Letter dated 10-1-06, Received 10-10-06

Hey family,
Just so you know I wasn't taking you up on your offer "not to worry" about not writing you. Its been crazy. I got some time to read letters here and there, and I have a little free time this Sunday morning to write. I'm still sick which stinks cause its hard for me to catch my breath. But somehow I got through the 5 mile hike yesterday so I still can keep going. I had a fever for a while, but its gone. That was real fun. But its gone.

Yes, I got to try out my M16. It was pretty cool. I didn't do so good the first time (only time till tomorrow) but I was just getting used to it I think. I'll do better. The rifle classes this week were fairly relaxed, which was good, cause the rest of the time, isn't. Twice so far we've taken everything, warbags, shoes, sheets, mattresses, warbelts, everything, all to different ends of the room, and last night right before bed, we had to chug 2 canteens. Again, not an easy feat. It was painful.

Well, its Monday and life goes on, maybe. I'm pretty sick. I can't seem to get this stuff in the lungs out. Tonight I'm gonna decide if I'm going to medical. And here, with pneumonia, its likely a death sentence. My problem is clear. But I guess I'll just have to trust the best will happen. I'm pretty worried.

On a lighter note, my rifle skills improved since last. I'll only get better at it, I'm sure.

Today we got my absolute favorite [unreadable]: a sack lunch with a meat sub, koolaid, apple, cheese crackers, teddy grahams, and cool ranch fritoes. I've been dreaming about that since processing. Well, we got about a minute into it, I got the sandwhich, koolaid, and some chips down, then a kid looks at a DI, then when the DI asked, he argued. Well, we threw the rest away and ran in U-turns for about 30 min. I was a little sad.

A few days later:
Okay, I'm gonna write this tonight. All other times get cut short. Tonights the 1st night without missions, or already being dead, so I'll write and finally get this to you. I've been dreaming of candy all day. When I get home Mom I'm taking that box of change and going to Walmart. Whimper. Well, as far as getting to medical, I was in line to sign up (right before) but I jumped out the last second. The next day after PT someone told the senior DI I was sick, so he called me over and asked how I was. I sugarcoated it a lot. And he's like, "Why don't you shower and lay down the rest of the evening." So I did. It was nice. So today I am getting better, again. Hopefully it will keep getting better. Rifle pre-qual is tomorrow. I plan on doing mediocre. I'm not great but I can hit the target. I miss you guys and am dreaming of the day you can feed me!! Love, Jared