Day 14 - Sick call

I went to sick call in the morning. I have to say, sitting in the infirmary is one of the dullest things in the world. One’s natural inclination is to fall asleep, but of course, there’s a sign on the wall: “No Sleeping.”

Because there's not telling how long it'll take, they gave me an MRE to eat, and I got #22 Jambalaya. I was happy because this time I was able to finish it in the *three hours* it took to get picked up from the medical center. I could have walked back twice over in that time frame, but because of the heat that's a no-no.

The medication I got was just for pain, but they also gave me a muscle relaxant, since my muscles have never had a real chance to recover. I hope the two day profile they gave me is enough to get back to normal. When I got back, the guys in the platoon asked about me, which I thought was nice.

Last night I had fireguard duty for two hours because of those two guys I mentioned before. Tonight I only have one, but it's still "full battle rattle." I'll be glad when that's over. It's bad enough we have to wear this stuff during marches; to wear it for fireguard is just dumb.

From what I can tell from asking around, we're not the only screw-ups in the company. Other platoons have done similar things. Comforting to know, I guess.

As far as what we did, we had a sexual harassment briefing, followed by combatives, but I came back after missing most of it (so sad). We learned how to do "the shrimp" move, which is more fun to watch than do.

It rained a lot, maybe due to the hurricane that’s hitting Texas. Rifle bayonet training and the pugil stick fighting got pushed back, which I’m not at all sad about. (I'm not excited about either of them.)

After lunch, we retook the first aid test, which many had failed. We also studied Medevac requests, and later on I helped one of the other platoon's drill sergeants with his Access database. After lights out, I stayed up with my flashlight and wrote a letter to Ryan. I feel really isolated here.

Oh, one other thing. Today, one of my buddies in the platoon (a fellow OCS guy) told me he was having thoughts of suicide. As a matter of duty, I informed the drill sergeant, and he's been put on suicide watch. This means they take away all your shoelaces and make you wear a bright red and yellow mesh roadguard vest. I'd thinkg that would be kind of embarrassing.

I feel sad about turning him in because he told me this in confidence, but I'd rather have him angry at me than dead. To my relief, though, he wasn't angry at all. I hope he'll be all right. That's the second guy I know to be put on watch; I can only hope there won't be any more.