Chapter 18

Getting up in the morning, we went straight to the Mess Hall. When we got back to the Squad Bay it was surprise time as we were instructed to get geared up and grab our rifles. It was time for a 10K march. We would get lunch afterwards and then straight to our next instruction period.

Starting our march, we began traversing the hills of Camp Pendleton. As we were moving it heated up, and I figured it was in the mid 80’s.

We had made it about halfway on our march, probably about a quarter of a mile from our turnaround point when an emergency popped up. I was there when it happened.

As we crested a hill, I saw someone about four or five people in front of me move out of the formation. He started wobbling from side to side. Then it all happened quickly, he went down off the side of the road. I did the only thing I could think of.

“CORPSMAN!!!”

I made my way forward to where he was lying face down. My first move was to remove his pack and rifle and then rolled him over, setting him leaning against his pack. This was when the Corpsman showed up. As he stripped him down to his undershirt, he asked me if I had poured any water on the Marine.

After I responded negatively, the Corpsman looked at me.

“So, what do you think is wrong?”

I looked closely at the guy. He was sweating more than a two-dollar whore in church. That combined with the staggering and falling out earlier left me with two conclusions.

“Well, my guess would be heat exhaustion. It’s not heat stroke seeing as he’s still sweating.”

“That’s my diagnosis as well.” I watched as he started to put in an IV. Then things got strange. The Corpsman gave me directions.

“Undo his pants and roll him over his pack. Then pull his pants down so I can get to his ass.”

“Aye, Aye Doc.”

All I could say was this was some weird ass shit, though I did as ordered. After pulling his pants down, I turned to look at the Corpsman. He had a sizeable thermometer in his hand, rubbing lube on it. Then I heard a voice behind me, I didn’t turn to see who it was. The Corpsman had me hold the Marine down.

“The Silver Bullet?”

The Corpsman replied in the affirmative. The size of the thermometer gave me pause, it was about ten inches long and about half an inch around. I watched as this guy got violated and grunted. A second grunt from the guy strewn over his pack let me know that it was done.

The instructors were yelling at everybody to start drinking water. After a few minutes, the Corpsman stated that with an elevated temperature the Marine was going to Medical. After getting the guy’s pants up, I helped get him into the Medical Humvee at the end of the formation.

As I helped load him into the back seat, I noticed that someone was putting his gear into the back of the Humvee. I went back and got my pack back on. We all got a dressing down about not drinking water and being a heat casualty. SSgt Sulong said he’d make sure that everyone who was that stupid would get the Silver Bullet.

We didn’t have the normal break at our turn around point as it was pointed out that we already had a break. They also informed us that the idiot had put us behind, so we’d have to pick up the pace. We slowly moved into a fast-pace march for what I figured was about a mile and a half or so.

As we made it into the Mess Hall, we were all huffing and puffing. I noticed that a lot of guys were downing soda two fisted. Dumb mistake.

I got with my Fire team and Andric to make sure they were drinking at least a glass of water for every glass of soda. They looked at me crazy when I said they should drink at least four glasses of water during lunch. I noticed that Crummey was behind us, and had dumped out a glass of soda refilling it with water.

“Look guys, let me ask you a question. You want to be bent over your pack and have a giant thermometer shoved up your ass? If you do, just start guzzling down the soda.”

I noticed that extra glasses of water were drunk during lunch. The food was pretty good, hamburgers and hot dogs. As we were eating, I got a question that came out of left field from Andric.

“Badzinski you’re a weird one. You’ve got a good bit of ketchup on your hamburger but not a drop on those hot dogs. What’s with that?”

“Well, growing up around Chicago, that’s how things are done there. You just don’t ask for ketchup on a hot dog. Hell, some hot dog joints will tell you to get out if you do.”

As I finished, I got back in line to use the soda machine. I emptied out my canteens and began cramming handfuls of ice in them through the opening. After I got both stuffed with ice, I put water in them. As I turned away, I noticed some other guys doing the same. I knew with the temperature and the canteens against my body, they wouldn’t be cold all that long. Though it would be a nice thing while it lasted.

Forming up, we marched out to a huge range where we were shown a multitude of ways to conduct fire and movement. I basically thought of this as a shoot and assault. The one thing that stuck with me was the lesson on being ambushed. When caught in an ambush, your best bet was to assault forward through the ambush.

We spent the day learning and practicing. You could see when everyone was hitting the wall and as the day went on the yelling increased. You could tell it was easier for some guys to push through their wall than others.

I did my best to keep Houston and Pothier moving and on task. My right foot was throbbing at this point and I knew there were going to be some good blisters at days end. We were out there until dark and then headed to the Mess Hall. We were all beat looking like a bunch of hobos as we filed in.

As we stumbled into the Squad Bay, I decided I was not working out tonight. I noticed the guy who had fallen out who was from the Mortar section laying in his rack. We’d have to see if he was back at it tomorrow.

As I sat down after a shower, I took a look at my feet. My right foot had at least five blisters, two of which were larger than a quarter. I’d need to keep an eye on them to make sure it was all under control. Everyone hit the rack early as there wasn’t a single guy in the squad bay who wasn’t beat.

I was still half awake in the morning and just wanted to lay there and go back to sleep. Then I remembered where I was and got my dumb ass out of the rack. I got ready for morning PT.

The stretching and calisthenics actually help loosen me up and felt pretty good. There was still some throbbing in my right foot though.

After chow it was time to head into the classroom again. This period of instruction was an in-depth explanation on Patrolling.

It started off with an explanation of how patrols were classified, of which there were two major types. First was by means of Movement of which there were four basic methods. Foot mobile, motorized, helicopter borne and waterborne. We would surely be utilizing foot-mobile patrols during SOI.

Second, was by the type of patrol of which there were two, Reconnaissance and Combat. We then learned in detail about the two types of patrols which were broken down even further.

Reconnaissance was broken down into three more types. These were Route Reconnaissance, Area Reconnaissance and Zone Reconnaissance patrols. Combat or security patrols, using the acronym SCAR, broke down to four subcategories - Security, Contact, Ambush and Raid.

We spent till lunch going over these concepts and the actual formation of a squad sized patrol. When we got back, it was another lesson that built upon the morning session. We went over defensive positions, how to lay them and defensive obstacles out to create a larger defensive position.

This was a concept that intrigued me, and was called defense in depth. It was only slightly useful in patrol defense but was even more effective when using fixed positions.

Fixed positions lent itself to better defense in depth due to the large number of positions and defensive obstacles available for use - gun emplacements, mine, concertina wire and Hesco barriers, to name a few. Diagrams of bases and outposts were drawn on the whiteboard and the guys were called up to give their patrol plan based on the lesson. We then spent a while discussing the pros and cons of their plans.

They decided to give us a pop quiz on the material covered and handed out a three-page quiz/test and we were given ten minutes to finish. There were a few guys who took all their allotted time. I was even surprised that there was a bunch of guys who couldn’t even muster a fifty percent on material that was just covered. That led us to being told that we were going to have to help our village idiots and we needed to be taught a lesson. It was then outside to be thrashed. At least we were only out there for about fifteen minutes.

Each section was broken down into squads to demonstrate how a patrol was constituted. They went into more detail about the jobs and duties of each part of the patrol. There was a squad that was a mix of all the leftover fire teams from the sections.

Then it was time for chow and the gym. Andric and Pothier were questioning me on the necessity of going to the gym after how physical yesterday was. I then gave a lesson on staying with your schedule, and since we hadn’t worked out yesterday, we needed to today. They were happy when I told them that even though we were working out, it was going to be a real light day, mainly to help stretch everything out and to keep the blood flowing to help in recovery.

When we got back to the Squad Bay, I checked the Mail Tray and had one from Stosh. It went into my wall locker as I got to cleaning up.

I felt a lot better after a long hot shower, and after slathering on some Tiger Balm, I cracked open the letter.

_Hey Jackass,

So, I got your letter. Those pictures about made me lose my lunch. I’d say that I was surprised at your plan, though it seems to be perfectly you and well thought out. Fly under the radar and then when the target least expects it, strike. I still have that scar from when we were kids. I mean waiting until I turned around to hit me in the back of the head with Grandmother’s decorative clog shoe was brilliant but overkill in my estimation. I have to give you props on the setup you went with at the bar. Nobody was expecting it, least of all me.

I decided to play your game and decided Adam’s wall locker was the perfect spot. Without saying a word, I taped them up so it was the first thing he’d see when he opened it up. Everyone came running when he started yelling. Seems they already gave him a nickname, as some of the guys started calling him “Hog Farmer”.

Just know that the other guys are going to be on edge anytime they are around you. Hell, I’ll be watching my ass from now on. Hope everything is going well for you.

Stosh_

I wrote him back letting him know that they would be unaware that I was going to get recompense from them.

It was as I was looking at the stationary that I decided to write a letter to Heidi Terho, my stock broker. I had decided to expand my portfolio, though in a way that I didn’t have to do anything. I wanted her to give me a list of stocks that had been paying dividends for at least the last twenty years. I put the letter in the Mail Tray and called it a night.

After breakfast and PT, we began to put the lessons of the day before into practice.

Marching out to an open area, we started setting up squad sized patrolling formations. Three distinct groups were set up in each patrolling element - the support unit, security unit and the assault unit.

The security unit was the point group keeping watch for the unit in the lead as it moved. The assault unit proves rear security and forms the core of assaulting any objective. The support unit was the leadership unit. This unit controls the direction and the speed of the unit as it traverses the battle space and communication with the higher ups.

We got broken up into four squads like the day before and given a patrol order. Move about two miles to check out an area, then move another three miles to check another area. Sgt Castillo created the squads as he saw fit. You could hear grumbling about who was put in charge of squads throughout the squads.

I was put in charge of the third squad and got down to business checking the map that we’d been supplied with. I found a good route that didn’t add too much time, took the bearing and gave the security unit the line that we needed to take. We moved out at a decent pace, and I made sure that everyone was maintaining discipline and observing everything.

We had been issued blank adapters and magazines full of blanks, so I knew something was going to happen, I just didn’t know where or when. Forty minutes later we were about four hundred yards from the first objective.

Most everyone else would be coming into the area from the southeast as that was the quickest and most direct route. We were coming in from almost the Northwest.

I explained how we were going to approach this, taking it slow and if there’s contact, we’d set a plan.

Then it was a slow movement into the objective area, which was clear. We took a knee and water break as I figured out our next route. I figured that seeing as they didn’t pull anything at this location, they would either on the next leg or at the last objective.

This time I looked closer at the map and tried to figure out how I would ambush someone. From what I could tell, there was only one place to ambush the easiest route into the clearing.

I figured to enter the clearing from about a hundred degrees northeast of where the easy route in was. It was a bit steeper and would add a few hundred yards further to the trip. There was a bit of opposition to the plan, but no one could come up with anything else. Our final approach would be from the top of a crest. Once I laid out the complete plan, the majority of the opposition went away. We set out and I set the pace a little quicker, as it would be in our best interest to be the first ones there.

We made good time and were about a quarter of a mile from the spot where I figured we’d set up on the objective area. All of a sudden, we heard gunshots over the hill to our west. There were guys who wanted to go over there and I had to nip that in the bud. We had been told that we were on our own, and it was to be as if there were no other units in the area.

This told me that there was more than one ambush team and there would probably be one waiting at the objective. I finally got everybody moving and we made it to the step off area about two hundred yards from the hill.

“Look guys, I figure that there’s going to be an ambush in the objective area.”

I showed them the map.

“I figure that they’ll be set up here along the southwest and northwest of the clearing, because most of the squads will be coming from the southeast. The security unit will move to the right of this spot, about fifteen yards and wait until the cadre starts firing to respond. The assault team will do the same but fifteen yards in the opposite direction and will wait until a minute after the security unit starts firing.”

They all looked at me with blank looks on their faces.

“Again, unless you guys have something better, that’s what we’re going with. Keep yourselves calm and do your job.”

Everyone started moving and I just knew someone was going to mess it up. I got everyone to get down before we got to the top. I crawled up to the military crest, which was just before the actual crest of the hill. This lets me get an idea of what we were looking at.

The map was pretty accurate. There was about a hundred and fifty yard wide clearing with a bunch of low shrubs directly across from us. I noticed somebody laying on the ground between two shrubs. Now that I had an idea where they were, I looked closer. I made out one additional person but knew there had to be more. I moved back to the support section and laid everything out for them.