OC Fight Through

Today was OC fight through day at SRF school. OC stands for oleoresin capsicum, commonly known as pepper spray. This is much stonger than the common self defense kind you can buy for under $20. The purpose of this training is to show us how the OC feels, that it does work, and that it doesn't work if the person is focused and determined.

To start out we get sprayed across the eyebrows from ~4 feet away. I got a direct spray into my left eye and it was pretty much no use for about 20 min. My right eye made it through the whole course. The course consisted of 5 various stations that we had to fight through successfully using proper fighting techniques we were trained on, then after successful completion we went to the eye wash station, which caused me the greatest pain I have ever felt, and caused me to not be able to breathe easily (atleast I felt like I couldn't, I had to yell to force air in and out) After the washing station my eyes and my whole face felt like they were on fire and getting attacked with razo blades. I have a video of this whole experience but I am not allowed to post it online, so if you want to see it, let me know.

The best part is that this is all voluntary and right before it happens they ask us medical questions, if we have contacts in, and if we are aware that we are about to be contaminated with oleoresin capsicum and if we understand that this is entirely voluntary, I said yes, and he said shut your eyes...and so the fun began, I got through in ~4 min many others took a lot longer, I was also pretty well recovered in about 30 min and felt completely recovered in 1 hour. My buddy took a lot longer and I actually drove him back to barracks because he was still unable to see well enough to drive.

I also took a shower tonight, which actually reactivated the spray in my eyes and face, ouch.


On another note, I am now 21! I bought a 6 pack today and drank a couple beers. I had to drink them before 7 because no alcohol within 12 hours of class due to the hazardous nature of this class.


I LOVE YOU ALEXANDRA!
I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!

Force Protection School

Tomorrow I have to go to Force Protection School. I don't know much about it. It's basically 3 weeks of basic combat training to defend the ship if the need arises. All I know is that we are going to get maced in the face, shoot guns, and learn some ninja fighting moves (jk). But I will get MACED and I am not looking forward to it. Maybe it will be when Alexandra is here so she can take care of me afterward...hehe, I am a pobrecito!

I LOVE YOU ALEXANDRA
I MISS YOU!

Saturday Duty

Yesterday was my first Saturday duty day. I knew it was gonna suck, since its a saturday and I have to work, however I thought it might be nice, because people won't be too busy and I should be able to get lots and lots of checkouts. Turns out it wasn't busy, but I didn't get a whole lot of checkouts during the day because all the qualified useful bodies were reading, watching movies, playing xbox, or on watch "busy". So I studied quite a bit, but got tired of that in a hurry. Actually the morning wasn't so bad because I got to do ELT stuff and then go on a lunch food run to subway. Then for dinner I went on a food run to taco bell. I made sure to give people pretty good change so that I wouldn't be like someone else on my boat who doesn't give change...

Then I found out I would be standing my U/I watch from 2030-2330. I got quite a few checkouts during it, so that made me happy. Although I almost missed watch completely because after dinner I was sick of studying and knew that by the time my watch came around I was going to be tired so I got in the rack to rest and read a book. I put my name on the wakeup sheet for 2000 just in case. I fell asleep and no one woke me up. I woke up on my own at 2018 and got out of the rack to stand my watch. Back to bed at 2330 and reveille at 0500. Then I did some ELT stuff and went to church.

I LOVE YOU ALEXANDRA!
I MISS YOU!!

Coconut Milk!

Today I went to the swap meet with Jeremy and Hilary. There was a lot of t-shirts and good touristy stuff. There was also lots of tasty samples, next time I think I will get some jam and maybe a t-shirt. I also want to pick up a 688i submarine model made of mahogany. The only thing I bought today was a coconut, the dude took an axe to it and then stuck a straw in it (pic below) it wasn't what I expected, but good nonetheless. I think the best part was the fact that I was drinking directly out of a coconut!

I LOVE YOU ALEXANDRA!
I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!

Boredom...then...Driveing...then FIREWORKS!

So every night I talk to Alexandra until she goes to sleep, then most of the time I am pretty bored, usually watch Nip/Tuck episodes, play some PS2, read a book, or surf the web. Tonight I was especially missing Alexandra, idk why, I just was. Nothing seemed appealing, I didn't want to read, watch a movie or play video games, so I decided to go for a drive and listen to the CD I bought last weekend, Back when I knew it All by Montgomery Gentry.

So I got on H1 and drove until it ended and then kept driving until I was going into nowhere and decided to turn around. Then Hilary called me from base needing directions to her hubby's boat because they were going to watch the fireworks and since he was on duty he couldn't leave.

I had completely forgotten about fireworks so I headed back to base and was going to watch from the truck. Then at 8 the fireworks still hadn't started so I got out of the truck to walk around since I had listened to the whole CD twice. Then I ran into Hilary, she still hadn't found the boat (I guess submarines are stealthy above water too, haha jk) so I ended up watching the fireworks with them, I felt bad because I thought maybe they had wanted a nice romantic firework show for the 2 of them.

We were literally underneath the fireworks. My neck still hurts!

Then I let Hilary follow me off base so she could get to H1 without going through the majority of the traffic, although there was still a lot of traffic. So that was my night.

I promised Alexandra I would have a good evening, and I guess it ended up happening, it would always be better if she was with me though.

I LOVE YOU ALEXANDRA!!!
I MISS YOU SO MUCH!

Ice Age

Today I saw Ice Age, it was good but not as good as the first two movies. Good friendship themes and stuff and plenty of double meaning jokes for kids and adults.

Before the movie we went to eat at the Cattle Company. It was really good, and good price. I look forward to going there after my 21st birthday because the ribs have a suggested wine to go with them and I really want to try that.

I can't wait for Alexandra to come visit! It will be lots of fun. I'm excited for her and Hilary to hang out, and for us to look at a house by them and see if any will be available about the time we want to move in. That will be a super exciting day! I love you so much!!!

I LOVE YOU ALEXANDRA!!!
I MISS YOU SO MUCH!

North Carolina Readers

Hi, my fiancee and I have noticed that on a regular basis we have visitors from North Carolina on our blogs. It's exciting to see other people reading, but we are curious to know what interests you about our blogs. So if you don't mind please leave a comment, you can leave it as annonymous if you like. We are just curious. Thank you, hope you enjoy reading.

P.S.
I LOVE YOU HONEY!
I MISS YOU SO MUCH!