Week 2

This week has been pretty great! We had two of our simulators this week, fire fighting school and the wet trainer (aka USS Buttercup). Fire fighting was awesome, we were put in full gear, oxygen tank an all, which the said weighed 70 pounds all together! We got to fight a total of 3 fires, one burning under a bomb, one grease fire, and one full fledge ship fire. The instructors described it as walking inside the largest gas grill and they weren't kidding, it was incredibly hot! Manning the fire hose seemed to complete my childhood haha. Now the Buttercup is definitely missnamed.. It makes it sound easy, but we definitely sunk the buttercup twice. By far the best thing we have done so far though. The buttercup is actually a section of a former Naval ship! They simulate an attack and unleash 25000 gallons of water! I was the section leader once, meaning I was the boss and had to plan out how to patch everything, not to mentioned being yelled at because te ship is sinking! I was glad I had te chance to be the section leader though! PT has increased a lot this week! My legs are so stiff, it hurts to do anything! We had the joy of having all of our locks locked together an Gavin to find our own in 5 minutes because someone left there lock undone one afternoon. So that added some Friday afternoon excitement! We have on base liberty this weekend! Which means we can basically go anywhere on base. Last night we went bowling, tonight we a big group of my company are going to eat in the officer's club for the first time, kind of excited about that! Despite our increased PT, we have spent a good bit of our time doing extra workouts! We run a lot on our own, and the gym here is huge! Never thought I'd admit this, but I'm now used to waking up at 0430. I have actually beat my alarm the last two mornings. I'll keep you updated as the week goes!

Week 1

Ok so I have now officially survived week one. Our average day starts at 0400, maybe 0430, and goes until about 2300. Every morning we have about 1 hour of PT of some sort, breakfast, classes, lunch, classes, dinner, class/more PT. So we stay at it all day. I passed my first PFA with 81 pushups, 70 sit ups, and a 10.38 min 1.5 mile run. Also passed the 3rd class swim test and will hopefully get to do te 2nd class swim qualification before I leave, no promises though. We got all uniforms on Monday, which took about 6 hours to get everybody through. On Tuesday we met our Senior Chief, let's just say a nuclear bomb explosion would have been less chaotic! He came in screaming at 0400 and we ran, "got on our face," sit ups, and whatever else he decided to do. It wasn't just our Senior Chief, there were no fewer than 10 Chiefs yelling down our neck about how slow we were doing things! Also, yesterday.Senior Chief took us on a "tour" of all his favorite places. Needless to say he likes the sand. We went to rose garden, the cookie jar, and some other cruel name sand pit, all before 0530. But, I think we have the best Senior Chief and have really gotten to like him believe it or not. Yesterday was our first uniform inspection, got to wear the khakis for the first time, and in the words of our Leutinent, I felt damn proud! Who know what all fun we will do next week, but I know that on Monday we go to firefighting school, and Tuesday is our attempt to not let the USS Buttercup sink! Those should be awesome!

Settled in and ready to start!

June 11th 0338... I now finally feel like I have settled in. I had the chance to have liberty most of the day to walk around and see the base before we are told where and where not to go. Rhode Island is beautiful,the high for the next 10 days never breaks 72!

Anyway, I had the joy of having my luggage lost from a plane I happened to be the ONLY passenger on! I was told my bag would make it to me around 2 that afternoon, it didn't. I went to bed around 11 (2300) and got sleep all the way until 145! That's when I was told my luggage was at the gate and the Duty Officer was going to escort me to the gate to claim my things. But finally I feel like I'm settled in now that I am unpacked, although it sounds as if we can be made to change companies at anytime and have to change rooms. My roommate is a no-show, so I have the bunk (hatch) to myself.

We haven't done anything but paperwork so far, but in a hour from now our first day of PT begins. Also tomorrow is when we go to get all of our uniforms, we will only wear PT gear or the entire first week, if you're thinking what I'm thinking sounds like it should make for an interesting week!  Our class has 194 members, split into 4 companies.

Anchor's Aweigh!

My flight is at 1300. Family is coming up to have me a "final" good meal at Cracker Barrell. Meghan has gotten me packed and ready. She came up early this morning and we have been reading other former ODS blogs to get an idea. And basically the main thing I got from every blog was "DO NOT CALL THE SR. CHIEF SIR" because as the Chief told them that will make you "Get Stronger or Smarter" meaning push-ups for everytime he is called "Sir". Another cool thing I learned from a blog was story behind the USS Buttercup. The stimulator ship that during week 3 we will have to save from sinking. I read that it got its name from back when the Chiefs were allowed small pets aboard--that a small dog named Buttercup found a leak and alerted his owner. If it wasn't for Buttercup the ship would have sank. And in Buttercup's honor any ship stimulator on any training base will always have the name USS Buttercup. That story has never been confirmed but has been passed down. Pretty cool and funny that its not a another way to mock us by having a ship called Buttercup.

Reading those blogs gave me the idea that having my own blog would be an easy way to keep in touch with everyone since I will not have much phone priveleges. I will have access to the Internet cafe so I can keep every one up to date on my "torture". Which I will be loving every minute of I'm sure.

I will arrive in Newport tonight and tomorrow will be sign-in day. I will keep you posted as much as I can, hopefully every couple of days. Thank for everyone who has supported me through my first year of Medical School and will follow and support me through my journey at ODS. Anchor's Aweigh!!!!!