I don't know why it is... but i actually enjoy weather that most people complain about. I remember as a child i would love to go out and play in the rain. I seriously would stand in the middle of a field and hold my face up to the sky, close my eyes and just let the rain or snow cover me. When thunderstorms came i would often open up my bedroom window and listen to the rain and thunder while i either sat there to watch or just kept on with whatever i was doing.
Some of the strongest memories i have of my twenty two years in the National Guard are weather related. When i joined the Guard i enlisted as an Infantryman. With the exception of the first two weeks, and the last half of a week, we marched out range road to the field on Monday mornings and went in on Friday night/Saturday mornings. Many a morning brought a rain that we had to go ahead and do our PT and whatever else that was on the training schedule. Some examples...
One night we had just made our bivouac and got to bed late (around midnight). I had fire watch from 00:30 until 01:00. At 02:30 my tent mate woke me up to tell me we were flooded out. I was still dry as my sleeping mat had formed a bowl, *lol*, but that didn't last long. For about 30 minutes we are running around digging out our drainage ditch, trying to keep all of our gear dry. It was a lost cause. Eventually our entire company, about 150 men, were all huddled around this little shack about the size of a phone booth (it was used to store the milk crates we used to form up the chow line) taking turns around a little can of sterno. That morning i remember my french toast was floating in the tray. *lol* The Drill Sergeants took us in to get dry clothes, etc. the next day, but we went right back out the following morning.
Another early morning it was just pouring down the rain, and it was cold... about 45 degrees. Up and at 'em. PT's on running until the steam started coming off our sweats.
The day we had to do a 20 mile ruck march it was raining (again). The entire company was up in our ponchos and all packed up. Right in the center there was one pup tent still standing and the two guys within refusing to come out. I thought the mob that had formed was going to rip those guys out because they feared the retribution from the Drill Sergeants. There was no need to fear as the Senior Drill Sergeant stepped up, assessed the situation and proceeded to grab the top seam of the two shelter halves and pull the snaps apart exposing the men and all of their unpacked gear to the elements.
Out final field training exercise was cold! The first night those of us trained on the TOW system were slated to be the aggressors while the rest of the company would be the defenders. The first night i remember waking to a good coat of frost on my sleeping bag. When we went to chow the Company Commander and the Senior Drill Sergeant announced, "I need to volunteers... you... and you!" I was one of the two 'volunteers'. Me and my new 'friend' became the radio watch guys for the CO. Four hours on, four hours off, 24x7 for the week. But we had it made there... the CO had a stove in his GP small. 8) So we took turns cutting up firewood and monitoring the radio.
But when you are in the combat arms weather becomes your friend. You train to live and maneuver in it.
My first drill we had a 'fly away' to the Florida panhandle. I still remember my platoon mates telling me to not bother packing my sleeping bag... it's Florida. Yea, but it was January! I had never been so cold in my life as i had been that weekend. Crisp clear nights... i can still see in my minds eye the Milky Way. Awesome...
I could go on and on. Serving on Flood Duty... severe snow storms... Hurricane Katrina. Some of the times i was cold, or wet, or both. Sometimes i was physically miserable... but i enjoyed the experiences - especially in hind sight. 8) The other night we had a surprise thunderstorm roll through and i was downstairs after we had all gone to bed... and the lightning lit up the room (we have a lot of windows). I would love to have a decent sized gazebo that i could just go and sit in during such storms...
Sorry this is such a meandering rambling mess... but it is pouring down rain here... and my mind has wandered...
Some of the strongest memories i have of my twenty two years in the National Guard are weather related. When i joined the Guard i enlisted as an Infantryman. With the exception of the first two weeks, and the last half of a week, we marched out range road to the field on Monday mornings and went in on Friday night/Saturday mornings. Many a morning brought a rain that we had to go ahead and do our PT and whatever else that was on the training schedule. Some examples...
One night we had just made our bivouac and got to bed late (around midnight). I had fire watch from 00:30 until 01:00. At 02:30 my tent mate woke me up to tell me we were flooded out. I was still dry as my sleeping mat had formed a bowl, *lol*, but that didn't last long. For about 30 minutes we are running around digging out our drainage ditch, trying to keep all of our gear dry. It was a lost cause. Eventually our entire company, about 150 men, were all huddled around this little shack about the size of a phone booth (it was used to store the milk crates we used to form up the chow line) taking turns around a little can of sterno. That morning i remember my french toast was floating in the tray. *lol* The Drill Sergeants took us in to get dry clothes, etc. the next day, but we went right back out the following morning.
Another early morning it was just pouring down the rain, and it was cold... about 45 degrees. Up and at 'em. PT's on running until the steam started coming off our sweats.
The day we had to do a 20 mile ruck march it was raining (again). The entire company was up in our ponchos and all packed up. Right in the center there was one pup tent still standing and the two guys within refusing to come out. I thought the mob that had formed was going to rip those guys out because they feared the retribution from the Drill Sergeants. There was no need to fear as the Senior Drill Sergeant stepped up, assessed the situation and proceeded to grab the top seam of the two shelter halves and pull the snaps apart exposing the men and all of their unpacked gear to the elements.
Out final field training exercise was cold! The first night those of us trained on the TOW system were slated to be the aggressors while the rest of the company would be the defenders. The first night i remember waking to a good coat of frost on my sleeping bag. When we went to chow the Company Commander and the Senior Drill Sergeant announced, "I need to volunteers... you... and you!" I was one of the two 'volunteers'. Me and my new 'friend' became the radio watch guys for the CO. Four hours on, four hours off, 24x7 for the week. But we had it made there... the CO had a stove in his GP small. 8) So we took turns cutting up firewood and monitoring the radio.
But when you are in the combat arms weather becomes your friend. You train to live and maneuver in it.
My first drill we had a 'fly away' to the Florida panhandle. I still remember my platoon mates telling me to not bother packing my sleeping bag... it's Florida. Yea, but it was January! I had never been so cold in my life as i had been that weekend. Crisp clear nights... i can still see in my minds eye the Milky Way. Awesome...
I could go on and on. Serving on Flood Duty... severe snow storms... Hurricane Katrina. Some of the times i was cold, or wet, or both. Sometimes i was physically miserable... but i enjoyed the experiences - especially in hind sight. 8) The other night we had a surprise thunderstorm roll through and i was downstairs after we had all gone to bed... and the lightning lit up the room (we have a lot of windows). I would love to have a decent sized gazebo that i could just go and sit in during such storms...
Sorry this is such a meandering rambling mess... but it is pouring down rain here... and my mind has wandered...
2 comments:
This is really fascinating. What memories you have. What a sense of accomplishment those moments must have brought. About "bivouac," I don't know what that is, but I do know Laura Petrie was in a song called "Bivouac Baby" on the Dick Van Dyke Show. My kids all love rain, too.
I could probably have tripled the size of this day's blog easily with all of the stories that just come to mind thinking about it. 8)
We had an awesome Thunderstorm roll through our area bright and early Sunday morning...
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