Going on,

I'm not sure how much time I have left, I'll get as much in as possible. I shipped to my downrange unit September 17th (give or take a day), September 22nd my unit was at something called the Confidence Course. It's a combination of obstacles that can really mess you up if your not paying attention. This is where I was injured. I was already having issues because that morning I faceplanted into a concrete sidewalk and scraped up my hands, knees, and elbows. I made it past the first two courses, then came across the German Wall. Its a series of walls you have to get over. The first one is 15ft tall, slanted slightly, and has a thick rope running down the centre.

Looks like this:

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I got to the top of the wall easily, and I gave my battle buddy my hands, he was pulling me up and I was about to throw my legs over to the platform on the other side of the wall, when someone called his name further down the course, he turned around and let go of my hands, I fell backwards twords the ground, to try and slow down I grabbed onto the rope, it torn all the skin off of my right palm and most of the fingers, and didn't slow me down any. My right foot hit the ground first and took the brunt of the impact, the wood chips on the ground cushioned my fall also, but planted my foot more firmly, thus when my body began to fall sideways, it didn't turn with it. I fractured my ankle, but at this point I thought it was only sprained. The X-rays didn't show anything, so after a week of being on crutches I was good enough to walk again, I decided to give it a shot and press on, we had a 5 Kilometer full battle rattle march out to the Claymore Field the next day. It was a cold, dark monday morning, and my combat glasses kept fogging up, I could barely see in front of me, about a mile into the march I could feel my ankle screaming at me to stop, but I was stupid, I was facing a restart and if I could complete this march they would let me keep going.

I just kept focusing, one step in front of the other, DONT break formation, look out for booby traps, get your distance. I didn't see the train tracks in front of me. As I stepped with my right foot, it fell into the groove of the track, and I tripped, my ankle was trapped and couldn't move with my body as it fell sideways, I twisted it even more, the pain was horrible, It felt like my ankle had bombs exploding inside of it, it filled my head, I seriously thought for a second it had snapped off and the only thing holding it together was my boot. As much as it hurt, I got back up and tried to keep walking, the best I could do was turn my foot sideways and limp, I fell back to the rear of the company, the Drill Sergeants were screaming at me, then they just left me, except for one, Drill Sergeant Furlow, he was from Western New York like me. He was riding in a truck, 2 others had already dropped out of the march, they were riding inside with him.

I had the option to quit, to just give up. But I couldn't. I kept marching, Drill Sergeant Furlow following in the truck. A mile and a half later I made it to the Claymore field, I fell 45 minutes behind the company but I did it, there were some leftovers from the UPU breakfast, I got some chow and sat down, 15 minutes later I tried to get back up, but the adrenaline had almost completely worn off, the pain was excruciating... I looked down at my foot, it looked like it was ready to tear my boot in half it was so swollen. I knew I was screwed, I knew I was going to be restarted, but I wanted to complete what I had set out to do that day, I had two of my battle buddies help me up, and for the next 5 hours I limped from post to post, learning how to set claymores, how to spot IEDS, and how to report them over the Radio. Oh, quick tip about that place, they sit you down at some metal bleachers, and they tell you there's an IED less then 20 feet from you, it's in the discolored yellowish sand to the right of the bleachers. And when you walk down IED lane, there's a car halfway through with its trunk open and facing the road, there's some C02 bottles in there, CALL IT and get away, it shoots talc powder all over you, they usually wait till the middle of the platoon is in front of it.

So, they sent me to the hospital, and took more x-rays, then sent me on my way. They scheduled an appointment a week down the road with a podiatrist, BUT, never told me...

That's where I'll Leave it for now, I'll write more tomm.