Shoup Airlines

Mind Games

As I have mentioned before, WOCS was more mind games than anything else. I hate mind games, I find them infantile and demeaning, especially when so thinly veiled. I understand that part of the curriculum is psyching weaker minded individuals until they realize being a warrant officer might not be for them. I am all for cutting loose those that quit or believe they can’t do something. Give us the 7 minute drills in the morning, the insurmountable list of tasks that need to be accomplished yesterday, the constant pressure of an intimidating and unsatisfiable TAC, but don’t set us up for failure in such a way that we realize what you’re doing before the trap is even sprung.

It’s 3 am of Day 4 on the FLX, prior to WOCistan, and we all wake up to a simulated artillery round going off in the middle of the FOB (Forward Operating Base). I chuckle a bit as I realize we are “under attack” and my first thought is ‘wow, it’s still bloody hot out at 3 am!’ As we run through the drill of securing the base and calming down some itchy trigger fingers that like chasing shadows, another mortar attack ensues and we’re ordered down into the bunkers (tornado shelters). A couple minutes later the “all clear” is given and we conduct a head count. Everyone is accounted for.

We’re now ordered out of the bunkers, told to drop our gear off back at the tent and then form up for an AAR (After Action Review (a group critique)). Of course, as a requirement for formations you take another head count. Surprise, surprise, we’re one short. Never mind the fact that several of us saw the Primary TAC talking to the “missing candidate” right before the formation. Can’t imagine where he disappeared to. We take the heat from the TAC on accountability and giving false reports. Yet no one has given a false report, we stated the fact that he’s missing. Regardless, we lose our class guidon and colors as punishment. As we fall out and head back for the cots, everyone is pissed off and wanting to know where the missing candidate is. Lo and behold, he’s sitting on his cot where he was told to hide by the TAC during the formation.

What really irks me is that I know we’ll suddenly “earn” our guidon and colors back right before we step the next day for the 6 mile road march only because it would be embarrassing to the TACs if we march back into garrison with everyone waiting to greet us and have no colors displayed. Most everyone else sees through this as well and the “punishment” does nothing to build camaraderie or teamwork for a team that is already working well together. If anything, it destroys most of the credibility I and others have for the rule book the TACs are playing by.

Sure enough, as we get ready to step the next morning we suddenly earn the guidon and colors back. Uh huh. Standard eye rolling commences.

WOCistan

Back to the FLX (Day 4), it’s still hot and humid. Big surprise there, I know. But today we get to have a little fun.

Since the Iraq war, fighting doctrine has turned more towards urban terrain, moving away from the open fields of WWII and triple canopy jungles of Vietnam. These days we train using MOUT (Military Ops on Urban Terrain), meaning we practice on little “villages” consisting of houses, vehicles and non-combatants/insurgents. In basic terms, you take several squads of infantrymen and clear each house one by one looking for booby traps and insurgents. It can be extremely difficult making the split decision between friend or foe as you enter a house while kicking furniture out of the way and clearing the rest of the room as 3 more of your squad mates follow in behind you. Throw in stairs and multiple rooms and things escalate quickly.

We affectionately named our village, “WOCistan.” You can blame it on the heat. In the end, it always ends up becoming a grown up version of Cowboys and Indians with the smell of cordite in the air and both sides claiming they killed the other first. What got interesting this time around were the TACs and their smoke grenades and simulated artillery rounds.

This first video shows how insane it can get when you enter a house:

The large boom you hear in this one is a simulated artie round going off on top of that metal container they are stacking on. As the group starts to run for the house listen for the automatic weapon that unloads on them and then look at the far left corner of the house. That would be yours truly playing OpFor and hitting every single one of them. Of course, they denied it.

Heat Cas!

Raise your hand if you think I have been exaggerating the whole heat and humidity deal down here in ‘Bama. Uh huh, that’s what I thought. In the first three days of the FLX we lost two individuals to heat exhaustion with three more on the verge of getting “stuck.” The military, always so nice in their euphemisms, defines getting stuck as receiving an I.V. wherever they can find a vein. Then they call you a heat cas (pronounced cazsh) and you’re branded for life. Anytime you go out in the field you have to wear some kind of indicator, usually a piece of red tape around your pistol belt or boot lace, because the effects of heat exhaustion are cumulative.

The first guy was a Drill Sergeant, so you can pretty much guarantee he’s seen some nasty heat before. In fact, he was based at Ft. Huachuca. For those not in the know, the fort is located in the southeast corner of Arizona. The only thing there is heat! He fell on the first day while we were completing the leadership exercises. They took him to the fire station, stuck 3 I.V. bags in him and then moved him onto the E.R.

I also forgot to mention that if you get stuck it is an automatic recycle in the course, no questions asked. You do not pass go. You don’t collect $200. You get to start Warrant Officer Candidate School all over again from Day 1! Actually, it’s Day 12 which is the first day of the 4 week program, but that’s a long story and this one is already dragging on.

The second guy was an inter-service transfer from the Navy. He was struggling on the land nav course simply because you just don’t do a lot of land compass work in the Navy. Plus, it wasn’t an easy course by any means and that’s coming from someone who has run a lot of compass courses. The heat eventually got to him on his second attempt through the course. He only needed one I.V. bag but he had some major heat cramps. Regardless, they recycled him. We were all disappointed to see him go.

No one really cared what the actual temperature was, it was just too damn hot to care. I heard 103° at one point but I was more concerned with the humidity. That was the killer. I would go through 3 liters of water about every 2 to 3 hours, but because we were drinking so much water we had to down the salt packets from our MREs just to keep our electrolyte levels balanced. I got headaches the first two afternoons but never saw anything else problematic after that, thank God!

Then someone higher up finally realized it was hot, they decided to bring us back into garrison on the third afternoon. We were ordered to take a long shower and get some rest because we would be heading right back out to the FOB the next morning. It was kind of odd to come in for one night and then head back out but that’s what we did and let me tell you that shower and air conditioning never felt more welcoming.

We would find out later that the entire week we were out in the field the area was setting record breaking highs upwards of 105° with humidity levels still in the high 80s!