Letter Home

We received a letter from Leroy today dated 6/8. Here are a few excerpts.

Hey guys,

"Uh oh, oh no, I gotta leave, I gotta go,

This army life is not my style,

They got me lookin' like Gomer Pyle."

Well, I got my new job today. I am a 42A which is human resources. I will be working with computers processing, pay, all kinds of paperwork. ...

We had night fire last night which is when they give you lasers and a scope and have you shoot the M-16 at night with all of that. Well, it was fun but we were up till midnight before we were even close to going to bed so we were all just exhausted. But the Drill Sergeants were nice and (I'm laughing as I write this) they let us sleep in till--drum roll please--6:00. LOL. But it could have been worse. We were supposed to be up at 4:30.

Tomorrow we have post detail where our company cleans up the fort. My job is at HQ. I have to clean there with 3 other people. Some of the other details are pretty sweet. I got stuck at the General's house. HaHa. Monday we're supposed to change to Blue Phase. Saturday we have our prefinal P.T. test. I will pass. I'm not too worried. Tuesday we have Night Infiltration Course where we crawl across a beach and get shot at. Don't worry, the bullets are 10 - 15 feet over our head, I think. Thursday we leave for our 3-day field trip out in the middle of nowhere. Got my hair cut today, spent $20.23 at the PX. I had my prefinal PT test. Mom & Dad, you would be so proud of me. You have to get to the 60th percentile which is 40 pushups, 50 situps and 16:32 run. I got 40 pushups (you have 2 minutes), 65 situps, and ran the two mile in 15:32! Our final P.T test is on the 19th. On the 14th-16th we have a 3-day hike, and our 7 days at Victory Forge is from the 23rd - 30th.

We're all getting excited for graduation. 26 days to go, then 8 weeks of AIT, then I go to my unit. My AIT will be in Fort Jackson. But at least on weekends I can feel like I'm in Minneapolis since I'm like 5 minutes from downtown Columbia. The cool thing about AIT is there's no homework. You have your PT in the Morning, then there's classes till 3, then you're off in the evening. All of your work is classwork.

So anyway, everyone says hi. I'm writing like 5 letters at once. LOL. But I'm gonna finish up yours first. I'm really dark now. My skin isn't burning like a lot of other soldiers are. Monday, we get our berets and our class A uniforms dress for parades and for graduation.

Hey, make sure you say a prayer for all of us this week. It's going to be a couple tough weeks coming up.

Love,

Leroy