The missing letter

So I finaly got the letter that Dave sent to KY after I had left! I thought it had gotten lost but it showed up today. It was mailed March 31st and covers the week of the 22nd-27th. So pretend that this post was written a couple weeks ago when I had that 2 week break.

He starts off writing about his experience with the gas chamber. He isn't sure if his masked worked at all as his eyes began to water the moment he entered the room, and he started to cough. They had to pull the mask forward, say their name, clear the mask and seal it. It took Dave several times to say it so that his DS could hear him. Then they had to remove the mask and hold their mask in one hand and their rifle in the other. They also had to strap their helmet on. If you messed up you went through again. As Dave was walking out, He had the prompting to doublr check his chin strap. He did so and discovered that it wasn't done properly. He quickly fixed it and saved himself from having to go through again. He thanked God, and I do now. I love when he tells me about the little mircles.

Tuesday, if you recall, they went to the Eagle Tower, repelling. He really enjoyed that and didn't stuggle to much. For lunch he had his first MRE, he liked it alright, says it's not like my cooking, but edible.

Wednesday they did a "Confidence Course", an obsticle course. They did a number of different team building challenges. The only part he struggled with was the rope, his platoon got smoked at PT that morning and his arms hadn't recovered just yet. They continued this on Thursday. On his first time up the rope, he still struggled. When he cam back after lunch, he made it up just fine. His platoon won the challenge for the day! They earned 10 min of phone time (which they promptly lost for being late, talking in formation, and failing inspection on Sat).

Friday they had their 1st field training exercise. They learned about manuvering fire teams, bound and drop, and high and low crawl. They concluded that day with another obsticle course using these new skills. They won again!

Saturday they learned about land navigation. Dave rocked that. He said it was super easy for him.

That concludes his week, he mentions seeing pics at www.2-47panthers.org. I haven't checked that link yet but I know this link has pics. http://www.flickr.com/photos/247infantry.