I had the week of the 4th of July at home before heading back to West Point for two weeks of Air Assault School. The first day I was back, there was torrential rain centered right on West Point that flooded basements, blew out roads, and left debris everywhere.
On the first day of training, we woke up at 2 am to do a run, an obstacle course, and a packing list layout. (There are several YouTube videos that show this in detail for anyone interested.) The next couple of days were spent in a classroom, learning all the helicopters the army uses and how they can be used. After that, we started “Slingloads” where we learned how to attach trucks, trailers, and cargo nets to helicopters. At the end of this portion is a test where you have to find 3 out of 4 possible problems with the rigging of each load in 2 minutes. The Slingloads test is how most people fail Air Assault. My class had 20 out of 250 people fail, but the class after mine lost 80 out of 250 people. The final portion of Air Assault includes repelling off of a tower and then usually a helicopter. It was raining when my class was supposed to have the helicopter, so we didn’t get to do it. On the final day, we woke up at 2 am again, went for a 12-mile ruck march, then had one final gear inspection. “Highlights” of this tough two weeks include running up every step in the football stadium, running 4 miles in pouring rain, and low crawling through a field covered in goose poop. Some people call it “The 10 Toughest Days in the Army”. While I think that’s far from the truth, it was certainly 10 tough days in the army.
After Air Assault, fellow future missionary Caleb Watson and I ran around to all of the different offices to finish separating (or out-processing) from the army for our missions. We were able to do it in two days and I got home at 1:30 am on Thursday, ready to spend time with my family before starting my mission on August 21st.
