Don't sleep during night land nav

[pjd]

RIP, December 1996. After doing the 6 miler in about an hour and 5 minutes (no running!), the RIP Instructors have us move into the woodline, set up a patrol base and dig hasty fighting positions in 2 man teams. This was to be our home for the next day while we conducted day and night land navigation training - surprise to the RIPpies, we thought it was just a road march for the sake of doing a road march - but we actually went somewhere that didn't involve taking a circle shaped route to get to!

The day training went off without a hitch. My team located all our points, got some chow (cold MRE anyone?), and were successfull in staying out of sight/out of mind of the RIP Instructors. Aside from the people that quit first thing in the morning or on the road march, we hadn't lost anyone since the Land Nav started. I had heard nightmare stories about Land Nav in RIP, and this seemed all too easy to me. I thought something was up.

Once it got dark, things changed. Before getting our points, we spent a good couple of hours getting smoked in various ways - push-ups in formation, back to the hasties, low crawl back to formation (too slow moving to hasties), etc. We worked up a good sweat, and everyone was soaked right through. Now, it's cold in Ft Benning in December - low 30s at night, sometimes colder. When you stop moving, your body cools off, and the sweat you just spent 2 hour soaking your BDUs with becomes a cold, wet envelope for your body. We got about 30 mins to "cool down" after the smoke session, then got our points for the night.

I don't remember the exact times or standards, but I think it was 2300 and we all had to be back in formation at 0200, and we had to find 3 out of 5 points. This was pretty much impossible, I didn't speak with anyone who found more than 2 points. It had rained almost non-stop in Ft Benning for the past week and a majority of the course was under a couple feet of water. During the day your could try and use the "box shaped method" to get around water obstacles, but at night, with no moon, you just went nipple deep in freezing cold water and pissed yourself to stay warm, while hoping the wild dogs couldn't swim (cause they were close and a "rubber duck" doesn't offer much in the way of defense against a pack of wild dogs). So, those three hours were just a cold, wet pain in the ass. I only found 2 points, but headed back to the starting point because it was almost 0200.

After returning back and getting my "NO GO" in Night Land Nav, I thought the night was comming to an end. Just standing around, shootin the shit, somene says they saw SSG Streuker driving a humvee around the land nav course, playing loud "gospel music." All RIPpies in formation, time for accountability. Unfortunately, we weren't all back yet - 2 RIPpies had yet to return. "Everyone in the front leaning rest - and dont bother pushing, you're going to be there for a while." SSG Streuker pulls up in the humvee, puts the headlights on the formation, and proceeds to verbally assult us using a bullhorn. "Why don't you just quit, we've got hot chocolate and chow up by the fire." There was a huge bonfire set up abuot 100m away, but not big enough for us to soak up any of its heat from where we were. Cold hands, in cold sand, tired, wet, pissed off at the two jackasses.

For the first half hour you can hear people muttering "those mother fuckers...", "they better fucking quit...", "if they aren't dead, they going to wish they were..." The second half hour, not much sound comming from the unfortuate souls in the front leaning rest, just grunts and groans. SSG Streuker had left us and was kicking back by the fire, occasionally using the bull horn to encourage us to quit. We had found that it's better to have one hand holding your body up, and one hand down the front of your pants for heat, and switching every couple of minutes - the cold sand was making hands numb and swollen. One knucklehead thought he could give his arms a rest by holding himself up with his forehead - it didnt work. After the first hour they sent a blackhawk out to search the area for the lost RIPpies. They were no where to be found. The rest of us, still in the front leaning rest, are getting more vocal - mostly making jokes about each other, farting on the squad behind us, and generally trying to laugh at our situation. I was expecting to see a lot of quitters durring this time, but not a single person quit.

At 0400, after 2 hours in the front leaning rest, the two that were lost still hadn't returned, and no one had quit. SSG Streuker sent everyone back to their hasties to pull 100% security, on our feet, until the two lost boys were found. I was amazed that after all that time in such uncomfortable circumstances, no one had quit. Well, the night wasn't over yet. There were no more push-ups, no more smoking, just standing in your hasty, freezing, fighting the "Z Monster," and listening to SSG Streuker on the bull horn talk about how nice and warm it was up by the fire - hot chocolate for everyone, you just have to quit. The thing that really blew my mind is that people were actually quitting! After all that time in a shitty position, getting smoked, now people are quiting when all they have to do is stand in one place. Two of my buddies that I went to basic with, who volunteered for RIP in Airborne school because they were following me, walked by me on their way to the fire - they wouldn't even look at me, one of them said "sorry" as he walked by. The psychological smoking was much worse than the physical one. People could handle it if they were busy, doing what they were told, stressed, hurried. But, make a person cold, wet, hungry and tired, then give them a couple hours to think about it, and they drop like flies.

We spent 2 hours pulling security in our hasties, and the lost boys never returned. That was the first time I ever fell asleep standing on my feet - telling stories with my Ranger Buddy, I fell asleep in mid sentance, woke up about 30 seconds later and picked up where I left off. A lot of people quit that night, more than at any other single time in RIP. It proved to me that mental toughenss is more important than physical strength. The body will do what the mind tells it to. If a person doesn't have that mental discipline, they will give up the second they start to doubt themselves. That is where the Ranger mentality comes in - NEVER FUCKING QUIT! It's easy to drive on with tired muscles when you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But, can you suck it up and drive on when every part of your body/mind/soul is cold, wet, tired, and broken, and there is no end in sight. Sure, that fire looked good that night, and hot cholocate would have been great. I would have been comfortable for a few hours, then had the rest of my life to live with myself, knowing that I quit. Not worth it.

So, what happened to the 2 cheesedicks that got lost in the woods? Well, after 2 hours of pulling 100% security, it was 0600 and time for formation. While in formation, 2 lonely RIPpies come stroling through the woodline, looking nice and rested. They tried to pull it off like they got lost. But were met with a "Bull Fucking Shit! You were fucking racked out!" Which, of course, they were. Aparently after finding a couple points, they decided to get some rack time in, but failed to take into consideration that there was no one to wake them up if both were sleeping at the same time. Needless to say, they were both dropped from the course and put on Worldwide status.

[McD]

There it is Deper's. PJD has just put out everything you need to know about becoming a Ranger. I'm impressed with your 5 minute mile runs, it is awesome that you can do 100 push-ups in a minute. I could barely run 15 minutes for 2 miles but I was running as hard as I possibly could. The important thing is that I was always there with everyone at the end of a mission. No matter how tired, how cold, how hungry, no matter ANYTHING! There is just no quit in a Ranger !Your mental attitude is what will enable you to succeed in your goals.

Thank you for a great story!

[Parabellum]

I can make you quit DEPers...promise.