FTX 2-Day 1

1 August 2011
Day 44

The platoon woke up at 0400 this morning and headed to formation at 0500. 0500 to 0615 we conducted PT. At 0700 we were back in formation dressed in ACUs with our gear, waiting to each field chow. Everyone had time last night to pack everything for our overnight Field Training Exercise 2 (FTX 2). At 0800 the whole company loaded Trans (buses) and rode about 35 minutes across Ft. Benning. We were then dropped off at the FTX 2 site. By platoon, we "rucked" (hiked) about 1 mile to our Patrol Base (campsite) and started digging our "hasties" (holes). Colavito, the Assistant Platoon Guide, and myself shared a hasty again, and we had a much easier time digging this time. Ours turned out to be great, for a hasty. The afternoon was spent practicing different Battle Drills at the squad and team level. For both lunch and dinner chow we had MREs, which I have grown to enjoy. At 2100, which was nearly dark we had a class on Night Vision Optics. This lasted about an hour. The whole platoon got to use them. Colavito, myself and all the squad leaders got to keep a pair overnight! There was a good reason for that.

The Drill Sergeants asked Colavito and I to pick two times we thought would be our platoon's weakest hour. We picked 00:00 and 03:00. At those times myself, Colavito, and all squad leaders were to wake the drill sergeant and he would throw a simulated mortar round and flash bang, while we shot blanks through our rifles and machine guns. We pulled it off successfully. It sounded like WWII out there. I had a great time doing it, but needless to say I got no sleep. Oh well. Good trade off.

Matthew