Boot Camp Part 15

September 12, 2009
Camp Lejeune
12:05

T13 - Boots & Uts Run (Log Drills)

Today I wake up, suffering from major chafing that I suffered the previous day while double timing in place constantly. It actually does hurt every time I take a step. I'm talking about my testicles. The skin is actually almost broken because I really had chafed that bad the previous day.

Today are the log drills, which thankfully only take place once during the whole of Boot Camp. We run (painfully for me) to the PT field with our boots and trousers, but wearing our green sweatshirts.

We are briefed on what kinds of drills we'll be doing, and then we're broken down into squads. The shortest go to the back of a log and the tallest go to the front. I was significantly taller than the person behind me, so I was carrying more weight than I would have if the person was just slightly shorter than I was. We go around a track with the log on our right shoulder. At first it's not that bad. We do curls with the log, we do squats, etc. Then when we don't sound off loud enough we have to hold the logs above our head with our arms locked out. This gets very hard very fast.

Eventually, the ordeal is over and we go back to shower and change back into desert cammies.

Throughout the day my cough persists. I drink water, but it gets worse like it had been getting over the weekend.

At some point in the afternoon, one of our DIs informs our platoon that someone has written graffiti in the armory head across the street from the classrooms. It says "1067 T7" or something along those lines on one of the stalls. Sgt. Virto and Sgt. Saldana are furious, but we're about to go to a class, so there's not much they can do.

While sitting in the class, it hits me: a fever. It hits me like a brick wall. Suddenly my head feels detached from the rest of my body, like it's floating away. A dull throbbing headache follows that and I can barely concentrate on what we're learning.

After the class is over we're marched over to a sandy/dusty area next to the chow hall where Sgt. Virto & Saldana proceed to interrogate the platoon on who could have written the graffiti. No one confesses. They ask people to say something if they know anything.

I raise my hand in formation and suggest that it could have been Miller or one of the other recruits who had failed the piss test and been sent off. Sgt. Virto responds saying that they left before T7.

Since the Senior Drill Instructor is the only DI who can IT the entire platoon at once, Sgt. Virto & Saldana begin taking groups of ten people and ITing them in front of the formation. Eventually I'm called out, and I can't stop coughing. I can barely sound off "Aye aye, sir!" "Yes, sir!" etc. Sgt. Saldana notices this and tells me to go away before I can be ITed.

Later that night, the platoon plays games constantly. Dump out footlockers, two sheets & a blanket, etc.

This is after a previous day when Sgt. Saldana and Sgt. Virto destroyed our squad bay by having us take our shoe displays, sheets, blankets, pillows, war bags, and mattresses to the shower room after dumping out footlockers. That day, SSgt. Arzola sent them home.

This time, SSgt. Arzola is backing the DIs the whole time. No one confesses to the graffiti though.

Later, SSgt. Arzola is telling is that we should make sure we're good for tomorrow since we're getting our military IDs and if we don't get them (i.e. if we go to medical) we won't be able to get them until third phase.

I have to fill out a chit to go to medical tomorrow; I feel like absolute shit. There's no other way to put it. I haven't felt this sick in a long time, and certain suspicions are beginning to arise in my mind.

Other recruits such as O'Brien and Reoyo constantly are going to medical for illnesses and whatnot.

I stand up on the quarterdeck with the others going to medical for the hygiene inspection. I wrote "upper respiratory infection" on my chit.

T14 - Pugil Sticks II

We wake up and everything goes as normal, except those going to medical leave the platoon to go to early chow. We march off to the chow hall in a group of about four to six and eat, then march over to medical and sit outside (the same place we got our shots) in the dark, filling out sick call chits and waiting for medical to open.

Every once in a while a DI or a short angry civilian comes around and yells at us for something. Most of the corpsmen are pretty laid back, except the females for some reason.

Eventually I get called in and I have to wait in the hall behind a few other people. When its my turn I go into the office of a mild looking guy, who I believe was an E5 or HM 2. He is pretty laid back, doesn't get impatient with me or raise his voice. He asks me a bunch of questions and checks things off on a computer.

"Any decrease or loss of appetite?"

"Yes," I say, and then I realize he probably already knows what's wrong with me. I couldn't eat yesterday for dinner or this morning for breakfast. I just couldn't. I had absolutely no desire to eat at all.

"You have pneumonia," he says. Horror washes over me. This is what people get held back for in Boot Camp. I could miss Initial Drill this Friday, and that's a graduation requirement.

He writes some things down, a few prescriptions, and puts me on bed rest (Sick In Quarters) which means I get to sleep all day today. Secretly, I'm relieved, but I hold my bearing to look regretful and disappointed that I can't train.

When I finally get my medicine, it's already lunch time, so I go eat. When I get back to the squad bay, not many people are around. I'm wearing a blue face mask when I walk in so when I cough I don't spew germs everywhere. Someone's guarding the door, one of my fellow recruits. They see I'm sick and sort of nod.

I put my light duty/bed rest chit on the scribe's desk (who is Rohl, a strange guy who I haven't really described yet). Then, I take whatever pills I'm supposed to, put the medicine where it goes, and go to sleep.