Fighting Back: Memories from BCT at FLW

I remember one weekend when we were marching back from church and we noticed some other company ("younger" than us, ie, been there less time) was using OUR phones, right behind our barracks. So the DS on duty (who was usually a real jerk, but this time, he proved pretty cool) told us to form up in front of our barracks. He then told us that he was pissed this other company was using "our" phones, and that he wanted us to run around the barracks (and incidentally, right past the phone booths) screaming as loud as possible. Since I was guidon bearer that week, I was running in front of everyone. It was hilarious to see the expressions as a whole company ran SCREAMING past the phone booths, not once, but 3 times.


And an excerpt from my journal about a funny thing during pugils:

Noone and I fought each other first and were pretty evenly matched. Fighting turned out to be a lot more tiring than I expected. I took a break, then asked DS Harris if I could fight a male. She gave me a funny look, and I explained that I just wanted to see if I could do it. She said, "OK, but don't you go crying if he whups your ***." Haha.
Later, I asked DS Williams if I could fight Phelps, b/c he volunteered. DS looked at me like I was crazy (Phelps is a BIG guy) and told me no. "Why do you want to fight a male, private?" he asked me. I told him the same thing I told Harris- "I just want to see if I could do it, DS." He shrugged, but gave me the go-ahead. Just not Phelps.
Finally, Miller stepped up. As we took our places on the mat, I said, "DS, is it ok if I fight Miller instead? He's closer to my size." DS Williams gave me an incredulous look, but then smiled and turned to Harris, who gave it the OK. So I got to fight Miller. DS Harris was all up in my face- "You'd better kick his butt, private!" (Never mind that I'm a SPC- I don't think they cared). And then she told Miller- "She wanted to fight a male, you'd better treat her like one!" Haha.
I did really well the first round, but since Miller was about a foot taller then me, he kept hitting me in the helmet. DS Williams, after I took a hard hit, said to me, "You OK, private? You want to stop?" I replied "No, DS, I want some more, DS!" He looked at me like I was crazy, but then grinned and let us finish the fight.