It's Sunday, the day regularly scheduled for cleaning, and Victory Forge starts tomorrow. Another words, I have plenty of time to update. With that, I'll pick up where I left off. Anzio.

Anzio is a live-fire range where we move tactically to a fighting position and fire upon pop-up targets. During the day, we got to fire our M-16 on burst for 30 rounds. Twenty of which you wear your Pro Mask. I, however, did not get to fire on burst-one pull of the trigger and three scolding hot shells are thrown out of the ejection port like ducks in a row. I missed the part of the briefing that informed us of this because I was chosen to be on the detail of cleaning the SAW's. I might not have fired my weapon on burst, but I still had fun and I got to learn something extra.

That's not all of Anzio, though. We sat around for some three to five hours waiting for BOB (Big Orange Ball) to go to bed. Sitting around and relaxing is something we'd all been waiting nearly two months for, but it wasn't anywhere near as nice as the night-fire range...where the real fun began.

We were given 255 tracer rounds and told to "shoot like maniacs." It was fucking awesome! The orange tips lighting the sky in a horizontal rain of beautiful destruction was one of the most breathtaking sights my eyes have ever seen. No words can due it justice. I urge everyone to join the Army and last through BCT just long enough to see this sight of a lifetime. It's worth it.

After we fired, we went back to the grounding point and sat on our rucksacks. It was around 2000 and we were far enough out so that even the lights of Fort Jackson were troubled in dimming the brilliance of the stars. I looked up and was delighted to see Mars and the moon. It was so calming. It felt so right. I never looked at the night sky so much before, but now, I look at it almost every night.

I kept thinking about Alyson and how she always talked about St. John. About the stars you could see there, and Orchard Hill with the horizon pool. My first trip that I take is going to be there, I have decided. I might invite my Mom, Dad, and Bryan, too. It would be nice to have them all along. I miss them and the life I left behind so much sometimes. We'll see how it works out.

Comment <-- | -->

Current
Profile
E-mail
Notes
Pictures
D-land
Flashes of High School
Summer of Change
No Brass, No ammo
Lost in Translation

Last Five

And that's that.
Referenced #2
Referenced
To write them.
Heart vs mind.