purpose to melody

Epic week.

Yesterday was probably the most challenging and worst/best day of my life.

Got woken up at 0216 by machine gun fire, paraflares lighting up the sky, and artillery rounds going off in the distance. We all woke up and made a mad dash to our shellscrapes, while getting my rifle hooked onto my sleeping bag so I was still at my hooch while my fire team partner was already all good and ready to kick some ass. We were told it was some other exercise some distance away, but it scared the hell out of me. We went back to sleep, then woke up again at 0500. At 0730, we stepped off for the march. 3 water bottles, less 6 platoon members, an inflammed knee, 13 kilometers and 3 hours later, we got back to our biv site and did the 100m fireman carry. My clothes were soaked from top to bottom with sweat, I wanted to shoot my knee off, my friend got heatstroke and just passed out on the road, and there was a tray of orange slices and table of water bottles that just got raped after we all finished. My body is still sore all over. But it's the greatest feeling you could ever have.

On a side note, I developed tendonitis in my left knee. I've had it for almost a week now. I've got 9 more working days to go, 3 of which will be spent running around with a rifle. So I'll press on and suck it up. I've made it this far. No sense in giving up now.