Chapter 59: Another Monday
I woke up to yet another Monday. On the surface, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for the brief shower that occurred at dawn. As I understood it, during the first half of the year in the Philippines—right before the rainy season—rain typically fell in the afternoons.
I didn’t mind it. When I peered out the window, a dreamy mist had settled over the town, and the air was thick with petrichor.
This Monday, the fifth of February, marked the first day of the second week of training. As planned, it was time to issue rifles to the recruits and begin marksmanship training.
Unsurprisingly, the mere sight of rifle crates being carried out of the Casa Real had the recruits murmuring with excitement in their formation. Smiles spread across their faces despite the wet condition of the plaza, where mud and puddles soaked their boots.
The escolta’s NCOs had drilled them with wooden poles as dummy rifles the week before. They already knew where the rifle was supposed to go when standing in formation. In the "order arms" position, the rifle is held vertically at the right side, with the butt resting on the ground.
I chuckled at the sight of some recruits looking frustrated when they realized that the clean rifles they’d just received would be dirtied immediately. A few tried to work around this by subtly raising the rifles slightly off the ground—not proper "order arms," but I let it slide.
Drilling and parading recruits had become a common sight in town. But now, with rifles completing their attire, a small crowd had gathered to admire them—recruits who now looked no different from real soldiers.
To their likely disappointment, no ammunition had been issued yet. I decided to give them two days to familiarize themselves with the rifles and to be taught basic handling before introducing live rounds.
Besides, the officers weren’t ready yet to assist with marksmanship training. While they were now decent marksmen, knowing how to shoot and knowing how to teach shooting were two entirely different things. I figured another session or two would help prepare them.