Posted on 06/05/2009 1:50:58 AM PDT by appleseed
CAMP GONSALVES, Okinawa (June 5, 2009) -- May 10, 5:30 a.m. - Bivouac site 2A. I arrived at the bivouac site as the Marines and sailors of 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, were setting up their campsite. They didn't realize this was just temporary and there wouldn't be tents where they were going. After the campsite was set up, the students played cards, ate MRE's and joined in on a game with a hacky sack I made from a shirt, pebbles and electrical tape. This will be our last night with cigarettes, dip and more importantly, food. I was put with team three, which was led by a sailor named Aquino, but we called him 'chief'. He introduced me to the rest of the team: Carter, Morton and Vanhorn, also sailors. After my radio watch, I lay awake listening to the wilderness. It begins to drizzle as clouds pass over the full moon. This may be a sign of a storm to come.
May 12, 6 a.m. - The first two days were classes on the basics of jungle survival. Our breakfast this morning was no ordinary meal; our food was still alive, and it was our job to show the instructors we paid attention in class. A couple of small rabbits and two small chickens poke around in a laundry basket, while a small Habu snake lies in a box. One by one, we killed, skinned, cut up and cooked our food. This was our last meal before going into the jungle.
We then tested our knowledge as our groups went separately into the jungle to survive with only each other, certain items in our assault packs and the close watch of an instructor. After a short hike, we found our campsite.
We each picked two trees we would use as the anchors for our hammocks and began stringing our poncho liners. Our tarps served as shelter from rain that seemed to fall only at night. Finding dry wood was our toughest challenge for the coming night.
May 13, 5:30 a.m. - Dawn breaks, and it was time to tear down camp and get ready for land navigation. We were given a grid coordinate, rope and a compass and sent on our way. We blazed our own trails at times. The mountainsides were so steep at some points we either fell or pulled ourselves up using trees. We finally came to a road that led us to our objective point, cleverly named 3rd World Village.
Once again we set up camp. Not even three hours later we had a fire burning, our hammocks up, built meat drying racks and sock drying racks as well as two long sticks serving as a clothes hanger set up. Vanhorn set a trap a couple hundred meters from our camp while Morton made a fishing pole out of bamboo and the insides of 550 cord. He caught two small fish for baiting the trap. However, the only food we end up with is leftovers from yesterday's meal.
May 14, 6 a.m. - We gathered at the bottom of the mountain for a talk from Lt. Col. Thomas Goessman, the commanding officer of Jungle Warfare Training Center. He tells us we will be staying until Sunday instead of Friday. Some students got upset because of the hunger, others thought it was a joke and the rest were in denial. Directly after the talk, we learned we had to move our campsite because it has been compromised. My team had no problem with this.
Without hesitation, we moved to another location. Chief looks at us and says, "Ya good?" This had become an inside joke, because he asks us this every two hours, so we all laughed and replied, "Yeah, chief. We're good." We had just started to relax when Vanhorn pulled what I thought were rags out of his bag. He tied a bandana on his head and threw one to the rest to us. There was something that motivated all of us about it, maybe the feeling that we're all in it together.
The instructors begin yelling from the bottom of the mountain for us to come down. They had a fire-building challenge for us. The first team to build a fire big enough to burn through the 550 cord hanging four feet in the air would win a chicken.
This is not for fun. In our minds, it was a savage race for the next meal. As we walked up to our space an instructor says, "Here come the bandana bandits." We laugh as our instructor pulls his own bandana out of his pocket causing everyone to burst into laughter. "It's all in the bandana," he says.
Our team won second place and the second biggest chicken. We head back to camp with a new name, a little motivation and a meal.
May 15, 6 a.m. - Our instructor wakes us up with some good news. We will be going home today after all, but this is no big deal because we know we are survivors. We packed up camp and headed back to our original bivouac site, where we received a brief: 'pack and return home.' The journey is over but the learning has just begun.
"From this day on it is up to you to continue learning," said Goessman. "This training was the basics of what one day could save your lives."
Self Reliant/Survivalist ping list
My brother was required to do survival training for his position in the military. He said that rattlesnake isn’t half bad. Kind of like a cross between chicken and tuna.
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