SAN DIEGO -- We're kicking off a series of stories giving you an inside look at the United States Marine Corps, the most elite fighting force in the world.
Teachers from Chicago to West Memphis recently learned just how intense Marine Corps training gets, as they suited up, grabbed a rifle, and ran the Marine Corps bayonet assault course.
Angela Fink just finished one of the hardest, most exhausting tasks of her life.
"I was ready for the challenge, excited," she said. "What to be able to articulate to my students first what it is they're gonna get into."
The Bayonet Assault Course presents part war game, part obstacle course to our citizen soldiers.
Just getting dressed for this exercise is an exercise in itself. You don't get a lot of instruction as to where things go, so you just play it by ear.
Once you get geared up, drill instructors select two teams. The first team rushes ahead, while the second wave stays behind to provide cover.
This is nothing if not realistic.
War sounds blare from giant speakers, and when you run, you run with your loudest war cry.
The first obstacle is the rope net. You step carefully to keep from falling.
Marines work their way forward, station by station, from poles to foxholes to ditches.
"This is harder than it looks," said one teacher.
We reach the rope bridge and carefully make our way across.
But as I reach the last step, I lose my footing and go down like a rock.
I didn't let my war cry. Instead, I screamed in pain.
But I only got the breath knocked out of me and like any Marine, I'm up and running within a minute.
We crawl under tunnels, run through more obstacles and tag the bad guys as we encounter them.
Your sound your war cry with every step ahead.
Your heart races faster than you ever thought you could.
It's as little warm, but nothing I can't handle.
You're out of breath but you keep plowing ahead.
Your legs kick into auto pilot taking you to the next hazard, as you keep your rifle ready to fire at all times.
Finally you make it to the end of the course.
"Harder, much harder. But we saved a couple of lives out there," one teacher explains.
"How am I doing? Wiped out. I am wiped completely out. I can hardly walk," said another.
It's why you don't see a lot of old Marines.
"Join the Marines while you're young," said one track coach from St. Louis.
And that's the point, to give these teachers a taste of war and Marine Corps training. They'll take this experience home to their students, to help explain the Marine Corps.
"And what it will take for their discipline," added Fink.
No comments:
Post a Comment