Our first Field Training Exercise (FTX) ended yesterday. It was a great experience and helped remind me why I joined the Navy to begin with… To avoid sleeping out doors in the cold, on the dirt and in the rain.

I was fortunate enough to be able to train with a group of the finest human beings I have ever known. I would very proudly serve in combat with any of them, I was continually impressed by their dedication, professionalism and their unique skills and abilities. My hat is off to each and every member of class 2 of the 38B10 MOS Course.

Our school focused primarily on Civil Affairs & Psychological operations, and that is also what we practiced during the FTX. However the FTX also served as an opportunity to get in some decent ‘hip pocket’ training in basic infantry skills, patrolling and squad movements, just to help bring us Navy folks up to speed.

Over all I think the hardest part of the entire exercise was sleeping outdoors. It got down to 26 degrees at night, and although I was toasty warm in my U.S. Army issue sleeping bag, getting out of the bag was exceedingly difficult in such cold weather. The simulated combat was fun, and gave us plenty of opportunities to fire our weapons. Although our actual weapons, the ones we will take with us down range, will not be issued to us until we get back to Fort Bragg.

The FTX was held at Camp Brindle. Camp Brindle is next to beautiful Brindle Lake and is a former Boy Scout Camp, it is supposedly the camp on which the Movie ‘Friday the 13th’ was based. From what they told us 19 Boy Scouts were massacred there in the late 1950′s, afterward the Boy Scouts of America handed the camp over to the U.S. Army, and it has been a training facility ever since. Whatever the truth may be, the camp site was beautiful.

In any case, I have got to run, I will post more tales and photos soon.

Comments & Feedback, are welcome as always.

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