1700 – Black Jack rolls in and checks out the area, coincidentally named "Camp Savoy", gets set up for the night, and takes hourly trips to the entry point to check if Razor, Tank, Super Six or Jester have arrived.

2030 – Razor and Tank roll in and get set up for the night.

0200 – Super Six and Jester roll in and sleep within 400 meters of the rally point. It is Zero Dark Thirty, no light of any kind (raining with full cloud cover), and the chem. light black jack left to guide them in burned out.

0630 – Black Jack goes out, finds Super Six & Jester and brings them into camp. Razor and Tank have camp security, which is a requirement as this is serious bear country. Additionally, though no "official" source confirms it, cougars have been sighted by the locals less than 2 clicks from the main camp of this week’s training. Wolf tracks are not unknown in the area, either. In fact, a large bear track was discovered in the bivouac area and Razor found it was large than his hand!

0730 – Gear Up & chow.

0830 – Knife class. Black Jack showed Pioneer Class A-105 the finer points of sharpening anything from jack knives to combat knives in a minimum of time using a jig especially made to hold the knife at a particular angle, a coarse stone, and a fine grit stone. The importance of having a razor sharp knife in the field can’t be underscored enough, as one won’t have time in the field, or most likely the proper equipment. The sad fact of the matter is that all the small "survival" stones can do for you is to help keep an edge the knife already has. As an example, Black Jack took a really nice "Marbles" brand hunting knife, but unfortunately butter knife dull, from Tank, and in less than 10 minutes, had it shaving hair from Black Jack’s arm. Then he had Tank practice on a 5 inch K-Bar while showing why the K-Bar would take longer: relief of the blade is the trick. The K-Bar had terrible relief while the Marbles had superb relief. Relief is defined as the thinness and angle of the steel from the spine of the blade to the edge.

1030 – Chow, coffee, & range prep.

1130 – AQT range time. Black Jack & Super Six conducted the "official" Army Qualification test on 25 meter targets. Range was verified with a laser range finder, and all targets were scaled from 100 yards to 400 yards. As a bonus, Black Jack threw a CD with 100 Army field manuals and other survival information into a pot and said that "high score takes it home"! A great incentive to focus on shooting well!!

The high score of the day went to Jester, with Black Jack a close second (losing by 2.8 rounds!) Both Jest and Black Jack were rated as "sharp shooters". Everyone again realized the importance of breath control, sight alignment, trigger depression, natural point of aim, and IRON SIGHT adjustment. Optics are great, but when they crap out, you have nothing if you don’t have iron sights! Everyone said they were going to work harder to increase their skills and abilities the next time we shot AQT. It’s a great tool for learning the "Art of the Rifle" so that in field shooting and if ever the balloon goes up, those disciplined shots will count!!

1500 – Day Land Nav/Admin Patrol: Black Jack and Super Six took class A-105 on a patrol through seriously thick forest. Black Jack’s plan was to show the importance of "boxing" when using a compass for navigation. The exercise was simple: Shoot a 90 degree magnetic azimuth, follow it for 600 meters, and come to a creek bed / property line junction. The compass man did ok, but realized that when he hit the property line, he was more than 100 meters off target! The class discussed noise discipline, moving through rough terrain, and other tactical navigation issues. Lessons learned by all!

1900 – Chow & bivouac security. Super Six volunteered to take guard duty as he had no intention of meeting a bear or other critter at close range. A coyote opened up 50 meters from the camp, but fire discipline by all was observed!!

0500 – Possible bear in camp. Turned out to be Jester snoring……"woof"…."HAwoof"…….ssssnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooorrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee!!

0900 – Debrief & break camp. It’s a looooong drive back to South East Michigan!! Great training, great weekend. Ideas formulating for more Pioneer missions "up north" in the future.