Things I Remember

 More stuff I remember about Basic Training

We marched wherever we went.  Chow, the Shopette, almost all our training sites.  Several times, it was and even with rucksacks, ouch, my feet, etc.  I remember the gas chamber.  My mask wasn't working that well to begin with, but when we took them off, Oh it was Awful.  I remember struggling on the PT runs.  It was dark so early in the morning.  I was just trying to keep in formation and follow the recruit in front of me.  I remember working hard to do well on the PT Tests, First Aid training, Heavy Weapons training.  I remember when we did M16 weapons qualifications.  Our training was to put the nose on the charging handle.  The air was strong with the smell of gun powder and occasionally, the ejected brass burning hot until it was time to police up the range.  During qualification, the recoil busted my nose to start bleeding.  I think the Drill Sergeant was proud that I kept going.  Later, I found out that firing in hot weather was hard because of the sweat burning and blurring my eyes when I was trying to aim.