Checking back in to let y'all know that I am officially done. Graduated OSUT yesterday! Now I am back home getting my wife and I's affairs in order before we fly out to Hawaii next week.
A note about the final stages of OSUT...
The stairway to heaven was a huge smoker, there were times I questioned if I could keep going but I zoned out for most of it.
IMT, STT, and ITT were all pretty fun. They didn't allow us to wear knee pads so when I was bounding I either hauled ass to my next cover point so I didn't have to hit the deck as much, or I posted hard on my hand and kicked back up without hitting my knees.
I was very fortunate to evade injuries for the most part. I strained my back in combatives, but I pushed through it. I also had a period where I was battling shin splints, but that too passed.
We did a 3 day FTX before our culminating 5 day FTX and they were both pretty sucky. We rucked 12 miles out to our 3 day FTX and it was pouring rain most of the time. Peoples feet were messed up, and I myself was chafed raw. We got to our FTX area and it seemed as if everyone was dead, but we still had to dig our hasty fighting positions and get the patrol base set up. It rained all three days... My feet were a mess, I said to myself then that I would rather blistering sunshine and heat over rain any day.
I got my wish. The 5 day FTX was brutal! It was the hottest FTX on record in any of our Drill's time as a drill. I went through 3 bottles of sun screen and I was still burnt to absolute shit on my neck and other exposed areas. I might as well have been rained on considering how sweaty I was. I managed to escape serious chafing by using vasoline by the scoop full, and blisters left me alone. When we started off our bayonet march though, I was pretty beat up in other ways.
My platoon was on detail so broke down the entire cadre base, the ammo point, and the water buffalo tent, and I was in the back of the LMTV getting gear handed to me for an hour. It must've been 120 degrees, closed in! When we finished loading we stepped immediately. I was just telling myself one more step every step. The first objective was taking a bunker on the top of a hill. I actually enjoyed it, and got a good laugh when two of my guys in my squad fell and ate shit after stepping in holes that wild hogs had dug up. After that, we had a 5 mile hike to get to our next point. On that hike, 13 people hit the deck as a heat casualty. One kid right in front of me swayed out into the middle of the road and then came back in and crashed. I immediately went to help and the Drill took action quickly as well. We followed routine, stripped him, ice sheets, the whole nine. It was bad, he was only responsive to some seriously hard sternum rubs. He puked on me because I elevated his head because he was unconscious and his breathing was shallow. His core temp, taken through his rectum, was 108.8. Well he was the worse, but all the guys who went down had to be taken out of there, all with temps between 101 and 104 other than my guy.
The bayonet was cancelled after that. Temps were in the high 90's and we were about to go deep into the woods where help would not be available immediately, so the risk factor was too great with all these guys going down.
We got our cross rifles that night, and the rest of the time we spent cleaning gear and what not.
Personally, I received two Army Achievement Medals. One for shooting 40/40 in marksmanship, and one for scoring 300 on the APFT.
Now I have my blue cord and my cross rifles, and I am ready to get to my duty station and get to work.
