I Will Not Submit!

Saturday February 2, 2013-
So, it's the end of week 3 pretty much. We've done so much this week I can't even remember it all. On Monday and Tuesday we did red phase testing. We had out first FTX (Field Training Exercise) on Wednesday. We left at like 0400 and got to the FTX site about 2 hours later. The whole time we marched, we had on our rucksacks with a lot of gear in them. And the march itself was about 5K! Once we got to the FTX site, they had us spread out and post security in teams of two in the prone position. The, once we had eaten our MREs (still laying in the prone position and taking turns watching security) we moved to the part of the forest that would be our platoon's patrol base for the duration of the overnight exercise. We were shown how to build hasties and then ordered to make one in teams of two around the perimeter of our triangular patrol base. A quick explanation: A hasty is a trench that is about the depth of two helmets stacked on top of eachother. It lies flush in the ground and the better versions have branches, logs and plant material to essentially conceal a V-shaped placement of two soldiers. For the field exercise, I buddied up with SPC Maestro. Maestro is a white guy from Maryland who is 29 also. I call him Maestro because he is well educated in the arts, holding a doctorate in Music. Maestro is married as well and has a precious baby girl that he showed me pictures of. With mutual love of music and both being older guys, we hit it off instantly. Unfortunately, our hasty wasn't finished in time so we were going to have a pretty crappy night pulling patrol every other hour. We were learning how to tie our ponchos and setting them up like tents for us to sleep in. And then the rain came in.  It had been relayed to us earlier that there was a big storm about 50 miles out. Then it was 25 miles out and the wind started to pick up a lot. Then, it was 10 miles out with trees bending, wind howling, and whipping and a torrential downpour. At that point, according to regulation, we had to be evacuated to a lightning protection area. So we pretty much ran as fast as we could to the entrance to the FTX site and into a trailer that looked abandoned. The doors were hanging off and with 60 people crammed in it, the floor boards were creaking and straining. There was office equipment and furniture lining the walls and a broken window, Oh yeah, and it was pitch black in there when we got in because no one had time to pull out their flashlights prior to our sprint there. We had been performing night ops training, meaning no flashlights, and moonlight only, so everyone's L-shaped flashlights were still packed in their rucksacks. Well... everyone except for yours truly and a couple other soldiers who had the presence of mind to grab theirs as soon as the evacuation order was given. So we're standing in the trailer and DS Pain Bringer comes in and lets us know that there is a Tornado Watch in effect for our location. At that point, everyone started to get pretty nervous and the rain started falling even harder! Then, all the Drill Sergeants came in to their perspective platoons, took us on another sprint through the woods to grab out rucksacks and then double time it out of there.  Then we marched as fast as our legs could carry us back to the barracks. On the way back, we were taking and alternate route that was quicker, but we cut through the woods, down a HUGE hill, over a tiny bridge over what had become a swollen creek and through swampy wet sand. Right when we were almost done with the sand, I said "How many shitty types of terrain can we go through?!?!?" then we hit a gravel bed going uphill at a steep incline. It was raining so hard, it felt like we were standing in the shower! We made it back to the barracks finally and got out of our sopping wet ACUs and everyone was glad to hit a warm bed. :) FTX One was done and over with.

On Thursday, we went to the EST, which is like a giant simulator that looks like a big game of Duck Hunt and then Friday we got out to the range and fired live ammo for the first time. We had 30 rounds to group and zero with, and I grouped within the first 10 rounds and zeroed in around 20 or 25 rounds. Some people have been trying for the last two days and still haven't grouped or zeroed. I'm so glad I got that out of the way. On Saturday, we went back to the range, but didn't shoot because the two other platoons who hadn't shot before were now up and ready to shoot. So instead we had a class on Combative, which is the Army's hand to hand  fighting style, extremely similar to MMA fighting, and got to square off against 2nd platoon in one on one grappling matches. I faced up against a young guy who had plenty of wrestling experience in high school, and kept blocking all my attempts to get him in a hold. But I weighed more and was stronger, so he couldn't get me into either. We came to a draw at the end of 3 minutes and I felt good, if not a little gassed. Our platoon won all but 2 of the 20 or so matches 'cause 2nd platoon is a bunch of prissy girl weaklings, lol. After all the one on ones, the drill sergeant overseeing it all put us into a 12 on 12 royal rumble style battle royale. Males were choking out females, I saw a female putting a male into a double arm bar and there was just general pandemonium. Our platoon won the first match and in the 2nd one, I was part of our team. We got beat, but I was the last man standing (well laying really) from my team with EIGHT people on top of me and I still didn't submit. One of the guys even had me in an arm bar and asked if I quit or not. I told him "no" emphatically, so he wrenched the arm and applied significantly more pressure. At that point, and after looking up and seeing about 8 or 10 blotting out the blue sky above me, I decided to reconsider his offer and tapped out, lol.
Well... I tried to, but every limb was being held by a couple of people, so I had to shout it out. Unfortunately, someone was already a front cross-grip choke hold on me, so it came out like Chewbacca gargling. Thankfully, the DS running everything noticed my predicament and pulled everyone off of the pile and put a stop to the whole affair. When I got up, my whole platoon was giving me props. I think it helped this old, chubby Texan earn some respect from the kids, lol! I know now what it would feel like if I was attacked by a zombie horde, with all the arms that were coming at me toward the end there. All in all, it was a great day. At one point, we even got a class from the battalion fitness instructor on how to stretch correctly. It was not the average day, and to top it off, I got like, SEVEN uninterrupted of sleep. SEVEN!! It was 'cause church was the next day, and I didn't have Fire Guard duty. Gotta go!