Pain is the Cure for Everything.

So, its Wednesday night of our first week. For those of you who have trouble counting (you know who you are) thats 3 full days of Airborne School over with. I'll do my best to give you all a run through of this week so far. Bear in mind that I am really tired and really sore, so it may be a little nonsensical at times.

Monday:

Monday morning I woke up at 0250. We had a PT test at 0400, which means formation is at 0345. In the Army you have to shave, brush your teeth and have everything cleaned up by PT formation. I like to wake up a little before everyone else and get shaved so that I don't have to fight for the sinks.

I passed my PT test pretty easily. The 2 mile run was a little tougher than usual but I still ran faster than most (cuz I'm a beast). It was probably below 20 degrees, although I'm not 100% sure.

We then had chow and changed into ACU's (our digital camouflage uniform). It was time to start training to fall out of planes. We went and watched some demonstrations of the next 2 weeks and saw all the apparatus's we were going to train on. It was a pretty funny demo to watch. After the presentation thingy we started learning how to put on a parachute and a reserve parachute. You would assume that a parachute, with the dangers involved, would be pretty complicated to put on. However, it is really REALLY easy. It's three latches and then tightening it up correctly. That's it. Weirded me out that 5 minutes of training was all we needed to don a parachute.

After lunch we learned how to exit a mock door. It's how we practice exiting a plane. You have to do this gay shuffle thing to the door and when you jump you keep your feet and knees together and get a good tight body position. It reminds me of a high diver doing some kind of crazy flip or something. Overall, it was pretty simple.

Tuesday:

We woke up at 0420 for an 0510 formation. Come to find out... PT isn't til 0600 so we end up being outside for 50 minutes for no reason. Wait, there is a reason... Our Student Platoon Sergeant is a Marine Drill Instructor. So... he's kind of gay about stupid shit... PT was amazing. We did Circuits. I was pretty motivated during PT and it pretty much lasted all day.

After Breakfast we got a demonstration on how to properly exit the 34 foot tower. The 34 foot tower is a mock up of an airplane. You jump out of it and fall approximately 10 feet and the harness catches you and sends you down a zipline. The goal is that as you jump out you keep that tight body position we learned on Monday, count to 4 correctly (sounds easy, but when you're falling out of a tower you maybe say the wrong thing, for instance instead of One Thousand, Two thousand... you might say One one-thousand, Two one-thousand... Not speaking from experience, of course...). The first time I jumped I was scared out of my mind. I did everything wrong (including count wrong). However, the next 4 times in a row I did it perfect. Proving once again, that I am a beast. This took all day and was pretty fun. However, the jerk on your body mixed with PT that morning equated to a pretty sore evening.

Wednesday:

PT was a 4 mile run. They call it the Airborne shuffle because we go SOOOO slow. We went at a 9 minute pace and yet there were still people falling out. I don't want to offend any of you that don't run a 9 minute pace, but for people who are supposed to be in shape and do PT frequently, a 9 minute pace is a creep. I can nearly walk a 9 minute pace if I put some effort into it.

Our training for today was learning how to execute a Parachute Landing Fall (PLF). A PLF is executed by landing on the balls of your feet with your legs perpendicular to the direction of travel. As you hit you shift your knees towards the direction of travel to expose your calves and thighs. Then you turn your upper body slightly away from your knees, enough that you can see your heels between the elbows that have been placed in front of your face with your chin tucked. When this is done properly it makes a rocking chair effect out of your body. As you hit you roll across the rocking chair, and kick your legs up and over your opposite shoulder and onto your back. This video is an almost correct PLF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJx-R8wJLz4&feature=related

We practiced PLF's to the right and left as well as to the front right and the front left. We did them from the ground, from 2 feet high, then from the Lateral Swing Apparatus. This is a zipline that you slide down and let go off when they tell you to. I noticed that the taller guys dropped from about 3 or 4 feet up. However, us shorter people fell from about 5 feet up. I dropped off that zipline probably about 15 or 20 times. Added up with the times we did ground drills and off the wall, we probably all fell atleast 50 times. The real killer though, was that while we waited in line we had to bunny hop when we moved. This sounds easy to bunny hop about a foot every 30 seconds or so. However, after a few hours, it gets tiring... My knees are killing me tonight from all that shit. And in about 8 hours we have PT again... which means it all starts over.

Tomorrow we are doing the same thing. We have to learn rear PLF's. Then continue on what we did today. Luckily, I passed my right, left, and front PLF's today. So, once I pass my rear PLF's, I'm done and just have to run the rope back and forth. Friday we have a pretty easy day. In the morning we are learning how to recover from a PLF (aka take the parachute off and get out of the way of other paratroopers). Then we should get off early. Then its the WEEKEND!!! I can sleep and rest and do nothing!

Anyway, time to get some sleep. Love and miss you all.

Chris