This Weeks Letter from Ashley

We seem to get mail on Wednesdays from Ashley. This week she was good about putting a general letter for the blog, below, and then a letter for each one in the family. In my letter she reminded me how much she loves pictures (I’ve been cutting & pasting photos into my word documents) and CNN/Real World info. I think she misses all her political t.v. stuff. Remember she is also into sports. So don’t say you don’t have anything to write her about….any updates you give her will be appreciated.

So here is the letter of the week from Ashley……enjoy!!

22JUN08

Hey Family! I finally started getting letters this week!! It’s made the nights something to look forward to instead of dreading mail call, so KEEP ‘em coming!!

Tell everyone thanks for writing, & even if you don’t hear back, I really love all of them. Today’s Sunday “Holiday Routine” from 07-13. We get “free time” for most of that time frame. This is what our Sundays have come to look like:
0600 Reveille – get our butts out of bed & in our utilities (our uniforms right now) in approx. 3 mins. (depending on which RDC wakes us up, it’s sometimes more, sometimes less) & at attention in front of “GQ” our racks.
0605 Appox. 10 mins to make our rack & get at GQ
0615 5-8 minutes to hygiene then back to the compartment, get our “shotguns” (cleaning socks – socks w/the toes cut off that we use to clean everything) out & clean.
0630 get in a height line & integrate (Div 266 females go to the male compartment across the peeway (hallway) & Div. 267 males come over here to prepare for chow.
0645 after getting information, we march to one of the other ships for chow because our galley is closed right now for some reason.
0730 head back to our ship
0745 HOLIDAY ROUTINE! :)) Within that time we have to iron, shine our boots, & hygiene. The rest of the time is ours to write letters, clean/organize our stuff, study, just in general chill out & talk & b.s. The best part is hygiene – we get to take our “Hollywood Showers” – the only time we have showers that don’t have to be taken together, or within a certain amount of time, & we get to shave. It’s nice.
1230 Getting ready for chow
1250 Time to integrate again to go to chow & go through that whole routine again.
1350 Back to boot camp life. Today we’re going to the drill hall to practice for our drill inspection that happens in 2 weeks & for graduation.
1730 Chow time once again.
1830 RDC training time – we do whatever they tell us to do basically. We usually study or go over a briefing of some sort.
2100 Study time/passing out laundry.
2130 Evening Routine
2155 T.A.T.T.O.O. (5 minutes to lights out)
2200 Taps (lights out)

Weekdays are about the same, just instead of holiday routine, we have classes, RDC training time, PT (physical training) & 15 minute hygiene. The times change up a little most time – some days start earlier that others. Oh, & you add in mail call 15 minutes before Taps.

Let’s see…what are other FAQs….
· The integrated or “co-ed” division is pretty cool. It’s like having one giant division most times because we do most of our classes & training as 266 & 267. We aren’t suppose to talk during any of the times we’re integrated, so we don’t know the guys very well, but we do “bend the rules” a little & talk quietly to the people around us in ranks/lines when we’re just standing around waiting.
· The shower thing – there are 2 shower rooms in the head (restroom). One room has one pole in the middle of it with 6 shower heads, & the bigger room is just double that. We get 15 minutes, sometimes 10, by division to get in & out, dressed & everything. There are about 45 females in 266, so it sucks. There’s no drying hair, no “glamour” time; it’s just get in, get out, keep moving.
· We PT 6 days a week, usually it’s been about 40 minutes, focus on cardio i.e. running. It will ge more intense as time goes on, but right now it’s pretty easy. There are so many people who are so far out of shape, that’s the focus of our PT – getting them in enough shape to pass their PFA. We had our PFA Baseline last Friday. I was one of 4 females/I think 20 people in my division to pass. That’s out of 85 people. Yeah…ridiculous. I’m hoping to improve a lot on mine, because even though I passed, it was definitely nothing to be proud of.
· I can’t tell if I was better prepared because of studying I did before I got here, or just because I pick up on things faster than others. Either way, I’m doing well. They (the RDCs) chose me as a section leader because I fold & stow my stuff neatly & because I follow directions & stay quiet unless someone’s talking to me. Being a section leader also means I get to march in division front, so you’ll see me a little easier come graduation time (as long as I don’t get fired like most of the other division staff already has…lol).
· There are quite a few Texans here. I’ve talked to most of them, but we don’t all get to hang out. It’s really funny that you sent that picture of Lynch. (*Note – Georgia belongs to Navy For Moms blog for Div 266, & I sent Ashley a photo off of the blog site of a girl from Texas who I’ve been emailing her mom.) She’s one of the people in 266 I actually enjoy hanging around with. She’s pretty cool. Send more Texan 266 pics if there are some…it was fun to see them!

I love getting pictures so keep sending those my way too!

Time to go take my *Hollywood* shower, :))
Love y’all!!
Ashley