November 18, 2012
Valerie,
I don't know what it is, but when I hear your sweet voice it just makes my day. I was having a pretty okay day today - and getting to hear your voice just make it about 100X better. Then another cool thing happened which I will tell you about in a minute, but I just am so glad you are there. I can call you up randomly and you will be on your phone just as easy to talk to as ever. I wish I could have spent a longer time talking to you but c'est la vie, right? Thank you.
I haven't heard from you for about two weeks now because one of the sergeants here -who will remain nameless- did not organize the mail until Friday. And on Saturday took his weekend without leaving the mail room unlocked. So while stacks of mail wait so does everyone in the platoon. This same sergeant was going to have all the rest of my 18x comrades get airline tickets last Saturday and Monday and failed to do that as well which is why it cost $___ freaking dollars to buy tickets. I am so upset with this guy at the moment - but I just remember this too shall pass and I wont have to deal with anymore of this crap after I leave here and graduate - halleleuiah (or however you spell it.)
You may not think it but today and basically this whole past weekend I have been in an excellently good mood! I am actually writing this with a very positive attitude (I hope you are reading it like that).
I actually started the weekend on Thursday. We did a two night overnight field trip where we dug fox holes and ranger graves - places where you stand for security and sleep with security. It was fun, but I was pretty upset on Thursday. I wanted to seriously hurt something because I was mad at all of the crap from around here (the stuff that I just mentioned and a lot of other stuff too) As luck would have it the ground we were working in was hard - like soft sandstone - and I just took out a lot of my frustration on killing the dirt instead of people. I also and lucky to have battle buddies here that I can talk to like J___. He is way cool and him and I talk about and do a lot together. He is really nice to let me vent on him. Sometimes I let him do the same on me. Anyway, at the end of Thursday I was pretty okay.
Then another guy here named C___ came and talked with me and helped me figure some more stuff out. Among other things he told me that he knew I wasn't very aggressive and that If I wanted to get ahead in the army I had to be more so. He said, "think of it like a tool in a toolbox that you use when you need it for your job here in the Army." I liked that and I am trying new ways of being aggressive now. I do have somewhat of a louder voice and I have actually startled people when I spoke to them (moreso because they didn't expect such a loud sound to come out of my mouth) so it's a work in progress.
Friday-day we did ambush drills together with 2nd platoon. That was actually pretty fun. In the morning we were the ones who set up the ambush. We put leaves and grass and branches in our helmets, some of us more than others. And we hid and when second platoon came "unknowingly" walking down the road we charged and shot (blanks) at them. They were either supposed to react to it or retreat. When our squad did it they retreated. When we did it again with 4th squad, 4th squad was in the front shooting (doing a regular ambush) the squad from second platoon came up the road and reacted and started firing back, when the rest of our platoon came charging down the hill towards everyone they reacted big time! It was pretty cool. DE S___ got a pretty good kick out of it and so did we.
During the afternoon we were the ones who were attacked. My squad, second squad, got anialated. We started reacting to the ambush and then while we were shooting we didn't notice the smoke go off (which means retreat) and we got killed by a squad flanking us from the left. Yeah we would have all been dead, but everyone learned a few lessons from it. Oh yeah, on of the funnier things was while we were walking down the road we ran into a platoon that was killed except their leader who was moaning that he was hurt by everyone in the area and his whole team was killed and he just was moaning and groaning. He was shot and put out of his misery. We all laughed - even the dead guys. It was a pretty fun day.
Saturday was spend burying the holes we dug. They were pretty cool and I was sad to bury them. DS S___ took a picture of me digging. It might be on the facebook page. [There were lots of pictures and I couldn't tell who might be Brandon. So lets just pretend this is him.]
Now today was a really good day. Church was fun. Informative because our lesson which usually reminds me of home, really reminded me of home because it was on raising children in the gospel. It was really good and it made me glad that you and I are already trying to instill conversations together that are like testimonies and it is part of our normal daily life - it's another reason I'm glad I married you.
I learned today that President S____, our Branch President, was a pilot in the airforce although I didn't have a whole lot of time to talk to him after church. I told him I was going to talk to him later. I am sure that will be a cool conversation.
After church today, as you know, I was able to finally get my airline tickets home and back. That kind of solidifies the fact that this place is not permanent and it makes me really happy to know I will get to see your beautiful face again soon. 23 days from now - yeah!!!
Besides talking to you on the phone briefly today, the coolest part of the day today was as I was ordering my airline tickets. DS B_____ asked me why I was in the Army. I told him the truth. I said that I wanted to gain some now experiences and learn new things, but the biggest reason I wanted to join was so I could fly. He was very interested in that and asked me if I had any experience in flying. I told him I had my private pilots certificate and instrument rating. He seemed pretty impressed and asked if I wanted to fly helocopters, I agreed. Then he told me, after he had spent 2 1/2 hours here helping 9 people get airline tickets, that he didn't mind staying a little longer to help me out. He got on the computer and found the place to order more information about Warrant Officer School and flight training. He had me put in my information so it could be sent to me. I asked him how long it may take and he said it might be six months or so because I have to get a packet filled out to apply.
While he was talking to me he mentioned that he didn't think that the infantry was meant for everyone, I'm sure he was referring to guys like me, but that I could have a good chance at doing this. So I, hopefully, started down the longish road to flight training today. That made me very, very happy and I have been in a wonderfully pleasant mood the rest of today. I really hope I can have this work out that way. I'm going to continue to pray about it and I hope that you will to for me. Thank you.
I can't wait until this weekend. I am looking forward to hearing from you. I hope you are doing the same. I don't know how long you can talk to me, but I would be pleased as punch to talk to you the whole time! You will probably get this letter after I talk to you [I got it Friday while I was talking to him] so we will see what happens. I do want to talk to other people too and I will probably spend most of the weekend talking to other people too.
I am looking forward to hearing from you again and from the girls. I am looking forward to seeing you in person soon and I can't wait to hold you in my arms. I better go to bed, but I love you and I wish the best for you every day and pray for all of you every night. Thank you for being a wonderful, loving, caring, and supportive woman. Thank you for doing everything that you do.
I was going over the family proclamation recently and thinking to myself that as hard as it is we are doing it. We are raising our family and even though I'm not their physically I hope you still feel I am there for you spiritually and mentally. I am doing this whole thing for you and the kids. I hope you know that. I want to be the father and husband who provides for his family. And you are doing a wonderful job of nurturing our children. I love you soo much!!
I miss you and I will talk to you Thursday and see you in December.
Love
Brandon
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