Omen?

So I've never done this before, not even with EFMB... but I'm 3 days and a 20k road march away from completing Air Assault School... and I may have given myself some bad juju.

 

I bought Air Assault badges. Five of them. Two to sew on to ACUs, two to sew on to OCPs and one shiny silver one for my ASU dress uniform. I'm not sure if buying them was bad luck.

 

 

I really try not to get my hopes up about anything I try in the Army, because EFMB has defeated me in the final hours over and over again. I never bought EFMB badges in the past though. It also wasn't possible for me to buy them since you stay in the field the whole time at EFMB....

 

But with Air Assault, I bought the badges before graduation. I'm nervous but confident. (If that can even be a thing at the same time.)

 

I hope buying them wasn't an omen.

 

That road march makes me so nervous. In the past 2 months I've road marched my ass off to get ready for this. But EFMB has made me so scared of failing. I've got to get this. If anything, so I didn't waste my money on these badges. Plus, I need to save face. I'm really tired of having, "who failed the road march" trail after SSG DeGraf.

CWST

I'm down at South Camp again. This time for a whole weekend. I'm going to have 2 whole days to play in the Red Sea at Herb's Beach-- and I'm absolutely ecstatic.

Of course, the official business I'm on is to conduct Combat Water Survival Training (CWST), otherwise known as Splash For Cash. I took it just a step further today, and went ahead and got qualified to teach/observe CWST.

Herb's Beach.

 

I had to swim out to the buoys wearing ACUs and boots and tread water for five minutes, then float on my back for five minutes and then swim back to shore. Then I had to go back out to the buoys again, but I had to drag a person wearing ACUs and boots and a ruck sack with me. It was pretty simple considering something was placed in the ruck sack to make it buoyant. At the buoys, we switched out and I wore the ruck sack and was dragged back to shore. Then we swam out one last time to the buoys, tread water again for 5 minutes, floated on our backs again for 5 minutes and swam back to shore. We did all this without breaks. It was tiring. And it's hard to swim in boots. But now that I am qualified to teach/observe, I never have to wear ACUs or boots in the Red Sea again. When I splash for cash the remaining months I am in the Sinai, I can wear a bathing suit and be barefooted. It's going to be a beautiful thing! Well... maybe not the sight of me in a bathing suit.... but the ease of training will be excellent.

The ACUs available to train in.

 

After we trained this morning, my battle buddy and I decided to stay at Herb's Beach for a few hours and swim around and lay out in the sun. It was absolutely wonderful. I love the beach so much. I had a perfect day bumming around on the beach.

In case you need directions...

 

Living at North Camp is kinda like living in a prison in the middle of the desert... actually that's exactly what it is. So getting to come down to South Camp, which is basically paradise, once a month is a great little mini vacation. Hey, Europeans pay big money to go to the resorts all around South Camp here in the Sinai. You can see the party yachts on the water every night all lit up and bumping music. I'm not used to the Army sending me to a place that is desirable to human beings. So I'll appreciate my monthly vacations to the fullest! 

Norwegian Foot March

Me & Tracy before we began.

This morning I woke up at 0300 to draw my weapon and have my ruck sack weighed for the Norwegian Foot March. This is an 18.6 mile foot march with a 25lb pack. Now, I know what you're thinking... "You are a huge failure when it comes to road marching, why on Earth would you want to put yourself through this?" Well, although this is a true statement, I wanted to push myself to prove I can win.

 

And I won today.

 

I completed the 18.6 miles in 4 hours and 25 minutes. This time is within the parameters set for males in my age group. All my hard work, sacrifice, and long road marches on the weekends to prepare has paid off.

 

I'm very proud of myself. And of my battle buddy, Tracy. She put in a lot of hard work and hours with me.

 

We're going so fast we're blurry!

Trekking along...

The MEDCO crew who went out for the badge.

Although I don't ever want to do 18.6 miles ever again, I am going to continue to improve my 12 mile time. All I have to say is, EFMB you better watch your back when I get home. I'm going to pass that foot march next!

 

Sausage fingers.

The foot march took its toll on my body. As does every road march. My fingers were swollen sausages by the end. I got a blister on the side of my right big toe and my hips were screaming. But I wasn't nearly as crippled as I have been in the past.

 

When I crossed the finish line, everyone was standing on the sidelines cheering. It felt amazing. I've never experienced that before... usually I collapse just before the finish line and fail. Not this time.

 

The Norwegian Foot March Badge I can wear on my ASUs now.

I earned the bronze badge. If I do the Norwegian a total of 4 times, I'd qualify for the silver badge. And a total of 6 times for the gold badge. But I'm cool with the bronze.