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Sunday, July 5th, 1998


Dear Family,

How was your 4th of July? Ours was interesting. I don't remember if I told you or not, but we were scheduled "mandatory fun" yesterday, which happened to be attending a carnival. We marched over there in the rain, bbut no one seemed to mind and company spirit was not affected in the least: this was probably because

  1. Captain McQueen, the company commander, was there (had to make a good impression), and
  2. We were going to eat candy until we barfed.
At the carnival, we did indeed stuff our faces. I ate a Three Muskateers bar, Pizza, Dr. Pepper, Coke, "Bomb Pop", Cheetos, Coke, Barg's Root Beer, Nachos, and funnel cake. Though this gross overeating may sound vulgar, it was definitely the overriding spirit of the entire afternoon for all soldiers, regardless of company or battalion. Also, attendance at the carnival seemed somehow more decorous than the dance the week previous, though I do not know how. Perhaps I am becoming rotten in my principles of military conduct like every other private on Ft. Leonard Wood, which would total about 12,000 soldiers at any given time.

For our entertainment at the carnival were a duo of entertainers, Elvis Presley and Tina Turner inpersonators. We actually sat in the tent where they were carrying on and watched for awhile, at which point Watson turned to me and said "This 4th of July keeps getting worse and worse." I had to laugh at that, seeing where I was and wondering how in the heck I ended up in an audience of clapping, shouting Tina Turner fans in a tent in Missouri.

There was a bowling alley (permanent feature) available also, so we went into the alley and watched our battles bowl. Snow (Texas) bowled a 223, which was impressive. There were other high 190s in the vicinity of our seating area. If only they could do so well at BRM-- ouch!

We left the carnival around 1700, going directly to the chow hall. In the chow hall, however, several members of our company chose not to eat, which caused Sgt. Jackson to play a fun game with us. He'd call us down to formation and say "You have 30 seconds to change into summer PT uniform." We'd do that, get back down, and then he'd say "You have 1 minute 30 seconds to change into BDUs, full metal jacket." We'd do that (all frantically), then he'd say "You have 30 seconds to get into summer PTs." etc... Ended up bringing all our linens down as well, which meant we had to remake our bunks. The entire fiasco lasted about an hour and a half. After this, we sat on the back lawn and watched the fireworks display.

So... now we're in Week 6, Day 3 of Basic Training, and our platoon is coming unraveled. It seems no one can get along with the platoon guide, half the people cannot get along with each other, and a few people have literally snapped mentally. I, however, am feeling fine beyond a tendency to get a little down when those around me are so disagreeable. There really is no good reason to fight- we only have 16 or 17 days left now. People have a tendency to become short-sighted here, not fully understanding how little time is really left and how temporary this insanity is. I will pull through with my character and decency intact, regardless of what others do. Civility seems abandoned here, which is appropriate to an extent, but not to the extent it has happened in recent days. There are others who also will not become so debased as to bicker and argue for no reason, and these people are the ones I try to hang with whenever possible.

Well, that's about all for now. I'm looking forward to seeing you all in about 2 weeks. Take care,

Dan

P.S. Has the graduation info packet arrived yet? Someone in the platoon said their family had received it already. Watch for it in the mail soon.

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