Diary entry 111118

I have written quite a bit in my 15 journals although they are a bit of a mess and in both English and Spanish so i really need to redo them and type them out. More than anything those journals were like therapy. I am not the best writer but I feel I am getting a bit better at it.

I have some things written down about when I joined the Utah Army National Guard and went to basic and AIT in Alabama for 4 months when I was 17 years old. It was very difficult for me. I had left home one other time for a month when I went to Europe with a band and other than scout camps I had never left home for too long.

When I got to Alabama it was a shock physically getting up at 3:30AM each day but Sunday when we got to sleep in till 6AM. Later when I went on a Church mission and had to get up at 6AM to do exercises that was easy compared to basic training.

I got in fairly good shape in the Army training and I learned how to shoot well with a 45 cal pistol and an M16 rifle and an M60 machine gun.

I remember doing all sorts of obsticle courses, running every morning and for a time I had shin splints which hurt so bad, I also got jock itch and was told if I went to the doctor I would miss training and if I missed training they would have to recycle me and so I did not got to the doctor and I was lucky it went away but it was like ring worm rash that itched like crazy.

I remember going out to run with boots on thinking how crazy it was and later I found that they changed the training and let the troops run in tennis shoes.

We also would craw in the mud and them come back to the barracks and have to clean up and wash everything so we would be all squared away the next day. We all went to bed around 10 or 10:30PM and we would get up at 3:30AM. When AIT advanced individual training came we woke up at 4:30AM which was awesome.

Weapons training, hand to hand combat training, survival training, medical training, map training were among a few of the things we were trained in.

I will never forget going on a week long camp with 65 lb packs and weapons and I was the guideon meaning I carried the company flag. I have lots of stories that I still remember vividly.

This was I believe in the summer of 1981 because I came back from basic and graduated high school in 1982 and then In 1983-84 I was in Guatemala on a Church mission where I learned to speak Spanish. I got out of the Utah Army National Guard in 1989 with an honorable discharge after 7.5 years. I made lots of friends in the Guard and while serving in the 625th MP unit in Murray Utah I was the captain’s driver and company clerk where I made IDs and helped with training.