Four Letters (Gas Chamber, and Weapons)

We received four letters from Patrick the other day:

9/11 – In this letter Pat said there are some kids in his platoon who refuse to work as a team. I guess when then happens his Drill Sergeant gets pretty upset, and makes them do an hours worth of push-ups and flutter kicks (side straddle hop). Patrick calls these “smoke sessions.” Patrick mentioned in this letter that this is the first time it hit him he would be missing Thanksgiving. He is going to miss everyone, and the food. Patrick says all he thinks about is “finishing the day with fight left in me, and you guys (meaning the family) and the chow.” Patrick is still rating things a 3.

9/15 – Patrick again commented on how people in his platoon do not consider the Army a team, and this causes his whole platoon to do a lot of PT (Physical Training). He says that nearly 2 dozen times a day they have PT sessions and are getting smoked. Soon it will be time to start weeding people out by either trying to motivate them, or sending them to the Drill Sergeant. They got issued their weapons M16 A4. Patrick writes: “So I’m vastly under way to becoming a solider and I feel happy and jacked up about everything that’s going on here.” – I think Patrick is really into the word “jacked.” His group has begun training as a first responder in first aid (spinal injuries, wounds, sucking chest wounds, IV’s, clearing airways, nasal tubes, etc). Patrick was picked as the Fire Team Leader, and will let us know more about this job when he gets more familiar with the normal routines of the job. Patrick is still rating things a 3.

I went online to get a picture of a M16A4, here it is:



9/16 – Patrick went to church today and really likes the chapel there. His favorite part is the stained glass window with a solider kneeling between two trees with this helmet off. His head down, and rifle propping him up with the “Infantry Follow Me” on the top right. Patrick thinks he has three of the coolest Drill Sergeants in the company, and some of the most knowledgeable. This time Patrick rated things a 2 (1 is the best, and 5 is the worst).

9/20 – Patrick says the heat is a Category 5 in Georgia. This letter was written the day after he did the gas chamber and we found out the gas they use is CS gas. This is riot control gas. In Pat’s letter he writes: “It makes your skin burn and sting, you can barely see because it stings your eyes bad. It stings your lungs. We had to walk in the chamber with our Nuclear Biological Chemical masks on, and then we had to break the seal, and re-seal and clear the mask of gas. Once we did that they moved us to the center of the room right next to the center of the gas, then we had to take the masks off and stand for the five minutes while we just took in the symptoms. Kids were puking and drooling, noses were running uncontrollably. It was a fun experience.” He also said that as they came out of the Gas Chamber they were getting filmed and Pat tried to smile at the camera and thumbs up. At first when Patrick said it was fun, we thought he was being sarcastic, but he said it twice in his letter so we are not too sure. Patrick says he has been doing a lot of PT, and he is “going to come back jacked and looking like the governor of California.” - - At least he still has his humor! Patrick is going to church every Sunday. It allows him to get away from everything and relax and clear his head. Patrick is rating this a 3.