Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [117]
“Specialist Smith.”
“Right here, Sergeant.”
“What is your time delay.”
“Two minutes, Sergeant.”
“You may proceed.”
Specialist Smith nods to his demo team leader, and again the cry “Fire in the hole!” rings out. This time it’s for real. “Burning!” the demo team leader calls out as he inspects the time fuse. Sergeant Pham, myself, and most of the student ODA retreat to a safe distance. A few of the student 18 Charlies are set out on the nearby roads to make sure no one inadvertently approaches the target. At two minutes, three seconds, there’s a sharp crack as the caps and det cord explode.
“Very good, Specialist,” Pham tells his team leader, “and better a little late than a little early. Go police up the demo blocks and make your way back to the base camp. And remember, you are still tactical.”
“Roger that, Sergeant.”
Before the team can get off target, a Humvee roars across the open area from behind the dummy airplanes. A man is leaning from the window of the passenger’s door, firing an AK-47.
“QRF [quick-reaction force]! QRF!” the team leader yells, and the candidates begin to return fire. The Humvee slews to a stop under a hail of blank fire. The team leader regroups his men, and they leapfrog back into the tree line near the target tank.
This field training exercise is the last evolution for the 18 Charlie Class 1-05. Before coming out to Camp Mackall, they’d taken their last written test, the target-analysis examination. They are all but finished with Phase III. I find my guys, Barstow and Dunn, packing their gear for the trip back to Fort Bragg.
“Now that you’re about finished,” I ask Aaron Dunn, “how does this compare with repairing aircraft radars?”
“It’s a lot different, but I like it. I’ve been to a few Army technical schools, and they were hard. This one was just as hard, but here we had to bring it from the classroom to a tactical environment. We learned the technical aspects of construction and demolitions, and then we came out here to apply them in the field. And since it’s Special Forces training, we had to do this when we’re tired and haven’t had much sleep.”
“Sergeant Barstow, how does this stack up with Army military police work?”
Daniel Barstow grins. “It’s a lot more challenging than what I was doing with the MPs. You have to respect demolitions, but blowing things up is a helluva lot of fun.”
“So it’s on to Phase IV?”
“Gear maintenance, and a good solid night’s sleep,” Barstow replies, “then on to Phase IV.”
THE 18 DELTAS—THE SPECIAL FORCES MEDICAL SERGEANTS
The 18 Delta medical sergeant curriculum is one of the most challenging and unique military training courses in this or any other army. This medical training is worthy of a book, let alone the few pages I’m able to devote to it here. In addition to the 18 Delta candidates, combat medics from the Army Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Navy SEALS, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the Air Force Special Tactics Teams all train at the $40 million Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center at Fort Bragg. The Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center operates under the JFK Special Warfare Center and School as its own training group and is the only MOS training that does not fall under the 1st Special Warfare Training Group. This facility is usually referred to by its acronym, the JSOMTC, but here we’ll just call it the Medical Training Center.
The first thing the 18D candidates see when they enter the student entrance of the Medical Training Center is the Special Operations Medic Combat Pledge: