Blue Phase

Lee letters always encourage me and leave me smiling. He quotes, "It's those left standing in the end that are the best!" We're barely beginning Blue Phase but at lease we're beginning. Poor guy. He's so hungry. He went to OSUT weighing in ~195lbs. He had been weight training and running a lot. He now weighs 177lbs. After he puts on his "battle rattle" he weighs 285lbs. Dang! That's a lot of extra weight to carry around all day. His "battle rattle" includes his body armor, helmet, load-bearing vest, camel-back with water, 2 full canteens, weapon, ACU's (camo), boots, and packed assault pack. He's says it's cool for the first 5 minutes and then your back goes, then your shoulders, legs then feet. He saying his sweat smells like ammonia. He's hearing that he's burning muscle now. Great. I researched the sweaty smell and sent him some information about it. He has to wear his Class A's for Family Day. I'm excited to see him in uniform. He said I'm going to laugh at how high he has to wear his pants. The Army likes to wear their pants high? Whatever. Lee says it's cool to run in the rain. Not cool to eat in it. He's tired too. Apparently, the DS found wrinkles in the blankets of Lee's platoon. For a week they have to take apart the bunks and store them and the mattresses in the showers and reassemble them at night. This cuts into their sleep time. I sprayed my last letter with a perfume that Lee loves of mine. He said he smelt it right away and it smells so good. Especially compared to farts and sweat...(I'll take that as a compliment.) Lee thinks farting in formation is a tortuous act that everyone enjoys doing. He says it's horrible because you cannot move! They eat a lot of MREs in the field. He always anticipates what he is going to get. Chicken, vegetarian, enchilada...you never know what you're going to get. You have to eat what you're given. Recently, he got really excited because they got to eat breakfast in the DFAC instead of having a MRE in the field. He has to eat his meal last since he's PG. By the time it was his turn, they were out of milk and he had to wait for a refill. He got his milk, sat down, finished his eggs, biscuits/gravy, and french toast. (shoving this all in his mouth, of course)The DS came in the DFAC and made everyone get up and leave. Lee said normally he would be bummed but he's used to it now. He was looking forward to finishing a big meal full of protein and calories. He had to throw away his Frosted Flakes (his fav cereal), nutri-grain bar, orange and grapes. He's been tested a lot recently. He had a written test, another first-aid test, a test on fixing a malfunctioned weapon, and weapon assembly/reassembly. He also had to walk the DS through a needle-chest decompression. (It's used to relieve pressure from within the chest cavity and allow a collapsed lung to re-inflate.) He also had to take a M4 apart in 1 min 30 sec and he did it in ~30 sec. After all that he got what he had been waiting for for a looong time. A meatloaf MRE!