So now I'll go all the way back to August/September and finish the story from my previous post. Above is a photo from a mass casualty exercise. Mulage, broken armored vehicles, smoke, and war sounds all made it more life-like. Fun times. During that time, I was in the gym, trying to bulk up as much as possible before spinning in the centrifuge. I was doing calf raises with lots of weight (because you want to max out with few reps). Anyways while doing this, I noticed a funny feeling in my right ankle, but didn't think to much of it. The next day, when putting on my socks, I saw that a pin/screw was raising the skin over my right lateral ankle (I had hardware put in my ankle a year and a half ago after breaking it). So with all the weight I was pushing, a screw had back itself out from the bone. Now the skin was tented, raised about 0.5cm.
The problem was that I was supposed to start my Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) training in a couple days. They ending up pulling me out of the training, because hiking all over the back woods with boots on could've broke the skin over the screw, and provided a path for infections to the bone. That would be trouble. So they sent me home back to Korea. I was sad that I didn't get to do the SERE with all the friends I had made at AMP. They were the best part of my stay. We had so many good times, eating out, partying, tubing down the river, and seeing the sites of San Antonio. I miss you guys!
I had surgery back in Korea, taking the hardware out. I worked in the clinic while waiting for the skin to heal up. Then in October, I went back to San Antonio for SERE. It's 5 days living in the woods. They give you a pack with supplies, and there's a limited list of items that you can bring yourself, but no food. The first 3 days was simulated survival in friendly territory. So we had big fires, smoked beef, caught some fish to eat, killed a couple live rabbits for a stew, and generally had it pretty good, all the while learning techniques of survival and evasion. The last 2 days were actual evasion, sneaking around, trying to reach certain points using the map and compass. Overall the worst things included
1. The cold. Unusually cold nights for Texas. Near freezing and below freezing every night. And we only had 2 blankets.
2. The hunger. On average, we had one meal and one snack each day. The smoked beef was amazing though.
3. Eating a huge white grub. We're required to overcome food aversion, so we get to eat bugs. Yay.
4. Nearly failing the course because I missed the pickup time. I had the meeting time wrong.
5. Trying to sneak through thick, dry brush in a quiet fashion. SO SLOW!
Here's a photo of me after I got back to Uncle Gordon and Aunt Elida's. Some of the peripheral camo stuff I didn't put back on though.
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