Air Assault School: The 12-Miler

In my initial post entitled "Air Assault School, Completed" I briefly mentioned the 12 mile ruck march. I am going to go a little more in depth now because, well, I want to.

As I mentioned earlier, according to one Air Assault Sergeant, it was hotter than Benning at Camp Smith during the course. It was 100 degrees and 90% humidity the entire time. It was brutal heat. However, anyone in the Army knows that with enough time and hydration, you can get used to the heat. Your body gets used to it. You get acclimatized.

So after a summer at Fort Knox and then Air Assault, I was pretty used to the heat. So when it came time to do the 12-Miler I'm expecting a grueling suck-fest of, well...suck.

I wake up at 0300 (the ruck begins at 0430) to the sound of pounding rain. My first thought is not one of anger, or depression, it's "Of course...why wouldn't it be raining?" So I get up, relieve myself, and brush my teeth.

I bring my ruck down to the 1st platoon barracks where my remaining battle buddy is. He's senior to me and is a paratrooper, so has more experience than I do with equipment and the like. He's in the process of wrapping his poncho around his ruck, and thus, waterproofing it. I quickly follow suit and do the same thing. The previous night, we had packed our rucks together in such a way that the 30 pound load feels like it's cut in half, and our ruck looks half as big as everyone else's. My buddy has done the ROTC Ranger Challenge for 4 years at this point and I guess he knows a thing or two about packing his ruck. We had prepped for this ruck since the beginning of Phase Two. Every night at chow, we were given a juice box of Gatorade. We would steal an additional one after dinner if there were leftovers, and as the ruck begins, we have 4 Gatorade boxes in our ammo pouches on our LBEs. Everytime we get up the ridiculous uphill (see below), we'll down a box of Gatorade before driving on.

Before we head off to first formation, I realize I have to take a piss. I decide to hold it, and use it as motivation to finish the ruck in as little time as possible. We step outside the barracks and discover it's 50 degrees outside on top of the rain. I start shivering immediately, but I actually like it. Maybe this ruck won't be so bad after all if I'm not sweating balls the entire time.

Me and my buddy link up as the ruck begins (I was in 2nd Platoon, he was in 1st)and we run for about a half mile until we hit the huge hill I had mentioned previously. If you lean forward at the waist to bear the weight differently, you can almost touch the ground with your hand. If I were a math major, I'd give an approximation on the angle of the slope, but I'm not so I won't. It's fucking steep, is all I'm saying here.

We walk that up and then run a good bit of the lightly sloping downhill (I find it ironic that the downhill is not nearly as steep as the uphill). Throughout the remainder of the ruck, we do a combination of walking swiftly and running (to destinations in the distance or in 10 second intervals of sprinting). We're hitting an average of 12 minute miles, 3 minutes ahead of schedule every time.

When we finish the first 3-mile loop well ahead of schedule and we're not the least bit tired, I look at my friend and tell him "We're giving our families a graduation today." He nods in agreement and we begin running to the bottom of the hill.

Somewhere around mile 6 or 7, we both acknowledge the fact that we're completely soaked and that our feet are swimming in sweat and puddles of rain water. We embrace the suck and drive on.

(SIDEBAR: Embrace the suck became the motto of Air Assault School, or at least to me it did. Right before I rappelled out of the UH-60 as I'm waiting on line for my turn, the Sergeant Major of the Warrior Training Center came up and talked to me. He told me the 12 miler was going to suck, and I told him I would embrace the suck and ask for more of it. He would later on make a speech to our class before the 12 miler and "Embrace the Suck" was at the core of that speech.)

Around mile 9 me and my friends legs cramp up and we have to stretch our legs as we walk, but at this point, we have a comfortable lead on time, so we don't have to run anymore.

We stretch and cramp and curse and walk and talk and bitch and moan and drive on.

As we're passing our last quarter of the last mile, an Air Assault Sergeant is passing us in the opposite direction. As he walks by he says to me and my friend "Congratulations Air Assault, you made it."

Yes we did.