Okay... got my first letter from Michael upon my return from St. George last night. Bless his heart. He started writing on January 19th through the 24th i believe. It's about 12 pages front and back on a small steno note pad.
It reminds me of when he was in basic... the guys would give him a hard time for how long his letters were to me. They called them the "Memoirs from a Mormon" - i thought it was just cute as could be. So here's Michael in one of his best forms... writing. For those that don't know, Michael truly has a gift for story telling and relaying his emotions through writing. As much as I hate for him to be away, I love getting letters from him while he's gone.
I'll share as much as I can from the 12 pages he's sent.
it's been just over a week since i've been here. I've finally found some time to sneak a note and I'll try to write little by little as I can without getting caught. I'm worried I'll lose my notebook and any good "personal" info could be found and read! That wouldn't be too good. Just know that I love you and Baby "B" so, so much. you are my motivation when things are tough. When my body is completely exhausted & head/mind is a mushy ball. (Oh yeah. It's snowing right now! They are re-scheduling land nav. training and our 3 day field exercise because it's been so wet & cold. Guess they don't have snow plows here so any snow and the place closes down! The toughest thing right now is lack of sleep and phys exhaustion. The 1st week here was atrocious physically. Along with TAC screaming in your face, it's a VERY stsressufl time and place. It's even worse if you are placed into a leadership position such as company commander, XO, or Platoon leader. Luckily they are rotated every 24 hours. The TAC give us and leadership positions more work than you can get done in time. As a plt. it means we get to bed late and get up early. Lights are out at 11 pm, most finally get to bed about 11:30p when they completely are comatose. If you are me or leadership or have your stuff together you go to bed at 12-1am. Wake up for all is typically at 3:30 a.m. It sucks, but you just go on. 1st formation is either a 0500am and a PT run (2.5-3 miles) as a company. Every other day we don't do PT we have locker inspections. This means most of us aren't uniform and 1/2 or all of 47 OC's get their equipment tossed onto the center of the bay. If you followed the guide your stuff was all labeled. If not, then you take time at night to track down stuff that got stuffed into others' lockers in the heat of the moment.
The OCS here in AL has a great officer reputation. I'm glad i'm here, at least now. We have 246 OCs in five platoons. I don't have anyone here from Utah but I see them in passing. You don't have time to talk to them other than a quick word in passing. They require we maintain the utmost sense of discipline and strict standards. The 1st few days here completely sucked! I didn't want to be here and tallied 4 straight days where I had to fight my mind to stay here. Right now it's still tough but we have a lot of classroom time which helps us relax a bit and gives us a safe haven from the TAC. We have 4 exams this 1st phase to pass before going into the next. In the next few days during FTX we'll be doing Map Reading exams. Just like basic, I'm taking this hour by hour, from 1 meal to the next.
*note: for those that don't know FTX is Field Training Exercises*
The best news for me & my knee!! I've been able to run and run ALOT w/out much pain or soreness. My whole body, esp. joints hurt from the physically exhausting demands of "smokings" and running everywhere. The worse pain is actually my ankle. It has me limping at times but is not bad. These items alone make me happy. Even better knowing I'll see you in 7 short weeks. I'm not able to take my meds on my own, they made us trun everything into the medics but after meals we are allowed to retrieve them. So far, I've only used the 800 mg ibuprofin for my aches and for a sinus infection I now hav. My feet hurt however, and there's nothing I can do about that. We also did a 5 mile ruck march which I hobbled through and passed...
Ok, so I'm back, took a little break. I cn't remember where I was or what I was thinking when i left offI have so much in my head right now. I feel confident I'm goin to finish OCS here and glad I came here this time of the year. I believe that the heat in S.D. along with all the stress of OCS there causes many to drop. Here's it's been cold early in the a.m. but then and during the day it's really nice. There have been some nice days where we've had on our coats, gloves, stock. caps and all gear and burned up running and getting smoked. But compared to Benning and Basic this is nice, they take good care of us. But it's not easy. Trying to motivate myself in hard times when I wanted to quit early on I took it hr by hr and thought of these things plus more: you, baby boy at my commissioning, you and baby picking me up at the airport, your words "Lt. Schultz" and others of encouragement, how I'm being paid to be here, my dream of being a soldier and standing above the thousands of other average joes for the last 4+ years of my time, finishin so I can get the bonus for baaby & other thins, the OCS 25k loan, a new dirt bike and probably the one that sticks out most in my cloudy mind is because I told you that no matter what I'd finish the 1st phase! I will because of you and our new child coming who need it.
On a short note, I haven't been called into a formal leadership position yet (Co. Commander, 1st Sgt, XO, PLT Sgt or PLT Leader). I did serve a day as squad leader, which was cake, but didn't get graded for it. I'm doing the co. chaplain gig starting today. This means before chows we have a formation where I'm called up and report to the CO, salute, about face and give command "Ground Headgear." I then give a blessing on the food, TAC, Instructors, staff & soldiers. it's good and has given me further motivation, at least until I get called to a formal position.
1st Sgt is probably the most difficult because one has to march the whole company and usually does all formations & there is a lot he has to do exactly right. If not, hehas 5 or more TAC yelling in his face in front of the entire co. This usually has him/her giving commands to the co. while in the leaning rest (push-up) position!
I'm looking forward to Phase II, the last 2 weeks as this is when the TAC hats come off & they become mentors while we do field training. I was thinking if you have ANY problems and need me home for good reasons, don't hesitate to call the #s I gave you. I can surely and wouldn't mind putting/finishing OCS off till later in the year. I was even thinking about doing my commissioning ceremoney (when I finish) in June/July instead so I can have more time with you before I start my next training phase. We'll see. I love you much you stubborn thing and am glad you stand by me and we are growing together.
I wanted to tell you about a very, very special & emotional moment which happened yesterday. At 0500, we (company) set off on a 2.5 mile run which slowed with us marching through this dark wooded road. In the dark was our strong voiced Batt. Commander. As our eyes adjusted, we could see he was standing on a ledge and steps which over looked an old military cemetary. He spoke to us about the sacrifice we were making and how others before us had done the same. he spoke for only about 5 mins in the dark asking us to take some time to walk through the cemetary and look at the names, dates... to think of the ultimate sacrifice others had made, to use the person's name as motivation in tough times. As 250 candidates spread through the cemetary, it was surreal! All that was seen was hundreds of white flashlights in the dark. In the background was an anelic voice singing "Amazing Grace" (yes, an actual live singer, singing beautifully for us). Though you couldn't see faces, you couldn't or wouldn't find a dry face or eye amongst us. It was all sniffles, from emotionally touched soldiers. i can't say I've ever been more proud or emotionally touched to be serving than at that morning. Even as I write this, I fight tears that are brought up by it. I can't remember the name of my soldier but his last name was Yancy. He served as a CW4 in WWII, Korea & Vietnam and died in 1992. He was indeed a very special person.
I think that's a good note to end on. And maybe it shows you why I love to get letters from him. He really has a gift to write and tell stories. it's one of the things that attracted me to him the most... how we could sit on the phone for hours as he recounted stories from his childhood and his many travels. I know our little boy will LOVE story time with daddy.
I've seen Michael with his niece and how enthralled she is with his stories that intertwine hobbits and Cinderella and meaningless twirling in lieu of running away from the ball. She had no idea that he was adding Lord of the Rings characters into the story (random hobbits, dwellings at the Shire... Frodo & Samwise were at the Prince's ball) she just loved that he was telling her a story. You had to be there - he had this random English accent off an on throughout the story. It was hilarious.
I'll add more OCS info from his letters in a few later entries, until I get another letter from him. He's passed his 3 week mark... only 5 more weeks to go until he is home! 8 more weeks until the baby is here! Or 5 weeks and 1 day at least! :) I will start my hypnobirthing course on Weds and have already starting putting together "flash cards" for Michael's assistance once he gets home. My aunt said that that was a great support for her in her last labor because my Uncle knew what stage they were in and could remind her of how much longer she had during a contraction to wait it out.
I have to admit, I'm actually excited about our little boy's birth day. I hope that the excitement will offset the inevitable discomfort!
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