Hooah!

I am writing this inbetween itching my numerous bug bites and applying copious amounts of mositurizer to my sunburned arms and face. Today was the annual Wives Swamp Walk here at Camp Rudder. Nearly every unit in the Army has a "GI Jane" day where the wives of soldiers in the unit get to participate in some obstacle courses, fire weapons, and experience a bit of the trianing that our husbands do every day. Here at the 6th RTB, we give a new meaning to GI Jane day. Because our husbands are instructors at the toughest stage of the toughest school in the Army, they expect that their wives will also be tough and they make sure we have the chance to prove it once a year.

Our day began with inprocessing (read: signing a waiver stating we won't sue the Army if we are grievously injured), medical screening, and equipment sign out. We were each issued a snap link and safety line for the waterborne operations portion of the day. Once the room full of women was equipped, we were briefed by the Reptile Team on the various types of venemous and non-venemous snakes we might encounter in the swamp. We also got to hold a baby alligator and see the newest alligator in residence at Camp Rudder, Vincent. Vincent was recently acquired from St. Augustine in the hopes that he will breed with our female alligator and produce many baby Ranger Gators. Vincent is one of the largest alligators in captivity at nearly 12 feet and 575 lbs. I think many of our civilian and Air Force guests were beginning to doubt their decision to participate at this point. But before anyone could think of defecting or making a quick break for the exit, the RI's (Ranger Instructors) headed us out to the range.

At the range we were given a demonstration of how to load, fire, and clear a malfunction on the

M249 (Saw - Squad Automatic Weapon) and the M240B. We then lined up, received ear and eye protection and proceeded to load and fire both weapons. It was incredibly fun! We fired the Saw in the prone position and I was actually pretty darn good. Well, until it came to clearing the malfunction. I definitely don't have the upper body strength to pull the chamber all the way back. But I was a good shot! After firing weapons we loaded up in the back of transport vehicles and bumped our way precariously down the road to the site for waterborne operations.

At the river, we were briefed on how to tie our snap link and safety rope, how to load and maneuver the Zodiac boats, and how to cross the rope bridge safely. Following the briefing we dined on MRE's in the (relative) shade. While certainly not five star quality, I would say that the veggie burger in BBQ sauce was rather tasty given my extreme hunger. It was made all the more enjoyable by our RI screaming "Food is for fuel, not enjoyment! I see far too many ladies enjoying their food! Eat it whole and get moving!" While the majority of us Ranger Wives simply ignored this directive and continued to explore creative uses of our condiments to mask the taste of the food, the Air Force and civilian wives appeared a bit distressed. We tried not to laugh too much. I think some humor (mostly the yelling part) is just inherent to the Army and not really appreciated by civilians or other branches of service.

Following our lovely meal, we lined up for the rope bridge. Basically, the rope bridge is a length of cord strung from one bank to the other and secured on trees. Ranger students tie a length of safety cord around their waist, leaving an arm's length of the cord, with a caribiner attached, extended in front of them. The caribiner is snapped onto the rope bridge (cord) by the RI and the student places one hand on either side of their caribiner. The student then uses his hands on the rope and his feet in the water (kicking - the water is over 12 feet deep) to move across the river. The caribiner and safety line ensure that if you let go of the rope and go under the water, you can reach up and pull yourself back above the surface. The water looked inviting primarily because we knew it was cooler than the 110 degree weather. The fact that it was so muddy and brown that you couldn't see anything in it was a little concerning but, we dove right in. Our dive team was on hand to assist anybody having difficulty swimming in full clothing and combat boots and also to watch for water moccasins (venemous snakes) and gators. I am proud to say that I crossed quickly and successfully!

Following the rope bridge experience, we loaded up on the Zodiac boats. Well, first we had to carry the boats to the water. Our group decided to show up the competition by lifting our boat overhead to carry. Of course, our RI guides did most of the work but we looked enviably cool. :) Once loaded, we pushed off and rowed several clicks down the river to our docking point. I'm quite sure that our RI's will appreciate Ranger students much more after having to listen to a boatful of women sing Row Row Your Boat (in a round, no less) all the way down the river. We may have made fools of ourselves but we had a blast. After narrowly escaping a complete capsize by mistakenly steering our boat into the side of the dock, we managed to get out and onto dry land, where we began our swamp movement.

There is no way I can adequately describe a Florida Swamp to you. Just imagine an extremely big, dense pile of liquid mud. Now imagine stepping into it up to your armpits. Oh, and some parts of it are actually bubbling. And it stinks like a sewer. And underneath, where you are walking but cannot see, there are huge fallen trees. And things swimming. And some parts are randomly deeper, much deeper, so that you take a step and fall into it. As you walk you can feel your pants and boots filling with gritty, nasty, stinky, hot mud. We made it through by judicious use of our walking sticks (long sticks that our husbands usually use to test the depth of the swamp before stepping ahead) and imagning that we were really in a mud bath at the spa. As we exited the swamp and continued to walk on dry land through the forest, we fantasized that the grit squishing between our toes was really a fancy exfoliant, sloughing off the dead skin and revealing more beautiful feet with each step. It was a bit of a stretch, considering the smell, but we made it work. In spite of some navigational difficulties, which I like to refer to as sight seeing or swamp appreciation, we arrived on the road and were relieved to see our transport vehicles waiting. We loaded up and headed back to Camp. Our ride home for "Personal Hygeine Hour," (yes, that is actually what it is called) was a little less glorious. We were not allowed inside any of our husband's vehicles due to the swamp mud we were covered in, so we were forced to ride in the bed of a truck.

As much as I enjoyed my GI Jane experience, I was happy to use liberal amounts of fragranced bath gel and various scrubs in my nice, clean shower as soon as I got home. After scrubbing (and I do mean scrubbing) every last inch of swamp grit off, all the ladies changed and met back up at the Battalion area for an awards ceremony and some BBQ. My certificate and cute Swamp Wives t-shirt definitely made the experience worth it..........;) Any of you that feel like a true Florida vacation, come on down in August and join me next year. Rangers (and their wives) Lead The Way!

(I only have pics of the weapons as we could not bring our cameras to the swamp. The command and local media are going to send us pics that they took of us so I will post some actual swamp pictures as soon as I have them.)