First Letter and Address

Sorry it's taken so long to hear from me, but as they said, "We're in Hell." First off, I am fine, enjoying myself for the most part, but of course parts of it are tough and to be blunt, shitty. Here's whats happened so far...

Night One:

We got right off the bus and headed into reception, and the waiting started from around 2030 (8:30 pm) until midnight, it was a mess of paperwork, running around (only to stand in line "nut to butt") with the other privates. We had our first meal around 2230, which was insane. We're given 5 minutes to eat, are not allowed to talk, and must always walk single file in only one way. Finally, around 0030, we went to bed.

Day 1-3

Awake at 0400 to get into formation with about 200 men. Of course this took forever. The whole day was paperwork, needles, and other boring stuff. In the afternoon we got our uniforms, but couldn't wear them until the next day. The next 1-3 days were more of the same, sitting for hours on end, and getting yelled at by what we thought to be asshole Drill Sergents. Oh how we were mistaken.

Welcome to Hell:

Saturday afternoon we boarded busses to ship across to base or "down range," to start basic training. From the second we got off the bus, it was 1000 times worse than reception. Yelling and all that, basically, the movies are true. So much has happened so it's hard to pick out details, but by the 10 second phone call, you can probably get the idea. This now, Sunday night @ 2100, is the first free time we've had. There have been plenty of push ups, pull ups, and running so far. Surprisingly I'm doing quite well though. Sadly we have a few of the biggest idiots I have ever encountered in my platoon of 42 men. One guy already had MP called on him due to a refusal to train (The K-9 scared him and he's back at it...). Today we got issued our M-16 A2 semi-automatic rifles, and I won't lie, ACU's and a gun make me look and feel badass. That's all for now.

My address is:
PV2 Corey Mindlin
D Co 5/46 IN 3rd PLT
3576 Wilson Road
Fort Knox, KY 40121-5728

Please send pictures of family and some of my friends.

Corey

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Note from Laurie

Corey can receive only letters, newspaper clippings and pictures. No packages. Also, everything has to be "clean" - no dirty pictures or language. Expect a lag time from when you send the note until he receives it and figure that this will be his way of writing back to you. Thanks, I'm sure notes from friends and family will make the time go faster.