Post-Crucible letter...Finally!

Letter dated 10-22-06
Hey family,
Well crucibles over. I made it. And despite my own serious doubt, I made it up the reaper without falling behind. Which meant I got to eat the warriors breakfast. They basically made up this real good food (flavored stuff) and left us alone for an hour to eat as much as we wanted. They had cake, cinnamon rolls, steaks (sorta), fried rice, and all other normal breakfast foods. They gave us an hour, but we found out that we’ve forgotten how to sit back and enjoy food. It was a little easier after the first 15 min. of gluttony though. About 1/3 of the platoon went and threw up afterwards. After getting 4 MREs for 2 1/2 days of nonstop moving it was easy to overdo it I guess.

The crucible started Wed. morning after camping in the freezing weather. Luckily we missed the wet nights. I can’t imagine how miserable that would be. As soon as we woke up we started moving. For those two days we nonstop “humped” from stations spread all throughout the hills. Probably about a 6 mile radius. The stations varied from obstacles you might do at camp to running ammo cans up and down hills. We never had time set aside to eat. Whenever we had a minute we ate a cracker or whatever, which was okay, cause that spread our meals out more. We were responsible for rationing them and I’m pretty proud of how I did it. I was never so hungry it made me weak, and I had a whole MRE left over for the night before the reaper hike. I probably had the most food left. Some guys had food stolen (I put mine in my sleeping bag at night) but most ate all theirs by then. I wanted to save the cookies and dried cranberries for the morning before the hike, but we were made to eat it all.

The next morning we took off immediately after waking up. We carried all our stuff and rifle. Not an easy load. The hike was 10 miles with the reaper in between. We got a break at 2 ½ miles and right before the reaper. On that break they gave us a cup of Gatorade and an apple. (BTW, I’ve gotten used to eating apple cores and orange peels.) Then we ascended. The reaper was ½ mile up and was sorta graduated. When we got up top we could see the Pacific and the latter part of the sunrise. We were all in a good mood. Everyone was feeling like we were done, and in a sense we were done with the reaper at least, but we had 5 mi. left. We didn’t get any breaks on the 2^nd half. But no one dropped out and only a couple didn’t make it to the breakfast. So our Sr. DI was pretty happy. Oh yeah, the first half of the hike was in the dark and one of the coolest things about it was there was a meteor shower. So when we weren’t looking at the ground for loose rocks and potholes we’d see how many shooting stars we could see. It was kinda comforting. I’m sure that morning everyone had the same wishes. But we all made it. Now I’m not too worried about anything that’s left. We have swim week, the physical test, final drill, and knowledge test left. And I’m feeling confident about all of them. So in my mind Nov. 17^th isn’t questionable anymore. It’s a good feeling. Anyway, now that we’re back down south, we’re in the doghouse. We figure it was a setup. The Sr. DI snuck in and no one saw him to call attention on deck, so now we’re dressed like first phasers (we’re 3^rd ((seniors of the bunch))) and have to be extra good. I guess its just to let us know we’re not done yet and they still have us in their clutches. The only thing that I’m upset about is we haven’t gotten mail yet. Its been about a week and a half I think. So I’m expecting boatloads of letters. J It still might be a couple of days depending on how long the DIs keep it up

But in the meantime I’m realizing I’m thankful for a lot of things I wasn’t before, mainly the food. Nothings changed down south, but today’s breakfast, though rushed, was very good. Food makes me happy. I think there’s still a chance of getting double rations here, cause during a nighttime inspection the Sr. DI asked if I was a double rat (I had asked about it earlier and was denied it before anything was considered). I’ve lost bout 20-25 lbs., and some people got it for losing 10 lbs. when they were built like me. So I’m hoping for it. Honestly I don’t need it, but it’s a luxury I’m working to get.

Letsee, my health is back to 99.5%, minus soreness from the hikes, moral is real good, I’m able to ignore the DI’s power…whatever (we had our stuff dumped yesterday) and I’m in a good mood so it’s a good report home.

Have you guys bought tickets yet? I still haven’t gotten my orders yet so I don’t know when I’ll need to be back. I’m also not sure about recruiting assistance. I’m not sure how to get it to begin with, and after the things I’ve heard about a possible Christmas break, I don’t know if I want it anyway. But if you could talk more with the recruiter about it that’d be nice. I don’t know how much info they’d have, but any little bit would be good. I guess I’ll just have to buy a ticket back when I know. I do know MCT will be at Pendleton, and they have free shuttles from the airport, so that much is certain. Hopefully we’ll get a class in not too long. We’ll keep each other posted I guess. Well, that’s all for now I can think of to report. Hope things are going well there. Can’t wait to be home. Love, Jared