Woo Hoooooo! DCC is over! I am officially done with my initial Army training and on the road to my first duty station: Fort Lewis, Washington.
Not much to report from the final week of DCC. The focus was on patrolling and reacting to contact. In other words: what to do when the shit hits the fan. We spent the first two days practicing moving as a team and as a squad around the PT field and in the woods behind the PT field. The next two days we spent doing the same thing in different training areas, with the added fun of shooting blanks from our M-16s. The last day at the training area, the cadre turned it up a notch and tried to make it as realistic as possible. During the final exercise, our squad took heavy “fire” from the “enemy” and I was “shot” in both legs. After the firefight was over, my squad-mates had to get me and one other “wounded” soldier out of the woods and to the central collection point for “casualties” about a kilometer away from the firefight. Cadre told me I was not allowed to help at all – both of my legs were useless and my teammates had to figure out how to carry me out without the help of a litter/stretcher. (I was also instructed to scream loudly the entire time, but I let that one slide). I weigh 146 pounds, and was wearing about 35 in additional gear, but none of the guys in my squad could carry me more than 30- 40 yards at a time. I don’t think any of us had any concept of how hard it is to carry dead weight through the woods, over uneven terrain, through deadfall and pricker-bushes. After they dropped me for the fourth time, the cadre finally showed us how to do a buddy carry. Staff Sergeant “BZ”, who is about my height and can’t weigh much more than me, threw me up over his shoulder in one swift motion and started running. When we finally asked him how he made it look so easy, his answer was: “practice”. Sobering thought.
The final week wrapped up with a full day of weapons maintenance and my final goodbye to weapon #1034 1297. The last few days were just out-processing, cleaning the barracks, and rehearsing for the graduation ceremony. (Only the Army could rehearse a one-hour graduation ceremony for 7 full hours). By Wednesday at noon, I had my DCC “diploma” in hand and as released to begin the trek across country. Tonight we’re in Oklahoma – tomorrow is Texas. We are trying to hit as many mountain bike trails as we can (life’s too short to just drive across country without having fun along the way!) and so far we’ve ridden in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi & Oklahoma. If you’re interested in our rides, check out Doug’s blog (link to the right) – he’s been posting our Garmin routes and some pictures from our ride days.
Finally, I’d be an idiot if I didn’t recognize how lucky I am to have had Doug with me throughout this adventure. Sure, I could have gotten here by myself, but it wouldn’t have been half as much fun! When the days were especially awful at DCC (e.g., the Land Nav debacle), being able to drive over to the campsite and share a cold beer with my best friend put everything in perspective. This little adventure would be a whole lot less fun and a whole lot more suck if I didn’t have Doug and the pups here with me. For that, I am eternally grateful.
