Drill

I thought I should give an update on my joining the Idaho Army National Guard since I have yet to do this. First off, I have to say that I believe it is one of the best things that I have done in my life thus far. There is no decision that I am more proud of. I am part of one of the greatest organizations in the world and I spend my weekends having the time of my life with the some of the noblest and coolest people on Earth. Some have called me stupid for my decision to join (which surprises me in Idaho, one of the reddest states in existence) but if they understood the National Guard and its mission they would never assume that my decision was wrong.

I am currently an E2 (PV2-Private) in the Battalion B which is the Idaho National Guard's Recruiting and Retention battalion. I was promoted from E1 to E2 due to the fact that I am an Eagle Scout. My battalion is part of what is called the RSP (Recruitment Sustainment Program). The RSP was created during a time when the BCT (Basic Combat Training) failure rates were hovering around 20% for all parts of the military. This was due to physical ineptitude, failing the BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) qualifying test, or various misconduct or aptitude issues which caused the soldiers to wash out. After the RSP was instituted, soldier readiness vastly improved and the National Guard failure rate has fallen to 4% nationally and under 2% for some units (I don't remember our exact failure rate but I've never heard of anyone washing out and we have 156 men currently in my battalion with more coming every month).

So, enough history, I should probably say what it is exactly that I do. I go out to Gowen Field for one weekend each month to drill with my battalion and do the things which a typical National Guard soldier would do. My first drill was in November; we flew on UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to a place called Big Willow which is past Payette. The rest of the battalion had hours of classes on Saturday (the day before the Blackhawk flight) but I had the district swim meet and the Sadie Hawkins Dance that day so my friendly NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) let me skip Saturday's portion. Once we reached Big Willow we did a Land-Navigation course which consisted of finding your way from place to place with a map and a compass and coordinates which were specific enough to be accurate within 10 meters. We then hopped back on the Blackhawks and flew back to base. If you've never been on a helicopter, do your best to try to get on one, even if you have to build it yourself out of parts from your neighbors cars. It is the coolest thing ever (especially when the helicopter is a military transport and the pilots aren't afraid to play around a bit:) . We then did what is called AAR (not sure what that stands for), where we essentially discuss the various goods and bads at drill that day with the NCOs. We returned home at about 1600 (have to use proper military time when talking about drill, sorry).

My second drill was my first full drill. I arrived at 0545 and started a class at 0630 after some time with my SSG (staff sergeant) SSG Walls (funniest lady ever). The class was what is called Red Phase where we learn the various basics of being a soldier (creed, values, general orders, time, rank structure, saluting, etc.). At 0900 I then had my first PT (Physical Training Test). Because I have not been to BCT yet I had to do as many push ups as possible in one minute, as many sit ups as possible in one minute and a one mile run in as little time as possible. My scores were 37, 38 and 6:38. Not terrible, but not amazing although I'm happy with them since it was my first drill. We then ate MREs for lunch (which are actually dang good) and started the bulk of our training. We were learning the basics of Modern Army Combatives. I will not give you the history of Combatives since this is already really long but it essentially is just fighting. If you watch UFC, much of our technique is shared with UFC as both use large amounts of Brazilian Jujitsu. We learned holds, escapes, arm bars, arm breaks, chokes and how to stand up without letting your guard down after a fall or take down. We also had about 10-15 2 minute sparring sessions where we were trying to pin each other but had to make sure no one got hurt. My first partner kicked my butt (I didn't know until later that he scores higher in PT than anyone else in our battalion, he's done as many as 107 push ups in one minute). I jammed all the fingers on my second partner's right hand about 30 seconds into our round when he tried to charge me and I flipped him which should have made me feel bad but actually was pretty sweet since I had just been pinned 4 times in 2 minutes. My third partner was PVC Biggins, who is SSG Walls' assistant. I didn't want to go against her since she's pretty tough, about my size and has been in the RSP far longer than me and I really didn't want a girl to beat me. However, I ended up making her cry on accident when she wouldn't release me from a headlock and I slammed her into the ground to try to throw her off. I didn't think it would be too bad since we were on mats but I ended up hurting her head. She didn't let go though and I didn't notice her crying until she screamed after I did it a few times. I really did feel bad and changed tactics after that and would have stopped if she had let go.

I'll let that be it for combatives and put this month's drill in a separate posting. Sorry that was so long.