifecycles, and boy did we sweat! The workout consisted of many different speed intervals that wore us out by the total forty five minute workout. After the workout was complete our legs felt like jello as we marched into formation for our seamanship class for the midterm. Everyone did excellent because of all the review our instructor gave us. It was a long day that finally came to an end but what kept us going was the anticipation of receiving our orders for our permanent duty stations.

24SEP09

This morning was our cybex workout class, and to get out of the rack and immediately start exercising with your eyes half open is hard work. Everyone has been having watch this week which means if we have a shift at three in the morning until four we have to wake up an hour early to get dressed…This means we are losing two hours of sleep every night! We’ve all gotten sick since we’ve arrived at the training center and the hygiene and military bearing of us all needs to tighten up. When the class dismissed we were taken to be read our orders to what unit we will be heading off to after training is over! The list ranged from Rhode Island all the way to Alaska, most of us were happy with our duty stations but you could see on the faces of some of the recruits that they were shocked at the location of which they will be sent shortly after graduation.

25SEP09

We knew this day was coming…The dreadful day of receiving our small pox vaccinations. As we stood in line with sleeves rolled up, our minds were going crazy with fear. The fifteen jabs in the arm were not pleasant, but luckily we all made it through alive. Since the vaccination makes us contagious to anything that comes in contact with our vaccination area, we were given directions on how to properly dress and sanitize our arms. After spending the morning in medical, we had our first uniform inspection. We scored fair but really need to work on squaring away our hair and uniforms so we don’t look too jacked up…as our Company Commanders would say. Lastly we spent the remainder of the evening practicing marching and Manual of Arms; with continuous practice we should get to be precise enough to pass the Manuel of arms test and close order drill.

26SEP09

All of us recruits had no idea how much the smallpox vaccination would affect us… the nurse said flu like symptoms may occur but we didn’t know how true it would be. The morning wakeup all the way until hitting the racks was filled with bouts of the chills and fevers. We couldn’t complain or the ambulance would have to arrive and pluck us off to medical so we popped our ibuprofen and continued with the day.

We discussed commitment today with Petty Officer Rosas and it was insightful to hear all of our shipmate’s reasons why they are committed to the Coast Guard; it brought us together as a company. We finally got to take hot showers after a rainy day that filled our gortex jackets and pants with puddles of unpredictable New Jersey rain.

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14SEP09

Today the port side of the company spent most of the day at the firing range. We shot a .40 caliber pistol, some of us did well enough to receive a marksmanship and sharpshooter score. On the other hand some of us shipmates weren’t as skillful as others in operating such a powerful weapon… including receiving safety violations for shooting the deck and overhead. Starboard side spent the day inside a classroom, learning about commitment and the proper way to render colors. After a day at the range, portside went to take individual photos in their dress uniforms for photos that will be given to us after graduation.

15SEP09

Today it was starboard s side’s turn to go to the range and to get their individual pictures taken. After all was complete and both sides were together again we compared results and portside received higher scores and starboard side received more violations! We all gave each other pats on the back for the high scorers but for the violators we couldn’t help but feel annoyed that they didn’t follow the rules at the range. For most of us to be novice shooters, all in all we did a good job.

16SEP09

This is the day we all dreaded…our physical fitness assessment. The test consisted of pushups, sit-ups, and the 1.5 mile run. We all felt like we gave a hundred and ten percent and the sweat and heavy breathing that filled the gym definitely showed it. As if running the 1.5 mile wasn’t bad enough, we had to run the outer part of the parade field that evening for training which was exhausting because of how much we used our legs that day and the parade field isn’t small either…When we were told to get into our racks our legs were very sore and it felt great to finally rest them because other than when we are in our racks we almost never get a second to relax our constantly moving bodies.

17SEP09

After morning chow, we slung our rucksacks on our backs and headed to seamanship. We were being tested on the five types of lines and knots, which were easy enough to understand and perform because every class our instructor gives us a lot of time to practice. When we were tested we were outside…it was a cold windy day but we managed to all pass the test and headed back inside of  the building. Tomorrow is graduation for Charlie Company, and we feel honored to participate because it will be our first time getting to participate in a company’s graduation!

18SEP09

Today was an important step in training because a 0730 we took our midterm test. We all studied all long and hard to be prepared, since it was an open book test we had to tab all of the sections with masking tape( which we use for everything) so that we would know where to find the answers. After rushing through nervously we completed our first major test and got saw our scores posted an hour later! We were ecstatic that we all passed and some of us even got a perfect score! The graduation came next so we prepared our uniforms and headed over to the parade field. Our company performed well with our facing movements and our proud march back to the squad bay but then came trouble…our uniforms weren’t at all inspection ready, we didn’t look like we took proud in the company and this made our company commanders heads spin. We were forced to do intensive training the rest of the night, except for those who participated in the blood drive after the graduation. The ones who gave blood where more than thrilled to know that they didn’t have to do anything physically straining… which is all we do. Never the less our company contributed our part to the Red Cross.

19SEP09

Saturday…Today our company headed to the gym for our pugil stick training. We thought it was exciting to learn the variety of moves and blocks. We also learned about all the gear that we will suit up in during a match. All these instructions were in preparation for our bouts(fights) we will have on Monday! This gives us a chance to take all our anger out on each other, something we dream about on a daily basis… For the remainder of the day we went back to Healy hall for what we call “field day”.  Field day is squad bay maintenance and cleaning. Lastly we hit the rack and were squirming with joy that tomorrow brings divine hours and a step closer to week 05.

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07SEP09

Today most of us ran two laps around the track to practice for our physical qualification test next week. The rest of our company is on “green belt” which means while most of us are working our bodies to death, they stand and do arm circles and even get shiny green belts to wear. The “green belts” are considered the broke people of the company. Being on light duty is a so called vacation for the “green belters” but they are missing out on the suffering that brings our company together. Some would give anything to have their bones broken and torn muscles healed so they can participate in the company’s confidence building team exercises. As it is, a few of the green belts are thinking about how bad they don’t want to get reverted; sent back to another company  a week or two behind us. Because this would mean they would be missing valuable physical training. This also hit home when we did a joint exercise with Hotel company and their company commanders. Hotel company is one week behind us so some of us have the unwanted potential to join them…And we thought our company commanders were scary…We now realize that our company commanders are so tough on us because they want us to improve on being a team. They are truly doing all this for our own good… but of course they enjoy our pain at least a little bit. We can’t really complain because our company commanders have all been through where we are now. They all went through Boot Camp when they first enlisted and then again when they were training to become company commanders. If they can do it twice, then we should be able to get though this at least once. We just need to toughen up. The rest of our day was filled with classes ranging from: how the G.I Bill works and sexual harassment awareness. The treat came tonight when we finally started to learn manual arms drills. Our pieces were finally being used for learning instead of punishment. It seems that the first two weeks were the hardest, but we can finally see ourselves pulling together as a team. We are all eager to see what week three has in store for us.

08SEP09

Today our company took a step towards being an effective military unit, by learning to stand watch. Standing watch is an important aspect to every military service. Unlike civilian jobs, the Coast Guard never stops operating. We must always be ready and alert. Usually a watch consists of 02 to 03 people making sure that their assigned area is secure, and they do this in 04 hour shifts. Since we are just learning this and our company consists of over 70 people, the watch is broken up into 01 hour shifts, so all recruits can learn the proper way to stand watch. This meant that some people went to bed, just in time to wake up shortly after. Our watch standing consists of walking our deck and checking all squadbays and stairwells. This gave us an opportunity to see our shipmates in a professional way. The young men and women that we normally see dripping with sweat from intensive training, we now saw crawled up in the fetal position, sleeping like babies. Our first two classes were the driest yet. We learned about safety and hazardous materials, very important information to learn but hardly anything that the instructor could make riveting. Most of our instructors start off their classes informing us that their biggest pet peeve is recruits falling asleep in class. Today we all had a hard time with this. Heads started nodding, highlighters drifted across pages and eyes became very heavy. Every break we would all rush to the head and try and jolt ourselves awake with wet paper towels soaked in cold water. Our next class was able to keep us awake because we were interested in learning about the history of the Coast Guard. Most of us did not realize that the Coast Guard is the oldest maritime service; The Navy ain’t got nothin’ on us. The stories of the great men and women and ships that came before us gave us goosebumps. Hearing about their brave and selfless acts of heroism made us all eager to graduate and be in the fleet. We can only hope to achieve the same. We all will depart Cape May, hoping to walk in the steps of our forefathers.

09SEP09

Today the weather took a foul turn. Instead of blue skies we endured a day of pouring rain. As the day went on the weather put a damper on the company’s spirits. Just when we were all ready to give up, we got the boost we sorely needed. The chaplain came by to give us updates on the outside world. We all sat eager to hear the news. The boys were thrilled to hear all the current events in the sports world. At the end of the news we had a somber moment remembering the events of September 11^th. We were all reminded of why we are here, and that we are proud to be here serving our country.

10SEP09

Today was an early and tiring wake up for those needing to start attending physical fitness enhancement class. This class is a daily practice for out fitness test in week 04. Waking up at 0430 to be at the gym by 0530 felt impossible. We all learned that sleep in a privilege earned. We were eager to have our first seamanship class today. The company was curious to meet a new instructor and begin learning the ins and out of a ship. Even though we were running on no sleep, we all made it through the 04 hour class successfully. If the days do not already seem long, the company commanders make it feel that much longer…most of us recruits are careless at times. We forget to refill our pockets that are supposed to contain 02 performance trackers and 02 ink sticks, therefore our company commanders lined us up and demanded us to empty out pockets, it was no surprise that we were unprepared. Their solution to this was to rip up performance trackers along the quarterdeck, and then came some well deserved intensive training. Our sweaty palms stuck to the paper and beads of sweat rolled down our cheeks. Through exhaustion and insanity, we all know through blood sweat and tears that graduation gets closer every day.

11SEP09

September 11, 2001 is an unforgettable day in history. Today were reminded of the tragic events of that horrid day, and gave up our thoughts and prayers to the friends and families affected. Our company watched a slideshow on the effects of September 11, and emotions began to run deeply through the room. The boys even teared up, breaking the poker faces that we must render on a normal day. During mid-afternoon our spirits were lifted when our Lead Company Commander, petty officer Rosas gave us encouraging words that we are improving and fastly approaching week 04. Even though sad emotions rolled through the day, we were reminded while we are here; to serve and protect our country which is the most honorable job in the world.

12SEP09

Saturday is normally a relaxing day but not today for Golf Company…we spent the entire day in our seamanship class. Although tying knots and taking tests were making the day seem slow it was exciting to get behind the controls of a boat simulator, which taught us how to steer a ship correctly using seamanship terminology. After arriving back at Healy hall, Petty Officer Bailey ordered us to get outside on the wet parade field. After completing some teamwork intensive training he told us to look around the regiment to see how many other companies were outside at 2100 training. There was only one other company out there. He told us only the best train day or night, rain or shine. Our response echoed through the regiment and then our company proudly resided in Healy hall for the night.

13SEP09

Today is most recruit’s favorite day of the week because of divine hours. We get five hours on Sundays to attend chapel, write and read letters, and square away our uniforms for the week. We all appreciate the few hours of relaxation to think about what we have accomplished thus far, and to plan for a successful upcoming week. Now that week 4 has finally arrived, it is time to split our company into two parts; port side (left) and starboard side (right). We are split in order to start attending our more hands on, interactive classes, such as; marksmanship and firefighting. This is a very important week in training because we also have our physical fitness test and midterm vastly approaching. Wish us luck!

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28 Aug 09

On Friday at 1500 we were picked up by our company commanders. We all gathered our personal belongings, rucksacks, and seabags, and moved into our new home, Healy Hall. We were introduced to our new barracks and quarterdeck. After a clumsy march, we were lead to the galley for a filling meal to sustain us for the long night.

29 Aug 09

We started the day bright and early with a fire drill, our company commanders introduced us to the Coast Guard Core Values. Which is the basis of our training. Today we also made a trip to the base exchange, where we bought personal items and postcards to send home to our loved ones. We were also taught how to wear and take care of our operational dress uniforms.

30 Aug 09

For the first time since arriving at cape may we were given divine hours. With this time we organized our racks, wrote post cards and some went to services at the chapel. After divine hours we made our way to the gym for an introduction to core strengthening, which was the start of the physical aspect of our training. That evening we learned to stencil our gear.

31 Aug 09

We started our day with a workout on the cybex machines in the gym. After that we went to the chapel to discuss stress management with the chaplains. Even though the days are stressful, with the chaplain's advice, it's easier to manage everything that was thrown our way so quickly.

01 Sep 09

Today was our first swim in the pool, to test our swimming capabilities. For most of us it was a challenge that will have to be overcome in the following weeks. Those that were poor swimmers were in good hands though; trained lifeguards were in the water with them. The rest of the day was filled with classes that were hard to stay awake in, because of the draining morning and afternoon filled with training drills that the company commanders throw at us.

02 Sep 09

We look forward to going to the galley most! We get so hungry with all the drills, physical fitness classes, and constant marching. Once we hurry into the galley we have to follow strict rules; lining up, picking up and sliding our trays , and even standing in the position of attention while waiting for the meal awaiting us! Today in class we learned about ranks and ranks, and how to identify the military personnel in the Coast Guard, from enlisted to officers. Throughout the class we were asked many review questions, but every raised hand couldn't get the answer right.  It was frustrating but with practice we will master it. Today also brought us gifts just like Christmas. First we received our pieces (decommissioned M-1 Rifles.) We carried them back to our barracks and stowed them away safely in our racks. The recruits that wear glasses or contacts go an extra present, stylish, thick framed glasses that included a strap that ensure s that the glasses stay on during our rigorous activities.

03 Sep 09

After our wake up routine and gym for core strengthening, we had an insightful class on how we will get paid, and how to read our earnings statement when it comes in the mail. We were surprised on how much information is packed on one pay slip. The next class was about hazing and inappropriate relationships; it was intriguing to read case studies on different scenarios we never knew existed. After taking in so much information for the day, as soon as as soon as the showers went on and our tiresome bodies laid in the rack, we could finally catch our breath because the day was finally over.

04 Sep 09

Today we found ourselves on the track in our physical fitness uniform early in the morning. We were instructed to stretch and run two laps. Our company has an array of strong and weak runners, but to begin the run was difficult for all of us because it was our second run since arriving in cape may. After getting sweaty on the track we made our way to the cybex machines in the gym for a workout. Later in the day we had a class on Anti Terrorism. We all heard about terrorism but now that we are a part of the military, we are the ones that protect the rest of the United States, which is a huge role.

05 Sep 09

Today we met the mentor of our company. He let us ask questions we were dying to ask, such as the best way to advance in the Coast Guard, and what was a better route "A" school or striking. Also the best place to get stationed, whether it be a small boat station, air station, or cutter. The information we grasped from him relaxed our uneasy minds for an hour. We knew that when he left, our next set of team building exercises would begin. Even though they are tough, self discipline was what we needed and were reminded every day.

06 Sep 09