HERE ARE SOME PICTURES THAT I FOUND AROUND THE INTERNET. I WILL USE THEM TO BETTER EXPLAIN SOME OF THE MORE UNIQUE THINGS THAT I DID IN BASIC TRAINING.

Ah, yes, the "over and under". This would be easy if it wasn't near the end of the course. Notice that all the guy's uniforms look black? They're not black, that's a mixture of dirt and sweat.

This was easy, all you do is crawl up the "Inverted Climb", try and swing yourself over, then crawl back down. Just don't slip on your way up! Ouch!

Looks like monkey bars, doesn't it? Well, it is! Only thing is, they are suspended about 10 feet over a green bog, plus the handles are wet from people falling in. I almost fell off the first time I went through them.

The backwards decent wall, an easy but dangerous obsticle. If you fall off of it, you fall 30 feet onto concrete. This part has very strict guidelines that could make you fail the entire course. I let go of the rope once and got yelled at, but I deserved it because I was being stupid.

I hate this one, it was right after the "mine crawl", and everybody's arms were sore. The entire rope was full of wet sand, which made it difficult to get across. The trick was to support your legs more than your arms, because by now your legs wouls be full of sweat and sand, and it is a real challenge to keep them on the rope. I almost fell in this one. I didn't let go with my hands, but my boots filled up with water, and I couldn't get them back up on the rope, so I just went the rest of the way over using my hands.

"Field Training eXercises"

These guys are eating during the 7 mile march, and it was one of the best meals I ever had! I bet these guys are as happy as I was.

Another picture of the 7 mile march. The canteens that we had were a life saver. I usually filled mine up with sugar and whatever drink mix was in my MRE. If I ran out of sugar, I'd pour in the coffee grains and mix it with water. Yum! It kept me awake during the entire 48+ hours of FTX.

This picture must have been taken during the monsoon season or something, because when I crossed this stream, it was only 4 inches deep.

Guard duty! I never was on guard duty when it was daylight, I was on recon patrol in the woods with my squad. I was trying to find a downed pilot. The structure behind these guards is the command bunker. See those tents in the background? I was tent guard at night. I had to lay down in front of the tent and watch for the enemy. The only thing I saw was a scorpion run past my face.

This is one of the Rangers that instructed us during our stay. We were briefed on how to use camo, and what to watch out for. Then we were assigned our own Ranger to instruct us.

These are "Medics", they took care of the "wounded". I never had this job, I was lucky to be on point most of the time. Just like those guys with the guns behind them. That was the best job to have.

Here is THE WORST part of basic training, the low crawl. I felt really bad after I went through this. 70 yards of breathing dust. Looks easy, doesn't it? Well, this guy's doing it wrong! You cannot raise your head to see what is ahead of you, you had to keep your ear scraping the ground at all times. If you lifted your head like this picture shows, you would have to do it all over again. There was one very low part where it went under a log, and there was about a 12 inch clearance. I heard from some other people that when it rained, the ditch would fill with water and you'd have to hold your breath while you went under. I'd hate to get stuck!

Bam! You're dead! Can you see them? These guys are coming out of the woods after a recon patrol, my favorite part of FTX.

This is the "North Tower", where I was killed. I just got there and poked my head up to see, and I was shot. Oh well.

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