Fitness. Fellowship. Faith.MAKING MARINES V2
Temperature was in the upper 50s with standing water.
COP – Divide Pax into Fire Teams (4 men per team), youngest man designated as team leader. Youngest man then designates one man as Gunner, Assistant Gunner and Riflemen. Q explained mission of Marine Fire Team.
THANG – Mosey to playground, DI exercise (multiple exercises in rapid succession). Team leaders instructed to get teams into the head, then out of the head, back in the head. Team leaders, retrieve every mans right shoe. Return shoe, first team out of head will receive weapons from the armory first, all others teams will perform exercises on Q until each team has weapons. Team leader and Riflemen will carry rifles (Rebar weighing 8-10 lbs), Gunner will carry Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW) (long PVC weighing 8-10 lbs), Assistant Gunner will carry rifle and ammunition (Rebar, and ammo can filled with sand). Mosey around block, stay with your team, pass slower teams as required; no gaps. Team integrity. Then all men ground your weapon for max set of dead hang pull-ups. Followed by 2 minutes of sit-ups. Pax then showed obstacle course and provided demonstration. First station through large pipe, then low crawl through water into another pipe, flip large tire as a team to other end of field, pick tire up and carry to original position, monkey bridge, climb over slanted wall, partner drag, switching off halfway through, wall climb, high crawl length of armory to starting point. Each team started in different locations and ran course as a team with individual effort on each first attempt of an obstacle. Fire team tug of war over large pool of standing water/mud, leaders determined wager. Leader with highest wager got to choose which side his team would pull from. Then winners vs winners and losers vs losers. Final event; leaders task with choosing stud from their team. Each stud raced through a modified version of the obstacle course.
Mary – N/A
Count, Name, Announce, Pledge, Pray
Moleskin – With a lengthy pre-blast, YHC promised an experience similar to what one would face at Parris Island. Although nothing is like the real thing, we gave it a solid effort. Huge TCLAPS to Walk Off for being the Co Q and helping YHC set up the course as well as be my “demonstrator”. As Walk Off and YHC performed a leaders recon the evening before, we knew that the only thing that could make this event better would be rain. And rain it did, Mother Nature loves the Marines! The place was a swamp, but MARINES ARE AMPHIBIOUS! Yes, when in the playground aka sand pit, we did in fact “make it rain”, but not the liquid type. It was obvious that some men were not completely onboard with the idea initially, but seemed to warm up to it as the BC went on. Team work was emphasized throughout the BC. Lessons were learned about passing off your load to another man; ammunition stays with the Assistant Gunner who stays with the Gunner. Otherwise you are not being realistic. ISIS does not care if you are tired or too weak to carry your designated load. AYE! The run, pull-ups and sit-ups all were designed to simulate what a recruit must pass before starting training. Just as in the real world at Parris Island, the biggest challenge for the Pax were the dead hang pull-ups. Minimum standards ARE NOT ENOUGH! Although some Team Leaders had never played poker and had no concept of placing a bet or calling, all seemed to enjoy dragging their brothers into the mud during the tug of war. The final run of the course was won by Johnny 5. Belding was running stride for stride with him until nearly putting himself into concussion protocol. Winners rest, recoup and prepare, 2nd place team, 5 Burpees in the water on Q, 3rd, 10 Burpees, 4th 15 Burpees. Apologies again men for going over the allotted time and thanks for helping to return all coupons and squaring away the cage. OOOOOH RAAAAAH is all I have to say about the effort today. Proud to LEAD this group of men.