BLC Day 15

Day 15

Over the past week it has rained on and off, and temperatures have varied from 40's to 70's. This morning we woke up to an extremely humid 70 degrees. This has made the PT field very similar to a swamp. As you try to cross the field you sink up above the soles of your shoes, taking on water like the Titanic. The previous day we had all convened in the classroom for some inside PT. Today they deemed it ok to remain outside. With my feet soaked halfway up, we stood in the mud in formation awaiting the morning wakeup call Reveille. Immediately following formation we gathered under a pavilion for PRT. During these exercises, you are laying on your back and stomach, a nice a wet start to PT. Afterward, we had Ultimate Frisbee scheduled. As we broke into teams I debated whether or not I wanted to participate, not wanting to slip and injure my back. I was peer pressured into joining the festivities. As I slowly wandered the swamp from one end to the other, I came to the conclusion I would simply stand in the endzone. A nice clean pass came in and I scored our teams only goal. The score is 3 or 4 to our 1, I upped my game a little, taking a little more risk in my movements. This was an epic fail, landing straight on my back in about an inch of water on top of about 1/2-1" of mud. It was a good straight fall while trying to plant my heels and stop. No pain was felt with this slide and flop. I was helped up by fellow Soldiers as the water drained down my backside from the soaked shirt. Since I had successfully fallen without injury I continued. Another pass was headed my way, and I darted in the direction to make a catch, and as I planted my feet, the heels went out and down again. Only this time, less water and more mud. Now brown from mud, and feeling this landing a little more, I took the game down a notch. A couple of plays later, with breakfast closing in, the frisbee was launched only to land upon the roof of the laundry facility. We managed to get the sympathy of the Facilitator and rather than marching to chow, soaked with mud and water, we were released to the bay to start cleaning ourselves.

Class time approaching I started walking towards class. The falls along with the walk to class I was starting to feel the pain. 

After chow, we started research time, time to work on whatever we want. We were quickly interrupted with a briefing, due to inclement weather, off post passes were revoked. Wasn't planning on going anywhere, but the rest of the class was. It is National Margarita Day, and that was the end of the quiet evening in the bay. I have a feeling that the majority of them will now be annoying the heck out of the rest of us. As research time continues everyone is back to watching YouTube videos and Netflix. As I quietly try and remind people that the noise needs to be kept to a minimum. I am met with snide looks and a momentary drop in noise. The person next to me is watching Devilman Crybaby, a Netflix Anime. A couple of moments into it is a scene at a rave party, where everyone is topless. 

I find it very interesting that some people have the ability to do things they know are wrong, watching videos during class, and not feel a bit of remorse, and others have the ability to watch softcore anime porn. To top it off, his screen is directly facing the door, so if a member of the Cadre were to walk in they would have front row seats of the show. I pause in anticipation of someone walking in. Just dreading them asking what the hell is going on. And afterward looking to me, the only one not watching shows, like a responsible adult. As I ponder this I can't help but think I would definitely throw them under a bus. To add to this uncomfortableness, they keep pausing it and talking about it with other classmates, that have either seen it or are also watching it. And I'm not talking about them discussing it at a low whisper, I'm talking about borderline yelling. With every other word coming out of their mouth F'n this and F'n that.

Since I have brought up language I have to say this has been the norm for this environment, and nothing has been said about it. For this to be a basic leadership course I find it very odd that one's language isn't graded. We are being evaluated at many different things regarding the attributes and characteristics of a leader, and our language isn't one. To further this frustration, we were evaluated from this instructor, me holding strong at 11, only to find out that the individual next to me that couldn't carry on a conversation without dropping the F-bomb also scored an 11. This score just makes my pride and honor for having the score feel cheap and worthless.

Those that are good at lying and cheating seem to always have the upper hand from someone who plays by the rules. Doing the right thing gets you nowhere.