What do you remember most about the Q Course/Training Group?

[tom kelly]

On the day we finished what is Robin Sage, than it was the FTX of Branch Training we arrived back at Smoke Bomb Hill,Ft.Bragg @ 1:45PM and told to get into formation by Sgt. Bryan E. Grogan later 2ndLt. Grogan who was KIA on 07/05/1965 in Vietnam; Sgt Grogan told us the Good News, We had all earned the Green Beret and that approx. 1 hr. ago Pres. John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, TX. The date was 11/22/1963...tom kelly

[Richard]

On the day we finished what is Robin Sage,...

Earlier versions of Robin Sage were called Water Moccasin, Cherokee Trail, and Gobblers Woods.

Richard

[mark46th]

At Robin Sage, do the instructors still rat you out to the bad guys so you get caught?

[ZonieDiver]

At the price of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? They were in a 'Honey Bee' offering to go get food from our 'safe house' - to which they had just 'shown up'!

[mark46th]

We had a Road Watch mission during Pase III- So my buddy and I set up in a cornfield to watch the intersection. The old farmer came out his back door with a double barreled shotgun, walking towards us. We put our hands up and told him what we were doing. He said no problem and invited us up to his front porch, which we politely declined. About 30 minutes later, his wife came out with hot home-made biscuits and Spam. The best meal I had ever eaten out in the field, the Spam tasted like Prime Rib....

[x SF med]

Phase 1 at MackKall, August 2003... Falling asleep at parade rest in a steaming hot Quonset... getting a minus 5 for falling asleep and a plus 10 for not breaking parade rest. A couple of days later, getting into a discussion with the "Bounced Czech" about Soviet political theory and the history of the Communist progression ... it baffled most of the class, even a majority of the officers...

finding out my bunny had a diseased liver.... and only getting a hand puppet, no food out of him.

Phase 3, second time around (don't ask, just think SF baby in a Ranger Team), Gator nicknaming me "piano" and another member of the board getting the ORP security detail while the other 3 of the 4 man team got chased by reinforced Scout Companies from the 82nd... and finally ran through the fire at an AF camp as the horn went off...

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by x SF med

Phase 1 at MackKall, August 2003... Falling asleep at parade rest in a steaming hot Quonset... getting a minus 5 for falling asleep and a plus 10 for not breaking parade rest. A couple of days later, getting into a discussion with the "Bounced Czech" about Soviet political theory and the history of the Communist progression ... it baffled most of the class, even a majority of the officers...

finding out my bunny had a diseased liver.... and only getting a hand puppet, no food out of him.

Phase 3, second time around (don't ask, just think SF baby in a Ranger Team), Gator nicknaming me "piano" and another member of the board getting the ORP security detail while the other 3 of the 4 man team got chased by reinforced Scout Companies from the 82nd... and finally ran through the fire at an AF camp as the horn went off...

You went through Phase I in 2003?

Damn, what happened to you?

TR

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by x SF med

Phase 1 at MackKall, August 2003... Falling asleep at parade rest in a steaming hot Quonset... getting a minus 5 for falling asleep and a plus 10 for not breaking parade rest. A couple of days later, getting into a discussion with the "Bounced Czech" about Soviet political theory and the history of the Communist progression ... it baffled most of the class, even a majority of the officers...

finding out my bunny had a diseased liver.... and only getting a hand puppet, no food out of him.
Phase 3, second time around (don't ask, just think SF baby in a Ranger Team), Gator nicknaming me "piano" and another member of the board getting the ORP security detail while the other 3 of the 4 man team got chased by reinforced Scout Companies from the 82nd... and finally ran through the fire at an AF camp as the horn went off...

At that point in training I would have eaten his liver with some fava beans......

[Dozer523]

Phase 3, for me, started on 1 NOV 1986.
My first favorite memory was my hooch-mate who was VERY EYE-talian. Looked just like Mario . . . only in BDU's. we called him Papa. We were snugged in our bags watching our breath by the light of a very bright moon when he hands me his earphones and Walkman. I listened to my first opera that night.

Second favorite memory was all of us sweating blood on the last mission because one of us students had to get a "go" on it to Tab. It was great to be part of that effort, because we all did it for our 'brother'.

Then there was the "Civil Affairs" project after ENDEX. We got trucked way farther out into the middle of nowhere to a little farm. we got to roof a pole barn. I found out what a pole barn was. I learned that when nailing corrugated metal you drive the nail through the top ridge, not the valley, or it leaks. I learned that it is really, really hard to drive a nail through the ridge of corrugated metal. I confirmed what I had already suspected -- pain is an exponential factor when unsuccessfully trying to hit a nail balanced on the ridge of corrugated metal. But, a sense of humor can survive even a black and blue thumb . . . now what is really funny is when the guy sitting next to you drops his hammer and it slides off the roof . . . . and then he tips over and follows it to the ground because he fell asleep in mid-swing.

(We finished just before Thanksgiving) After we finished the roof these people's extended family and neighbors showed up, pushed picnic tables together and laid out a Thanksgiving feast for us with everything. It was delicious. To this day, that sort of stands out as my standard for the "can it get better then this?" test.

[alelks]

Several things at Camp McKall.

1. The smell of the "Tincture of Benzoin" we used to put on our feet on a daily basis.

2. The tar paper shacks that were EXTREMELY cold in the winter.

3. Two wood fired heaters in each classroom and one in the latrine/shower.

4. The first few people got warm showers, everyone else got cold showers (in the winter).

Did I mention that it was so cold that we NEVER hit the obstacle course because it was always iced over and we broke ice to get into drowning creek for the slide for life and poncho raft exercise. We had quite a few voluntary withdrawals that day. It also snowed at night during our survival phase.

I got minor frostbite on my fingers and toes and all the way through Phase II of Weapons Training I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers.

[Irish_Army01]

Gentlemen..Many thanks for sharing your excellent stories with the rest of us!

[greenberetTFS]

deleted

[Nick710]

MAJ Howard ruck runs;

The wind howling through the tar paper hooches;

Breaking ice on Big Muddy for the slide for life and poncho rafting;

SFC Sharp screaming "This ain't Burger King, you're not getting it your way";

Saying Aye-Aye to LTjg Lauria (ya, a Navy SEAL, in the Q-course);

No showers;

These are a few memories, I went through Class 4-82, so it's been a while.

[glebo]

Hey Nick,

was that the class the African officer drowned on infil of PHIII??? That was my class, but I can't remember my class number....I think I may have been in 5-82, not sure. We graduated in Nov.

So many folks failed land nav they had to hold another class after ours, I got lucky and had land nav first, so my feet healed up pretty good before the patrolling block....lucky me.

Yup, tarpaper shacks, MAJ Howard death run/rucks, tincture of benzoine(sp?), blisters, blisters, and blisters.....did I mention blisters???

Chow wagon full of mermited chow once a day or so....

aahhhh, the good times. I'd do it all over again if I had to....

[Richard]

Was that the class the African officer drowned on infil of PHIII???

I was a Det Cdr in the 7th at that time and we had just returned from a trip to the SOUTHCOM AOR when we heard of that incident.

According to friends at SWCS, he was Liberian and landed fairly close (10-15') to the bank of a very small reservoir and drowned - they found him floating in his gear and the indications were he did nothing to try and get out of his equipment or try to get to shore. There were a couple of Liberians attending SFOC at the time and, according to the investigation, they were discovered to be animists and - in their case - fearful of water, believing there were spirits who would either take your soul or allow you to survive if you were in their world (water) - that it was of no value to struggle with them.

It sure caused Joe Lutz (JFKCMA CDR) and Gary Griggs and crew at SWCS to take a serious re-look at the foreign student program for attending SFOC/SFQC and was something we now took seriously as we were then undergoing a continuous rotation to/from Liberia.

And so it goes...

Richard