Jane Wayne Day

Wow, whata day! After dashing up to school to turn in a paper I arrived on base today at 0800. (I'm doing military time since it was a military function.) I ate a small breakfast, drank a little water then went to the 'head' (bathroom) to put on my new, crisp pink Jane Wayne tee. This day was set up for the wives of the Marines in Husbands squadron to learn a little about what they do as Marines. We were broken up into 2 groups of 10. My group first went to the NVG class. Let me just say that night vision goggles are sweet! However they are VERY expensive and NOT the ones you can go buy at the sporting goods store. These range from $6,000-$15,000. EACH. Anyway, we learning how to focus them, learned which colors glow brighter, and which are infrared and can't be seen without the NVG's. By the way, if you're not familiar with the military they use a lot of abbreviations and know their alphabet VERY well. I'll try not to get carried away but this is the life right?

After NVG's we walked next door to go in a flight simulator of CH 53 E. This is the aircraft all our hubbies work on or fly. We were each co-pilots as we had a real pilot actually doing most of the work. He kept us all from crashing. Let me just say wow and then huh? It was very cool and felt pretty real I'm assuming since this is what they train on. But there were 2 separate lever type handle that controlled the up/down and the left/right of the nose. Plus about 15 gauges in front to tell us altitude and speed and who knows what else. "Jody" (his call sign) did very well with making us think we could actually fly this huge bird.

We hoped in our escort vans and drove to a simulated m-16 rifle range. We took up some target practice with the big 8 pound guns then went on "raids" and "street patrols". Being the Texas girl I am and never shooting a gun (gasp) I LOVED this part of the day. I don't know what it was but shooting that automatic weapon was a rush. And I was good. Look out boys the girls are in the range! I shot the whole time we were in there. I didn't want to leave.

We then looped back to the squadron which is essentially a hangar. HMH-461 is the name of the squadron. My husband has been lucky enough to have spent his whole career (11 years) with this squadron. Anywho, we took a quick tour of all the shops. Flight line, flight equipment, ordinance, air frames (where Husband works), QA, and maintenance control. We went upstairs to refresh for a minute before we headed off to the 'hard' part of the day. Running a CFT.

CFT= Combat Fitness Test. Yeah. This chick right here doesn't run unless it's for my life and I haven't seen a piece of gym equipment for almost 4 months. I'm a little overweight and little out of shape. So we load up again and head over the field where this is to take place. Who's there to greet us? None other than all of her husbands and the rest of the Marines. Nice. Now I'm scared. I wasn't worried doing these silly drills in front of other wives but to do it in front of people who are trained. Ugh.

1st Event: Run 1/2 in under 3.30. It was modified for us to run OR walk a 1/4 mile in 4 minutes. I ran half way then walked the rest. Of course all the ones who knew me started cheering me on. It was nice.

2nd Event: Ammo can lift. This was voluntary and I volunteered being the supportive wife I am. We had to lift a 30 pound can above our heads 20 times in 2 minutes. this was modified down from 45. This would have been cake for me BUT my whole right side of my head has been attacked by my allergies and is completed stuffed up. I had a hard time balancing because of this. BUT I did and under 30 seconds.

3rd Event: Under Fire Run. It makes me tired just thinking about this. I'll go through the real version then go through what we actually did. You start laying down on the ground. Jump up and run to a cone and do a "J hook". Basically just making a square around the cone. Drop down and do a low crawl which is basically crawling flat on your body. Get to the next cone and "baby crawl." Once you get to that next cone you run in a zig zag formation, drag a Marine back in a zigzag, then do a fireman carry with the same Marine and take them back to the start line. Run all the way back down, throw a grenade, do 3 push-ups, pick up 2 ammo cans weighing 30 pounds each and run all the way back down to the start. All under 3.30. We crossed out the dragging, carrying and we got empty ammo cans. I did it and am paying for it now. I had an assigned Marine to run it with me and the Commanding Officer too. No pressure. Plus Husband was on the very end where I needed to throw the grenade. I did fine running and low crawling and crawling but when I got up to zig zag I lost my balance and busted my butt. Nice. Ran the rest of the drill and make it out alive. My elbows have ground burn because they were bare when I was crawling through the dirt and grass, my jeans have major grass stains, and my knees had rolled up skin on them. It was a blast. Truly it was. Next time I will train a few months before though! And I will never roll my eyes when Husband complains about doing a CFT again. I have a new found respect for what he does on a daily basis. AND I will say our fighting men and women are so tough cookies and VERY in shape. God bless them.

After all that we finally got back for lunch at 1400 and called it a day. I am so glad we had this event and hope to attend again. I don't have pics because I didn't think about bringing my camera to drag though the dirt but there are plenty from everyone else. I'll post once i receive any!

Until then-
Stay Semper Gumby!

OohRah!