judecorp | Letter from Steve - 10/13/03 (Reply)

(I thought I would pass this on.)

Hey guys,

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write. They're not really giving us any time to do so. I think they expect us to write after "lights out," but they make it clear that we are supposed to sleep, not stay up and write, read, or talk. It's probably part of the larger mind game at play here. (Basic Training, in general, is just a big mind game.)

There are people from all ver the country in my platoon, which consists of 62 people. We've been paired into a "Battle Buddy" system. We aren't to go anywhere without him, make sure he's okay, help when needed, and find out as much as possible to get to know him. They were assigned by bunk placement, which had previously been determined by the alphabetical order of our last names. I was "interviewing" my Battle Buddy and found out he is from Pataskala. Apparently he used to work as a bouncer at Outlands. I was like, "So, do you know a guy named [name]? [Description]?" He responded, "Yeah, he's a total asshole... he never leaves at closing time and we're always having to pull drinks from him at 2:30." Yep. Sounds like [name]. How freaky is that? I'm 1000 miles from home, with a bunch of random people, and the guy whose bunk is next to mine knows [name]. Freaky, plain freaky.

We've been doing lots of push-ups, mostly as punishment due to the immaturity of others. My back is a bit sore, but I'm sure that will pass soon. I'm counting down the days until I return... even the meals (we have 174 meals left before graduation). Tomorrow we will run an pbstacle course and rappell down a 40 foot tower.

How have you been? Anything exciting going on back in Columbus? Any cool news/gossip? How about the cats?

Write back, I'm bored! Steve