Week 4/Monday July 20th- Sunday July 26th

Monday, 2ØJULØ9
What a day! Week four started off with a bang as we woke up to another mile run. Everyone seemed to be on pace to make the required time for our physical test later this week. We ate breakfast and then split up into two groups; one half went to the range to learn marksmanship, while the other half attended class. The class was on Commitment and our Lead Company Commander challenged us to grow each day and to be better than the day before. The class also focused on heroes such as Douglas Munro who was a Guardian that placed himself in direct fire so that a squad of Marines could escape from the Japanese forces at Point Cruz. He drove a landing craft with only a small mounted gun on it and held the position long enough for all the Marines to evacuate. He was shot and killed at the end of the withdrawal and is the only Coast Guard Member to receive the Medal of Honor. His last words, “did they all make it out,” showed concern not for him, but for the Marines he was saving. Yankee-181’s eyes were opened a lot wider as this type of honor, respect, and devotion to duty is expected of us. This definitely makes us feel important, knowing that our shipmates and the public will expect this type of commitment from us. As new members of the Coast Guard we have huge shoes to fill…. HUGE! We had another cleaning evolution followed by incentive training. By the time we leave boot camp we will all be professional cleaners. The second half of the group then went to our marksmanship class. Of course safety was highly stressed to the maximum and beyond and we were warned countless times of the consequences of not following the strict guidelines. We hope to be the only company on the regiment to meet the requirements to earn the marksmanship pennant. So far, our chances look good. Since the first half of our class shot at a qualifying rate of seventy percent only a few of us need to pass to attain our goal. Tomorrow we will finesse our shots and hopefully ease our squeeze towards that award.
Goodnight, YANKEE - 181

Tuesday, 21JUL09
Today started off with literally a BANG! We went straight to the firing range after morning chow and put into practice everything we learned last night in our Marksmanship class. Just like the other half of our company who had their chance a few days prior, we implemented our proper safety techniques, dawned our eye and hearing protection, stood at the ready, aimed, and FIRED! One could say that being at the firing range is a lot like being at Boot Camp itself. Those who didn’t know what to expect and were maybe a little scared at first, dove right into something new. Once they finally understood what was going and got the feel of things, their final attempts hit the target. Then there are others who were overly confident and considered themselves to be experts, but within seconds it was clear that they needed to be humble and re-taught. Hopefully at the end of Boot Camp, we will feel as accomplished as we did today. As a whole, Yankee-181 had a qualifying score that was enough to earn us the Marksmanship Pennant. We are now the only Company in the entire regiment to hold this honor. No other company has done did this since April of this year. Excited whispers of our accomplishment quickly spread through our halls as we filtered back into our squad bays. We kept the noise to a minimum but the abstract excitement was deafening.
We have started to become “new” adults in week four of training. It is evident that this is expected of us as our Company Commanders are giving us tasks to meet on our own. This on its own tells us that we must be showing some sign of responsibility. It is evident amongst ourselves as well, as we actually follow orders even in the rare moments when we don’t have the presence of our Company Commanders. I think some of us are only behaving because we think that they are the bushes watching us, but given the rate we are going, we should be done with that frame of thinking real soon.
Goodnight Yankee-181.

Wednesday, 22JULØ9
There was one thing on everybody’s mind at the start of week four, and that was our physical fitness assessment. Some of us were excited, some of us were dreading the moment, and most were worried. But when the time finally came, Yankee – 181 strutted its stuff as only a handful of us did not pass. We started with pushups; males had to complete 29 and females 15 in one minute. Once the requirements were met, we formed back into line to start the sit up portion. This time, males had to complete 38 and females 32 within the same time frame. Then the big moment came and we all set up on the track for our one and a half mile run. All the morning workouts were about to be put to the test. The starting whistle blew and all of our training, hearts, and pride kicked into gear. Our company commanders added on to our drive to pass the running criteria with their own way of expressing encouragement… “MOVE FASTER!” and “RUN!” Seeing the company commanders as we ran promptly put into our minds that we better pass and not ever have to do this again during our time here at Cape May. That in itself was enough motivation for those who did not train as much as they should have. The sweat would not stop pouring from our pores. Even after our showers, our bodies were still heated and perspiring like there was no tomorrow. However, we are glad to say that the majority of us passed. Unfortunately, those who did not will begin remedial training with the gym instructors first thing tomorrow morning to fix any areas that they were weak in.
If the physical assessment wasn’t enough of an obstacle, we were introduced to the confidence course after our assessment. Our eyes grew huge with fear as we thought that we were going to run through this monster of an obstacle course. We all thought this was going to be the definite end of us. Imagine the silent sighs of relief for the pain in our legs and arms as we only had to focused on the rope climbing section. Our company commanders demonstrated the proper technique and we did our best to mimic the movement. We won’t come around again until week seven when we take on the entire course though and we should be ready for that. Week four is definitely a tough peak to get over but since we are halfway through it, we will continue to push…and we will push hard!
Goodnight, Yankee - 181.

Thursday, 23JULØ9
Today was by far one of the most exciting days we had since we first arrived at the recruit training center in Cape May. This is because we were able to make a big step towards our future careers with the Coast Guard and pick our top twelve units for out “Wish List.” Like kids in a candy store we surveyed our options and reviewed every small boat station, cutter and district. The list we created today will be given to head quarters where a detailer will look at our choices and try to match them with the needs of the Coast Guard. It won’t be another week until we get our orders, but it was a big moment for us. While making our list, we kept in the back of our minds the advice from our lead company commander. He explained to us that as young adults, we should seek new adventures and new places to call home. He was not trying in any way to get us to leave those we loved behind. Instead, he helped inspire a few of us to spread our wings a little bit. When the time came for us to finally put pen to paper, we just followed our hearts and we are now waiting and hoping for the best. We will be happy to serve our country anywhere the Coast Guard needs us, but we are anxious to know where we will be in just four weeks. We were probably a little too anxious though because the rest of the day we did not focus on our assigned tasks. Knowing we would have a rack inspection and that our squad bay would be surveyed by our Section Commander, very little effort was made to square it away. Since all three squad bays received failing grades, we returned to our hall for the consequences. Our Company Commanders had decided to clean for us…there way. It was like a tornado tore through an oil spill, which passed by a pig pen, before landing in our squad bays. (Pretty much like our rooms back home). The worst thing of all is that we knew better and looking around at the mess that we essentially created, we vowed to never let ourselves and our company commanders down again. We look forward to a restful night in our clean rooms with dreams of our next destination and the ability to call home and share it with our loved ones.
Goodnight, Yankee - 181

Friday, 24JULØ9
We started the morning off with a one mile run around the parade field. The mile was not all that bad compared to the mile and a half that we ran two days prior for our physical fitness test. The coolness of the morning might have been what helped us, or maybe it was all the training our bodies have endured over the past few weeks, but either way, we went into chow refreshed and ready for our midterm exams. Strict rules were given before sitting for the test and we all abided by them. It was either we followed the rules or get reverted a week. So of course, we followed the rules. When the test forms were passed out, silence took over the room until seventy five minutes later it was all over. The test covered all the classes that we have attended so far. It was open book so all our extensive notes and organized handouts came in handy. We were a little nervous because we didn’t know what to expect but once we read the very first question we realized we had it all under control. After our midterm, we all felt pretty confident as we headed to the galley for lunch. So confident that we stuffed our faces and forgot about our gym class that was to immediately follow. In gym class we lifted both the weights of our gym equipment and the weight of our fully stretched stomachs… up and down, left and right, and even in circles. The training is doing us good here at Cape May, as no one gave up their lunch. But who would give up fried rice, lemon baked fish, pies, and cakes over a couple hundred pounds of work? Not Yankee, that’s for sure! After gym we headed back to our squad bays and received our test scores. We all passed with high scores and the majority of the class earned grades of 94% or better! With the midterm and all our other week four test behind us, it still isn’t yet safe to say that we have completely gotten over the top of the hill, because a lot can happen in one day.
Good night, Yankee – 181.

Saturday, 25JULØ9
Today was a beautiful Saturday here in Cape May until word of an F-3 hurricane was sent through Yankee’s squad bays. We were ordered to quickly get ready for transportation to a new destination north of our current location. All eyes were worried but we stuck with our discipline senses and got to packing. We all packed up every single item into our sea bags and piled them outside in their designated spots. We also packed pretty much everything that wasn’t stationary. We were waiting outside Healy Hall for our transportation when we received word from our company commanders that it was just a “false alarm.” Then we had to do what anyone would guess, move every single item back up to our squad bays and not only that, but we were to have our squad bays inspection ready in what seemed like an impossible time objective. That was more than enough time though as we used our teamwork and self discipline to get our spaces squared away. Immediately after our inspection we once again packed all our items from our racks into our sea bags, however, this time it was not for a storm of any sort, but rather for a human conveyor belt. It doesn’t sound that bad until you do this with about seventy or so bags. It took a lot of teamwork and commitment to get through this…We got through it just fine! We said goodbye to the midpoint of our training here at Cape May the old traditional way…Lots of exercise! We did a bunch of remedial training to help us move with a sense of urgency and teamwork. The company commanders want to make sure that we go into the last half of training with at least those two items in hand.
Goodnight, Yankee - 181

Sunday, 26JULØ9
The story behind today’s blog began ten minutes before Sunday even began. What happened next seemed like a scene straight out of a movie. Today we received our colors. The story is a good one, that we will never forget, and no I am not going to tell you it now. There are just some things about boot camp that can only be described in person, by a person who was there, so I save this story for your loved one to tell you after graduation. We carried our colors home and felt invincible as we cited “The Guardian Ethos.” Our spirits were now filled with pride of being one step close to being member of the United States Coast Guard.
Looking back at everything we went through this morning, and all the emotions that ran through us, we see now that it was a necessary evil. Our company commanders had to break us down in order to build us up. We had to see our faults and learn how to overcome them. Receiving our colors and being able to not only walk around as a junior company on the regiment, but as Yankee – 181, was by far the most memorable experience we have had so far during our training. Into Week five we grow.
Goodnight, Yankee - 181