Battling My Inner Chicken
Once again, I was off in the woods doing crazy things that would have made Mama have a hissy-fit if she had known about them! Let's see...bears, learning to rappel, 80 foot towers, zip lines... Yes, it was yet another weekend of WSAR School in the North Georgia Mountains!
Two words made me really happy this weekend - INDOOR PLUMBING!!! We had the use of a camp for troubled teens for the weekend's training, but don't let that fool you. Except for the ranger cabin, it was primitive. We pitched our tents and embarked on a really cool weekend. I got to try out my itty bitty tent (If it is a two-person, you'd better like the other person a lot!!!) and cute little pocket stove. We learned to tie all kinds of knots, including the Swiss seat for rappelling, and went over tracking methods and patterns. We ended the day by splitting into three teams to search for three victims in the woods.
It was nearly dark when we located our victim lying face-down on an incline. He bore a striking resemblance to the victim we rescued last time, and I started to leave him there since he had yet to say thanks for us hauling his 185 pound carcass out of the woods! We radioed back for the evac team, but they were busy with another victim. So we decided to see how creative the TOC could be too. We radioed that our guy had gone into cardiac arrest, and started CPR. Our OC said that if they didn't come in 25 minutes we could discontinue and consider him expired. Well, here comes the other team, so the manequin got to fight another day. It was dark by then, and we worked with flashlights to get him strapped on the litter.
Why would a group of men want to follow a natural blonde through the woods in the dark? Well, they did, and I managed to locate the trail and guide them out with no problem! Camp looked mighty good too! We had some last minute instruction and discussed what could have been done better. Then it was time to assign fire watch. We had already been told that the place was crawling with bears. Our road guard had been surprised by a mother and cubs that morning. Therefore it was important to keep the fire going and keep watch on the camp all night. The men eagerly volunteered for the first few hours, but no one's hand went up for 0200-0300. So I volunteered for it. After that, no one wanted to be shown up by a girl, so the other shifts filled pretty quickly.
You know, that seemed like a good idea at the time. When 0200 rolled around, I crawled out of my tent to relieve Farmer, only to find that the fire was low and we were nearly out of firewood. Bless his heart, he stayed awake and gathered more wood before he turned in. You'd be surprised how loud 20 sleeping men can be. I doubt I could have heard a bear if he had been standing right beside me! I kept that fire going, and my hour flew by pretty quick. I went to wake my relief, Price, who decided to sleep under the stars. He was wrapped up so tight head to toe that it took me a minute to decided which end to nudge with my boot! Soon I was back in my tent, and every dream I had for the rest of the night was full of bears!
With the dawn's early light we broke camp. No one was eaten by a bear during the night, thank God! Now it was off to the rappel tower - all 80 feet of it. You had to climb one of three telephone poles that made up the outside of it by holding and stepping on metal staples that were not as big as your fist, and were about 3 feet apart. "Oh and by the way, since you are our medic, you have to go last." That gave me way too much time to realize how far up that was. I enjoyed being the anchor or belay person at the bottom, but when my time came to make the climb, I am sad to say that my inner chicken took charge at about 40 feet. I came back down, mad at myself. After they finished rappelling, the guys got set up for the zip line, which was about 50 feet up. I did get my nerve up for that and was the third soldier up. The first two guys were much larger than me, and had to scoot off the platform. When I sat down there I was holding onto the cargo net on the side. Jonathan, who was the safety up there, said, "You are going to have to let go to slide off." I said, "No, when I let go, I'm gone!" Sure enough, when my hand left the net to grab the rope, the cable snatched me right up in the air and straight down the zip line over 300 feet into the woods, screaming like a girl and laughing like a nut! The guys were happy that I had done it, and said they were proud of me. They are really a great bunch of soldiers.
My inner chicken may have had a small victory, but I want a rematch!!!
Two words made me really happy this weekend - INDOOR PLUMBING!!! We had the use of a camp for troubled teens for the weekend's training, but don't let that fool you. Except for the ranger cabin, it was primitive. We pitched our tents and embarked on a really cool weekend. I got to try out my itty bitty tent (If it is a two-person, you'd better like the other person a lot!!!) and cute little pocket stove. We learned to tie all kinds of knots, including the Swiss seat for rappelling, and went over tracking methods and patterns. We ended the day by splitting into three teams to search for three victims in the woods.
It was nearly dark when we located our victim lying face-down on an incline. He bore a striking resemblance to the victim we rescued last time, and I started to leave him there since he had yet to say thanks for us hauling his 185 pound carcass out of the woods! We radioed back for the evac team, but they were busy with another victim. So we decided to see how creative the TOC could be too. We radioed that our guy had gone into cardiac arrest, and started CPR. Our OC said that if they didn't come in 25 minutes we could discontinue and consider him expired. Well, here comes the other team, so the manequin got to fight another day. It was dark by then, and we worked with flashlights to get him strapped on the litter.
Why would a group of men want to follow a natural blonde through the woods in the dark? Well, they did, and I managed to locate the trail and guide them out with no problem! Camp looked mighty good too! We had some last minute instruction and discussed what could have been done better. Then it was time to assign fire watch. We had already been told that the place was crawling with bears. Our road guard had been surprised by a mother and cubs that morning. Therefore it was important to keep the fire going and keep watch on the camp all night. The men eagerly volunteered for the first few hours, but no one's hand went up for 0200-0300. So I volunteered for it. After that, no one wanted to be shown up by a girl, so the other shifts filled pretty quickly.
You know, that seemed like a good idea at the time. When 0200 rolled around, I crawled out of my tent to relieve Farmer, only to find that the fire was low and we were nearly out of firewood. Bless his heart, he stayed awake and gathered more wood before he turned in. You'd be surprised how loud 20 sleeping men can be. I doubt I could have heard a bear if he had been standing right beside me! I kept that fire going, and my hour flew by pretty quick. I went to wake my relief, Price, who decided to sleep under the stars. He was wrapped up so tight head to toe that it took me a minute to decided which end to nudge with my boot! Soon I was back in my tent, and every dream I had for the rest of the night was full of bears!
With the dawn's early light we broke camp. No one was eaten by a bear during the night, thank God! Now it was off to the rappel tower - all 80 feet of it. You had to climb one of three telephone poles that made up the outside of it by holding and stepping on metal staples that were not as big as your fist, and were about 3 feet apart. "Oh and by the way, since you are our medic, you have to go last." That gave me way too much time to realize how far up that was. I enjoyed being the anchor or belay person at the bottom, but when my time came to make the climb, I am sad to say that my inner chicken took charge at about 40 feet. I came back down, mad at myself. After they finished rappelling, the guys got set up for the zip line, which was about 50 feet up. I did get my nerve up for that and was the third soldier up. The first two guys were much larger than me, and had to scoot off the platform. When I sat down there I was holding onto the cargo net on the side. Jonathan, who was the safety up there, said, "You are going to have to let go to slide off." I said, "No, when I let go, I'm gone!" Sure enough, when my hand left the net to grab the rope, the cable snatched me right up in the air and straight down the zip line over 300 feet into the woods, screaming like a girl and laughing like a nut! The guys were happy that I had done it, and said they were proud of me. They are really a great bunch of soldiers.
My inner chicken may have had a small victory, but I want a rematch!!!
posted by Jennifer at 11:42 PM
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