Second Letter from Tom

Hey everyone!

Here is the second letter I recently received from Tom from OCS in Rhode Island.

Nicky,

So, where to begin with my ridiculously stressful week, ohhh, I know, how about the beatings. We seriously got beat very hard Monday - Friday this week (It's 3 PM on Saturday as I write this and I sm seriously hoping to avoid another beating today). Tuesday was especially tough, we got beat for 60 minutes straight at one point (keep in mind they are not supposed to do it for more than 10, and 5 minutes in you are exhausted). I heard many people say it was the worst beat down they have ever seen, and keep in mind all of this is on top of the normal PT from 5:30 to 6:30 each morning. This one started in the street when someone forgot to greet a DI, we were beat there in the street, forced to run to a sand pit with our rifles ( about 8 extra pounds and keep in mind we were also in steel toe boots), beat there, forced to fill our pockets with sand, we have 10 pockets, ran to another sand pit (rifles still in hand), where we were beat and hosed down, and then taken back to our hall where we dumped the sand out (it's called being sanded), poured our canteens on the sand, stripped our beds, and then took our mattresses into the hall, then took out our shoelaces annd put them in one large pile and keep in mind we are still being beat (keep in mind being beat is whatever physical exercise they can give you as torture, but you work so hard to keep going, because if you fail, i.e. touch your knees to the ground on push ups, everything just gets worse for your team). This whole beating took about 60 minutes, and was just one of many this week. We were sanded 4 times alone this week and only given 20 minutes to clean up after each, which also typically involves making your bed as he already stripped it.

The beatings are severe, but I know they are making me stronger. The harder part is the mental and emotional stress they put on you here. You always have so much to do and so little time in which to do it. The toughest thing we have coming up is a room, locker, and personal inspection on July 30th, which 2/3 of people fail teh first time, and 10% of people fail twice (and I am not exactly the cleanest person ever and I am starting to freak out).

Note, I just read through this thing and there are tons of spelling errors. That should just let you know how tired I am and how hard I am working to keep on pushing through. The problem is that it affects everything I do, not just letters, and the smallest mistake can lead to a beating. There are about 8 DIs, and a very regimented system for greeting them. If you say one word out of place, you get beat, and I really can't stress enough how horrible the beatings are. He did find a worse form of punishment though, copying chow hall procedures 3 times by hand. It was due the next day, so everyone stayed up all night to finish writing them and still failed to finish, so not only are we in line for a beating, we have no sleep as well.

The rest of our days are taken up with classes, which are a constant struggle to stay awake, and drill. Drill is actually pretty enjoyable except for the fact that our DI is there and usually beats us during it (it is especially hard doing these physical workout beatings with a rifle, as they have all sorts of creative painful exercises for you to do). Though most of these sessions and the postures they make you do are intended to help you learn Drill.

Our biggest problem as a class right now is staying "LOCKED ON" when we are outside our wing. A lot of people will relax when we are outside and trust me when I say that has no good end result. However, there are signs we are starting to come together, but we are no where close to where we need to be yet, and it is costing us dearly. I have no doubts this place is changing me, but rather than turning me into a typical cocky jerk I feel it is instilling in me a certain sense of pride and discipline to ensure the very best of me shines through (I promise I am still the same old "interesting" Tom underneath).

I unfortunately have to go and cut this letter short, but there is so much more I want to tell you. I will leave you with this though, the main thing that gets me through here is the thought of getting to see everyone again and just to be able to be around my friends once more. It really keeps me pushing through all of this shit they put me through here, and I plan to make my first stop after this place LA so I can see everyone once again, and man will I have stories.

Thanks once again for everything, and I greatly look forward to your next letter because it is one of the few things that can get me to smile around here. I hope you guys had a great Bay Area Road Trip and I can't wait to see everyone again.

Sincerely,
Thomas J Curtis