Birthday Letter

Here are some excerpts from the letter Tim wrote to us on his birthday (dated March 27).
So the story of my birthday begins the night before. After breakfast, the DS was walking through the hall and Roddy yelled out, "Drill Sergeant, it's Sears' birthday!" The DS froze, came in, stared at me, then walked out and called "Redline!" [This means they must all line-up in formation] Dreading what was to come, and cursing Roddy, I sprinted to redline and dutifully lined-up. The DS yelled out, "First platoon, you know what to do." PVT Pearson started to drop into push-up position, several other privates started toward me as if to tackle me, and the rest simply looked confused, thus proving that 1st platoon did not know what to do. The people acting alone (Pearson and the tacklers) quickly realized they were doing the wrong thing, and a chorus of "Happy Birthday" gradually broke out. After the completion of the song, the DS asked how old I was, then said that I looked closer to 10 than 20. So, I guess it is not such a big deal after all. It's about time to go to church, so I'll continue this in a couple of hours.

Another section about Advanced Rifle Marksmanship...
We fired at a qualification range in body armor in different positions from behind cover. We had to shoot each target enough times to kill it (randomly 1-3). The training really works. I did great, shooting rapid fire at targets out to 300M, then my red dot went out [laser aiming device]. Without even pausing to think, I flipped-up my iron sight and continued firing. Fixing problems like that as well as weapon malfunctions has become second nature to us.

After recapping his day, which included 2 phone calls home...
Today was as good a birthday as I could hope for at Basic Training. I got Cocoa Puffs for breakfast, a hamburger for dinner, and two phone calls. I wish I could have spent it with my family, though.