Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [178]
Midday, one of the Gs on water detail comes back from the stream that drains into the marsh near the camp. “There’s a big snake down there,” he reports, “right where we get our water. I tried to scare him off, but he won’t budge.”
Tom Olin goes back with him to investigate and returns with a four-and-a-half-foot cottonmouth—a really fat one. Short then proceeds to skin and dress the snake, and it joins the pig in the holiday celebration. Tastes just like chicken, but rather tough chicken.
Camp activity and operational activity begins to mesh with ODAs and Gs working together—almost blurring their differences. On Captain Santos’s recommendation, 915 and the Gs settle into groups of three—one American and two Pinelanders. They become battle buddies. They keep their rucks together so if they have to bolt, they stay together and fight together. Their hooches are side by side.
During the evening on day nine of Robin Sage, Captain Childers takes 915’s officers and team sergeant aside. “There’ll be a lot going on and as we approach the final days of Robin Sage, things will accelerate and become more chaotic. Your job is to bring some order to these events. That means you have to focus on the big picture, so you’ll have to delegate things like security, commo, and base chores. One thing that can help is to have your team supply sergeant keep a running tally on your consumables—chow, ammo, demo, and water. Brief the colonel on these twice a day. It lets him know you’re on top of things, and it’s a chance for a positive interaction.”
The cadre camp is located on the edge of a field near an abandoned tobacco drying shed. Quite often when I visit the camp, I find Sergeant Blackman on a stool in the woods near the shed, hunched over his computer. There is a DC power cord running from his pickup to the computer. Evaluations have to be made and training records kept up to date. For each exercise or block of training, each candidate is rated on tactical performance and/or leadership—good, bad, excellent—and recommendations are made as necessary on how to improve that performance or leadership.
On day ten, 915 and its guerrillas are joined by two more cadre—or perhaps semicadre would be a better term. They are two staff sergeants from the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg. They’ll help with the training for the balance of the Robin Sage exercise and serve in opposition-force roles for the final problem. Both were in Robin Sage about this time last year, and both just returned from a combat rotation in Afghanistan. They are helpful, critical, and very supportive. There’s an instant bond between these two new Green Beret veterans and the candidates. It’s a good dynamic. They are not cadre in the same way as are Sergeant Blackman, Captain Childers, and the OCEs. As Brian Short puts it, “They are us a year from now.”
Also on day ten, the communicators receive a priority message from their forward operating base. There is to be a document drop that evening. Nine-one-five is tasked with finding a secure location and setting up the drop. At 2130, Sergeant Olin and his recovery team are crouched on the edge of a farmer’s field, prepared to receive the package. Due to the short notice and the urgency, there is no time for a twenty-four-hour eyes-on, so Captain Santos sent along First Lieutenant Kwele with a ten-man security element