Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [55]
The following day, the candidates are up at 0500 and out for a four-mile run at 0600. This is a conditioning run, but the pace is brisk. The SFAS cadre run along with the class, cutting them into groups of thirty to forty. There’s no shouting or harassment, but the cadre note if any in the class are having problems running. The run also serves in the continuing acclimation to Camp Mackall. The X-Ray candidates have no problems, having trained in North Carolina and Georgia during July and August. Some of the other soldiers have come from colder, more arid conditions. If one of the candidates lags behind, a cadre sergeant will drop back to check on him and offer encouragement. I asked Specialist David Altman about the attitude of the selection cadre compared to his prior training.
“This is something new for us. We’ve just been through boot camp, jump school, and Pre-SFAS. It seems like for the last six months someone has been yelling at us or ordering us about or dressing us down. It’s different here. There are expectations, but the assessment cadre never seem to raise their voices. When something needs to be done, they ask us to do it. And we do it. This is serious business; it’s all on us now.”
The balance of the day is taken up with a crash course in land navigation. Many of the soldiers coming in from other units have not used a map and compass for a while. Many are competent in using a hand-held GPS, but they need to brush up on shooting azimuths and establishing their pace count. This is almost second nature for the infantrymen, but some of the soldiers are coming from maintenance units or technical specialties in which they have had limited time in the field. The information’s not new to the regular soldiers, but few have had the recent training of the X-Ray soldiers. That evening, they’re back in the classroom. They’re given an hour and a half to write out their personal history. This personal history becomes part of their training folder and a component of their psychological assessment.
“We keep these training folders in our file room,” First Sergeant Sarno tells me. “They’re available for official use or review as needed. The training folders also contain their scores on the physical evolutions, the psychological testing, and their peer reviews. On occasion, when one of my cadre sergeants starts grousing about the deficiencies of these new men, I pull his SFAS training folder.” He gives a gentle chuckle. “It seems some of my cadre weren’t among the leading performers of their selection class. And to be honest about it, I was no big-time stud when I came through here as a young sergeant. It took everything I had and then some to make it through selection. And that’s what it will take for these young soldiers here today. Y’know, sir, what goes around, comes around, even in our little world here at Camp Mackall.”
A part of this selection process is that soldiers not only have to perform to standard, but they have to perform to standard when they’ve been on the go and haven’t had all that much sleep. They’re kept on the move all of their waking hours with the exception of time in the classroom. During the first week of training, days begin at 0400 or 0500. The days are full, and every evening is scheduled for a classroom evolution that will engage the selection candidates until 2030 or 2100—8:30 or 9:00 p.m. They are often up much later than that, preparing their gear and uniforms for the next day’s training. These sixteen-plus-hour days are designed to teach and to tire. In addition to navigation classes and navigation practical work around Camp Mackall, there are physical evolutions. Each morning there is a run or a rucksack march. By the end of the week, the candidates are