EN101 Week 4 Assignment
Grantham University
I always wanted to be separate from everyone else. I never want to be just an ordinary
EN101 Week 4 Assignment
person. I always had to be better or different in some type of way. I learned of a spur ride,
which is three straight days of being "smoked". Smoked, in Army turns, is being forced to
do physical exercises continuously until muscle failure is met. By the end of three days
participants earn a certificate of completion and can wear spurs on their boots or dress
shoes when in uniform. It will separate me from most soldiers because when someone
sees spurs on my boots, they will know I went through hell to earn them.
Formation for the spur ride was at 0330. My friend Ray and I decided we were going to
participate. We both were confident and ready to roll. We stood outside in formation
waiting for a spur holder to come and take charge. It was humid and hot outside, and we
were both dripping sweat for just standing. Out of nowhere out came a spur holder. He
instantly started yelling telling us to fix the formation. The longer we took the more
pushups we had to do. It took about 15 minutes to fix the formation and we were all
already smoked. Little did we know we had to take a physical fitness test. Failures of the
test would be dropped from the spur ride on the spot, and fail to earn the silver spurs. Ray
and I both passed the test.
While standing in formation Ray exhaled and whispered, "Dude what did we get
ourselves into, it’s only 0500 and I can’t even do one pushup". We were both already
exhausted from the 2 minutes of pushups, 2 minutes of sit ups, and a 2 mile run. That was
the physical fitness test, but prior to it we got smoked because half of the soldier did not
even know how to form up. The remaining of us got split up into small teams. Each team
was assigned a spur holder, a soldier who earned their spurs already and was doing the
"smoking". Luckily I was assigned to the same group Ray was assigned to. Our spur
EN101 Week 4 Assignment
holder gave us a map and read or coordinates that Ray plotted. Ray was the best at land
navigation so if was in charge of it. Ray plotted the point quickly and was dripping sweat
on the map. It was already 80 degrees at 0600 in the morning, and everyone looked like
they just jumped in a huge mud puddle.
We were off to our fist point. There were 4 points each 5 miles apart. Everyone had a
rucksack, a weapon, and a water source. Our gear equaled to about 90 pounds. We finally
got to our first point. All we saw were 3 spur holders and a Humvee stuck in a huge mud
puddle. Breathing heavily after the dreadful 5-mile ruck march, I said "Oh great, looks
like we have to get this out of the mud". One of the spur holder yelled, "No talking, your
task is to get the Humvee from where it’s at now to this line, do whatever is necessary but
no talking, for anyone that talks, the Humvee will go right back to the beginning". The
sun was up, and it was easily 90 degrees. I took one last gulp of water and jumped right
into the mud. The mud actually felt great because it was wet and cool. Little did I know it
was like quick sand, for every movement I made, the deeper I went. Ray noticed
equipment in the back of the Humvee. There was a chain hoist, rope, shovel, and large,
solid metal pipe. We wrapped the chain hoist around a tree and tied the rope around the
frame of the Humvee. One soldier in our group dug a hole in the front of the Humvee just
to get access to the frame. But for every scoop of mud he got out, it filled back up with
muddy water. By now everyone was drench in muddy water, with mud caked on their
uniforms. This provided at least an extra 15 pounds to everyone. There were no specific
instructions on how to get the Humvee to the line that was about 20 feet away. The chain
hoist was not working. Ray finally signaled everyone to stop what they were doing. He
pointed to the ignition switch so I attempted to start the Humvee, nothing. Ray checked
EN101 Week 4 Assignment
the batteries, which were located under the passenger seat. They were disconnected. He
quickly reconnected them and had me try again. The Humvee started immediately. After a
couple tries we got the vehicle UN-stuck and moved it to the line.
This was only the first day, let alone the first obstacle. We all learned that we had to
think outside of the box. If no specific instructions are giving then we can do whatever is
needed to complete the obstacle. We learned that in order for us to complete this day, and
the next 2 days, we have to work as a team and use our heads.
References:
EBSCO database
Glossary of Writing Term
