Letter from September 7, 2008

Mom and Dad:
Hey, it's Sunday today. I just got back from church. Apparently most of the day today is down time, so I get to write. I guess I'll try to give a comple rundown on what's happened so far. I've been in basic for a total of 9 days now. The first day was rough - lots of smoking (punishments), we had to hold our bags above our heads for about 15 minutes...it felt like 3 hours. The next few days got better slowly. We have done the confidence course (a bunch of obstacles like climbing an upsidedown ladder then flipping over it and coming back down), the leadership course (problem solving - platforms and obstacles that require teamwork, most over water), and the Eagle Tower (repelling and Rope ladders). They've all taught me a lot about myself, and building our team at the same time (yeah, right). My platoon...is frustrating. I hope we can pull it together soon. On that same note, yesterday one of the guys in our platoon decided to make a phone call without asking permission or anything. He got an Article 15, we all got chewed out, and the whole platoon lost phone priveleges "until further notice", so don't expect any phone calls from me for a while.
We're actually getting a lot more sleep and a lot better food than I was expecting. We haven't been woken up in the middle of the night yet!
Well, it's just about chow time, so I'm gonna wrap it up. Hope to hear from you soon!
Love you, PFC Brad Hopper