Lawrence!!!!!!

We had a tough week. We lost a couple of good guys. One of whom was gonna go to my station. One had family issues and one knows that he can't take the Spanish. Both of them made their own decisions and I will not criticize them. It's tough to see them go though.

On the upside we had shower remedials on Friday after hours. When the other classes were already going home and having chow, we got to go do exercises on the gravel road, after sprinting a half mile, and then be timed on how long it took to wash off the dirt and blood and get back into full uniform. When we failed to do it in 8 minutes we got to do it again. Luckily there were only 2 reps of this enjoyable Friday activity.

No wait...That wasn't the upside. Oh yeah! The upside was that one of our recently departed comrades had this guy for a roommate. This poor soul!The usual jokes were played on him, but in the end he was a welcome adopted member of our class, (though he has a class of his own) by virtue of his association with our recently departed friend. One of our favorite pastimes of late had been to call out his name loudly and obnoxiously as a class anytime we saw him on campus. This was at first met with chagrin as he felt singled out by all this attention. And the last thing anyone in a military style training camp wants...Is to stand out. You would think that since his connection to our class is no longer with us this foolishness would have ceased. And you would be so very very wrong. If anything our cat-calls have grown louder and more energetic, in remembrance of our fallen hero.

He has learned how to deal with it however, and now responds with little more than a wave and an indulgent murmur, "at ease 638."

The above picture was taken during one of these exchanges while we had thanksgiving dinner bar-B-Q as a class. Here is the alternative non-avian meat product we chose to grill. The turkey just wouldn't fit.