After all the preparation in the last few months, I finally went to my GORUCK tough event In Milwaukee. GORUCK explains that a challenge event is "Based on Special Forces training, your class is led from start to finish by a Special Forces Cadre. His job is to test your limits, push you beyond them, and build your class into a team. There are no cash prizes at the finish. All you earn is a 2x3 inch patch and the respect of everyone to your left and right."
I did the Tough version as post title states. This was a special event because it was themed with a focus on the Battle of Fallujah in 2004. We had pre-event homework to research the battle. During the event, the Cadre read to us the citations or explanations of why soldiers received military awards for their actions in the events in Fallujah. We also did burpees for each of the soldiers killed there, some of whom were medal recipients.
The citations were incredible; soldiers clearing houses full of insurgents single-handedly, pulling 3-5 wounded soldiers out of kill zones by themselves, or throwing themselves on top of grenades to save their squad members` lives.
Their stories became an inspiration for me as I worked with my team through the event. We started at Bradford Beach on Lake Michigan at 9:00 pm. We had the typical admin phase where we had roll call and checked to make sure we had the appropriate gear. We heard at least 10 names called that didn't show up. Cadre Barbarossa put us in squads, assigned team leaders, and warned us up with skipping and yoga. We then had a quick Welcome Party. I'm thankful it was pretty quick because my body started telling me I had made a mistake eating the lunch I had.
Squad 1's team leaders were called away to learn about our first movement and the weight we'd be carrying with us. The team leaders then shared with us that we'd be carrying four 60 pound sandbags, four canvas "buckets" with bags full of water, and a duffle bag full of sand with the word "Heavy" on its side. There were our "coupons" for the event. Along with Heavy, there was a tarp to help us carry the beast. We later learned the bag weighed in at 240 pounds. We started calling the thing "Big Sexy." Cadre then explained to us that in war there are three types of environments, permissive, semi-, and non-permissive with permissive being an environment were locals are supportive to permissive where locals are hostile. We then set out on our first movement that ended at the planetarium. Along the way, we lost a team member due to prior injuries flaring up.
We were having a hard time figuring out how to carry Big Sexy, and that turned out to be one of the central issues throughout the event. Because of those issues, we missed our first time hack by more than 20 minutes. To motivate us to do better we performed 20 4-count "little man in the woods" exercises which are basically jumping Jack's but you stay in the squat position the whole time.
We moved out towards our second waypoint and tried to figure out how to better carry Big Sexy. To this point, we were using the handles on the tarp to carry her in hand. Along the way, we started to scavenge sticks and we found some discarded steel bars and 2×4s. We slid those through the handles on the tarp and used the sticks and poles as handholds. At the same time, we started using sticks to carry multiple water buckets. We moved faster but we still missed our time hack. It must not have been much because Cadre didn't motivate us at that point.
Before we moved out again, the team decided to use four of the sticks and boards to create a makeshift litter to carry Big Sexy on shoulders. At this point, we also started practicing silent rotations on the coupons for when we would enter a non-permissive environment. With Heavy on our shoulders, we moved much faster and from then on we met our time hacks. At the next waypoint, we were told our time hack and told we were in a non-permissive environment. I think it was during this movement that we really came together as a team. The team leader, a GORUCK rookie and my good friend Jared Dillenburg, split the team up into three groups, water, sandbags, and heavy. We had enough people to rotate on and off carrying the respective items. We moved quickly and quietly to our next waypoint, working cohesively as a team, watching out for the man or woman to our right and left. Though I never had a moment where I felt that I was done and wanted to quit, it was during the last two movements that I drew inspiration from the soldiers that had fought and sometimes died in Fallujah. If they could do what they did, I could carry out my assignment for sure.
We got to our second to the last waypoint and were told we made the time hack and where our next waypoint would be. The locals on the team knew that we were very close to our starting point. The sky was getting lighter and we had started to pass people on the road so we knew we were coming close to the end. We made our way to the last waypoint which was on Bradford beach in view of the parking lot where our cars were.
We listened to the last set of citations and did the last set of burpees to honor the fallen. As we relaxed a bit we were told that unfortunately, the lake was too cold for us to get into the water. I don't think many of us were too disappointed. Instead, we had a squad competition. The competition was a piggy-back or fireman carry competition. We split into squads and found partners. Cadre Barbarossa told us, "It pays to be a winner." We all did our best running our teammates to the halfway point then jumping on their back for the return trip. It was a fun way to work as a team and push each other a little bit. We picked up the coupons and made our way back to the parking lot to Endex (end of exercise). We shooks hands with Cadre Barbarossa as he gave us our patch and congratulated us on our hard work. All told we traveled 17-18 miles in 11 hours.
I was sore all over my body. During the event, I tried to contribute as much as I could. I found that my weaknesses were grip strength, and single shoulder carries. My feet were sore but only had one tiny blister. I didn't hit a quitting point though I knew that I was staying off Big Sexy because I knew I could be a sandbag pack-mule better than I could handle Big Sexy. In the end, we all finished as a team and were proud of the work we'd done. Good job, GRT #3246!
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