Chapter 4

Carry's Narrative Continues:

A whistle sounded just before noon, and we fell out with our now full duffel bags. Only our Agency Trainers were there, and a bus soon pulled up. It was our transportation to the Harmony Church area of Fort Benning, but more specifically, we were going to Camp Rogers to begin our Ranger Training.

On arriving at Camp Rogers, we were again assigned to a small separate building away from the Army personnel who were taking the training. The building was small enough that it only had one latrine and there were no wall lockers.

"You will be here for approximately four more days," the Senior Agency Trainer informed us when we got off the bus. "Don't expect to see a lot of the inside of this building, or any other building. Most of your training will be conducted out-of-doors, and you won't be getting a lot of sleep," he finished.

"Expect to fall out early in the morning," the other Agency Trainer added. We were released then and moved into the building to put up our duffel bags. A screen had been set up at the far end of the building that enclosed four bunks for us women. The latrine entrance was in the middle of the back wall of the building.

"We can live with this shit. At least we are back on solid ground again," Chris said on looking around at the barracks.

"Yes, it's hard to hide when you are falling out of the sky with a big parachute above you," I added.

"Ranger training is a ball buster," Marge reminded us.

"Yeah, but we have done a lot of this kind of stuff already, we can deal with it," I assured her.

"I don't know about showering naked with all of these guys in there with us," Chris told us.

"They haven't got anything that we haven't seen before," I reminded her. Marge grinned at my remark.

"It's what we've got that I'm more worried about," Chris replied with a giggle, while Carol didn't look happy at all. We set out our boots and rearranged our clothes in our duffel bags after that.

Chow was at 1700 hrs, you weren't allowed to talk in the mess hall, and had to eat quickly. We got a lot of strange looks from the regular Army guys. Following chow, Chris and I took a nap after showering. We wore towels going to and returning from the shower. Our dad had warned us to get sleep whenever we could. I noticed that Marge sacked out soon after we did.

We were roused out of bed in what seemed like the middle of the night to go to PT. The instructors administered the Ranger Physical Fitness Test that morning. It was tough and was very strictly graded by the Ranger Instructors. It was followed by a timed five mile run. None of our Agency classmates had trouble with it this time. We were given a short time to eat following PT. Because of our small class size we had finished well before all of the Army trainees who numbered somewhere around three hundred and fifty. Most of them only got ten minutes to eat.

PT was followed by the Combat Water Survival Assessment. Our dad had us train doing similar activities when we told him that we wanted to be Agents, so it wasn't any big problem for Chris and me. Marge seemed to be all right with it also. Again, since there were so many to go through the Assessment, we had time to relax and nap before they were finished.

This was followed by the Day / Night Land Navigation test. We ran to a nearby area where the test was explained before we started the daylight part of the test, since it was now daylight. The test was performed using a paper map and a compass. Chris, our brother, and I had done this many times, starting when we were eight years old. There was a little trouble with the Ranger Instructor before we started.

"Are there only four of you women?" he demanded, as we moved forward after the team in front of us had departed.

"Yes, Sergeant," Marge answered.

"That's not enough people for the test," he said, and looked around to see who he could add to our group.

"Let them go by themselves," a Ranger Lieutenant told him. "There will be fewer problems that way."

"Right!" the Sergeant agreed and handed us our map and compass. "The stations are numbered on the map. You must check into each of the correct stations. You are group twenty-seven. Remember that," he informed us. Chris took the map, and I took the compass, as we moved away from the start point.

I led our group into the trees where we would be able to check the map, and I could check the Army compass against my own which I knew was accurate. Chris checked the distances to the first couple of stations before I oriented the map and the compass to the terrain and then read off the bearings to the different stations. I made sure the other two women had seen what I had done; so had Chris.

"I'll start on the compass and Chris will keep the count on the distance. Marge can take over the compass after a few stations and I count the distance," I told them. "Do you know how to use a compass?" I asked the other women with us.

"Only a little," Carol replied.

"Watch what the rest of us do. You will need to be able to do this for the remainder of the course," I told her.

"Ready?" I asked following that.

"Yes," the others answered, and we set off.

We hit the first two stations right on with no trouble and checked in. Marge took over the compass then and I took the count. We were only a tad off on the next two stations, and then the other woman, Carol, was given a chance on the compass while Marge took over the count. We needed to check the distances to the remaining stations, and Chris got out her little plastic map measuring device and went over how to measure the distances again and convert them to paces. We wrote the distances and paces in our notebooks.

Following that, I showed Carol how to orient the map and the compass before plotting the bearings to the remaining stations, and we wrote them down also. On starting out again, I used my compass to check that we were on the correct bearing. Carol soon drifted from the correct bearing, and I stopped us after a bit.

"Carol, what's wrong?" I asked, as we were five degrees of the correct bearing.

"I have been following the bearing that you gave me," she protested, and held out the Lensatic compass. That was when I noticed the metal bracelet that she was wearing.

"Take off that bracelet. The steel in it is throwing the compass off," I told her. "Now take a bearing of... ," and I gave her a new bearing that would get us to the next station. We came out close enough to that station, and Chris took over the compass and I became the counter. Marge also helped with the counting and the compass, and we finished while there was still daylight.

When we checked in at the final station, we gave them our number, the map, and the Army compass. The Instructor there checked his sheet and noted down our finish time before looking up at us.

"You ladies have done this before," he said with a smile.

"We learned how to navigate from our fathers," Marge told him. We were each given an MRE and got to rest until the remainder of the teams finished. It was nearly dark by then, and many had little time to eat and they got no rest.

We were assembled shortly before dark and informed that the night portion of the Land Navigation Test would begin when it was totally dark. New maps and compasses were issued to each team. We did get to sit down then and await full darkness.

We would be the eighth team sent out because of our good finish earlier. Chris and I got busy while we waited plotting distances and bearings from our map using our red lensed flashlight. The night was already starting to cool off.

"We need to finish fast," I told the others. "It is only going to get colder as the night progresses. Marge, take charge of Carol, as she isn't familiar with traveling in the woods in the dark. Chris and I will do the navigating and the counting."

"All right, but I should do part of the work also," Marge told me, a bit put out.

"Let's see how this works out first," I told her, as we prepared to set out.

Chris and I were good at working in the dark since we had very good eyesight, and there was presently a half-moon. It had risen this afternoon and would set an hour plus after midnight. Since it was already after 1930 hrs, that didn't give us a lot of time to finish this. This wasn't even considering that we had already been up for a lot of hours with very little rest and only two meals.

Chris and I slipped through the vegetation and among the trees easily even in the dark. Marge was fairly quiet also, but Carol was like a herd of cattle, running into things and tripping on vines and debris on the ground. We still managed to make fairly good time, and I let Marge do the last couple of stations while I counted paces, and Chris herded Carol along. She was beat and almost needed to be carried the last couple of miles. We all took turns helping her.

We managed to check in fourth. Again the Ranger Instructor was surprised that we had made such good time even in the dark.

"Return to your barracks, and get what sleep you can," the Instructor told us. We quickly made our way to the barracks, stripped off our uniforms, and headed for the shower. It felt great to get under that hot water and wash some of the sweat off of us. We brushed our teeth and then fell into bed in just our underwear. We never heard the rest of our classmates come in and presumably shower.

We did hear the whistle blowing at o-dark-thirty in the morning, however, and got up, and put on the same still-sweat-damp uniform that we had worn yesterday. The PT this morning was very organized and done in groups. It was followed by a three mile run through the countryside which ended at an obstacle course that consisted mainly of barbed wire and mud. We needed to go through it twice, once on our backs and once on our bellies. Everyone looked like a disaster by the time we all finished. Again because of the size of the class, we got a little rest waiting for others to both start and finish. It was just as well that we hadn't changed uniforms.

The obstacle course was followed by a very short break during which we got to gobble down some rations, but no one got to eat until everyone had finished the course. We all ran to the demo range in formation following that.

The instructors there first went over the dos and the don'ts of demolition. Then came the practical exercise. They called for volunteers to go first and demonstrate how to blow up certain items. You know that Chris and I were the first to raise our hands. There were a couple of Army guys who raised their hands also.

The instructors gave each of us a different object to work on. Chris was given a part of a large diameter tree trunk to cut in half, and I received a chunk of steel I-beam to cut. We were given our choice of the available materials to use. Chris and I took plenty and set to work. We also ran the primer cord line between the various objects when we were finished.

"You've done this before," one of the Ranger Instructors said on seeing our work.

"Yes," we both answered.

"You're twins!" he said in surprise. It was hard to tell with all of the mud and other things covering us.

"Yes, we're twins," we admitted.

"Don't you think that you used a lot more explosive than necessary?" he asked after that.

"We know what the demolition formulas call for, but they are often wrong. Our father always told us that you can never use too much explosive, and nothing that he ever blew up remained standing after he set off the charges," I told him. He smiled before going to inspect what the others had done.

The class was moved back a safe distance from the demonstration area, and then the charges were set off. The two objects that Chris and I had prepared were blown to smithereens. Some of the others were only partially destroyed.

"No such thing as too much explosive," Chris said with a chuckle, as we moved back to our seats. One section of trainees at a time went forward following that to each prime and detonate a quarter pound block of C-4 explosives. The other volunteers, Chris, and I, got to sit in the back away from the others and relax. We didn't get much sleep because every so often they set off the charges that the others had prepared. Marge and Carol eventually rejoined us.

"Where the hell did you two learn to do that?" Marge asked, as she sat down.

"Our dad was into explosives. He always said there can never be too much explosive used. He did tend to overdo things ... just a bit though," Chris told her. Carol didn't look like she cared for the demo training. Most of the Army guys were careful to avoid us also.

Following that, a part of the afternoon was taken up with airborne refresher training. Since we had just finished that last week, it wasn't a problem. The remainder of the afternoon and part of the evening was taken up with the issue of field gear and weapons. We received some Army field gear, but our Agency Trainers issued us the weapons that we had selected back in Virginia and also Agency style rucks. The Army trainees received standard Army weapons. The only ammunition that we received was some blanks.

"Pack as much of your issue clothing in your backpacks as you can fit. Leave out any civilian clothing since you won't have a chance to wear it. Whatever is left, we will bring to Camp Darby later. Leave your duffel bags on your bunks," the senior Agency Trained told us.