Stevedog
Truth Seeker
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2018
- Messages
- 1,463
- Reaction score
- 5,091
- Points
- 203
- Age
- 47
Some of the pilots in my unit used to talk about SERE school, apparently it was the one course none would ever want to go through again. I heard "horror" stories about how hard it was and some guys said it still gave them nightmares. Of course 20 year old me saw this as a challenge and was actually disappointed that I couldn't go through it myself. My job was basically "tech support" so there was no justifiable reason to send someone who would never actually be out in the field like that. Instead I had to make due with the FM 21-76 and the instruction from leaders who didn't really know what they were doing themselves.
We had one guy who got lost on a field exercise and when he radioed for help gave his location as "Do see that plane in the sky? It flying over me right...... Now!" Another guy, this time a lieutenant, cost me to lose my Expert Marksmanship because he decided that his driver should get a chance to qualify even though he wasn't scheduled for the range and didn't have an assigned weapon on site. The lieutenant just gave him a random weapon to use, which happened to be mine. So I zeroed my sights, then unbeknownst to me the driver adjusted them for himself. When I went to qualify I couldn't hit anything because the sights were way off. When I discovered what had happened I confronted the lieutenant who seemingly had no concept of how and why weapon sights needed to be adjusted, he said it didn't matter to him because he was a Conscientious Objector. Then there was the sergeant that was going to teach us how to start a fire with no matches. He started by gathering some kindling and then started disassembling a flashlight. I thought we were about to get some cool MacGyver like instructions, but instead he took the reflective cone front around the bulb, placed it over the kindling and put his cigarette through the hole for the bulb explaining that the reflective cone was both shielding the cigarette from wind or rain and also concentrating the heat from the cigarette. He asked if there were any questions and I piped up with "If you don't have matches or a lighter to start a fire, how do light the cigarette?" I just got yelled at and threatened with disciplinary action for insubordination.
We had one guy who got lost on a field exercise and when he radioed for help gave his location as "Do see that plane in the sky? It flying over me right...... Now!" Another guy, this time a lieutenant, cost me to lose my Expert Marksmanship because he decided that his driver should get a chance to qualify even though he wasn't scheduled for the range and didn't have an assigned weapon on site. The lieutenant just gave him a random weapon to use, which happened to be mine. So I zeroed my sights, then unbeknownst to me the driver adjusted them for himself. When I went to qualify I couldn't hit anything because the sights were way off. When I discovered what had happened I confronted the lieutenant who seemingly had no concept of how and why weapon sights needed to be adjusted, he said it didn't matter to him because he was a Conscientious Objector. Then there was the sergeant that was going to teach us how to start a fire with no matches. He started by gathering some kindling and then started disassembling a flashlight. I thought we were about to get some cool MacGyver like instructions, but instead he took the reflective cone front around the bulb, placed it over the kindling and put his cigarette through the hole for the bulb explaining that the reflective cone was both shielding the cigarette from wind or rain and also concentrating the heat from the cigarette. He asked if there were any questions and I piped up with "If you don't have matches or a lighter to start a fire, how do light the cigarette?" I just got yelled at and threatened with disciplinary action for insubordination.