09-22-2010

The fire academy is getting better. We are finally getting into the fun stuff and we are doing well as a class. This morning in PT, we ran out to the drill tower and ran up and down 6 times. We also did some calf raises, decline push ups, lower back crunches, and leg raises. I think it was the third time I was running up the tower, our drill instructor ended up running the tower right behind me. It was a little intimidating, but I was able to keep up the pace and stay in front of him. After PT, our instructor congratulated us on being such a good class. He commented on how good we look and sound when we march/run in formation, how well we push ourselves, and that this is the first class in a long time that has been able to keep up with the physical training... to the point that the instructor gets a good workout from working out with us, unlike the past classes. He was impressed. We ended PT with our Muster Cry: Who are we? RECRUIT CLASS 133! What are we going to be? THE BEST! How far are we willing to go? ALL THE WAY!

Chief Ramirez called us into his office a couple of days ago to give us our overall class average. Mine was a 93.33%. The Classes' grade average is an 89.8%. He told us that this is the first class in over 5 years to not have someone dropping below an 80% by the 4th week. He was also impressed. Getting this positive feedback felt good after the first three weeks being so rough.

Tomorrow we get to go out to the burn buildings and practice forcible entry, as well as ventilation. To practice ventilation, we will be using smoke barrels to give us a realistic idea of how ventilation works. I'm bringing my camera tomorrow because there should be some pretty cool shots with all of the smoke and chain saws running. Mom, I promise not to take pictures and use the chain saw at the same time.

Here are some pictures of me during week 3: