Once again hello! I apologize for it taking so long to write. The weeks are FLYING! We only have 26 days till graduation! I have stayed out of trouble (still) and have passed everything with a 4.0 or better (out of 5.0). Our division, 115, has flagged everything thus far and are the best division in our ship! The week 14-21, we'll be training with the 9mm and shotgun. Next week is firefighting then after that our training culminates into battle stations. Then, Graduation! I've asked a few fellow shipmates to write about their experience thus far to put on here (my blog).
Some good news. My monthly DEP meetings paid off finally! I was advanced to E-2 this week! Really cool. I was 1 of 8 recruits who advanced (out of 88 recruits in my division who took the test).
Keep writing, the letters have kept me going throughout my stay!
Thanks for following,
SR Sparkman, DC, USN

Jan 31, 2010

Hey bloggers! Dustin here. I apologize for it taking so long I've just now been able to set aside time to finish writing my post. I've been here 18 days (sunday 31 Jan 10) and have been charged with many responisibilities within my division. A little background first. I live in a Compartment (room) in a ship (building). There are 12 - 18 divisions per ship. I've been put in charge of the weapons used by my division. Mainly waking up at night and properly transfering the weapon from watch (recruit in charge of standing guard of the compartment) to another. I am the Ships Mail P.O. (always going to be written out as such but means petty officer). I separate and sort mail for the whole ship. And lastly but definately the most beneficiary towards my future life as a sailor, I was recommended, for ship staff by my head RDC (recruit division commander)(a big deal). We (40 other recruits) as ship staff are in charge of keeping the ship clean and standing watches. RDC's will look at several recruits on ship staff for advancement! Having passed my initial advancement test and my first physical fitness assessment (PFA) I'll most likely be advanced from E-1 to E-2 and get paid as such for the full time I'm at boot camp and on! Adding on the possible ship staff advancement would be pretty sweet!!
I had started an initial blog at DFW before we left but upon arrival to RTC (boot camp) it was "bulky" and I was instructed to throw it away.
RTC isn't what I had thought it was going to be. I was scared at first and thought I was going to dread every morning I woke up but I'm actually feeling quite the opposite. I've learned a lot these past 18 days and as long as I do what I'm told (very SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS) I stay out of trouble.
I'll write during the week and have a better blog post next week. My mailing address is :
SR Sparkman, D.C.
Ship 11 Division 115
3505 Sailor Dr
Great Lakes, IL 60088-3505
Feel free to write words of encouragement, sports scores and stats, news and things to make us laugh. We need the encouragement to keep going. Also, thank you Kate for posting these blog posts for me.