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Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 5

Back to the gym today as we prep for the UBRR with a Chest and Triceps workout. Then a 4-mile ruck march with 45-pounds minimum. This would be a great time, to wear that second pair of boots. Right? Remember to push the pace without running.

And also remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. Mark your progress down in your workout log book.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 10 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

The Last of the Original Frogmen, Bill Dawson Celebrates 94th Birthday

The very last of the original “frogmen”, the forerunners of the Navy SEAL teams was honored on the date of his 94th birthday amid his family, friends, and family members.

Bill Dawson, who grew up in Washington D.C. was working at the D.C. Shipyard in 1943 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was just 17-years old. Not long after enlisting, he found out about a specialized Navy unit that as he put it, “got to blow things up.” After saying he didn’t quite know how to take that tidbit of information, he and another sailor decided to volunteer. But he almost didn’t even get a chance to attempt the training.

As the two reached the building where the volunteers were assembling, they were told that the class was full, they had 500 volunteers. Undeterred, Dawson and his buddy walked around the back of the building, and climbed thru an open window and took their place in the back of the line. The volunteer class, Class 1 of the famous frogmen was now numbered 502.

Their training whittled down the number of volunteers from over 500 to just 52. And the toughness of the “frogman” course would be every bit as tough as the famed BUDS course for the SEALs is today.

The 3-5 mile runs in the sand, climbing over slippery, barnacle-encrusted rocks in the jetty and the log PT was a tough task for the frogmen as they remain that today. “I can still pick the splinters out of my arms today, Dawson joked in an interview he conducted with the American Veterans Center.

The training was so tough, it reduced the 17-year old to tears at times. “I wanted to quit,” he recalled. But he kept going and persevered, the 94-year old joked again that the sand fleas and mosquitoes, that were so plentiful at the frogmen’s training base kept him going.

But he did graduate and take his place among what the Navy termed, Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), which became commonly known as “frogmen.” They were also called Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDU) These men were legendary is clearing beach obstacles for the countless amphibious landings the United States conducted in World War II. The casualty rate for the frogmen at Normandy on D-Day was 53 percent.

Dawson took part in several landings in the Pacific helping the military clear landing beaches for infantry troops of the Army and Marines to get ashore and attack enemy installations on the land.

During his birthday celebration last week, Dawson took great pride in being the first group of sailors who became the Navy SEALs of today. “Knowing today what I helped start developed into what it is today. It’s one of the greatest outfits in the world,” he said.

Dawson’s unit cleared the beach for the return of General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines. “We got ashore before he did,” Dawson remembered with a smile.

Dawson wrote and published in 2015 “Before They Were SEALs They Were Frogs,” a book about his time during World War II on the Navy’s first special operations team.

After the war was over, Dawson joined the Washington D.C. Fire Department and served there for 25 years and then retired, now 45 years ago. Dawson was a founding member of the US Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, FL, and contributed many of the key exhibits there. Despite his age, Dawson remains active in supporting Naval Special Warfare history and heritage.

Four years ago, when he was 90 years old, Dawson was honored at the BattleFrog Navy SEALs obstacle course race at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, in Englishtown, NJ.

The American Veterans Center interview was a long one but worth the time to hear the remembrances of a truly unique special warrior. Happy Birthday to the last of the original frogmen, Mr. Dawson

Photo: US Navy

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 4

Shoulders and back day in the gym before heading off to do a 5-mile rucksack march. Conduct the ruck over varied terrain and remember to hydrate throughout. After the ongoing and heavy rains here and dealing with a muddy mess on the trail, your times may suffer as the ruck becomes a slog thru the mud. Get used to it, the weather is rarely perfect for Selection.

It is a good habit to get used to hydrating while rucking and a needed one for the time when you’re in the course. Even in the rain. Mark your time down in your workout logbook.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Lat Pull downs, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

3 x 12 Lat Pull downs, front

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

5-mile Ruck sack march (45-lb minimum) over varied terrain, 75-minutes maximum

Stretch well after completion

Let’s Talk About That Dirty Word …Standards in Special Operations

Let us talk about standards again…oh no. Not that dirty word again. But it is a very important one. We’ve written about the standards in the SF courses, both SFAS and the SFQC a couple of times and now is a good time to revisit it again.

There has been a lot of talk about Special Operations Forces a lot lately and a lot of it is for the wrong reasons. And while the jury is still out (figuratively and literally) on many of these cases we’ve seen in the news, some have stated that these cases we’re seeing here are just a case of the military letting the standards slip. While we disagree with that assumption and believe it to be the case of several factors, that won’t be the last time we hear that uttered.

In the Special Forces community, we had the now infamous “night letter” where several SF instructors took to the internet to vent their frustrations what they perceived to be a severe lowering of standards with the Special Forces Qualification Course, they reached to their fellow Green Berets for support. It excoriated the command of the JFK Special Warfare Center and School.

Our Regiment has a cancer, and it is destroying the SF legacy, its capability, and its credibility.
SWCS has devolved into a cesspool of toxic, exploitive, biased and self-serving senior Officers who are bolstered by submissive, sycophantic, and just-as-culpable enlisted leaders. They have doggedly succeeded in two things; furthering their careers, and ensuring that Special Forces more prolific, but dangerously less capable than ever before. Shameless and immodest careerism has, in no uncertain terms, effectively destroyed our ability to assess, train, and prepare students, or to identify those students that pose a very real risk to Operational Detachments. I cannot stress how systematic and severe the effects on the force will be if the standards, recently implemented here in the Special Forces Qualification Course, remain in place.

That letter eventually made its way to the media and there was the devil to pay. The Commanding General of the JFKSWC, MG Kurt Sonntag answered that email with one of his own and tried to answer those charges and reassure the cadre of the Special Forces courses.

“Many of you have seen the anonymous letter calling into question the integrity of our training standards and the quality of the Soldiers being produced. Let me be clear,” Sonntag writes in his letter, a copy of which was provided to NPR by the command, “I would be proud to serve with each and every one of our Special Forces Qualification Course graduates, and I stand behind the quality of every Soldier we send to the operational force.”

The purpose here isn’t to re-debate things here, that is an exercise in futility. We can understand…totally both sides of the equation. The school’s commander, Sonntag is in a very tough spot. He gets guidance from above him that the operational groups need “X” number of people and those numbers just aren’t there. Between the endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria, the operational tempo and deployment schedule have left Special forces with a high case of operator burnout.

But the instructors have a duty to assess, select and train the very best candidates for the force. And they know, when their tours as instructors are over, the candidates that successfully complete the course, will be their teammates of the future.

Regardless, the standards have to remain high and the School’s command and instructors have to be very discriminating over who can be part of it. Not everyone is cut out to be an operator in a Special Operations unit. By their very nature, the missions of SOF units are extremely challenging both physically and mentally. For the operators, the job gets tougher, not easier after graduation when our troops find themselves in the real-world SOF environment. The different services and their individual units must identify, develop, and provide the necessary training to produce troops that can operate in their environments.

That’s why the maintaining of standards is so important. All of the different services (Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs, Air Force CCT) have their own standards as to what they are looking for in the troops that aspire to be in their units. But they all share some common attributes.

They have to be internally motivated and will strive to not only get the job done but do it beyond the scope of what is required. And be able to function with but more importantly without supervision.

Candidates have to be intelligent and be able to learn other languages and cultures. The SOF units are looking for people who can think on their feet when they’re tired, hungry and under an extreme amount of stress. Physically, they must be hard and tough enough to never quit, never give in and always keep driving forward.

William “Wild Bill” Donovan who created OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner of both CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces, in World War II was asked what he was looking for in OSS operators. It was simple yet detailed. “PhDs who can win a bar fight.”

Special Forces utilizes the “Whole Man” Selection Process concept and the six main attributes that every successful Special Forces operator should possess include:

Intelligence
Trainability
Physical Fitness
Motivation
Influence
Judgment

However, those same attributes apply equally to Rangers, SEALs, or Air Force CCTs. And of course, they all share the confidence that comes from constant practice of their profession and the fact that they react to stress as motivation.

As we’ve seen in the lessons learned thru the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Syria, the standards of the SOF need to remain high. In fact, if anything they need to be even higher as the demand increases for operators and the number of qualified candidates dwindles. As the demands increase and the tools of the trade become even sharper, the standards for becoming a Special Operations trooper should never be lowered.

So, even though the mission priorities are subject to change as the threat evolves, the core values of SOF never do. And the standards by which we identify, assess and train our Special Operations Force warriors should never be lowered.

Photo courtesy DOD

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 3

Tuesday is Leg Day, time for building strength and endurance, begin with pull-ups and. then squats, lunges and the sled followed by a four-mile run in under 32 minutes which is the standard.

If your gym has no sled, you can substitute a Fireman’s Carry with a training partner.

We hope everyone had a great Easter or Passover dinner on Sunday. A day to recover and Leg Day with a good run in the rain will fix that.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x 10 reps Deadlifts

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

4 x Sled push heavier weight or Fireman’s Carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Side planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Remembering Pat Tillman, Ranger, NFL Player Died on This Day 2004

The endless Global War on Terror has claimed about 7000 American soldiers lives, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan and have claimed over 500,000 lives of all the peoples involved since the 9/11 attacks in New York. Arguably one of the most well-known American soldiers to die was Pat Tillman, who gave up a million-dollar NFL career to enlist in the Army. He joined the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and was killed there on April 22, 2004.

At the time of his death, he was seen as an American hero who sacrificed all for his country while giving up a very lucrative career, just hitting its peak. Later, his name resurfaced during the controversy over the Colin Kaepernick Nike ads and the practice of many NFL players to kneel during the national anthem. Many tried to point out that Tillman would be against this practice and be a better spokesman for Nike than Kaepernick’s “Be Willing to Risk Everything” campaign. But his widow quickly extinguished those thoughts.

Early Life and College:

Tillman was born in Fremont, California in November 1976. He was the oldest of three sons in a very close-knit family. Tillman would remark later in his journals from Afghanistan that he drew great strength from his family and close friends. He was a standout football player from Leland High School’s State Championship team and parlayed that into the last scholarship offer of the year (1994), from Arizona State University.

Tillman was a standout if undersized linebacker at ASU at just 5’11, 202 pounds but he helped them go undefeated and play in the Rose Bowl after the 1996 season. In 1997, he was Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. But as much as he excelled on the football field, he was equally as successful in the classroom. A marketing major, he graduated in just 3.5 years with a 3.65 GPA.

He earned three consecutive selections to the Pac-10 All-Academic Football Team, a 1st team Academic All-American honor, as well as the NCAA’s Post-Graduate Scholarship for academic and athletic excellence. He also earned a B.S. in Marketing, graduating Summa Cum Laude from ASU’s prestigious W.P. Carey School of Business

NFL Career:

In 1998, Tillman was selected by the Arizona Cardinals with the 226th pick in the 7th round of the NFL Draft. Arizona moved him to safety but not many people thought he’d make an impact or last in the NFL. But he not only made the team but became a starter.

In 2000, he set a Cardinals record for tackles in a season with 224. The then St. Louis Rams offered him a contract for 5-years and $9 million dollars but he stayed out of loyalty to the Cardinals. The attacks of 9/11 affected him deeply. The next day he told a reporter, “At times like this you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in, and the freedoms we are allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”

After the season was over, the Cardinals offered him a three-year, $3.6 million dollar contract to remain. But he had made other plans. In the spring of 2002, Tillman married his long-time girlfriend Marie and after their honeymoon, he told the Cardinals that he was putting his NFL career aside for the next three years to enlist in the Army.

His brother Kevin had been signed to baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians but he too put that on hold and together the two brothers signed up in May 2002.

Military Career and Death:

The brothers enlisted together and completed basic training together at Ft. Benning, GA in September of 2002. They then successfully completed the difficult Ranger Selection and Assessment Program (RASP) and were assigned to the 2nd Ranger Bn. at Ft. Lewis, WA.

The two brothers deployed together on a tour to Iraq in 2003 with the Rangers as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While in Iraq, Tillman had strong feelings about why the U.S. was there and although he performed admirably, disagreed with the invasion and thought it was illegal.

After returning from Iraq, the Tillman brothers both attended Ranger School in September of 2003, both graduating on November 28, 2003. After returning to the 2nd Ranger Bn. (Alpha Company, 2nd Plt) they deployed to Afghanistan and were based at FOB Salerno.

Tillman was becoming increasingly anxious to put the military behind him, his journals recall and he questioned the U.S. motives behind our actions in the region. He began to consider leaving as soon as his enlistment was up. The NFL had moved on, but he knew he could return to Arizona.

In the last conversation Tillman had with his agent, “he said, “you won’t believe the letter I got from Bill Belichick.” In the letter, Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, praised him for his courage, his leadership, his willingness to set an example for people in this materialistic society, and he said it was an honor to be in the same league he’d been in. Belichick closed the letter by telling Tillman that if he ever needed a job when he was released by the Army to give him a call. That was never to be.

On April 22, 2004, the Rangers were conducting an operation 40 km southwest of Khost along the Pakistani border when one of the units came under fire, just after the sun was setting. In the increasing darkness, Tillman and one element, with an Afghan soldier tried to come to the aid of fellow Rangers who had come under attack. As Tillman moved along the ridgeline to support the troops under fire, fellow Rangers, seeing “shadowy figures” on the ridge incorrectly identified them as enemy combatants and opened fire.

Tillman and an Afghan soldier were killed. His Platoon commander and his RTO were wounded. It was initially thought to be enemy fire that killed Tillman and the Afghan allied soldier. It wasn’t until after Tillman’s burial did the truth emerge that friendly fire was the cause of his death.

Army CID conducted an investigation and ruled in 2007 what the Rangers had known soon after the horrible mistake was made. That Tillman had been killed by friendly fire. Their report states the facts here:

…during their movement through the canyon road, Serial 2 [Tillman’s platoon had to split up because of a broken Humvee; the parts were called Serial 1 and 2] was ambushed and became engaged in a running gun battle with enemy combatants. Serial 1 [Tillman’s portion of the platoon] had just passed through the same canyon without incident and were approximately one kilometer ahead of Serial 2. Upon hearing explosions, gunfire, and sporadic radio communication from Serial 2, Serial 1 dismounted their vehicles and moved on foot, to a more advantageous position to provide overwatch and fire support for Serial 2’s movement out of the ambush. Upon exiting the gorge, and despite attempts by Serial 1 to signal a “friendly position”, occupants of the lead vehicle of Serial 2 opened fire on Tillman’s position, where he was fatally shot.

Steven Elliot, the Ranger machine gunner who probably fired the shots that killed Tillman gave an interview a few years ago that detailed what happened.

“The events leading up to one of the most infamous friendly-fire deaths in U.S. military history were rife for second-guessing from the start: After an Army Humvee broke down in the mountains, Tillman’s platoon was ordered divided by superiors so that the Humvee could be removed; a local truck driver was hired as the hauler. But the two groups struggled to communicate with each other as they traversed the steep terrain. And the second group soon became caught in a deafening ambush, receiving fire as it maneuvered down a narrow, rocky canyon trail.”
“Tillman’s group, which had traveled ahead, scaled a ridgeline to provide assistance to fellow Rangers under attack. But a squad leader, Sgt. Greg Baker, in Elliott’s armored vehicle misidentified an allied Afghan soldier positioned next to Tillman as the enemy and opened fire, killing the Afghan and prompting Elliott and two other Rangers to fire upon what Elliott called shadowy images, later learned to have been Tillman and then-19-year-old Bryan O’Neal.”

Several Rangers were kicked out of the Battalion for their actions after the friendly fire incident. Tillman’s body armor and uniform were burned to conceal the friendly fire that killed him as well as his journal which contained several anti-war sentiments.

Tillman’s family was incensed (and rightfully so) for portraying his death as a heroic public relations stunt and not identifying it for what it truly was.

His family and his wife carried on his legacy of service by creating the Pat Tillman Foundation in 2008, whose mission is to support active-duty service members, veterans and their spouses with academic scholarships, a national network, and professional development opportunities for their lives after military service.

He was posthumously awarded a Silver Star, the Purple Heart and laterally promoted from Specialist 4 to Corporal.

His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.

Arizona State University dedicated a statue of Tillman outside of Sun Devil Stadium.

Photos: Pat Tillman Foundation

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 2

A good workout is the best way to start Monday and the week off right. We’ll start with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 5-mile run in 40 minutes or less in a mini UBRR test.

Remember to mark your progress in your workout log book.

UBRR Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 1

Happy Easter to everyone. Time for our Sunday morning ruck march. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out. Stretch well both before and after the event. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there.

Today would a great time to wear your second pair of boots for the Selection Course. Don’t wait until then to get another pair broken in. Check for hot spots and blisters, by the time the Selection course rolls around, you’ll be an expert at this and shouldn’t have as many issues in that area.

UBRR Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit-ups

6-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain with a 45-pound minimum. And mark your times in your workout log book. The standard is 90 minutes, you should be looking to better that.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Force Selection PT Preparation Week 7, Day 7

We’ll start the weekend and Saturday off right. It is time to go back to the gym for some shoulders and back work. Followed by a four-mile run. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pull-ups

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run (32-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Ned the Navigator Lives! Don’t be the Guy They Have to Look For

I was reading the news yesterday and saw a piece in Army Times by Meghann Myers about a poor soldier who was at Ft. Carson, Colorado who was attempting to earn his EFMB (Expert Field Medical Badge) on Monday when this poor troop (the Army refused to say if it was a male or female) got lost on the Land Navigation Course. The course was located on the southeastern corner of the base, close to Interstate 25.

The unit, the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division as well as others, with more than 1700 soldiers on the ground, civilian first responders from El Paso, Fremont and Douglas counties, military and civilian helicopters all searched for this lost soldier. The unit feared that the soldier was hurt and therefore pulled out all the stops to find him/her. This soldier was last seen at 9:45 p.m. on Monday night.

But never fear, our erstwhile Land Navigation student was found alive … and safe by a passing motorist on Highway 115 at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning. But the soldier wasn’t on the Land Nav. course. He or she actually wasn’t anywhere near it. In fact, the soldier in question was on the opposite (western) side of the base

Myers said in her post that “but you can bet the ‘lost lieutenant’ jokes will fly anyway.” Oh, Meghann, you have no idea. The soldier’s commander didn’t help matters by means of the following statement.

“The soldiers of our brigade are tremendously relieved that our Soldier has been recovered safely,” said Col. Dave Zinn, commander of 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. “The soldier has displayed physical and mental toughness as a soldier and persevered through a challenging situation. I want to extend my deepest appreciation to all of the soldiers of Fort Carson, along with the Colorado Springs community, for their diligent work while searching for and bringing our soldier home.”

Lost Lieutenant jokes? Hardly this is “Ned the Navigator” territory. What the good Colonel didn’t say, probably to save this poor soldier any further embarrassment was that other than that “physical and mental” toughness, the soldier displayed piss poor judgment and planning. Pace count? Left and right limits to the course? Oh boy, this poor soul will never live this one down. Time to go to clothing sales and purchase some new nametapes…Ned the Navigator.

For our aspiring Special Forces candidates, especially those 18X younger troops, Ned the Navigator was a SFAS and SFQC legend. Every class has a Ned, and if you haven’t gone thru the pipeline yet, you’ll meet him soon enough. Some classes have more than one. Word to the wise here folks, Don’t be Ned. Ned is the guy everyone remembers, but he didn’t graduate from the course. He did the duffle bag drag back to Ft. Bragg.

In case you were wondering, here are some of the symptoms on Ned the Navigator syndrome, so that you…as an aspiring Special Forces candidate, will recognize these traits and save some poor unfortunate soul from endless misery, by pointing these things out and hopefully talk some sense into these candidates. Upside the head with a smart stick will work just as well, thank you very much.

Pace count: Meh, pace counts, space counts. Ned doesn’t need those, he’s going to use his vast experience (probably a week or so) as a navigator to find his way there without the benefit of those.
Map reading and terrain association: “The map is sooo wrong.” is a familiar lament of the Neds of the SF world. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that and it was usually from the guy who got lost. Maps don’t lie, they have no sense of deception. What you see is literally, where you are.
Paying attention to the cadre brief: “Ned doesn’t need no stinkin’ briefing!” Especially about the part where they’ll tell you. “If you come across a hardball road….stop! There are no points across the highway and you should never cross one, or you’ll be off the course.”

There are others but you get the gist of things here. You can tell almost right away who the Neds are going to be in each class. And no story is complete without a FOG anecdote from our author here…yes I have a million of them, really.

One SFAS class we ran, we had a rather large class to start that was doing Land Navigation practice (day) early in the course. It was a perfect late fall afternoon in North Carolina, sunny, clear, about 60 degrees. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon where most of us missed sitting at home watching the NFL rather than be running a Selection class.

Back then and I’m sure things haven’t changed today, we had a master list of the candidates and what lanes they were on. The list had each candidate’s starting point and each of the points that he was supposed to check in at. Each point in SFAS had a cadre member there. The candidates would check in, the candidate would be given his next point’s coordinates and after plotting and planning his course, the candidate would check out with the instructor. Therefore, we had a timeline of each candidate’s progress. The purpose of this will become clear shortly.

And each cadre member manning a point would have a list of the candidates that he was supposed to have finish at his point. So, before we would transport the candidates back to Camp Mackall, everyone would be accounted for.

About 30 minutes before the candidate’s time limit for the day’s navigation practice was up, the cadre member in charge of the day’s event would begin to call around to the different points and see how many candidates had checked in and how many were unaccounted for.

This particular day, with 15 minutes to go, there were only three candidates still on the course. Within ten minutes, two more candidates had finished the course and checked in. That meant there was just one candidate unaccounted for with five minutes to go. It seemed like, for once, we’d finish and be able to get home and maybe even catch a few minutes of the late football game. As in those early days of SFAS, our instructor numbers were way down. We operated with about 30 percent of the manpower we were authorized to have. Days and nights were long, but we thought we’d be finishing early. We were very wrong.

As the time limit ran out and Roster #69 (j/k), was still unaccounted for, all of the roving vehicles manned by cadre members began to descend on the point where he was supposed to finish. Those rovers would constantly keep tabs on candidates all over the course.

Ned the Navigator had checked out of his second-to-last point with plenty of time to find his final point. The vehicles scoured the area between his last check-in and his final destination. No sign of him. After an hour of him being overtime and several cadre members searching for him, the very real possibility of him being hurt out on the course began to creep into everyone’s mind.

We consolidated the candidates in a central location and more instructors joined the search as the clock ticked away. After Ned was overtime by about 2.5-to-3 hours, we got a call on the radio from the headshed back at Camp Mackall. The duty NCO there got a collect call from a lost Land Navigation student. A collect call? For anyone who hasn’t been out to the Hoffman area, there aren’t many pay phones out there.

The duty NCO said the knucklehead had no idea where he was but he could see across the road and there was a huge parking lot with tons of cars in it. What??? One of our cadre senior NCOs knew exactly where he was. Ned the Navigator had walked to Rockingham Raceway, right into the crowd at a NASCAR race.

Rockingham is about 20 miles driving distance from Camp Mackall, but in a straight line from the Land Nav course, it is probably less about 10-12. Ned crossed the highway, (Mistake #1), ignored his pace count (Huge Mistake #2) and when he was finally picked up, said, the map was wrong (Mistake #3).

The cadre members were not happy, the candidates weren’t happy, sitting on their hands out in Hoffman, although they have no right to be happy or sad unless it is on the training schedule. When we got back to Camp Mackall, the other candidates were giving it to the one who got lost. Because it wasn’t long before they knew where he ended up. And then a day or so later, Ned the Navigator was doing the duffle bag drag.

So while we’re glad the soldier from Ft. Carson is safe and healthy, he or she will never live that one down. Ned the Navigator lives.

Photo: USASOC