The army sux, so im told.

Ok, time for a not so friendly post. Not to long ago I was walking back from PT and was waiting at a stoplight to go back to my dorm. A car drives by and I hear; " ARMY SUCKS! GO KILL A .... " and ill leave the rest up to your imagination because I didnt get to hear all of it. Come on people. I joined this to help others and keep you safe. If you dont like it go to france( no offense to the french). People need to learn to know that just because we happen to be in the army, marine corp, navy, or air force, does not mean that we like killing people, that we like having to do what we do, or that we like having to deal with the problems that plague the middle east and forever will plague the middle east because they have been fighting since the crusades. It is a tremdous show of disrespect to yell something like this or going into the news recently, protest at a fallen soldiers funeral. For the people that do this, learn some respect for the armed forces and know that if I didnt have the respect for myself and the professionalism of the armed forces I would deck you.

RANGER CHALLENGE

Ranger Challenge team at game ball assualt im the only one kneeling.

Well I got talked into the ranger challenge team. So since this is in the past im going to cram this all into one post. Basically we do a compitition against other schools on basic infantry tasks.... alot like westpoints sandhurst. We do pt an extra day and we practice rope bridge on the weekends. So that said, the comp. was at the Air Force Acadamy this year and we had no housing. So we were stuck outside in tents. I brought my big one up for the whole squad but it was moldy beyond. So we used it for rifle storage and equipment storage and stayed in the PMS's tents. Major thanks to him because if he didnt bring those we would be freezing outside under the stars. So the first night we just got everything situated and then went to sleep for a great 0400 wake up. Now about sleep, didnt get any that first night. There was 3 others in the tent with me and quess what, one of em snores. Lucky me, my roommate snores and so did this kid. So Flannery whos sleeping bag was broken spent the whole night kicking him apparently and that didnt even shut him up. And this kid like falls asleep instantly to. So i got like 5 min. And right after i fell asleep I woke up to Msgt. Z on the damn megaphone yelling; "WAKE UP, WAKE UP CADETS, ITS A BRIGHT AND SUNNY DAY OUTSIDE YOU HAVE 25 MIN. TO GET READY!!!" So of course I had been shivering the whole night because it was so f ing cold and then had to change into pts for the pt test. And for some reason we had to take off our pt jackets for the push ups and sit ups. God damn that sucked. Then after that we all decided to strip to our shorts and t shirt to max our run times. COLD!!! and for some reason the 1st mile was uphill and the 2nd down. I usually pass my run but i got like 1905 on this one because of the damned uphill. After the run my chest was hurting whenever I inhaled to. God. So after that we went back to the tents and changed into bdus and grabbed out rucks and rifles to head out to the patroling event. CSU had not supplied us with a protracter or compass for some reason and we were given incorrect information on the ambush location so thanks to the judge for understanding our situation and giving us the right info and his protracter. Any way we went over what we were going to do, who was EPW search and who was Aid and Litter. Then we cleared to cross over the MLR to indian country and off we went. We were in our wedge and always looking around because we were told a sniper was in the area. About halfway thru our little stroll we heard; "CRACK CRACK CRACK" of a gun and hit the dirt. And for some reason, dont ask why, I yelled "Sniper to the east(wrong direction and should be said in the form of a clock like 9 o clock for example) distance unknown." Then someone said disgaurd that and sniper 8 o clock distance 50 m. So me being bravo team I got on line with my team and started shooting at the snipers position. Meanwhile our aid and litter was dragging away black the girl on the team who got hit. We then fell back and 360ed them to protect em while they were dressing her wound. After that the judge said she was healed and could go on. So we went on and set up our ambush. 2 guys, one with a RPG and the other with a AK walked by and we opend up. After that me and flannery searched em(missing the radio for some reason) and then we took off. After that we went to the Land Nav cross. We split up into 3 groups of 3 and went to differnt points, one being east, the others medium and hard. I went with cartrite and davis to the ahard points and ended up going a long distance and up a big ass hill. Being we only had one protracter we had to plot the grids after we found em for the 2 other teams. My group also had to run back rucks and all to make it back in time. Then we went to the Grenade assualt course. This thing was huge. It was the course they use for bayonet training for BCT at the air force acadamy. Just modified for grenades. I cut myself on the barbed wire a few times and the friction of the pants against my legs burned my leg hair off. Also about a fourth of the way through I got tired and slowed down. Msgt. Z wouldnt let me quit so he kept yelling KEEP GOING PVT DONT LOOK UP JUST KEEP RUNNING AND CRAWLING ILL TELL YOU WHEN TO LOOK UP CADET JUST MOVE. So i got like a 1206 time and passed. Then it was off to the rifle range were we qualified. I didnt go to Fall FTX so I didnt know how to zero a m16 so I figured it out on my own and then we fired qualifiing the old way. Prone supported on various targets on one stationary page. Unfortunitly I ran out of time and only fired my first mag. 3 min isnt enough for me I quess and I cant work on it like at Basic were you have a few days to learn how to shoot. Then it was rope bridge, we didnt do good at all enought said, and it rained and my stuff was soaked, thank god my poncho was on the top of the ruck. Then we got back and Maj. Nelson bought BURGERS!!!! YEAH NO MRES TONIGHT!!!!!(all of our meals were MRE's). Went to bed and low and behold more snoring. I punched him and he stoped for like 30 sec. and did it again. But I was to tired to care. Got a 6.2 mile ruck march with full gear the next day.

Woke up and was sore, tired and wasnt motivated. We were driven to the start line and we ran the downhills. When we hit the water point we had to go onto a sandy road and climb a huge steep hill. This was the hard part. It was nothing but up and down up and down. I also got tunnel vision because I was so exausted. But I refused to collasp and kept running and range walking. The one girl on the team started struggling and wanted to stop but we wouldnt let her. (she was shorter then the rest of us and had to use a lot more energy to keep up) We got to the end and i just dropped. Then a Cadet officer came by and checked that we had all our gear.... quess what, I didnt have my blk leather gloves.... 3 min on our time all my fault. I felt so bad and thnk god that everyone but one understood. Then we went to m16 ass. diss. And I forgot how to get the damn lil spring out. My grader helped me after a few min and then i put it back together and did a successful functions check. And that was it. We packed up and left. And I was tired as hell, and smelled horrible(no showers and no deoderant is bad!!). Got back home and when I took a shower the water was black..... pretty gross eh? Then passed out on the bed.

1st week of school

Well after PT with the UNC guys I realize the big differnce between the schools. Everyone here at UNC is a lot more friendly then at CSU and everyone is a lot more laid back. To bad the regular army isnt like this. Anyway class was a lot more laid back to. The first day of military science class I came in and was standing at ease with most of the other kids that went to zero week as well. Maj. B walked in and looked at us like we were retarded and told us to sit down. Anyway for lab we did IMT. Which is basically learning how to crawl and buddy rush. Fun stuff. I have to leave early though because my math class runs into lab. Aw well. Life wasnt made for complaining.

Zero Week 3rd day and the last day

Wow, im sore and tired and dont want to go. But I have to so I drove up and for pt we did ultimate football. Then changed into BDU's and went for a ruck march up a hiking trail. At the top we got a class on the army values and why we have them and what they mean. After that we went back down the mountain and had some classes on first aid and wet not. The rest is kinda a blur but at the end of the day we were going to conduct MOUT training. While we were getting a class on it they showed a video showing some combat operations 3 guys and girl busted through the door screaming and yelling get down and stuff so we all had to get on the ground. Then they told us to get up and then they showed us how to enter a doorway and clear a room. This is all done super fast and very violently. Thats all im going to say because I really dont feel like getting shot one day in iraq because a insurgent happened to read this. Then we went outside and cleared some tape rooms. After this we fell in and marched to a bbq they had waiting for us. The scholarship cadets were swern in.... god I wanted that 4 year so bad but hey you cant alway get what you want in life easily. I drove home and just went to bed after that.

Zero Week 2nd day

Oh crap it sucked getting up.... only 3 hours of sleep because I have been staying up all night for the whole summer. Anyway the first thing we are going to do is the APFT(army physical fitness test). I failed this badly, heres a tip if you join the military...... GET IN SHAPE! Anyway then I went and showered at a fellow cadets house so I wouldnt smell horrible the rest of the day then went bad and reported in. We got in formation and marched up to the b ball courts to do D and C. It wasnt that hot at that point but I already got blisters so I was in pain already. So we were taught the proper way to march and all the movements then did a drill down..... one of my fellow UNC students has been in for 4 years and is a cpl was left with 3 cadets. A MS1(freshman) beat both of em. Good for him. Then we were told to ruck up and head back for some classes. When we got back it was getting hot. We were showed some Hooah videos( I dispise the word hooah and so does our instructer because hes SF thank god) then the rest I cant remember. We were then told to fall in outside and ruck up for the march up to the training field. It was about a 25 min. march and when we got there is was this dusty, dead grass, thorn filled field with absoulty no shade where we were going to be operating. There we were taught the proper way to throw hand grenades and how to construct and cross a rope bridge. We were split up and I was in the grenade group first. We learned the positions there...... alternate prone, prone to kneeling, prone to standing, and how to throw the nade in those postions. After that we split into battle buddy groups and went throught the grenade assualt course they set up. It looked easy but it wasnt. They used this one for the ranger challenge team at CSU and it was long, hard and hot. By the time I was done I was tired and felt a little tipsy. We were told to drink water so I was chugging it and figuring I was prob. about to get heat exustion got ready for a long day. After that we got MRE's for lunch, got ham and shrimp jamblya, mmmmmm, mmmmmm. Then we routated and my group went to the rope bridge. It was now 100+ in the field as I was told later so I was hot as hell. Even more so since I had winter BDU's. Any way Montgomery who is SMP as a medic in the reserves said that if we passed out without telling our battle buddys or a Cadet officer that we werent feeling good he would punch us so I told my battle buddy I wasnt going to last to long. Then we learned how to tie a swiss seat and how to make a rope bridge. At this point my body shut down..... the world started spinning and i didnt feel like have a IV stuck in my arm so I told my buddy I was dropping out and went up to Cadet Smith who was teaching us and said Im going down.... he directed me towards the shade and got Montgomery up there. Hes a pretty good guy. He told me to take off my BDU blouse and untuck my shirt and dump some water on my head. That helped a lot. He sat there talking with me to calm me down and told me to stop beating myself up for dropping out. He also was telling me about his BCT experiances and how one day at the repelling tower he passed out completely. Then we heard someone screaming MONTGOMERY!!!!. He went running over to this kid Kane or something and had to help him. Kane passed out and wasnt doing to good. He is a little overwieght so I can understand why that happened. So I ended up being driven to the health center and they couldnt do anything exept give me gatorade because I wasnt a CSU student. Then back to the Military annex where I linked back up with the rest of the Cadets and we got pizza. We watched some more movies and then did a FLRC or future leaders reaction course were you and a squad complete certain tasks by working together. The first one for us was a spider web thingy but they said they were lasers that hoagie somehow rigged up and if we touched em with our bodys or equipment(ruck sack and all) we would be dead and have to start over. Well we did that pretty well. We had the tallest(me) go first so i could go through the biggest hole( we could only use each hole once) then we sent swank the smallest in to get all the equipment thru to me and then everyone else whent thru. After that we went to the next station which was this blind lanmine thing. One of us was blindfolded and someone else had to guide him to get this antidote to the anthrax we all somehow got( the army likes to make stuff up to make things harder) in a certain amount of time. Well that didnt go so well party because we had someone talking in our face and cracking jokes to make us mess up. Then we went to the next place which was a rope bridge and we had to get ourselves, equipment + a can of water across. It was easy with the exeption of hearing gas gas gas, you all cant talk now, and your arm just got shot, omg you leg is gone! Man your team better help you get across cadet or your going to be dead and theyll be carrying you across.
After that we went to the swinging logges. We didnt get across it and I had to lead everyone. I tried to get everyones ideas and then direct from there and I thought I did a good job but according to one of the MS 2 's there was a lack of leadership..... aw well. Then we got dissmissed and I drove home.