Down to the wire

Week 12. The Big One. The Final Week. The One We've All Been Waiting For. Dun dun dunnnn..... Time to stop speculating, and time to start doing.

We'd decided that it would definitely be easier than week 11. For one, sergeant said that nothing would be harder than week 11, so we assumed that included week 12. For another, we were staying in a more permanent type of camp which meant that we didn't have to set up and take down the tents every night. That automatically made it better. And the weather was supposed to stay nice, which was also a plus.

We got attacked on our way to the camp. So as per usual for our platoon, things got started quickly and never stopped. The first night was the hardest, because our section got the short stick and had extra duties overnight. We found out the following night that it wasn't such a bad thing, because the people who didn't have base camp duties at night, had missions to go out on at the same time, so they weren't even around.

Yeah....so, missions. The whole idea of what we do in week 12 is based on missions. They're all simulations and are written to give us an idea of the different kinds of things that soldiers do in the Forces. Things like "these medical supplies need guarding from enemy terrorists until someone comes to pick them up", or "set up and man a roadblock for 2 hours" or "these refugees are being mistreated and tortured living in poor conditions, go to their camp and find out if this is true."

The missions were generally pretty cool and we fun with most of them. Some of them were especially entertaining because of the "victims". I could see that a few were having a lot of fun making up extensive back stories or ridiculous reasons as to why they were in their situations. Like the guy injured in a truck explosion who was worried about his fiancee/cousin who was also in the truck. They apparently had many hopes and dreams for the future. I would say too bad she didn't make it, but it's probably for the best that some of those dreams won't come true.

Some missions went better than others of course. Guarding the medical supplies was fun, partly because it was daytime and pretty warm out, but also because the "terrorists" were so entertaining when they came to demand supplies and taunt us. Our roadblock was probably the worst, but only because we were so bad at it. We let a truck go through with a 9mm on the rearview mirror, a machete under the backseat and another large knife hidden in a woman's bosom. Yeah. We were supposed to search there too, but I guess the boys were a little uncomfortable with that. Funny, I'm pretty darn sure they're comfortable with that sort of thing when they go out on the weekends.

One of the more annoying parts was how much we walked around to get to all the missions. There was usually at least a 2km walk there, and then back afterwards. We did 4 of these a day. Did I mention that our section was really bad at navigating and ended up having to walk way too far out of the way and back several times? I had blisters by Tuesday.

Wednesday night was probably the worst. We did a reconnaissance mission pretty much about as far away as it was possible to get. It was 4km there, then we met up with our guide who took us through swampy woods for another half hour, where most of the section had to wait kneeling in the mud while 5 of us took off most of our gear and went to sneak up to an enemy post and try to listen and gather info on when they would be attacking. Of course, we were lying in the mud too, but trying to be still and listening made it way more interesting than for the rest of the section, whose main concern was trying to stay awake. An hour later, we get back to them, and start walking back to camp. By the time we get there, the camp was already under a biological attack so we could not go near it and had to go back to the woods and find a place to hang out for a while until we were allowed back in. Did I mention the swamp? We were soaked and by that time it was 4am.

When we finally made it back into the camp, it was time to pack up and go. We had 15 minutes to do it or we would apparently be carrying our rucksacks back to the main base. We did it. Painfully, uncomfortably, and without breakfast, but we did it. Then waited around for 2 hours. That was cold. We wondered why we were waiting around doing nothing, but finally the attack came.

Oh right. The final attack. The time when we are sort of supposed to remember our drill and how to tell others where the enemies are, but really it's just an excuse to shoot as many rounds as possible. We were attacked by probably just about every one of the "enemies" that there were, and from every side. It was rather noisy. Needless to say, everyone had a lot of fun with that.

So like week 11, the main thing is that we survived. If there had been grades on it, we probably would have done pretty badly, since we let our sister platoon get up close to scout us and attack. Well, there was only 1 section in the whole place at the time, so it wasn't everyone, but still...the competition between the staff is just about as bad as the recruits, so we got a fair amount of hell for that. Also 7 negligent discharges with our rifles which is way off the scale as far as the number that's "ok"...not that any are really ok, since when we have live rounds that aren't blanks, the consequences can be a lot more serious, but they usually expect 1 or 2 on a platoon. People make mistakes and now is the time to make them, but 7...well, it's ridiculous. So we got a lot of hell for that too. I guess it's a good thing there weren't marks for it. But again, we made it, and it's over. It was a good experience and it's way easier to say that now that it's done, but it's true. We all did things we didn't know we could, and dealt with new situations under demanding conditions. Again there were no fistfights between recruits, so that's a plus. Apparently it came close once or twice.

But we're back on base, and getting some rest. Well, some of us are. Some others are getting just as little rest, but enjoying some freedom. Freedom to get drunk and party. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's now officially grad week and there are only a few days left here for everyone. One last kick at the can, then we all go our separate ways. It's been interesting, that's for sure, and there's definitely people I'm going to miss, but man are we looking forward to getting out of here!


...Except actually I am out of "here" as of right now. I'll post another couple about grad week and leaving later, but just so you know...I'm at the airport on my way to my posting. Woot!