Kellen often comes to work with me on the weekends and when he doesn't have an excuse :) The boys love him! They have been asking about him and so Kellen decided to send a special note just for them... but I'm going to share it with you too! It sums up his experience as only he can.
To begin, ODS is located in New Port, Rhode Island. There are 4 companies (think of them as different classes, about 44 students each), and they are called “India,” “Juliet,” “Kilo,” and “Lima.” My company is called “Juliet,” and FYI (For Your Information) we rock.
My Class Officer’s is named LT Fromknect, and lucky for us he is pretty easy going about the way you pronounce his name. My Drill Instructor is Chief Reddick, and she is about five foot, two inches, which is kind of short. Although she may be short her demeanor more then makes up for it. Most of us think she may be bipolar (ask your Mom or Dad what that means). She can be very happy go lucky one minute and then screaming mad the next. But all in all she is very gracious compared to the Gunnery SGT I dwelt with at OCS with the Marines.
As for the food at ODS it is surprisingly good. I have no real issues with it. My favorite meal is breakfast, because that means we are done PTing (running/ doing exercises). PT starts at 05:00, which means that my days start at 0430. But back to food, my favorite breakfast item is the fried French toast sticks, yes Alisha "fried" all the Doctors in my comany wine about it as they stuff their faces. The sticks are delicious and only 388 calories for six sticks (they are small sticks too), but then I add peanut butter and syrup so that seems to make them a little more “healthy.” As for lunch my favorite dish so far was been the “chicken of the day,” which basically means it is a daily surprise. I think of it as my Birthday present every day. For dinner I love their Roast Beef, no jokes I really do.
As for the “cool” training I have received, let me begin with the first week event called “pool day.” Sounds fun, does it not? But in the Navy “pool day” means you have to (or should say get to) jump off a 12 foot diving board, swim to the edge, perform the “dead man” float for 5 minutes (between me and you they need to rename this one, not very motivating), swim 100 yards, and finally put on wet Khaki’s and use them as a floatation devise. So in a nut shell that is “pool day.” The next neat thing that we got to do was learn to be fire fighters. At first we had to sit in class for 4 hours, but once that part was over we put on the fire fighter suits. The suits came with gloves, boots, a mask, an air tank and pack, as well as the awesome red helmet. When I talked I sounded like Darth Vader, but when I tried to pick stuff up with the Force it didn't work. But I had to try. Once I got all that on I walked around like Jack did back when he was learning how to walk. Any way, the instructors then made some fires in this dark dungeon area and we got to put them out using the various techniques they taught us. It was pretty fun.
Well I need to write a vision statement now, I miss you guys and can’t wait to see you.
ENS Lake, Kellen K"
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