Wednesday, February 20, 2013- I'm SO. Flipping. TIRED! Lol. It's not a "missed sleep one night" kind of thing either. It's a whole body exhaustion caused by weeks of erratic sleep that is always interrupted about every two hours by something. If it's not the fire guards waking us up to relieve their shift, it's the dreaded middle-of-the-night-race-to-not-wet-myself run from bunk to stall because we all down at LEAST one whole quart of water every night before bed at hydration formation. Never in my life have I woken myself up and made a dead run for the restroom holding my pants like a three year old hoping they don't wet themselves. Never... until now, that is. Lol.
The last two days have been REALLY long days. Waking up at four, getting out to the range by six or seven and firing all day before getting back to the company around nine or ten. On Wednesday, we had our 2nd Foot March, a 12K march, which pushed us hard.The 6K there was not too bad, but on the way back from the range, our 1st Sergeant led the way and we walked back at a ridiculously fast pace. I was fighting to keep up and was really feeling weak. One of the females tripped and fell flat on her face with another soldier landing on top of her in full 50 llb "battle rattle" (body armor, helmet, weapon, etc...) They told her to get up and push on and surprisingly, she did. Our assistant platoon guide, which was changed the day after the position was created to PVT Pixie, suffered throughout the march as well. It turns out that on the day of the PT test, she had injured her leg and just kept going on. But during the march, she had actually broke her tibia and didn't even know it. She fell out, but amazingly, finished the march. They're gonna send her home to recover than come back to finish training with a different training cycle. It's too bad. She has a lot of heart and will be missed by the platoon.
And then, there was our cold weather casualty. This PVT was barely able to finish the march due to the pace and simply willed himself through the last 100 steps or so walking up to the company HQ and stumbling into the breezeway under our barracks. He had forgotten to take off his wet weather top and during the ruck march sweated through his ACUs 'till it looked like he had been swimming. He nearly passed out and was drinking about two quarts of water within ten minutes of the end of the march. Thinking he was okay and out of the woods as a possible pass-out, he helped 1st platoon unload the 1-ton (kind of like a giant cargo truck that we use to haul weapons, supplies and personnel to the range and elsewhere) and then stood out in the breezeway with the rest of the platoon waiting for mail and hydration formation to be completed. What he didn't realize was that the temperature had gone down to about 35 degrees (or lower) and his wet clothes were making him even colder. Later, PVT Maestro would tell him that when he took off his helmet at the end of the road march, he had frozen sweat on his brow. So, this private, with his intrepidly plunging body temperature, thought he could tough it out a couple more minutes' till we all went upstairs and then he could get in a hot shower and warm PJs. But all of a sudden, he started shaking really hard; to the point where his arms were flapping at his sides. About this time, his battle buddies standing next to him in formation noticed this and asked if he was okay. Jut then, his entire body, it seemed,locked up and he began to fall to the ground. PVT Razorback happened to be ready for this possibility and slapped a hand on the soldier's chest and pretty much caught him, with the help of a couple other guys. At that point, all the males (because hydration formation is divided up by male and female bays) began yelling "Man Down!!" as they're supposed to. In response, DS Action Man well... jumped into action. Lol. He ran over and checked the soldier out asking what was wrong with him and the only reply the soldier could muster was "C-C-C-COLD!" DS Action Man had the recruit taken into the CQ office and he slowly warmed up enough in the next 10 to 15 minutes to be able to make it up with some assistance from PVT Razorback. Then the private was pretty much okay but still a little rattled from his brush with cold weather danger.
So... who was this bowling pin of a soldier who toppled over in a strong breeze like a sumo wrestler on ice skates? Who was the guy gasping on a knee at the end of the march because he was barely staying conscious? Well, the truth is, faithful readers, it was none other than... ME! Yes, children, your faithful narrator learned a valuable lesson last night. 1st Sergeants walk FAST! Wait... no. I think it was that a lack of attention to detail can get you into some deep trouble. Yeah... that sounds better! Lol... J/K
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