Quick Disclaimer: This one is pretty lengthy but my life is boring now so in the future they will be much shorter
For the last week of Cadet Basic Training, through a combination of a 9-mile ruck march and a 15 minute LMTV ride (think of the trucks people ride in WWII movies), we ended up in an area called Lake Frederick. While at Lake Frederick, we spent our morning doing culmination training, taking what we had learned throughout the summer and competing against other companies. There were grenade throwing events, disassembling and reassembling machine guns, and carrying people around on different litters to name a few. Another day we beat the crap out of each other with combatives (hand to hand fighting) in the morning, then with padded sticks in the afternoon. The last day was a sports day and my platoon was tasked with beating platoons from other companies in kickball. We absolutely destroyed the other teams, no thanks to my catching skills. After our training in the mornings, we had the afternoons and evenings to ourselves and the biggest thing was that we were allowed to nap which is something you would get in trouble for doing during the previous 5 weeks of Beast. On any afternoon during Lake Frederick, you could look at any spot of shade and find at least 20 new cadets out cold. One of the most hype things that happened was when the entire Regiment-around 1400 young adults-got singing/yelling Taylor Swift’s Love Story. One of the platoons in our company had been planning it out for weeks and everyone was scared it was going to flop and be an embarrassment, but as soon as they started singing, the whole Regiment joined in and it quickly devolved into a mosh pit.
The traditional rite of passage for the end of Beast is a ruck march known as March Back. March Back starts at 0300 Monday morning at Lake Frederick and weaves up, down, and around hills for 12 painfully slow miles. Unlike other rucks leading up to this point, this is a graduation requirement, which means you have to complete it without assistance in order to graduate. The most difficult part for me was how slow we were moving. There were parts where I wanted to just step it out and power on, but we had to just slowly continue in our staggered column formation. People were really struggling though. Everyone had about 35 pounds in their ruck as well as 10 pounds in the form of an equipment vest. What was painful for me was watching girls who weigh 40 pounds less than me struggle up the super steep parts of a mile long hill carrying the same amount of gear as me while not being able to help at all because it’s a graduation requirement. Eventually we made it back to the gates of West Point which are about a mile and half away from the actual campus. There we formed up into an 8-man front and marched in step down the roads, through crowds of people cheering for their kid and everyone else’s. By this point, everyone’s feet were absolutely hammered and now that we were marching on pavement, they were just screaming. Normally upon completion of March Back, everyone sits on the marching plain for hours and cleans rifles so they can be turned in, but apparently this was the hottest March Back in (recent?) history, so we all went straight into the air-conditioned academic building and lined the hallways while cadre members ran around trying to prevent as many people as possible from becoming heat casualties.
After about 4 hours of sitting around, we turned our rifles over to our cadre, who in turn, turned us over to the upperclassman from our company. For about an hour, they had us running up and down flights of stairs, doing push-ups, and reciting knowledge, all in Sherman Barracks, our company’s home and the only barracks still without A/C. I was sweating so much that during one set of push-ups, my hand slid out from under me and I landed on my face. After this we met our team leaders-a sophomore or “Yuk” directly assigned to us-and they helped us move all of our stuff into our rooms and start to get settled. There was, however, a slight problem in that the outlets in our room didn’t work. In any other barracks, this would just be a mild inconvenience, but in Sherman it means you can’t run box fans in your window. Needless to say, I have not sweated so much in my life as I did that first night. Sheets were literally ruined because there was so much sweat on them. The short term fix for this was to have the industrial fan from the hallway pointing directly into our room which had the unfortunate side effect of creating a lot of ambient noise and forced us to keep our door open all night. We have since been moved to a new room because it was deemed that a work order would take too long to fix the problem. The rest of the week was spent getting ready for the academic year, getting issued school uniforms, computers, and learning where our classes were. We also had a couple hours of parade practice each day in preparation for the Acceptance Day Parade.
The other big thing that happened was SAMI. Saturday Morning Inspection happens once a semester and requires your room to be laid out in a very prescribed way. Everything in your closets must be pointed towards the door, most of the drawers in your dresser have to be laid out in exact measurements, and every flat surface in your room must be dust-free. It takes most people about 10 hours to get ready for SAMI but because it was our first time and we had to move all of our stuff around it took us about 20 including a cram until 1:30 the night before. Your room gets inspected by a Firstie or an actual officer and they walk in with white gloves on, make sure everything is neat and laid out as it should be, then they start wiping the most obscure places in the room with their gloved fingers. Think of the space behind desk drawers, in light fixtures, and the top corner of your window. In all honesty, it isn’t too bad if you follow the instructions. There is some leeway so that when they do find dust or your shoe is slightly crooked, you still pass.
Saturday we had our SAMI, did a parade, then we were released to go be with our parents. I went back to my parents’ hotel room and just talked with them for hours. We had to check back in for the night but could leave in the morning again. Sunday morning I spent getting ready for classes and buying food to keep in my room. In the afternoon I went to the YSA branch with my parents and was ordained an Elder before the meeting. All of the LDS Plebes have said they felt they got so much closer with Jesus Christ during Basic Training. One kid commented “I feel the closest to Jesus in the front-leaning rest”. I know that whenever I was getting smoked I had “I’m trying to be like Jesus” playing through my head. On the couple of times when I was having a really bad day, I felt strengthened by the Lord. Through Beast, my testimony of Jesus Christ and his love for me personally has grown exponentially.
Amazing! Love the pictures and posts.