If you don't think walking 10 miles is bad, you should try doing it with
- IBA (Individual Body Armor) +30lbs
- Weapon (in my case M249 aka SAW) +25 lbs
- Ruck Sack with numerous items +35 lbs
- Molle Gear and ACH +8lbs
Now walk ten miles in the dark through fields with uneven terrain and lots and lots of dew on the ground. And it is 40 degrees out. Okay, so five miles through fields and the last five on or next to roads. Your feet get soaked, and then they get cold. When you are done, drop your ruck and go on a mission to the top of a mountainside that has you walking well over 2000 meters. I have pictures to document the mountain and the distance.
So we started at midnight with this march and it carried through until 0800. We actually started the ruck march around 0100. That is about seven hours of walking. I fell a couple three times because the ground was uneven and there were lots of drop offs from where people drove vehicles over wet earth. We had one guy fall down to his midsection when he stepped into a hole. It was kind of funny, but I was worried about not getting hurt because I have a PT test to pass on Tuesday. I think I rolled my ankle twice while I was walking, but not bad enough that it would cause a sprain. We kept stopping for breaks, which sucked at first, but it was very nice the further we went because that weight on my body was getting heavier.
So I am not one to normally complain, but this was horrible. I had to keep placing my mind other places to get past the cold. I kept thinking that I was at home in front of a nice fireplace with the fire going and getting cozy with my wife. When we finally arrived where we were going to be, I put on my Polypropylene because I was starting to get cold.
At this point we had been up for 10 hours and now we were going to go do a mission which like I said was to take a mountainside. Our mountainside was two mountainsides away. We got to the first one, and I thought that one was ours, but it wasn't. The one we were going to was way off in the distance. So we moved tactically back down the hill to the bottom and used the ravine to cross over to a strategic position. There was a section of the ravine that didn't have much tree cover and thus we needed to low crawl. Now most of the people out there had M4s, which are 7lbs, and easy to low crawl with. If you have ever tried to low crawl with the SAW (again around 25lbs with ammo), then you know what I was going through. Plus, I forgot to put on knee pads before we left, and I was paying for it during this part. It is two days later and my knees still hurt from this. Then we bounded up to the strategic position which was still nearly 1000 meters away from the target. We could see the OpFor at the top of the mountain standing there looking out for people to be coming up. At this point we are two squads and my squad decides that they want to bound up the side of this mountain, which I may add requires us to go back down the side of the hill we are on and into the ravine, then all of the way up the other side, which moving out in the open took people nearly 40 minutes to come down from the top (and we were going to do it tactically). I switched spots with someone from the other squad because I was already loving life and didn't want to take a chance at injuring myself with something that was not a graduation requirement (the ruck march was a requirement, the exercise was not). So I stayed here to provide support for them as they went up the hill. They bounded up and down the side of two hills trying to stay out of sight. I think they were out there for an hour and a half before they finally got up to the top where they took out 6 people before getting annihilated by the rest of the OpFor. This to me was a suicide mission in the first place because the OpFor had the high ground and was in a much better position than we were.
When the exercise was complete we ate out there and checked sensitive items, then loaded up and headed back. At this time I was hoping that we were done and go into our rooms.
When we unloaded we knew differently. We were to stay outdoors and turn in our IBA and then clean weapons for a couple of hours before we would be allowed back into the barracks. When we turned in weapons, we had been up for approximately 18 hours. Then we finally were released at 1830. At this point we changed and went to dinner at Hong Kong Buffet, which is an awesome place to eat! I highly suggest it. They have sushi on their buffet and it is great! It was pretty much all I ate while I was there.
I decided against heading to Tulsa on this night because I had been up for 22 hours by the time I was ready to leave.
Total Training Time: 20 hours
Total Time awake: 23 hours
Be sure to check out the pictures on Flickr.
For the last two weeks we have been in the FOB (Forward Operations Base). During this time we were not allowed to have any electronics on us except for a camera. A whole bunch of connexes are set up in a square to create a perimeter and they have 8 guard towers set up on them to survey the surrounding area. Inside the FOB we have several buildings that all have AC/heat. I have to say that although there is a lack of running water, this is the best field experience I have ever had.
Last week we came out here and stayed two nights to prepare for this week and staying out for four days and three nights. This week however has been encompassed with increased security and missions.
Our first day out here we did 3 missions, with two of them after dark. The first mission was to clear Liberty City with an entire platoon instead of just by squad. This was pretty awesome! Only one time did I lose my squad and that was when we had smoke going off and we ran through it. I caught right up with them after I choked through that. One of the night missions was a recon, but it turned into a break contact mission after we received fire. The third mission started around 2AM and carried us through 6AM. This mission was to locate and sieze a weapons cache. This turned into a dismounted ambush. It was kind of fun, but we were also crawling around in wet grass... So we got a total of two hours rest our first day out at the FOB.
The second day we got more rest. Our mission was to secure the FOB. Three hours on, three hours off gives you about 2 hours of sleep at a time. The second night we started OpFor (Opposing Forces) to counter other platoons missions.
One thing we have done in our room (two squads) is to name ourself pirates. We went as far as to get a pirate flag and eye patches. We have a room commander and each of us have pirate positions. We are possibly the only platoon that is having a good time at the FOB. I think most of us like this better than being at the barracks.
Last night some members went to do OpFor and they took the pirate flag with them. They held Liberty City while another platoon attempted to clear it. They pretty much annhilated the other platoon. When they were done, they turned on a white light and waved the flag atop one of the three story buildings!
Did I mention that Miss America came out here to visit us? She was young and pretty, but she mostly looked lost, as if she was completely unsure of what was going on. She smiled way too much, and it didn't seem like a natural smile either. I haven't seen the Miss America Pageant since I was in high school. Mostly it seems so fake, the whole idea of it. What does Miss America really stand for? If we no longer had a pageant, would anyone notice? We did get her to do the Captain Morgan with us which was cool.
A couple of weeks ago we did Urban Operations. We did the training in the daytime and the actual during the nighttime because it has been said that we own the night. Why? The US Army is able to distribute night vision to every soldier it has. We have been able to mass produce the ability to see in the dark. That has set us ahead of everyone else in the world.
Urban Ops were pretty awesome. We learned how to clear a village or city, then we went in and cleared a place called Liberty City, which is a mock city that was created by Ft. Sill. I remember that if only we had the newer clips for the ACH with the NVGs, then it would have been easier to put it on my helmet than having to use 550 cord to get it secured. It was pretty sweet out there nevertheless. Plus we got to play our own OpFor (Opposing Forces). I elected not to do this because my weapon was one of the squad weapons and it was heavy enough just carrying it around through the city that I didn't want to go back out with it again. The SAW weighs somewhere around 25 lbs with ammo. I did watch what was going on as other squads went through and attempted to clear a building and our OpFor was just going crazy. It was pretty sweet.