Monday, September 2, 2013

Capture the Flag

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Christian I – …As you recall, the clouds broke open and the sun shone forth very early in the morning and several black birds (Blackhawks) descended from the sky in all their glory (If you don’t know what’s going on, this is a narrative that began in the FLASHBACK?? blog from last week).
(These blogs are meant to keep you engaged in the lives of Christian I and my three year old son Christian II – who desperately need donations for service dogs!) We had landed, the wire that I cut was thrown aside and the non-infantry men (POGS) were caught completely by surprise. Understandably, a lot of hasty decisions were made at that time! For the record, I remained blameless of all accusations that were made at that time.

As usual, a little description is in order. This was a suicide training mission. There were nearly 20 of us against 5000 POGS. We knew that we would be captured and we would continue to train them up with our role being P.O.W.’s (this will be the final segment - completing the narrative which will be given tomorrow). Being captured was not a good thing at all. Of course, you feel like “You just lost the game”.
But, there’s another reason why I made sure I was never captured before (unless otherwise ordered). When the POGS capture you, it’s like Christmas for them or something. You see, Infantry men carry all sorts of special goodies that they don’t get to play with. When they capture us, they strip our sensitive items (expensive stuff) from us, and they take whatever else they want. Sometimes we get it back and sometimes we don’t.
Seriously, it would be pretty hard for them not to give a rifle back, but many of my boys have had all sorts of stuff taken from them and have never seen it again, especially for these OPFOR missions. We take all sorts of stuff with us, (Personally, I had a twelve inch serrated Bowie, Rambo style survival knife on my hip). Please keep this in mind.
So, as we were bounding forward, remember that most of the POGS were unprepared or in their underwear or something. So those little buzzers that go off when a person gets shot… were not going off! So my boys were yelling “You’re dead! You’re dead! Sit down!” and the POGS would yell back, “No I’m not. You didn’t shoot me!” You could feel the tension building. It was madness! Good training!

There was no respect for rank or for any other reason. People were getting beaten up, butt stroked (Knocked aside with a rifle)… and just mobbed on! BUT, I didn’t do anything wrong LOL. After 1LT Cardone and I grabbed their unit flag and captured their communications tent, we saw that there were about 100 POGGIES waiting outside for us. We very calmly and professionally relinquished our weapons.
The POGS then proceeded to strip us of our materials. One good thing about rolling with the platoon leader (who was Ranger qualified) is that this man had a way of “stopping traffic” and only relinquishing materials to other officers that were present- (If at all). Therefore, I gave my materials to a bright shiny "butter bar" (Second lieutenant) and I didn’t have to worry about anyone stealing my gear! Strangely enough, the Ding Dongs allowed my bowie knife to remain on my hip - big mistake.

We were captured and separated. How can you leave a story there? That’s right. I’m going to stop here, because this blog is getting too long. I think the next blog – the last segment of this narrative – is the best! But I can’t tell you about it until tomorrow. By the way, I’m feeling much better today. I didn’t make it to church yesterday (which is right next door). It was another “clock” day for those of you that are reading my blogs. Good training!  

Christian II – Today little Christian is recovering. He’s all right, but I think he has somewhat of a “hangover” LOL. I allowed the children to watch some movies last night, and Christian was so fired up that he was just on fire (jumping off on furniture, drinking too much milk, etc. ). Don’t tell anybody though! I wouldn’t want people at church knowing that the family pastor was raising his children up to be party animals! LOL Today is a very good day so far, and I hope the same for you my friend.

God bless you friend... :)
 
 I still have the knife from the above mission...good thing they left it on my hip! :)
 

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