Another First RSP ...Continued
Well, I could write a book on my first RSP. Our RSP lasted from Friday night through Sunday which is not typical of drilling here. So, here’s the shortest version I could come up with;
I arrived at 5:00 pm on Friday afternoon. We signed-in then weighed-in, then it was "fall in" which I didn't know anything about. I was then pushed up to the front. We were briefed on the events of the night and the weekend. We were then told that our platoons would be split up by region, not by Phases. The region depended on your recruiter. I was now in 2nd Squad... Still at the front. Next we were to have a Suicide Prevention Class. We were dismissed to the large classroom and took a seat. Sgt. Green, a former drill instructor and highest ranking NCO, lead the class. It was real dry material, however, he managed to lighten it up a lot. The class lasted for 2 hours then we went and got our cots and sleeping bags. Our platoon was then in charge of assigning fire drill times. I offered to do the 4am-6am watch.
Lights were on at 5:45, Saturday so we could get an early start on the day. We did PT at 6:30, and it was kind of easy; less than 25 minutes. Don't get me wrong, there were some challenging moves, but I've worked out harder than this. After PT, Red Phase split off. Their were 10 Red Phase privates including myself. We were issued water bottles immediately and were told "don't forget your water bottle!" We then took the physical fitness test (1-1-1)
Push-ups = 26 (not bad but I need more)
Sit-ups= 27 (weakest area)
Mile run = 8:25 (I was not last :D probably 3 other guys + 1 girl that did worse than me)
We recovered and then it was off to the classroom. We were given our Battle Books and a red folder with info. It was around 9:15 and some of the kids were pretty tired after all the PT (not me). Sgt Myers then smoked us because a few men were falling asleep. After that, I started paying attention to not only the SGT, but also to the rest of the class. When I saw someone start to drift away and lose focus, I told them to stand up! Funny, they listened. It was then that I became Red Squad leader. Pretty much the rest of the day was boring class work. 12:00 we had chow. Back to the class and learned till 5:00. But before being dismissed for chow, SGT Green wanted us to do the "the Army Song". None of us knew this and as we fumbled through the words he played an MP3 on the computer to help us. After 10 practice runs, the group had it down. We had even surprised SGT Myers. Then we went to chow. After chow, the SGT had us go out side and practice our Left/Right/About face for 10 minutes. But when he joined us, he said he wanted us to perform the Army Song in front of the entire company! And I was to lead. OMG It was amazing. It turned into a competition between First, Second, Third platoons, and Red Squad. Red Squad won! It was pretty inspiring to hear the entire company sing. Then it was personal time till 9pm. Lights out at 10 and I slept the entire night till 5:30 am.
Sunday Morning, we awoke to find that someone had fallen asleep on fire guard. PT today was much more… intense! But I made it through. Maybe I had to take a little rest, but I kept going. No one yelled at me either. I just kept doing it. Then it was outside to do some sprints and challenges. Walking lunges followed by 10 push-ups. 50 yard dash. I did pretty good on all the runs except for running backwards. I knocked out probably 150 push-ups by 7:30. We fell-in to second squad and were then to run / march a lap around the building because someone lost a flash light on fire guard. 8:00 chow time and then red phase went upstairs for our final learning and the test. We finished the material, not one person fell asleep, didn’t get smoked either! Then we tested. I missed 1 question, everyone passed! Then it was off to lunch. We finished up by cleaning the entire building. I had red phase sweep the floors upstairs and downstairs. At our final fall-in, I was to lead the company in the Army song, I wasn’t even prepared! After a briefing, we were dismissed, but I still had to in-process and get fitted for my uniform. I waited for 1 hour just to process, then 1/2 hour to fit the uniform. The ride home was long. And it didn’t hit me till I got home, just how much fun it was.
After getting home at 3:45, I fell asleep in the living room. I didn’t know how tired I was!
