November 4

Mom & Dad:
Hey! We had another Bivowac last night, sans rain. It was nice & clear for the whole night. We had to pull 50% security again because our Drill Sergeant officially hates us now. But at least we were warm during our broken up 1 hour intervals of sleep.

So I'm officially a soldier now. These last 5 weeks will be as follows:

Week 1: Squad and team tactics, 10-mile ruck march. We already did the ruck march, and it almost killed us. I HATE rucking.

Week 2: FTX prep. We'll be learning more about what we'll do on FTX, and how to do it. We'll get all the supplies we need & do final preparations.

Week 3: FTX (Field Training Exercise). It will be 7 days of in-the-field training, sleepin under the stars every night. We will get missions, and have to execute them without Drill Sergeant guidance. It will include a river crossing and a 12-mile ruck march, which will...completely suck. That's all I'm worried about, the ruck march. After that's done - at the end of the ruck - is a giant party on top of what they call "Honor Hill." It might be the proudest (and smelliest, after a week in the field) moment of my life.

Week 4 & 5: These are recovery weeks. We won't be training these weeks, just doing PT and cleaning our gear. It'll probably be the longest 2 weeks, EVER.

I didn't get a chance to look up my local hotels. Sorry, but I didn't have much computer access! However, we just sent out a packet full of graduation info., which included local info-places of interest, activities, restaurants and all that. It should have some good info. By the way, when you call for that kind of stuff, see if you can get a military discount! They really save a LOT of money on stuff like that.

Well, it's lights out. Really hoping to hear from you soon. I'd love some pictures! Please, lots of pictures! I don't even care if they're old pictures, anything will do. Thanks!

Love you guys tons!
-Brad

P.S. Talk to SSgt. Miller for me if you can, ask him what my home town recruiting will entail. Cuz I have it for sure, and I'd like to know what I'll be doing!