It's amazing the flush of memories that can almost overwhelm you when you see something like this that might mean nothing whatsoever to others seeing the same thing. I thought that, since it had all come back in a well of remembering, I'd try and share a little what that one picture brought back to me.
This photo was taken in Bad Tolz, Germany by our young new second lieutenant, fresh out of West Point just the spring before. Bad Tolz is down in southeastern Bavaria, near the Austrian border and right under the Alps...literally. It's like being in the scenery from The Sound of Music and I'm not exagerating, either. At the time, I was a senior Squad Leader [3rd Sqd, B Co, 6th Bn, 502 Infantry Regiment (Airborne) of the 101st Airborne Div] stationed as part of the Berlin Brigade way up north smack dab in the middle of, then communist, East Germany. Our platoon had been sent down to Bad Tolz for six weeks of the combined Special Forces/Ranger "Platoon Confidence Training Course" held there.
The idea behind the PCT course is to totally immerse your entire platoon in an in-depth physcally and mentally intense training/testing environment to see how you would operate under diverse and adverse combat conditions as a unit - in squads as well as a full platoon.
This rather small photo (the Lt. was using one of those little 110 cameras) depicts my squad coming in the last few hundred meters to cross the finish line during our final day there. This was the ONLY time we had been on a road of any sort (other than to cross them) in days. It was the end of a time-limited and event-tested 51 mile rough terrain forced march. A given squad had 72 hours to negotiate the 51 miles from point to point to point using only map & compass and no night vision aides. Except for the start and finish, you could hit any points in any order you wished...but you HAD to hit them all and team qualify at each test station along the way. If you planned your routes poorly you would add miles to your course. Hitting certain points at certain times of the day might make them easier or else dang near impossible.
At each of these points a test was given, either to the entire squad (such as rifle marksmanship, while exhausted) or to individuals selected at random (e.g. apply a tourniquet, call for & adjust artillary fire, etc.). You could TRY and time it so you would hit certain tasks, such as marksmanship, during the day...like I said you could "try". But you also had the Military Police and Ranger cadre trying to find you. So you couldn't go near roads or buildings and this all really slowed you down and made resting difficult.
Each man carried a 51-72 lb ruck sack (depending on specific TO&E such as ropes), his assigned weapon, MOPP protective gear, change of clothes & boots as well as a full combat load of live ammo integral to the squad. Although they don't tell you that you can't...there was no sleep the entire event. The only chance you had to nap was during the time when only a few of your squad might be taken away as individuals to be tested...and that always left the squad and team leaders out in the cold. Speaking of cold...it rained the entire first fifty five hours were were out. Even if you'd been carrying nothing and just standing in one place you would be chaffing and sore.
After being dropped off by Blackhawk we had to first figure out WHERE in the world we were...again, literally. The START point was totally unknown to us other than the fact it would be SOMEWHERE on our large topographical map. The terrain we had to cover over the next 72 hours consisted of incredibly steep alpine ridges, crests and deep stream canyons, many with dropoffs anywhere from 300 to 800 meters straight down, one reed marsh several miles across, giant and dense pine fir forests that were dark even during the day, three river and numerous stream crossings and several open valleys.
To add to the whole ordeal they had an entire company of military police from West Germany training to find insurgents and sabateurs. For their training WE were the targets. Other than a 400 meter "off limits" circle around each test site point we were fair game for the MPs who didn't want to fail thier FTX either.
That tall fella in the middle helping the big black dude to his right (our M60 machine-gunner) was my B Team leader, Corporal Roscover. A good man, better soldier and qualified leader of men. He was killed in a Chinook helicopter training accident at Fort Campbell, KY back in 1993. That was a bad day when I found out. I'm on the far left of the picture helping a new private along who'd only JUST been assigned to my squard right out of Basic/AIT not two weeks before we departed. I met him several years later when he was, himself, a squad leader. He told me that in all that time, he'd NEVER gone through tougher training or had a tighter bond with others than he'd gotten during that month and a half with us down in Bad Tolz, Germany.
By the way, that's sweat soaking those BDU's we're wearing. It had finally stopped raining about 15 hours earlier. Though it was early fall and the temp dropped to right around freezing at night, we had to keep our blouses open and trouser legs rolled up during the day (if possible) to prevent over heating. Bet you didn't know Bavarian forests are littered with ticks and stinging nettle or that the ponds and marshes down there are inundated with the darkest green leeches you've ever seen? We didn't either...
Yeah, training was often grueling, sometimes dangerous...but ALWAYS "Fun Times!"
[attachment 7973 FinishLine.jpg]
This photo was taken in Bad Tolz, Germany by our young new second lieutenant, fresh out of West Point just the spring before. Bad Tolz is down in southeastern Bavaria, near the Austrian border and right under the Alps...literally. It's like being in the scenery from The Sound of Music and I'm not exagerating, either. At the time, I was a senior Squad Leader [3rd Sqd, B Co, 6th Bn, 502 Infantry Regiment (Airborne) of the 101st Airborne Div] stationed as part of the Berlin Brigade way up north smack dab in the middle of, then communist, East Germany. Our platoon had been sent down to Bad Tolz for six weeks of the combined Special Forces/Ranger "Platoon Confidence Training Course" held there.
The idea behind the PCT course is to totally immerse your entire platoon in an in-depth physcally and mentally intense training/testing environment to see how you would operate under diverse and adverse combat conditions as a unit - in squads as well as a full platoon.
This rather small photo (the Lt. was using one of those little 110 cameras) depicts my squad coming in the last few hundred meters to cross the finish line during our final day there. This was the ONLY time we had been on a road of any sort (other than to cross them) in days. It was the end of a time-limited and event-tested 51 mile rough terrain forced march. A given squad had 72 hours to negotiate the 51 miles from point to point to point using only map & compass and no night vision aides. Except for the start and finish, you could hit any points in any order you wished...but you HAD to hit them all and team qualify at each test station along the way. If you planned your routes poorly you would add miles to your course. Hitting certain points at certain times of the day might make them easier or else dang near impossible.
At each of these points a test was given, either to the entire squad (such as rifle marksmanship, while exhausted) or to individuals selected at random (e.g. apply a tourniquet, call for & adjust artillary fire, etc.). You could TRY and time it so you would hit certain tasks, such as marksmanship, during the day...like I said you could "try". But you also had the Military Police and Ranger cadre trying to find you. So you couldn't go near roads or buildings and this all really slowed you down and made resting difficult.
Each man carried a 51-72 lb ruck sack (depending on specific TO&E such as ropes), his assigned weapon, MOPP protective gear, change of clothes & boots as well as a full combat load of live ammo integral to the squad. Although they don't tell you that you can't...there was no sleep the entire event. The only chance you had to nap was during the time when only a few of your squad might be taken away as individuals to be tested...and that always left the squad and team leaders out in the cold. Speaking of cold...it rained the entire first fifty five hours were were out. Even if you'd been carrying nothing and just standing in one place you would be chaffing and sore.
After being dropped off by Blackhawk we had to first figure out WHERE in the world we were...again, literally. The START point was totally unknown to us other than the fact it would be SOMEWHERE on our large topographical map. The terrain we had to cover over the next 72 hours consisted of incredibly steep alpine ridges, crests and deep stream canyons, many with dropoffs anywhere from 300 to 800 meters straight down, one reed marsh several miles across, giant and dense pine fir forests that were dark even during the day, three river and numerous stream crossings and several open valleys.
To add to the whole ordeal they had an entire company of military police from West Germany training to find insurgents and sabateurs. For their training WE were the targets. Other than a 400 meter "off limits" circle around each test site point we were fair game for the MPs who didn't want to fail thier FTX either.
That tall fella in the middle helping the big black dude to his right (our M60 machine-gunner) was my B Team leader, Corporal Roscover. A good man, better soldier and qualified leader of men. He was killed in a Chinook helicopter training accident at Fort Campbell, KY back in 1993. That was a bad day when I found out. I'm on the far left of the picture helping a new private along who'd only JUST been assigned to my squard right out of Basic/AIT not two weeks before we departed. I met him several years later when he was, himself, a squad leader. He told me that in all that time, he'd NEVER gone through tougher training or had a tighter bond with others than he'd gotten during that month and a half with us down in Bad Tolz, Germany.
By the way, that's sweat soaking those BDU's we're wearing. It had finally stopped raining about 15 hours earlier. Though it was early fall and the temp dropped to right around freezing at night, we had to keep our blouses open and trouser legs rolled up during the day (if possible) to prevent over heating. Bet you didn't know Bavarian forests are littered with ticks and stinging nettle or that the ponds and marshes down there are inundated with the darkest green leeches you've ever seen? We didn't either...
Yeah, training was often grueling, sometimes dangerous...but ALWAYS "Fun Times!"
[attachment 7973 FinishLine.jpg]