7th Training February 19, 2014

During this training we had another instructor to manage us for our training but on this it was a Future Soldier Training. We had Sergeant Cabrera where he thought more depth on the ranks and also more on our Army Values and the General Orders that we have to memorize by heart. The values acronym is LDRSHIP where this letters represents meaningful words that every soldier memorize and know at all times either in or out of duty. This words really inspires me because this is avery strong words to represent the Army. The letters stands for Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage. For the general orders we have to know as well because these are things that we have to in case of any kind of emergencies and just anything in genreal that we have to tell our leader. Then after that he gave us like a pop quiz about the different ranks in the Army. He made every single one of us go up to the board to draw how the rank insignia look like based on which rank he tells us. And when it was my turn I was sort of nervous because I didn't study about the ranks that much but I still drew the right insignia on the board.And when one of us draws the wrong insignia everyone in the training would have to do 10 pushups as a whole group which was another factor why I was nervous. Then after this we went outside to tackle on some marching which was sort of bad because very little of us knew which marches he wanted us to do because ou regular instructor didn't teach it to us yet and because Sergeant Cabrera wasn't used to teaching future soldiers what we needed to do. But it was all good because we all learned something new after all the marching. And since it was cold and gloomy outside we went back inside the station because Sergeant Cabrera didn't want us to get sick or anything. When we got back up we tried to form the formation if we were to do exercises which was sort of hard to understand because our space in the station was quite small but I managed to get how to do it afterall. And this pretty much ended our training where we also got big poster that has the Soldier's Creed on it.


Time logged for this session: 2 hrs
Total time logged: 13 hrs

6th Training February 12, 2014

For this training day since our instructor Sergeant Vananzo was on a leave another soldier was to instruct us. But this was an important day of training because all of us future soldiers had to be there because we had an annual physical training. There was probably about 16 or 17 us during this training which would normally be 8 or 9 future soldiers. Since this was an actual physical training we were all in our army t-shirt and workout clothes. Right after the clock strike 5 pm we started jogging from the San Mateo Recruiting Center through the near neighborhoods. As we were jogging we also had some chances to sing songs that normal soldiers would to inside the bootcamp, which I thought was fun and funny because some of us future soldiers were quite bad at singing but as a group I think we did alright. For this jog though e had to make sure we were jogging as a team and if someone was left behind we had to slow it down and wait for them. since we were jogging  and running through the neighborhoods we thought a way on how to cross the street which was when two of our leaders from our wolf pack goes in front of us then goes to our side left and right to make sure that none of us gets run over by a car. We probably jogged for about 25 minutes until we reached a nearby park where we immediately did some exercises which included push ups, planking, and some intense arm exercise which burned my arms a lot. We also had some chances to have partners to do some exercises as well which included the military sit ups and some leg workouts. After the exercises we had about 2 minutes of resting then back to some more intense workouts. During these exercises we were on grass and when ever we had to go down we had to do it which annoyed me at first since it was grass and it was also sort of muddy because it just rained the day before but I got over it after couple of minutes since I know it'll be worst in bootcamp. And lastly, the last thing we did was run, sprint, jog our hardest and just give it our all which I actually did and it made me be proud of myself because I have never pushed myself that hard into running and especially because I was already tired of the workouts that we did. We probably did couple of laps then out instructor Sergeant Hererra decided to go back to the station because it also started getting dark. We also jogged as a team to the station with some more Army songs. Overall, this was probably a training day that I enjoyed the most because I literally felt like I was at bootcamp.




Time logged for this session: 2 hrs
Total time logged: 11 hrs

5th Training February 5, 2014

For this training we had the regular training we call future soldiers class. In the beginning of the of the training we started having conversations about any concerns or any questions that me and my battle buddies probably have about the training that we are currently doing and or anything about the army in general which also includes the basic training and how we should all get ready for that since all our deployment date are getting a lot closer and closer. This was also when three of our battle buddies actually went to their basic training already. After that conversation we were challenged as a team to use a map and figure out the places that our instructor told us to do, and we did this for about 20 or 30 minutes. Then throughout the rest of the training we went outside to practice marching and also the different positions we have to do when our leaders shout out the positions we have to be on. As a team of future soldiers we did a pretty good job keeping up with the instructor. And the last thing that we did was to practices the others standing faces we have to do and to keep it that way. Our instructor Sergeant Vananzo showed us where our fingers and hands are supposed to be in various positions and how we should stand properly.



Time logged for this session: 2 hrs.
Total time logged: 9 hrs.