Recent letters – M16 Testing & Other American Made Weapons

We received some letters from Patrick the other day. He wrote that ½ of his platoon is sick, and that he still is fighting a cold. Lately he has been having pain in his knee and would like to get it X-rayed, but the doctor on base keeps saying it is a sprain or a pull. Pat is worried that it is something more than that and tries to rest it when he can. He writes that he will not have to do PT for a week so that he can rest his knee. Patrick thinks that because half his platoon is sick, the leaders have been going a little light on PT. Patrick is worried about passing his next PT test (I am not sure when it is) because of the problems he is having with his knee. His plan was to try to stop by the PX this weekend when they have a little down time to get a brace to help support his knee when he runs. Patrick is excited to start his M16 testing. With this M16 testing you must hit 23 targets to qualify for passing. His testing was either this on Thursday or Friday this past week. If he fails to hit 23 targets he will be transferred to a new group to redo the shooting aspect of training. If Patrick hits between 23 – 29 targets he is at Marksman level, between 30-35 targets is sharp shooter level, and 36-40 targets is expert level. I know that Patrick had pink eye during his shooting training, and I do not know how well he did during training, but hopefully his pink eye didn’t get the best of him for this part of the training. Patrick is counting down the days until family weekend when my parents will go down to visit him for the weekend. I will be sending my digital camera down with them so hopefully we can get some pictures of the things around base, and of course Patrick. Patrick keeps writing that when my parents go down all he want to do is relax in their hotel room, so I am not sure how many pictures and updates we will get from family weekend! I know it was awhile since my last post. The next area Pat's platoon will focus on will be other American made Weapons. At this time I do not know what will be included in this and what will not be. I will update you when I know more! Patrick has sent some letters in between this one and that one, but they all contained the same info. He is trying to write more to his grandparents and send a letter out every now and then to some of this friends. If you get a letter from Pat please let myself or my parents know, sometimes if it goes a week and we don’t get a letter we get nervous – and it could just be that he sent a letter to someone else. So just let us know! My email is SLynchie6@yahoo.com, and for those of you who know my parents phone number, or my phone number, you could call if that would be easier. Thank you!