Tonight I had a chance to go out to the range were the hubbs was working. Myself and S (a fellow Delta wife) made the 25 minute drive out to the range were the SIT (soldiers in training) were going to be doing the Night Infiltration Course. (yes 25 mins. to get to ranges ON post, some take 30-40 minutes to get to.) When we arrived the SIT were still being briefed on what they were going to be doing and going through drills. I was able to catch the hubbs front in center hard at work, with his privates. I really enjoy getting to watch him work / train with the new soldiers. This is something us as spouses did get to do in Hawaii, so its kinda neat that they allow us to be apart of the trainings.
Night Fire~ the soldiers will have to low crawl with their weapon in hand in a giant sand pit, with live fires being shot from two towers 36 feet above their head. We were told when down on the ground the shots seem much lower to the soldier then they really are.
Just before night fall we headed up in the tower to get settled and ready to watch the "show". The hubbs was able to come up for a minute to say hello, which was lovely getting to see him. Once he left we were chit chatting with the other people in the tower not paying attention when the first set of shots went off. It definitely caught our attention. At first glance you can't see the SIT coming down the lanes but once they all get out there its like a see of bodies crawling through the sand. Weapon in hand they aren't allowed to get up at all till they pass their DS. The DS have Kem lights attached to there helmets so the soldiers can identify who is who. The Soldier on range cadre for the night who was running the grenades shots & the range had a pair of MPGs, night vision goggles that we were able to use. It helped being able to see the SIT better. It was a really neat experience to watch & be apart of. As the Soldiers made their way across they filled in formation and encouraged their fellow battle buddies along in cadence. They did a great job, a lot better than I could have done for as long of a stretch as they had to crawl.
Looking through the Night Vision Googles as the soldiers are coming down the range.
After all the shot are fire, (they can only shoot 400 rounds) the are still tons of soldiers on the range. They give them about 10 more minutes then they turn on the lights allowing them to see better were they need to go. As you can see in the photo above to the right these two soldiers are headed right to the center tower. WRONG WAY!!!!
Below are the soldiers who are finished and waiting for the others to make it through.
They had to ice sheet one girl because she was so hot.
Ice Sheet~ they strip you down to nothing and wrap you in insulated sheets that have been soaking in ice cold water, in coolers. You don't want to be ice sheeted, and have everything God gave you out there for everyone to see but hey sometimes it happens.
It was a lot of fun watching and being apart of tonight, even though I didn't get to spend much time at all with the hubbs it was great to be there seeing what he does.
~DAY 260
3 comments:
This is so cool! I would love to see this. Hope you had a blast! :)
Girl, thank you for being a wife to a soldier. I know it isn't easy (I'm a firefighter's wife, so I understand a TEENY bit)
I didn't know they actually shot live fire! Craziness... I heard about the icing when Will was in Basic, and he said it was because they didn't drink water like they were told to do. He went through training in summer too, so it was miserable for him too!
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