Normandy GORUCK HCL 2015: The Light

Light start point. Omaha Beach D Day Monument

The Normandy GORUCK Light 2015 AAR

After the Challenge wrapped up, Steel had the great idea to get these amazing French donuts (the most amazing chocolate filled eclairs) before making our way back to the team house. Outside of the 50 km ride back to the house I didn't nap (or shower) before the light. I figured I only had another 4-6 hours before the completion of the HCL so i would just suck it up. I refueled with a protein shake, some peanut m&ms, and Pringles. Clearly food for champions 0=)

Good news about the Light: (1) we're almost done with the HCL, (2) i got to remove 2 bricks from my ruck sack (leaving me with 4 bricks), and (3) our two team weights are now only 15 pounds.

The atmosphere of the Light is...well...light. Cadre Montreal did a great job setting the tone and we were all smiling by the time roll call was complete. I'm sure the beers en route helped some of my housemates keep it light.

Roll call.

Cadres Aaron and Dan briefed us again on the defensive and offensive positions of Omaha beach. Great speeches the first and second times hearing it. But by the third time....it was struggling to stay awake. 

The struggle is real. Trying to stay awake during the briefing.

The beach PT during the Light was, by far, my favorite. Perhaps it was the sun. Or perhaps it was because my ruck was lighter. Either way, i had a lot of fun with the beach PT despite it being the longest beach PT session of the HCL.

Lined up in our Higgins boat

Pee break....i'm mean the start of beach PT.

We stormed the beach a few times. The first time we had to make our way down the beach and back with "i'm up, he sees me, i'm down".

The second time we stormed the beach we had to high crawl once we reached the beach. The next few times we stormed the beach we had to low crawl until we heard the cadre say 3-5 second rush. With that command we had to do an "i'm up, he sees me, i'm down".

A few people lifted their head during the low crawl. (During the low crawl your face is down in the sand.) So those people who had they heads up got sniped. The rest of the team had to drag the casualties while low/high crawling.

Buddy drags through the sand

After the beach PT we were told to fill up 14 sandbags with 20 pounds of sand. We learned from the Challenge and we counted the bags on the beach. After we filled the sandbags, Cadre Montreal had us do 5 fireman burpees to clean off. A fireman burpee is where you go chest to deck, roll over to the left, then roll over to the right and then get up. Apparently i didn't get the memo where you can keep your face above water. Oh well, my face got 'clean' too.

I was the dumbass to submerged my head each time. Can you spot me?

We rucked up into the hills where we saw some big ass German gun. Then, we made our way to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. En route Cadre Montreal yelled 'reach'. Our line spread out too far some people were not within reaching distance of the person in front of them. As a penalty we had to do some bear crawls and crab walks prior to being briefed on the Cemetery/Memorial.

Cadre Montreal had a mini scavenger event set up for us in the Cemetery/Memorial. Our first task was to find the tombstone of our teammate's relative who fought in Normandy and was killed in action. Our second task was to find a fallen soldier from the State that we were from, and our final task was to find a headstone that is a Star of David. Cadre Montreal assigned us these three tasks, specifically, so we can take the time to reflect on the enormity of D Day and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

There are 9387 souls buried in this cemetery. Some of the headstones are for those that are 'missing in action'.

"Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God."

Light Endex

The 2015 GORUCK Normandy HCL was an incredible experience. Of course being active and meeting great people is always a good time. But this event, in particular, was remarkable because of the history. Cadres Aaron, Dan, Jason, and Montreal were all really passionate about D Day and the history. Their passion was definitely contagious. I'll be back next year for some more Good Livin'.

HCL #014

Normandy GORUCK HCL 2015: The Challenge

Challenge start point. Utah Beach D Day Monument

The Normandy GORUCK Challenge 2015 AAR

Team House A Photo before the Start of the Challenge

Those of us doing the Normandy HCL had about 5 hours in between events. Just enough time to shower, eat, take about a 1-hour nap, and head out to the Challenge start point (about 50 km away from the team house).

Huge shout out to Sonja and James for shadowing and transporting us between locations. I'm pretty sure i wouldn't have made it through the HCL without you guys.

Tough Challenge Class #1495

The Challenge started with the usual roll call and then some administrative information (e.g., rucks and coupons can't touch the ground, order of the flags, etc.).

The Cadre arranged for the class to talk to Private Jack Port, a recipient of the French Legion of Honor (France's highest award for his actions on Utah beach on D Day. Someone in the class asked him what is the most vivid memory about landing on Utah beach. He basically replied, that they were just kids storming the beach. Even the soldiers on the German side were just kids.

What amazes me about him was how humble he was about his experience on D Day and the fact that he kept challenging the class to arm wrestle him. His generation is often called the greatest generation. He claimed that we are the greatest generation, not him. Again, humble man.

Private Jack Port

After our time with Private Jack Port we followed him to Utah beach for the lantern lighting. We were instructed to form 2 ranks in the following order:

• The flags (2 American flags with big ass flag poles, 1 UK, 1 French Resistance, 1 French, and 1 POW MIA flags)
• Private Jack Port
• The rest of the team

Once we reached the beach the team carried Jack to the lantern lighting (the sand was soft so it was difficult for his family to push his wheel chair). As part of the D Day celebrations, 197 lanterns are lit and released into the air honor the 197 soldiers who died on Utah beach on 6 June 1944.

Utah Beach Lantern Release

Above photo is not mine and is from last year. Photo credit to: http://lorkin.co/utah-beach-lantern-release-commemorating-the-197-soldiers-lost-on-d-day/

We were instructed to make our way down Utah beach, away from the lantern lighting. It was time for some history and some beach PT. Cadre Aaron and Cadre Dan briefed us on offensive and defensive positions of the beach.

You know, experience is a great thing. Before the heavy I was afraid for how cold the water was going to be. After 29 hours my thought process shifted....i mean the water was still cold as fuck but it was survivable. With this new experience my first thought after lining up to get in the Channel was that I was thankful for the opportunity to pee :)

I'm so thankful that they put us in height order with the taller people going further into the Channel. I had a rookie mistake during the Heavy where i was second going into the water. This meant i was over waist deep when we were told to go in so the whole team was knee deep.

Lined up in two Higgins boats

Cadre went in the water with us :)

Our first beach surge was to leave our Higgins boat formation, storm the beach, and climb to the top of the sea wall.

Demo on how to high crawl

Our next few beach surges were to run out of our Higgins boat formation and once we hit the beach to high crawl to the sea wall. We did this another two times. The second and third time we had to also move a casualty that was on a stretcher.

This shit is a lot harder with 40 pounds on your back.

The last part of the beach PT was my favorite. We had a little obstacle course. We had to climb this rock and then high/low crawl our way up and down some hills. Low crawling down a hill with soft sand is a lot of fun. It's like a dry, slightly scratchy, slip-n-slide. You are also left with sand everywhere.

After the obstacle course we had a few minutes of Admin time where we could change clothes/socks and we were instructed to fill 14 sandbags with 40 pounds of sand. The Cadre had a scale and told us that the sandbags were going to be weighed again so we better not come up short.

After the Good Livin' on Utah beach, we were told that the rest of the Challenge would follow the American paratroopers in Normandy. Over 13,000 paratroopers of the 82nd and 101 Airborne divisions made night parachute drops on D Day.

Bee and Steele were our first TLs. They did an outstanding job setting an example and ensured that we had a good plan to meet our time hack (20 min/mile pace for about 4 miles) and to carry all the shit to Saint Marie du Mont. Because we left the beach a little late we had to make up time. This meant that we ended up ruck running part of it. Our team had to carry:

• 6 flags
• 1 stretcher
• 2 team weights (25 pounds each)
• 14 40-pound sandbags
• 1 log (it was our Bangalore)

Fun fact: In 1912 the British Army developed the Bangalore which is a cylindrical metal tube that is filled with explosives. These cylinders can be inserted through barbed wire. During the explosion, the metal is broken into multiple fragments that destroy the iron and opens up a path.

After hustling through the first leg of the this Challenge, we successfully made our time hack. What i learned here is that GORUCK events are about rewards and punishments. Miss your time hack and we get smoked with PT. Make your time hack and we get rewarded. This means either no PT or if the Cadre lets us some Admin time.

We made it to this church and they Cadre briefed us on the history. To be honest, i don't recall the name of church (it wasn't Ste Mere Eglise) or its significance as all my energy was focused on trying to stay warm. Also i learned from my teammates that shivering is good and when you stop shivering that's bad. That means you are going into hypothermia. I was still shivering was that was 'good'.

After our admin time, we got two new team leaders and were informed we needed to move out to the next location (about 6 miles if i recall correctly). We still had to maintain the same pace but the quick pace on the previous segment definitely took it's toll. We had one teammate who embarked upon the HCL with stress fractures in both of her legs, another with IT band syndrome, and another who was puking through the heavy and challenge. We ended up carrying one on the stretcher and the other two were not able to carry as much weight as if they were healthy. That left a lot of us suffering under the sandbags with little relief. BUT WE KEPT PUSHING and made our time hack. Really incredible.

We reach our destination on time (yay, no extra PT). Honestly i can't recall what was at the end of the second segment as any time we stopped i got super cold. (Help me out class, what was here?). We get two more TLs who split us up, initially be height order. The taller folks were put on the Bangalore, stretcher, and sandbags. Since i'm a shorty, i was put on flag crew and to be honest this sucked. I was so cold i just wanted to carry something heavy to create heat.

The team kept pushing with all our weights/'coupons' and our next objective was to make it to the bridge at La Fiere and Chef-du-Point which cross the Merderet River.

Interestingly, the Germans defended the causeways by controlling the lock that controlled the water level in the marches. Rommel ordered the lock's flow valves to be open at high tide and closed at low tide to flood the entire area.

Once on location we were assigned two new TLs with military experience. They were to lead us through an operation of us blowing up the bridge with our sandbags. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole HCL. We had one wave of about 5 people clear the area with their pretend guns. We got into it and even made the sound effects: "pew, pew, pew". The Bangalore and the sandbags followed with another team providing cover fire. The Cadre wanted the smaller people on the sandbags. I'm not necessarily small, but i grabbed a sandbag. Once the Bangalore was placed to create room to get to the bridge we placed the sandbags in 6 locations on the bridge. We had to take cover and we 'detonated' the sandbags with some amazing sound effects.

At this time, the Cadre noticed that we only had 13 sandbags. We were sent to retrieve the sandbags and looked for the 14th. Some thought it fell over but I suspect we only had 13 from the start. Lesson-learned: count your shit before you leave the beach. The Cadre then weighed all the sandbags and we had two sandbags that were under weight. This meant we got to carry those two sandbags the rest of the way. Joy!

From there we made our way to the Endex location: Ste Mere Eglise.

Monument to John Steel who was caught on the church spire during D Day

Cadres Dan and Montreal told us about the story of Private John Steele, an American paratrooper who landed on the church tower in Sainte-Mere-Eglise. This village was the first village liberated by the Americans on D Day. His parachute was caught on one of the pinnacles of the church leaving him hanging there on the side of the church. Although wounded, he hung there limply for hours pretending to be dead before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his divisions.

A little PT at the Endex

Cadre Dan told us that we had to do a little PT and depending on how well we performed the Challenge would be complete. We worked our way through the PT as Cadre Dan quizzed us on what we've learned throughout the Challenge. Collectively, we were pretty bad at this test.

We made all of our time hacks. Great job everyone.

Lessons-learned from the Challenge:

• Rucking is pretty easy. Rucking fast is fucking hard. Especially with my short ass legs.
• Beach PT is fun
• Count your sandbags
• Bring both Advil and Tylenol. If in a lot of pain, these two can be cycled back and forth so that you do not exceed the daily dose.
• Always bring warm clothes because it sucks to be cold.
• Paratroopers are badass!
• People are right. The hardest part of an HCL is showing up to the challenge. 
• It's your job to stay close to the person in front of you. Keeping a steady quick pace is better than occasionally running to catch up. This is especially true when you are carrying heavy shit.

Challenge Class #1495

Normandy GORUCK HCL 2015: The Heavy

The Normandy GORUCK Heavy 2015 AAR

Omaha Beach D Day Monument - Heavy SP

Disclaimer: this is a long post as the event was so epic i want to document as much as i can remember.

The Heavy (Heavy Class #073) started at 17:00 4 June 2015 at the Omaha Beach D Day Monument. We started with roll call: 39 people, two 50 pound team weights (sandbags), 6 flags (2 US, 1 UK, 1 French resistance, 1 French, 1 POW MIA, and 1 GORUCK), 1 bike, 1 stretcher, and about 60 1.5 liter bottles of water.

Roll call

My pack weighed in at 43 pounds. This included 6 bricks, 4.5 liters of water, extra clothes, food, and a med pack. Because we had some team members who did not pack according to the packing list, we had to do some PT.

Pro tip: Carefully listen to the instructions and don't fuck up or you'll do more PT. Sorry guys! I forgot how many reps we were supposed to do :/

After roll call, Eisenhower's speech was read to us:

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Forces: 

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.  

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. 

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. 

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

One of our British teammate's grandfather stormed the beach 71 years ago. He shared with the group, family anecdotes about the training and storming the beach. He mentioned that his grandfather was in a unit that rode in on bicycles. Hence the bicycle that we pushed with us during the Heavy. 

Enemy Defenses

Cadre Aaron then briefed us on the defensive position of Omaha Beach. He explained 4 lines of beach obstacles (estimated 1 trap per 2 square meters) that consisted of:

• Belgian gates with mines attached to the uprights (anti-tank obstacle)
• Line of logs driven into the sand capped with anti-tank mines
• Hedgehogs

The gentle crescent curve of the shore line allowed for interlocking fields of fire against any landing troops.

Offensive Position

Cadre Dan then briefed us on the coordinated effort of the Allies to land on the beach at 06:30. The assault force to execute the plan was over 30,000 men and over 300 vehicles with additional naval support. The Allied forces were launched from several locations in Great Britain. Large ships, called LSTs, transported troops, vehicles, and tanks across the English Channel. 

There were 4 days in June that the Allies were able to launch their attack (June 5 and 6 or June 18 and 19--if my memory serves me well). Interestingly, the Allies were going to attack on June 5 but because of weather they were called back. The Allies remounted the attack on June 6. Once reaching ashore, the Allies had to cross 1000 feet of exposed beach during low tide.

The large ships were too big to make it to shore, so the troops were loaded onto smaller boats, nicked named "Higgins Boats". Interestingly, Higgins was a small business owner from New Orleans who built small boats to navigate the swamps of Louisiana. At the time, the Navy was not interested in small boats. They wanted to build large ships made out of metal. Not small boats that were partly made out of wood.

We formed our own "Higgins Boat" by forming 3 tight columns (Shoulder-to-shoulder and nuts-to-butts as the Cadre described it). 

Our Higgins Boat

 

Yes, the water was cold. Cadre Jason reminded us that if we thought we were cold to think of those men 71 years ago. When those men landed on the beach, they were cold, wet, and sea sick. By comparison, we had it easy.

After some time on the water and beach, we started to move out with all of our gear. We reached this location up the beach and were told to stack the flags and place all of our rucks and team weights around it.

Then we lined up on the beach and were told we had to complete a 5 mile beach run as our physical readiness test. Our time hack was 45 minutes.

I think about 10 of the participants made the time hack. I missed the time hack by two minutes. (I'm definitely not a runner and the run was made worse with the chafing under my arms. Damn salt water! I was, however, the first woman to finish the run. Woot woot! We took the time to hydrate and i changed my shirt.

Salt water and a 5 mile run = chafing :(

After about 75 minutes, the Cadre told us to ruck up, form two ranks, and march to our teammates who were still finishing the 5 miler. The Cadre must have told them to start to low/high crawl to us because as we reached them they were face down in the sand and crawling towards us.

After retrieving all of our teammates and picking up a huge stone we started the 2 minutes of push-ups and 2 minutes of sit ups. I got fewer reps this time compared to the Dublin Heavy in March but i can't recall how many exactly. I think i got in the low 40s (push-ups) and high 40s for (sit-ups).

2 minutes of pushups

Marching in a wedge formation

Omaha Beach during Sunset. Amazing!

At around sun down, the cadre gave us 14 bags and told us to fill them up with sand. They must have weighed 80 pounds or more. It was at this time that we had our first and only drop of the heavy. We had to carry these sand bags and two metal pipes through the night as we made our way up the cliffs and to Pointe du Hoc. 

For those that may not know, Pointe du Hoc is the highest point on the cliff that separates Utah and Omaha beaches. The plan here on D Day was for three companies of Rangers to land by sea at the foot of the cliffs, scale the cliffs using ropes and ladders while under enemy fire, engage the enemy at the top, and take out the German 155 mm guns. This needed to be accomplished before the main beach landings. The slogan, "Rangers, lead the way!", was first coined on D Day.

Little historical fact: when the Rangers scaled the cliffs and tried to destroy the guns pointed at Omaha beach they discovered that the casemates and gunpits were empty. They continued to the next objective which was to secure the road between Omaha beach and Grandcamp. Enroute, they discovered the guns that were facing Utah beach. The Rangers were able to destroy the guns.

As we rucked through what are now wheat fields and (judging by the cuts on my legs) thorn bushes. We were told to count pillboxes along the way. I think we ended up counting 10 pillboxes. The original plan was to use the sandbags (our explosives) to destroy pillboxes along the way, but I think we were moving too slow so the Cadre allowed us to empty the sandbags. 

Once we made it to Pointe du Hoc, we made our way around and to the bottom of the cliff. We were told we had to make it to Pointe du Hoc at a pace of 20 min/mile. This was nearly impossible as the ground was slippery and uneven. We were basically walking on rocks covered in moss the whole way.

Pointe du Hoc in the distance

The moment when Cadre tells you that you can put your ruck down...

Not many people get to experience this point from sea side.

Many people visit Pointe du Hoc and look down. Not many get to see the view from the beach.

We reached this point with a series of ladders and ropes secured to the face of the cliff. The Cadre asked if everyone was willing to climb the ladders. (Previously, one of the Cadre tested the route to ensure safety). Everyone was willing and it became a team event, where all flags and people were moved up the ladders.

Once back on top of Point du Hoc, we went to all the gun casemates.

Note to self: stop standing next to tall dudes during photo opps

We made our way back up to the Pointe du Hoc visitors centre. The Cadre Aaron briefed us using a sand map (basically sand and rocks) on the last objective of the Rangers on D Day--to set up blocking positions on the road leading away from the beach. It was their last objective and it was our final objective of the heavy.

During our brief, I noticed this older gentleman walking towards the visitor center. He stopped and asked Cadre Jason what we were doing. I don't know exactly what Cadre Jason told him, but I imagine it was something like paying respect to all the solders that fought in Normandy on D Day. It turns out this gentleman is PFC Apple. He stopped and asked what he could do for us and described how much he appreciated our interest in WW2 history. There are not many survivors of the D Day landings that are still alive today. Most of those alive today were Privates during D Day.

PFC Apple

After we made it to the road, we then made our way to a soccer field for some PT. Here we had to clear the field with "i'm up, he sees me, and i'm down". We were told to hold our rucks like a rifle and continue down field. Let me tell you that was a heavy-ass pretend rifle. We were told to maintain a line and if people got behind, people had to crawl their way back to the line. During this drill we had a communication break down and half the line advanced. The Cadre said all of those people were now casualties and we had to first clear the field and then send a small team to get them. For those left behind, we were stuck doing more PT.

After we left the field we started making our way to the Endex location: Museum des Rangers.

Some lessons-learned and observations from this Heavy:

• If you're not used to eating bread, don't eat it before the event or else your GI tract will hate you.
• Imodium is amazing. I think i took 5 during the heavy.
• Enjoy the moment.
• Wear compression or else you will chafe.
• The men that stormed the beaches on D Day are heroes and badasses!

Thanks to the shadows for the awesome pictures and the support all weekend.