Here is a picture of me all geared up carrying the SAW.
This past week was our last week of training. Next week we have a 20k hike which is our last graduation requirement and then we just have graduation practice and a few administrative matters to take care of before everyone checks into their units or next school.
Monday we hiked back to MOUT town and performed room clearings during the day and night with live rounds. I made sure to team up with one of my friends that knew what he was doing because I definitely don’t want to get shot in the back by one of the slower kids. It was good training but went by way too quick. I’m really anxious to get out to the fleet where I can be able to do drills like this multiple times instead of just one quick run through. We hiked back that night to the squad bay after we did a quick cleanup of the area. We got about 3 hours of sleep that night and when we woke up the next morning the instructors told us that we would probably be running our final PFT that day. We were pretty pissed because we only got 3 hours of sleep and had hiked/run about 4 miles with gear on the previous day, while the weapons guys got a full 8 hours of sleep and only had classes the day before.
Luckily some scheduling conflicts popped up on Tuesday that wouldn’t allow for us to run the PFT. We were all pretty excited because it probably would have been the worst PFT I’ve ever run. Instead of running the PFT on Tuesday they moved it to Wednesday morning and used Tuesday to pack for our final training event called the three day war and take our final written exam.
Wednesday started off with the PFT. I was pretty excited about how well I did considering we’ve been eating MREs for the past two months and don’t get to PT that much. I was still able to get 17 pull-ups which is still down from what I was doing in boot camp but is still a really good compared to the majority of Marines. I was still able to crank out a 100 crunches which is a perfect score in that event and I ran a 22 minute three mile which isn’t great but is still pretty good when your legs aren’t really fresh. After the PFT we got on buses that took us back to MOUT town where our three day war would take place.
The three day war is a competition per say between the two riflemen platoons. One platoon sets up a defensive position in the houses and city while the other one sets up a position in a hill about a mile away that overlooks the city. Both platoons would run patrols, raids, and reconnaissance missions against the other platoon. We were all given tons of blanks and were resupplied throughout the event. We also were issued this gear called Miles Gear. Basically there is a device put on the end of the barrel of the rifles that registers when a blank is shot and in turn shoots an invisible laser out. All of us also wore vests and a device on our helmet that would recognize when it had been shot by the laser. If you were shot it would make a really loud and annoying beeping sound to let everyone know you were dead and if a shot came close it would make little chirping noises. The gear is pretty old; it was made in the 80s so it doesn’t work the best but at least it’s something.
My platoon started on the hill which we stayed in one night before we rotated to the city for a night. Before the rotation took place we did a massive attack against the city. The gun I was issued for the event was garbage. When I tried to clear one of the first houses of the enemy it jammed at the most inopportune time and I was gunned down by the enemy insurgents. I had to lie down for about 10 minutes while the attack carried on. After the attack was finished the different squads took up residence in the different buildings. There were four stations that we rotated around. Patrolling, vehicle checkpoint, defense, and quick reaction force who are the first people to respond to an attack or any other issue. During the defense the instructors decided to have a little fun and start attacking everyone in the city. They wiped out my entire squad except for me and one other guy. We climbed to the roof and were taking well aimed shots at the instructors. We were hitting pretty close because they had to keep their heads down and weren’t able to maneuver around freely anymore. While we had them pinned down another squad from another building moved in and flanked them finally ending the attack. The battle with the instructors was probably the most fun I had at SOI because everyone was working together and we felt like we were really in a battle because fake grenades and artillery were going off with the addition of all the gunfire.
On Friday it was our turn to defend the city against the massive attack of the other platoon. The squads that took place in the attack weren’t allowed to take place in the defense so we got to sit in some bleachers and observe the attack which was still pretty fun. After the battle we had to do one of the biggest cleanup jobs ever. Every time you get done with a range everyone has to police call or cleanup the entire area and sort all the brass casings and links from the automatic weapons. Because the attack took place over the whole city we had a lot of cleaning up to do. After cleaning up we got bused back down to the squad bay area where we cleaned our weapons for about 4 hours before we were finally allowed to shower and turn to liberty.
I was extremely lazy during the 3 day weekend. I took the opportunity to catch up on sleep and watch some TV. We got an ok amount of sleep during the three day war but it was broken up into 1 hour on 1 hour off or two hours on two hours off and most of the time it was with our gear on and either laying on a concrete floor or in a dirt hole so it wasn’t exactly the best rest I ever had. So I definitely took the opportunity to catch up on sleep. We got a hotel for two nights in downtown San Diego and split the cost between me and 5 of my friends. For some of them it may be there last weekend in California because they still don’t know where they are getting stationed at after we graduate. I know that I will still be at Camp Pendleton at least for a few more months so I didn’t party as hard or really have a checklist of things that I wanted to see or do. The guys and I spent our Easter Sunday eating brunch at a restaurant in downtown. We all talked about how we don’t really care about holidays anymore but the fact that we don’t get to spend time with our families anymore. Since I’ve joined the Marines I’ve missed Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, my girlfriends birthday, and now Easter. I’m sure that I’ll be missing many more in the next three and a half years as well.
This next week I’ll have to man up and carry the SAW on the 20k and I’ll get a few days of rest before I report to the Recon Training Company which is maybe ¾ to one mile down the road from where I’m at now.
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