Okay, here's the first part (I'm trying to be more like Mara)
Alright, I got to Balboa parkaround 0030 and saw only a few people standing around. The mood was light and we introduced ourselves and talked about the upcoming challenge and such. A small cluster of the guys had apparently just done one in Newport, RI about 3 weeks prior. "Holy shit, these guys are nuts" is what I'm thinking. There's one guy here with a cool beard, and I tell him he has a cool beard. He laughs. One guy there named Matt Francev has done this dumb stuff 8 times prior, including the very first slection class (You can read about it here http://www.gorucknews.com/selection...art-1-the-welcome-party-st-augustine-florida/). Cadre shows up. His name is Mike and people are talking to him like it aint no thing. I thought this was kinda odd, but then again I assumed there was gonna be a whole lot of screaming and hollering once the cadre got there but that turned out to not be the case. Mike didn't have to yell to get us to do stuff.
More people filter in as 0100 comes and goes. We take roll. About 5 people missing. Jokes are made about having Hitler AIDS and TBS (terminal bitch syndrome) and we laugh. Cadre Mike tells us, very politely, to grab our rucks and form two lines facing each other, then put our rucks on the ground and open them. People have trouble forming two parralel lines and it makes me wince. But we get our stuff covered and aligned and open up for inspection. Interesting to see some of the stuff that people have packed. I brought two extra pairs of socks, old issued Nomex gloves, hydration bladder and some granola bars. People had all sorts of extra warming layers and snivel gear. In hindsight, I should've gotten some kind of glove that wouldn't retain water, a bunch of salt tabs (I paid for this later) and maybe an extra t-shirt, but overall I think I packed really well. Everyone's bricks checked out, fortunately. We were given very specific instructions beforehand to make sure that our bricks were well-taped, and had our names and phone numbers on them. Everyone followed this. Mike began introducing himself: Former force reconnaissance, former combat controller, dive qualed, HALO qualed, he's done quite a bit of stuff. He talks a little more, but then sees two folks with packs on walking over to the group. "Rucks above your heads" he says. The two stragglers hustle over to our roll call person and check in, which prompts Mike to let us lower our packs. He talks a little bit more about combat and where he's been. He mentions something like 2 trips to Iraq and 1 to southeast asia or something like that. Two more folks round the corner and we put rucks over our head again. They casually stroll towards us like its nothing. "HURRY THE FUCK UP!!" someone shouts. Thats gets them moving. They check in, packs go down. We form up in columns of two and move out towards the main fountai, about 400m away.
The groans are audible as we approach the fountain, but we don't get to jump in quite yet. Mike calls the team leader up and gives him our instructions: Split up along the brick pathways to the fountains, bear crawl through the little reflecting pools, up the stairs (which have water running down them) and keep going until you reach the end. We do this. Up at the top of the stairs we do a modified high crawl, still in water. The stones hurt my knees. We keep it together and make sure to wait for the folks in the back. They are ever so slow. I can tell my gloves are soaking up water like a sponge and so are my boots. This will become a theme for the day. We reach the end of the pools and form back up. Mike sends us to the fountain and informs us that we are now going to commence with the welcoming party. I'm not sure why, but I let out a tiny little "Rah" and someone behind me giggles. We 360 around the fountain (which is turned off and would probably look gross if it wasn't 0100 and dark) and are told to watch for the pipes. Gingerly we step in. The water is a shock to the system. The air temperature was probably about 45 that night, though the water was likely warmer than that. Instantly people start shaking. I feel fine, strangely enough. Our first exercise is jumping jacks. We manage to do this pretty well, though some folks suffer from Iraqi Army syndrome and cant seem to do jumping jacks correctly. Whatever. Next is cherry pickers. They're easy and we breeze through them. 4-count pushups. Fuck. With packs on. Double fuck. They're actually easier than I thought since we're in deep enough water that we kinda float. There was one guy who was about 6'3 with long, gangly arms that probably didn't enjoy this, but fuck him for being tall. Packs on your front, flutter kicks. Uh oh. I sit down in the water with my head up. My straps are too tight, the ruck in right on my neck. Can't really breathe but I get through the flutter kicks. 8-count bodybuilders afterwards. People need to be shown how to do this 3 times. I call out "It's like a slow burpee. Don't jump at the end". Collective light bulbs go off. We do 25 of them in the time it takes your grandparents to have sex. I'm tired but feeling warm. The chick two people down from me is breaking down and is very, very cold. More jumping jacks. Cherry pickers. Motivated Marine Corps pushups. One guy says "Hooah" and I laugh. He's my battle buddy, a prior Army Engineer officer. Pretty cool guy. Pushups are done, and fountain fun is done. We are soaking wet everywhere, but I'm glad I brought my jacket. It would stay on me the entire time and keep me warm enough without overheating. Also had zippered pockets so I could stow my gloves in them later on when I hated those stupid fucking things.
We move out of the fountain and form up again. Marching south along some sidewalk we get to a ravine and Mike calls the team leader over. We have a downed aircraft in our AO and for some unexplainable reason we have to carry it out instead of hitting it with JDAMs or whatever. At the bottom of this ravine is an enormous dead tree just sitting there. The ground on the sides of the ravine is nice and soft but I almost twist an ankle getting to the bottom. That would've been fun explaining to my friends. "Oh, the ankle? I rolled it trying to get down a ravine to carry a half-ton log out of it with a bunch of strangers. I also had a pack on. Why? BECAUSE I'M RETARDED".
Alright, I got to Balboa parkaround 0030 and saw only a few people standing around. The mood was light and we introduced ourselves and talked about the upcoming challenge and such. A small cluster of the guys had apparently just done one in Newport, RI about 3 weeks prior. "Holy shit, these guys are nuts" is what I'm thinking. There's one guy here with a cool beard, and I tell him he has a cool beard. He laughs. One guy there named Matt Francev has done this dumb stuff 8 times prior, including the very first slection class (You can read about it here http://www.gorucknews.com/selection...art-1-the-welcome-party-st-augustine-florida/). Cadre shows up. His name is Mike and people are talking to him like it aint no thing. I thought this was kinda odd, but then again I assumed there was gonna be a whole lot of screaming and hollering once the cadre got there but that turned out to not be the case. Mike didn't have to yell to get us to do stuff.
More people filter in as 0100 comes and goes. We take roll. About 5 people missing. Jokes are made about having Hitler AIDS and TBS (terminal bitch syndrome) and we laugh. Cadre Mike tells us, very politely, to grab our rucks and form two lines facing each other, then put our rucks on the ground and open them. People have trouble forming two parralel lines and it makes me wince. But we get our stuff covered and aligned and open up for inspection. Interesting to see some of the stuff that people have packed. I brought two extra pairs of socks, old issued Nomex gloves, hydration bladder and some granola bars. People had all sorts of extra warming layers and snivel gear. In hindsight, I should've gotten some kind of glove that wouldn't retain water, a bunch of salt tabs (I paid for this later) and maybe an extra t-shirt, but overall I think I packed really well. Everyone's bricks checked out, fortunately. We were given very specific instructions beforehand to make sure that our bricks were well-taped, and had our names and phone numbers on them. Everyone followed this. Mike began introducing himself: Former force reconnaissance, former combat controller, dive qualed, HALO qualed, he's done quite a bit of stuff. He talks a little more, but then sees two folks with packs on walking over to the group. "Rucks above your heads" he says. The two stragglers hustle over to our roll call person and check in, which prompts Mike to let us lower our packs. He talks a little bit more about combat and where he's been. He mentions something like 2 trips to Iraq and 1 to southeast asia or something like that. Two more folks round the corner and we put rucks over our head again. They casually stroll towards us like its nothing. "HURRY THE FUCK UP!!" someone shouts. Thats gets them moving. They check in, packs go down. We form up in columns of two and move out towards the main fountai, about 400m away.
The groans are audible as we approach the fountain, but we don't get to jump in quite yet. Mike calls the team leader up and gives him our instructions: Split up along the brick pathways to the fountains, bear crawl through the little reflecting pools, up the stairs (which have water running down them) and keep going until you reach the end. We do this. Up at the top of the stairs we do a modified high crawl, still in water. The stones hurt my knees. We keep it together and make sure to wait for the folks in the back. They are ever so slow. I can tell my gloves are soaking up water like a sponge and so are my boots. This will become a theme for the day. We reach the end of the pools and form back up. Mike sends us to the fountain and informs us that we are now going to commence with the welcoming party. I'm not sure why, but I let out a tiny little "Rah" and someone behind me giggles. We 360 around the fountain (which is turned off and would probably look gross if it wasn't 0100 and dark) and are told to watch for the pipes. Gingerly we step in. The water is a shock to the system. The air temperature was probably about 45 that night, though the water was likely warmer than that. Instantly people start shaking. I feel fine, strangely enough. Our first exercise is jumping jacks. We manage to do this pretty well, though some folks suffer from Iraqi Army syndrome and cant seem to do jumping jacks correctly. Whatever. Next is cherry pickers. They're easy and we breeze through them. 4-count pushups. Fuck. With packs on. Double fuck. They're actually easier than I thought since we're in deep enough water that we kinda float. There was one guy who was about 6'3 with long, gangly arms that probably didn't enjoy this, but fuck him for being tall. Packs on your front, flutter kicks. Uh oh. I sit down in the water with my head up. My straps are too tight, the ruck in right on my neck. Can't really breathe but I get through the flutter kicks. 8-count bodybuilders afterwards. People need to be shown how to do this 3 times. I call out "It's like a slow burpee. Don't jump at the end". Collective light bulbs go off. We do 25 of them in the time it takes your grandparents to have sex. I'm tired but feeling warm. The chick two people down from me is breaking down and is very, very cold. More jumping jacks. Cherry pickers. Motivated Marine Corps pushups. One guy says "Hooah" and I laugh. He's my battle buddy, a prior Army Engineer officer. Pretty cool guy. Pushups are done, and fountain fun is done. We are soaking wet everywhere, but I'm glad I brought my jacket. It would stay on me the entire time and keep me warm enough without overheating. Also had zippered pockets so I could stow my gloves in them later on when I hated those stupid fucking things.
We move out of the fountain and form up again. Marching south along some sidewalk we get to a ravine and Mike calls the team leader over. We have a downed aircraft in our AO and for some unexplainable reason we have to carry it out instead of hitting it with JDAMs or whatever. At the bottom of this ravine is an enormous dead tree just sitting there. The ground on the sides of the ravine is nice and soft but I almost twist an ankle getting to the bottom. That would've been fun explaining to my friends. "Oh, the ankle? I rolled it trying to get down a ravine to carry a half-ton log out of it with a bunch of strangers. I also had a pack on. Why? BECAUSE I'M RETARDED".
