Letter received 07/26/06

Manna from Heaven!!!!

Finally, after 16 day letter drought.

July 14, 2006

Dear Everyone,
Things are difficult. I don't know why but I keep screwing up. My drill is bad and my PT is worse. This week has just flat out sucked! Tuesday, I had the gas chamber. That was probably the most uncomfortable thing I have ever gone through. They use CS gas. They put us in to a small building with our mask on; when they released the gas the effects started immediately. My skin felt like I had a bad sun burn all over my body. We did a few exercises, then they told us to close our eyes and hold our breath and take our mask off. Like an idiot, the first thing I did was open my eyes and take a deep breath. That was a MISTAKE! I could barely breathe. I have never felt anything like that before in my life.

July 16, 2006

I know I don't send many letters, but I have no choice. These last few weeks we have had NO time. In fact, I'm not supposed to be writting now. We have initial drill Tuesday and everyone is on edge. This is a really BIG event. It will be a relief when it is over.

Now to answer some questions...
"What is quarterdecked? and what do you do there?" The quarterdeck is the front part of our squadbay. It is where the DI send people who screw up. They make you do just about every single stationary exercise you can think of and as quick as possible. It tires you out real quick. Now the sand pit is similar to the quarterdeck except its outside and in the sand.

Some of the other things we did this past week is the confidence course and we learned how to choke people.

To mom... I love you very much, keep your chin up because it won't be much longer.

July 20-23, 2006

I know its been a while since I wrote but I had no choice. With Initial drill everything was hectic. To make matters worse we got placed 4th out of 6. That made the drill instructors mad. We just really got over that fall out. I got some more letters from ya'll. Two from Amanda, One from Beka, one from Josh (thanks for the pictures), 4-5 from dad, and quite a few from mom including the recent blog. Yesterday(july 22), was a good day, it started out rough but got better. I completed the entire obstacle course. We were supposed to run three miles but we got stopped because people were passing out. If we had kept the rate I was running I would have been done in 24 minutes. YES, that is 3 miles in 24 minutes NONSTOP. Then we went on to the pugil sticks III where we fought in a camoflage arena and had two recruits pounding the fighters with boxing pads. Guess what? I WON! The guy fell to the ground and I did a bayonet slash to the back of his head. So I had a good day.

Tell Jamie I'm upset that I won't get to see her, but she can send a letter or two if she wants. Just keep in touch. Hey Beka, good luck with the new condo, and same with Josh, Vanessa and Madison, good luck on your move as well. I love you all.

Love,
Tim

P.S. Just so you know, the platoon is in phase II out of III. Also I am a level 4 qualified swimmer.

P.P.S. Night Mom, love you.