It is my hope that everyone who is thinking of Katie from afar and praying for her mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health will be emboldened by her words.
Letter #6 not dated but must be August 18th
Dear Mom/family
I am currently sitting in a class on terrorism... quite cheery! This class then bleeds into a class on domestic and child abuse. These classes in total add up to 3 hours. Three hours of smiles.
We woke up around 04:00 this morning, we had our first PFT (physical fitness test) this morning. It is the IST but with a 3 mile run. We ran our IST the 1st week of Bootcamp. I got 7 pull ups, a 2:30 plank, and a 12:26 1.5 mile run. Today I hit 11 pullups, a max out plank at 3:45, and a 25:44 3 mile run. It doesn't seem like I have improved a lot, but I can tell that my body is getting stronger, but it is so tired all the time. We are always moving & always working out, whether that be running back and forth across the bay, or stacking and unstacking footlocker, or actually PTing with the platoon out in the sand. We have a planned workout everyday accept for Sundays. Sundays are the best.
Random question: what is the price of gas right now?
I wanted to tell you about my drill instructors:
Of course, our Senior: Ssgt Peraza. She is... interesting. I respect her, but she has very little patience to teach and then very high expectations for instant perfection. Granted, my platoon is proving to be slow. Very slow, and childish. So Ssgt Peraza might just be treating us like adults, telling us to do something and expecting us to do it, but 1/2 the platoon doesn't... no one is hand holding us.
I will change that statement actually... we are told how to eat, when to pee, when to put our left sock on. That may count as hand holding... But we are expected to act as adults. Senior can turn from happy go lucky to making us sprint with rifles and then handing us over the the kill-hats.
My favorite Drill instructor is our J-hat. The J-hat is the one that teaches drill (marching & rifle drill - or what they call "popping sticks"). I would say she is a character. I love her. She is tough as nails, ripped, but also so girly. She always has her nails done, she shaves her arms! And uses a glittering lotion. We've also noticed during PT (mom don't read this one out loud) that she has nipple piercings. She is so girly but so bad-ass. When she is in a good mood where we are drilling, she will talk about lifting our feet and showing off our pedicures, or pivoting like we're kicking our ex to the curb with a straight leg. She gets sassy, I love it. yesterday we were standing in formation (in-line formation) at port - arms with our weapons, and she - DI SSgt Jimenez - stops in front of me and said "Damn girl, you've been working that rifle." She then goes on to poke my bicep and point out the veins in my forearm. I was trying so hard to keep my bearing. It was so funny to me that she actually stopped in front of the whole platoon and commented on my muscles. I was so flattered! And then today! We were doing an obstycal course for PT and the series commander - Captain Yung, she is awesome - called me out and asked how many pull-ups I could do. I think that meant she was impressed. She is the commanding officer of platoons 2105 (mine), 2106, and 2107. The obstycal courses are fun. We finish them off with climbing up the really tall ropes.
Back to drill instructors, our knowledge hat - the DI that teaches us the knowledge we'll be tested on, our uniform regulations and our weapon maintenance - is DI Sgt Bejerano. She is cool, nothing too crazy. She is the one that sings cadence to us while marching. Her voice is beautiful. I will go more in-depth on the next 3 drill instructors another time. They are all Kill-hats - the ones that mess with us - Sgt Pizaro, Sgt Westley, Sgt Arnell left arrow the craziest
I picked up this letter again today, I started it yesterday. Today is going by fast! It is already past lunch chow. And then tomorrow is Sunday again. The days and the weeks are starting to go by so fast. Only 2 more weeks until we head up North. Next week is team week, then Finals week, then up north that saturday. I am so excited, I just want to hike already!
This week has been slightly rough. I've been noticing the maturity gap dad and uncle evan spoke about. So I'm praying for patience, grace, and plenty of love to pass around, even when frustrated. My people battery is low. Pray for me heart and I think I have fire watch tonight, which just means being awake during chores for one hour at night. But! The fact that tomorrow is Sunday makes it doable.
Sunday, August 20 (?)
I miss you guys the most on Sundays during church. I miss sitting with you guys, standing and singing with mom, even walking to church with the family. I march to church every sunday now, no DIs though. Recruits march on their own in groups of 10. I have been designated the cadence singer :) I love it. I love you guys so much.
Katie wrapped the letter in a separate piece of paper with another note...
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