JUNE 10-12 ,2011, ISLAND LAKE, WHITE PINE CABIN

OPERATION RAPID DESCENT

    I arrived Saturday morning around 0830, to find a group of happy campers ready to ramp up and get to some serious militia training. The initial plan was to split the training up, with one group going on an extended patrol, and another group staying near the cabin and going to the range.  There was a new gentleman from St. Clair County eager to try qualifying. This would rock, because we are kind of lacking in The St. Clair County department.

   There were three of us scheduled for the patrol, but the patrol leader would not start the patrol with any less than five. We waited just a short while, while doing an informal gear check. I had very diligently gone over the patrol gear check list, and had made a trip or two to various places to secure the gear exactly as listed. I was seriously looking forward to doing this, but saner minds prevailed. The patrol was delayed until later this year, and we folded the two planned separate trainings into one.

   In the summer, when the weather is nice, we tend to actually have LESS people show up at training. It would be better to have more, especially to help offset the cost of the cabin for the weekend (over $160). Also, we have more than enough capable training people, that we can split the training if needed. Still, one of our main gripes is that people show up when the weather is not favorable, but vanish when it is nice and sunny. I guess fishing, family, and finals were going on this weekend.  School will be out in a few days, so the finals thing will be out of the way, at least.

   The new guy needed to qualify, so he had to do his two mile walk. The cabin sits right nest to one of the hike/bike trails, and they have markers about every half mile or so (some are missing, but not many). We planned to find one of the mile markers, and then walk one mile out and one mile back. Instead of just sending one person to monitor the walker, we all went, except Rusty, out support dude, who was watching the cabin for new arrivals and taking care of things back there. He was probably cleaning up after breakfast, too.

Rusty at the cabin.

Bubba, St. Clair, and Crazy Eyes. They did the walk in 29 1/2 minutes.

Z. He took pity on the slower group and dropped back to a 40 minute pace.

    The new guy was following Bubba, so he was moving quickly. He was the only one who needed to be timed, but we all came in at 40 minutes or less. Kudos to Bubba, St. Clair, and Crazy Eyes for the 29 1/2 minute walk. Bear came in somewhere in the middle, and LFB, Weapon M (me), and Z came in at 40 minutes. There were multiple "bike" interruptions along the walk. The bicyclists were friendly enough, and I think some of them are used to us by now. We should recruit some of them, I think. When someone yells, "Bike!", you need to get off the trail quickly. Some of those folks are riding hard and fast and might not be able to stop in time, and the trails tend to be really narrow in spots.

   St. Clair went through his gear check. He needs to carry more ammo, but Z had loaned him enough to have carried 100 rounds on the walk. He was carrying the one true rifle, and M1A, which means he automatically rocks. During the weapon break down portion of his Level one check, he started to break his rifle down a bit more than necessary. We only need to see that you can clean your barrel and bolt/bolt assembly in a field environment. It is never necessary to dismantle your rifle down to the sub-molecular level. Also, D-Day arrived and gave him some M1A pointers.

   But M1A wisdom was not the only thing that D-Day brought:

Tender, juicy ribeye steaks, on a grill. Mmmmm-mmmmm-militia.

   After the walk, I also tried a Gatorade "Recover" drink that I got from the clearance rack at Kroger. It was only 99 cents, but it was pretty nasty. They have upgraded to G series to something that might not taste as much like goat piss, but the old stuff was on clearance. So, whatever, I drank it because I had sweated on the walk, not because it was yummy. The "Perform" aspect of the G series drink, the #2, was in my new Platypus bladder, which was conveniently mounted upside down in my weekend pack. (I never used a bladder thingie before. I have used canteens all of my life. I guess I should have read the instructions.) The G2 is good, and it also was on sale. In the summer, some kind of electrolyte replacement drink should be kept in your pack or otherwise handily available.

   Lunch consisted of Polish sausage, the above pictured steaks, and ummm. Yeah. Steak. I will not say if there will EVER be steak like this again at any training. But this time, you can all experience my mockery. There was pop, too, but no diet pop, so I limited myself to one Mist thing, while being berated soundly by LFB for it. Between D-Day and Rusty, I can say that few, if any, militia groups have ever been fed better at any training.

   We enjoyed a class on using a rope for a rapid descent, and how to treat a non-horizontal danger area. There are several ways to use a rope to descend a steep incline, which don't involve tying a Swiss seat or using a harness.

Bubba.

    We set out for a steep ravine to practice this, always bearing in mind that security, security, security, is job number one, two, and three. At the point of descent, the rope is just draped around a tree, not tied (this is so it can be recovered from the bottom), and the first person wraps it effectively to use as a break on the way down. Once down, he then ties a separate static line (if needed), to lower any packs that need to be lowered. We brought a couple of packs to demonstrate this. The last guy will untie the static line, scamper down, and then just pull one side of the big rope to bring it down. Nothing left behind here, folks, move along.

   This went much better than I expected. The first guy down secured the secondary static line, and secured the immediate landing area, and then distributed people into a perimeter as they descended. No one fell. No one was injured. I can't guess the height of the drop. Maybe 20 feet? Anyway, too steep to walk down, and to high to just jump or slide. This was a good way to cross this type of obstacle. We will work on this again, to get quicker, and to show you guys that missed it the first time. It was good, fun, hard training. Boo-Yah!!!

LFB

   When everyone was down, we pulled security in a tight perimeter while the ropes were secured. Then we moved up the ravine back toward the cabin. Along the way, we encountered a linear danger area. There was a hive of ground bees just on the far side, and this slowed the movement deeper into the woods on that side, but nobody got stung. Z stood and warned everyone to avoid it. Next time, he will warn people and then send them further on past the hazard to pull security. As a side note, the tree with the bees under it is just about exactly where I would have taken up a position. It would have sucked. Thanks, Z.

   We had an after action review back at the cabin, and rehydrated. It was here that the guys pointed out the upside down configuration of my Platypus bladder, which I corrected immediately. It works better now, guys.

   Dinner consisted of more steak. ha ha ha. We also had sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Yeah. You missed it.

   D-Day and Z took off (after Z's multiple rope climbing experiments which landed nobody in a hospital, yay!), and we chilled down. A lot, I mean a lot, of gear was covered for the newer gentleman. I also made use of the fact that I had brought some sandals in my pack

   Rusty busted out his campfire popcorn popper and his harmonica, and we sight-tested our binoculars. Bear set up a shelter outside of the cabin to avoid hearing any more snoring. I crashed early a bit after ten. The cabin bunks were fine. The snoring was not too bad.

   I tried out my Swiss stove to make coffee in the morning. I used Sterno instead of the alcohol burner it came with. The Sterno fit perfectly. 

   This was not the hardcore patrol that some of us had planned for, but it was not disappointing at all. We got some good training in, especially fun was the rapid descent training that I had never done before (I rappelled a lot in the Army, but that was with a tied-on harness or Swiss seat). A new fun thing is always good, even if it is hot and muggy with lots of bugs.

    Sunday morning, Rusty went all Bob Evens on us with eggs and bacon and hash browns and biscuits. Yeah. Sigh. It was rough.

    LFB, Crazy Eyes, and St. Clair headed to the range to finish up St. Clair's shooting qualification. More on that later, I hope.... 

   Hope to see you guys out there next time!!!

     Weapon M

Click here for Photobucket page of June 2011 training.