Day 31 – Diagnostic APFT

First, the PT test. I did 40/55/15:20, which scored me 64, 75, & 81 respectively, though I’m not completely happy with the results. I could have done more pushups had I not screwed up in the beginning. Six more and I would have met DS B’s platoon standard. I could have also squeezed out two more situps, but I kind of called it quits in the last ten seconds. I’ve got to do things smarter next time. (It’s four weeks until the final one.) Even so, my score of 220 ranks me #15 out of 57 in the platoon.

Breakfast went well – we had real bacon instead of the turkey bacon we usually get, and I was able to finish all but my eggs, which I didn’t really care to eat anyway. For lunch I had veal croquette, which made me happy; I was able to eat all my dinner as well. Even though I was at the end of the line, I managed to shovel corn, coleslaw, and mexican rice in quickly. The turkey went fast, and the biscuit was nothing. I even had time to grab dessert – a glass of chocolate milk.

Apart from meals, the day was not fun. In the morning, we had the workout from hell with five-gallon water jugs. We had to do lunges around the center of the room and overhead presses.

In the afternoon, we did pop-up targets at the virtual range. We’ll do the same at the range on Monday. Weapons cleaning. No mail (it’s Saturday), but the fact that tomorrow is Sunday is a relief by itself.

It was one drill sergeant’s last day, so as a going away present he smoked us a little bit. What was cool was that all the drill sergeants joined us as we did pushups.

We lost one guy a few days ago because his bad shoulder wasn’t going to get better; he’ll get a medical discharge. It’s a shame; he was a good soldier, and a surprisingly good artist. Before leaving, he designed a logo that we’re thinking about using on our platoon T-shirts.