White Stage - Riffles and Grenades.

Patrick wrote us all letters that we received yesterday. Pretty much nothing new was mentioned in the letters, and for the most part all the letters were the same. What we did learn about was that Patrick has finished red phase which was his initial stage. For the most part that stage consisted of First Aid. This week he began the second stage (white stage) and will consist of BRM (Basic Riffle Marksmanship) and hand grenades. Patrick did some repelling sometime around 9/22. His platoon repelled down Eagle Tower for about 65 feet. Lately his heels have been bothering him. Patrick has always had heel problems from time to time called Plantar Fasciitis, similar to Achilles tendonitis. This condition comes back when he is on his feet for long times, especially while walking on hard surfaces. When Patrick is home we treat his condition with ice and rest, both of which he does not receive unless he wants to go to sick bay. When you go to sick bay you need to stay there the whole day, so Patrick does not want to stop and miss a day yet for icing. He is excited to begin shooting, and was happy to find out that his Drill Sergeant is left handed as well (and a Ranger!). Patrick left us with this statement he wrote to us on 9/23, “Don’t worry too much everything is pretty stand-able down here, hard, but withstand-able.”