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| Challenge start point. Utah Beach D Day Monument |
The Normandy GORUCK Challenge 2015 AAR
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| 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.
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| Private Jack Port |
- 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
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| Utah Beach Lantern Release |
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.
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.
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| Lined up in two Higgins boats |
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| 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.
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| Demo on how to high crawl |
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| This shit is a lot harder with 40 pounds on your back. |
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.
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.
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:
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Challenge Class #1495 |
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