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More from: "My Time in Service:"
I know the modern Army has different Levels of "SERE" training, and all kinds of stealth, camouflage, and hiding techniques. We just got taught some basic skills. And I sucked at all of them. Here are some of the comments I heard from the Black Hats.
"Sarge, how come everyone keeps finding me?"
"You stink Hughes."
"I know, that is why I am asking you for help."
"No,I mean you literally stink."
"What do you mean?"
"Well you come out here to the range squeaky clean...and what in the woods or forest smells...clean?"
"Oh."
"And on other days, you have on After Shave...and what, pray tell, in the jungle smells like Aqua Velva?"
"Oh."
So I try to smell like the woods by burning some leafy branches. The Black Hats almost panic.
"Get out of there! Everyone, get upwind of Hughes...Now! Move it."
"HUGHES, GET OUT OF THERE! DO NOT BREATHE, and take your clothes off."
Turns out, I had burned a bunch of branches with poison ivy wound around them. I lucked out.
I would repeat this again out East by not knowing what Sumac was. I just wanted to smell like the bush and not get found.
Then there was this conversation with a Black Hat:
"You don't like bugs do you Hughes?"
"No, Sir. How did you know?"
"Well, you have given your position away about a dozen times - so far this morning. Just let them crawl over you, they will mind their business if you just mind yours."
Then there was this comment;
"Hughes. You do understand that when you are trying sneak up on someone, saying out loud: "Shit, my TA 50 is stuck on a branch. " Or: "Crap, I got water in my boot." Or: "Darn it, something is in my shirt." That the enemy can hear you too?"
Yeah, they tried to train me...but it took a while.
I know the modern Army has different Levels of "SERE" training, and all kinds of stealth, camouflage, and hiding techniques. We just got taught some basic skills. And I sucked at all of them. Here are some of the comments I heard from the Black Hats.
"Sarge, how come everyone keeps finding me?"
"You stink Hughes."
"I know, that is why I am asking you for help."
"No,I mean you literally stink."
"What do you mean?"
"Well you come out here to the range squeaky clean...and what in the woods or forest smells...clean?"
"Oh."
"And on other days, you have on After Shave...and what, pray tell, in the jungle smells like Aqua Velva?"
"Oh."
So I try to smell like the woods by burning some leafy branches. The Black Hats almost panic.
"Get out of there! Everyone, get upwind of Hughes...Now! Move it."
"HUGHES, GET OUT OF THERE! DO NOT BREATHE, and take your clothes off."
Turns out, I had burned a bunch of branches with poison ivy wound around them. I lucked out.
I would repeat this again out East by not knowing what Sumac was. I just wanted to smell like the bush and not get found.
Then there was this conversation with a Black Hat:
"You don't like bugs do you Hughes?"
"No, Sir. How did you know?"
"Well, you have given your position away about a dozen times - so far this morning. Just let them crawl over you, they will mind their business if you just mind yours."
Then there was this comment;
"Hughes. You do understand that when you are trying sneak up on someone, saying out loud: "Shit, my TA 50 is stuck on a branch. " Or: "Crap, I got water in my boot." Or: "Darn it, something is in my shirt." That the enemy can hear you too?"
Yeah, they tried to train me...but it took a while.
Training
Physical Training
Outdoors
Survival
Duty
Posted 5 d ago
Responses: 2
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Those Black Hats said ferns taste good, they were wrong on that too.
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SGT Kevin Hughes
Oh, I didn't even get to the part where they tried to teach us to live off the land. LOL When the SF guy ate a bug, I lost my lunch. LOL
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
SGT Kevin Hughes I kind of lucked out on the field portion of our survival school. It was at Fairchild AFB then and the week we were supposed to live off the land there was a forrest fire so we were delegated to assist the firefighters. We worked right alongside them except when shift ended they went back to tents and food prepared by cooks and we went back to our parachute lean-toos and whatever animals our instructors decided we should cook that day.
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SGT Kevin Hughes
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Oh dear. Road kill is not the proper food for digging out forest fire breaks. As all you really want after 12 hours of clearing brush...is a tuna sandwich and a cot. LOL
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PO3 Edward Riddle
SGT Kevin Hughes - I caught a little frog when we were training and as I was about to throw it in my mouth, Brother Kevin, I caught a whiff of it, and it smelled just like a frog, and I almost gagged. I let it go.
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SGT Kevin Hughes
As you know Kevin I was on both sides of that position you have more than ably described,but then there was that other time where the powers that be decided that contact with the enemy was the main objective,and stealth and camouflage be damned,let’s just put two infantry companies into the boonies,have the remaining company in ready reserve,at least that how my Battalion,damn my entire Division did it’s mission,I know we taught escape and evasion at Ft.Polk but sadly we all knew,the average grunt wasn’t going to survive for long in that hell hole,Pilots,Green Beanies,Seals LRRPs probably had a chance with their better training,one last thing after a couple of weeks in the bush everyone smelled the same,bad,although the NVA had their own particular odor,their’s was bad too, Welcome Home Brothers.PS ,AIT Committee Group wore highly shined helmet liners,not those dreadfully gauche Black Hats.
As you know Kevin I was on both sides of that position you have more than ably described,but then there was that other time where the powers that be decided that contact with the enemy was the main objective,and stealth and camouflage be damned,let’s just put two infantry companies into the boonies,have the remaining company in ready reserve,at least that how my Battalion,damn my entire Division did it’s mission,I know we taught escape and evasion at Ft.Polk but sadly we all knew,the average grunt wasn’t going to survive for long in that hell hole,Pilots,Green Beanies,Seals LRRPs probably had a chance with their better training,one last thing after a couple of weeks in the bush everyone smelled the same,bad,although the NVA had their own particular odor,their’s was bad too, Welcome Home Brothers.PS ,AIT Committee Group wore highly shined helmet liners,not those dreadfully gauche Black Hats.
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SGT Philip Roncari
SGT Kevin Hughes
It’s just sometimes we old farts just ramble on and don’t want to offend by some old bullsh*#t war stories,Be Well Brother
It’s just sometimes we old farts just ramble on and don’t want to offend by some old bullsh*#t war stories,Be Well Brother
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SGT Kevin Hughes
SGT Philip Roncari - I am a rambler myself, and step on quite a few toes without even trying. And War Stories are not bullshit ...more of them need to be told. Maybe if people knew more about how permanent war is on a soldier, we would have so many wannabes hoping to prove their mettle and acting "tough." I have said it before, and I will say it again, how anyone goes through the hell you guys did, then come home to no support at all, and even greeted with hostility and anger, yet you didn't snap. You lived a life, laughed and loved, and kept on keeping on...flat out Hero Stuff.
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SGT Philip Roncari
SGT Kevin Hughes
No Kevin none of that Hero stuff for me,my ONLY Heroes are etched in that black granite Wall in DC and my Brothers who came home physically and mentally damaged from that miserable place,appreciate your respect and Service,Phil.
No Kevin none of that Hero stuff for me,my ONLY Heroes are etched in that black granite Wall in DC and my Brothers who came home physically and mentally damaged from that miserable place,appreciate your respect and Service,Phil.
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SGT Kevin Hughes
SGT Philip Roncari - And that is exactly the kind of thing we need to hear more of in the General Public, what you guys and gals who had to go through...and that you just did your job, the real Heroes are the ones who didn't come home or came home in bits and pieces with mental scars- and still carved out a life. Maybe we could slow down the Wannabee John Wayne's and the Idiots that think a Civil War would solve it all.
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