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July 04, 2007

eight narratives out there (for Kevin Thurston)

Geoffrey Gatza

Kevin, I was just looking up the gauntlet online. I didn’t go through this during boot camp, although I did go through something similar to it. Our training and the training that they are now doing is very different. They have always taken pride in consistently updating training. In the Philippines we did a jungle warfare training, in California Mountain and Desert training, also winter mountain training as we were hoping to crush the Russians but this was before we knew they were incompetent, it was a real shame too.

But to answer directly about the gauntlet I went through was a hand to hand combat day which was great fun. The day ended with pugal sticks, a long padded staff held with two hands. I lost twice one on one but won twice against two on one. It seemed easier to distract one and hit the other. And in the jungle training we were left to our own devices to survive to graduate the class. It was very scary but I made it and ate a grub or two and am still here.

It mostly sucked. Like being in a community college literature class. There is only so far the conversation can progress. I could never believe that any of this was real, or was really happening as it was a lot of training and fucking up or off. I cooked mostly and didn’t match well with my unit. I was looking to be something bigger than what could ever be presented. There is no one, there is only the team. I was not the team and was a real asshole. I still am. This is me and that was me too but I don’t feel like that person today.

My point was this though. They plan and they train, teaching over and over to focus on the task in front of you, improvise, adapt and overcome. These are the values I have gained from them and I used them everyday. Don’t ever fool yourself into thinking that you could not achieve what I did. You have a bold perspicacity that would carry you through any physical or mental challenge. And the challenges I met in those years were designed to take one to the brink of themselves. Taking the body to that point and finding you can

[ fin ]

Posted by Rock Heals at July 4, 2007 12:07 AM