Mini Boot Camp April 24th-26th

Hello all! Well I have a lot to tell you for the month of April. On April 24th I left Sioux Falls with the DEP "Delayed Entry Program" group, to go to a mini boot camp at South Camp Ripley Minnesota. It took about 6 hours to get there and on the way we talked with PFC "Private First Class" Wallace about boot camp and what to expect. It was cool because Wallace had been in the DEP with us before he left for boot camp. When we arrived, we were instructed to put our heads between our legs as they do in boot camp, to add to the effect. We had no idea where we were, or what the surroundings looked like. When the bus stopped and the doors opened, we heard a loud set of feet enter the bus. All of a sudden we heard," Sit up straight and get your eyes on me!!!," it was our Drill Instructor. He told us that the last words out of our mouth would be sir and if we understood that, we yelled back YES SIR! He also told us to get the heck off the bus haha. We all ran off and got into our formation. I was the squad leader of 1st squad so I was in the front right next to the guide, carrying the guidon, or flag. Then the 3 drill instructors let us have it. It was then a constant get on your feet now, aye sir, get on your face now, aye sir, get on your back now, aye sir... With a lot of push ups, crunches, and screaming in the middle. It was a quick 10 min. session just to get us broken in. After that, we went over to the pull-up station and competed against Fargo North Dakota. I was able to pull out 10 pull-ups which is the most I have been able to do. We still don't know who won out of that. After that, we went over to the sprint, where we sprinted about 50 meters. Then we moved on to the tug of war. We lost our first bout, but regained our composer for the 2nd. We won that one easy and moved on. During the 3rd one, right at the start about 3 of us fell down and we were inches from losing. But again, we fought it off and won. During the final round we picked our two toughest, and put them up against 2 from the opposing team. After about a 5 min. tug of war, Sioux Falls RSS "Recruiting Sub Station" won! After that motivating victory, we moved over to the house competition. This is where we picked 5 people, 5 small people, to all get in the push up position with their feet over the person beside them. When the whistle blew, the one on the end would low crawl through the tunnel, and get in the push up position on the other end. First RSS to the flags won. We also won that competition. Overall that first day, Sioux Falls dominated! We then had chow, a beautiful delicious MRE "Meal Ready to Eat" It was about 40 degrees out by now and we all still had shorts and T-shirts on. We were freezing. After that we went to sleep in our tents and sleeping bags.

The next morning, we were woken up at 4:00 AM had and MRE and marched a mile to our first activity. There we took apart M16's and learned our shooting positions, sitting, prone, crouching, and standing. From there we moved over to talk to Sergeant Major. He is a great guy and really knew his stuff. He is the man in charge of the Recruiting Station Twin Cities. So basically was the top dog of the weekend besides the Major and Captain we saw around. From there we had another beautiful MRE. After that we marched to do some MCMAP, Marine Corps martial arts. I learned 2 choke holds and more basic Ju Jitsu moves which were amazing! After that we moved to the medical class. There we learned how to treat people in shock, with burns, not breathing and much more. Next came the fun stuff, more Drill Instructors. We got there and instantly 3 people were taken off to get smoked. The rest of us tried to learn how to march. During that, the Drill Instructor noticed one of our poolee guests wearing a Navy shirt we told him to keep on. We wanted to see what the D.I would say. Well he noticed it and said quote," You gotta be friggen kidding me, Navy? Are we here to join the Navy? Hey Drill Instructor "saying it to the other D.I" This kid wants to join the Navy. D.I #2 ," You gotta be friggen kidding me!" Now at this point we are about to start laughing. But then we hear them both say show me how the Navy fly, show me. So he starts flapping his arms. But that wasn't good enough. So he started making jet noises and he flew all around the parking lot. This was hysterical. But of course, you couldn't dare laugh. After that, the Drill Instructor continued to teach how to march. But one kid screwed it up for us and we started to PT the rest of the time. More stand up, sit down, crawl, scream, scream, scream. The hardest part for myself was when we held our bodies in the push up position 5 inches off the ground. Not all the way up or down, 5 inches. Then the Drill Instructor would precede to countdown from 30 to 0 like this. 29 28 27 28 27 28 27 28 26, and make it to about 4 and then say, oh this kid wants to drop his/her knees, 30 29 28..... etc. So it was definitely a lot of fun! ha

After that we moved over to the Motor T portion where they showed us a 7 ton truck, and a Humvee. During this time one of our poolees started talking like the D.I. This would come back to haunt him. Then we noticed a boy scout troop come over with about 9 to 12 year olds. They were asking where the, 3 mean guys were, and our recruiters said we will find them and show them to you, yes you guessed it, on us again. So here we go again, marching into the Drill Instructors pit. Right when we got there, Navy T-shirt boy got picked out even though he had his shirt inside out, and then the D.I turned and said, oh you wanna be a Drill instructor don't you, to the kid that talked like him, so he got taken away. During the whole time the boy scout troop was laughing at us. They stayed and watched for about 5 min. but when they left, we continued to get hammered for about another 10 min. During the beginning of that time, we heard the one kid say, I wanna be a drill instructor, I wanna be a drill instructor at the top of his lungs. Then at the end we heard him screaming I don't wanna be a drill instructor, I don't wanna be a Drill Instructor... Ha good times.

After that we moved to the Combat fitness test, and Ammo can lift. I broke records in both with 81 ammo can lifts, and a 1:58 Combat fitness test. I was the first to break the 2:00 barrier. But you can't stay at the top for long, 3 others broke my record that day. After that we went to the pugil sticks. There we fought and beat whatever we had left out of each other. It was definitely a blast! After that the day was over and we went to sleep.

During the night I had fire watch from 3:00 to 4:00 AM and we woke up at 5:00 AM. We went for our final 1.5 mile jog and were set to go home. Then our SSgt asked for our squad leaders and guide. So we went over and he said," you see those guys getting hammered by the Drill Instructors," YES SIR," well one of ours is in there, I don't know how or why but he is, so you are going to go over there to support him,"........yes sir..... So there we went, going to get hammered again, we get over there and start doing our push ups while looking for this Sioux Falls kid. We then find out there was none, and we were doing this for pure enjoyment haa.. But soon as we know it the rest of our platoon was over supporting us, and we made through it. After that we got on the bus and headed home for a warm shower, and warm meal.

It was all in all and awesome time and I loved every second of it! This is my last mini boot camp until the real thing, and it really gives an eye opener. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Poolee Wollmann