Post 18

Der Family
Today was the five mile hike, wow, that is the best I can explain it, the very fact that you can sweat off five pounds without even realizing your sweating wa insane yeah you felt the sweat dripping you just couldn't figure out how. The pace we kept was vigorous we did it in about 2 hours or so the pace father and me take when we go on hikes together but with 50lbs pack, 10lb flax jacket, and 5lb kevlar helmet. To say I was tired at the end would be only a half truth. I was tired but mostly because the last half of the hike my pack shifted and was ridding on my shoulders so I had a really bad pain in my back for half of the hike. Then we took part of a practice test for our Prac exam. After dinner we had a concert put on by rewamericansingers.com a christian group of teens and young adults thatput on shows for the armed forces around the world. It was really cornie but everyone agrees it was very uplifting for us to see that we are actually appreciated not just hated like all PI's make you believe. t is amazing how the simple things up lift the spirit and help you continue on even after the body has given up. We are entering rifle qualification week which I am nervous. I know I can hit the target I just don't know if I can hit it well enough at 500yds to pass. It is a little odd I am trying to hit a target that is the size of a human torso at a length of 5 football fields with a buttet the width of 5.56mm it seems impossible but I guess I see how impossible very soon. Well I need sleep as usual butI will write tomorrow after church to answer questions if I can remember them or if I have any questions for you.

Sunday
went to bible study and church today very hectic beginning to the day started out that someone was stupid and overdosed on pain meds at the chaple so we had church outside instead which was quite enjoyable talkd about Pauls struggle with sin and ours. Again another person in the series was stupid they keyed the Senior Chief Drill Instructors car so now we are waiting to get punished because no one will admit to committing the crime so we all ge to be introuble. The Marinecorps way. (Later that night) wellno one got messed up in our platoon and I haven't heard if they found the other guy or not. The rest of the day was boring field day, Senior Drill Instructor talk, and cleaned our rifles so tomorrow we can begin shooting week. I get to shoot in the morning in the second relay on a target close to the barn so the wind should be very minimal and will give me advantage for shooting. We will be there all day but I will probably only shoot for an hour. The other times I will be working in the pit or writing in my data book keeping scores calculating winds and sigh adjustments. I guess I should explan the pits the targets are on carts that go up and down in a pit where people are working them marking where shots hit and the points of the shots also they will be changing out targets for different shooting positions and distances. There are three different targets that need to be rotated and the marks tha the pit crew put onto the targets are to help judge how off the sights are how badly you built your position, how relaxed you are and how well you set up your natural point of aim, use your natural respiratory pause and your perfect sigh alignment which tells you how much I have to think about plus I have toget ten shots off in a minute utilizing all of these elements and building my position. Well I need to go finish setting up my data book for tomorrow and get some sleep.
LOVE
Ben
PS Along with doing an hour of fire watch
PSS I loved the pictures and leaf I even laminated the leaf so It wouldn't get ruined.