Supply and Swim Qualification

Motivation

“Patience is bitter, but its fruits are sweet.” – Aristotle

My Path

I have a feeling that I will be waking up most mornings around 0500 unless we have an early FEX. It seems to be a decent time to get up, grab morning chow at O’Bannon Chow Hall and be back for muster.  I would bet that most mornings I would have time to come back to my SOQ and get some reading done. We have been assigned Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication (MCDP) 1 Warfighting and The Warrior Ethos by Stephen Pressfield to read by next Friday. The material is testable, but we will for sure have a test on all the Zero Week handouts, all twenty-three of them, next Friday. That’s about another 400 pages of material. This whole reading thing…I just don’t get it. I did just fine in college without any “real” assigned reading. Maybe that has something to do with me being a Computer Science major, but it’s going to be a pain getting back into reading. >:(

Today we received, what I hope to be, all of our gear for TBS: USMC Field Pack, Plate Carrior (PC)/Modular Tactical Vest (MTV), sleeping bag, waterproofing bag, wooden campstool, and more. The only real item of gear left to get is our M16A4 Assault Rifle and M9 Pistol. We had very little time for afternoon chow so I grabbed some snacks for lunch and then headed over to Ramer Hall for the Swim Qual. The Swim Qual was conducted in full Boots and Utilities (Boots and Utes). The following was the basic qualification: 25 meter swim, jump from 3 meter platform to 50 meter swim, float/tread water for 4 minutes, 10 second submerged, shallow water gear shed (rifle, Kevlar helmet, flack jacket), and 50 meter floating pack push/pull swim. The only event that I felt weak on was the 4 minute float/tread water. I was having a difficult time staying afloat and felt myself starting to panic just a few seconds in. I calmed myself down and slowed my motions. Some Lieutenants (LTs) used techniques to inflate their blouses. I wish I had had the confidence to try those techniques out, but without trying them before and sinking the second I stopped treading water I decided to gut out the 4 minutes of treading water. It wasn’t easy at all.

The rest of the day consisted of sitting around for a brief that we ended up not having. Then there was another trip to Walmart and a uniform shop in Stafford. I picked up some more food and a couple items for PT and to make some of my supplied gear fit better. Then we came back to get some PT in before it got too dark. Not the most difficult PT, but I needed to get at least one long run in before the Physical Fitness Test (PFT) on Monday. Hopefully I’ll get a little longer run in on Saturday and rest Sunday. As far as the Internet is concerned, I’ve decided to hold off until I know my permanent room assignment. I’m going to pay some bills and get these last three blogs posted via Internet from another Lieutenant. It might not be another week or two before I will have regular access to the interwebs. I will try to continue writing my blogs in Word Documents and transfer them over. I apologize for the delay. Thank you all for your patience.

WOD

Easy Run for Time: Approximately 3 Miles in 21:31

5 Rounds of 5 Pullups, 10 Pushups, 20 Situps