I survived the Spur Ride!!

I had a great time at the Ladies Spur Ride today. Not only was it fun and I like the competition, but it was great to be able to experience some of the things that Jay's does on a daily basis. Now when he's talking about some things, I can actually picture what he is talking about.

Our first event was putting on the parachute equipment. We buddied up and put it on each other. That wasn't too difficult. We then did a mock jump. They have a wooden platform that the guys use to practice jumping. We lined up like they do, hooked up to the static line, then jumped out into a sand box.

The second event was an EST2000. It was a simulator that allowed us to shoot air M16s. We did three rounds of 20 shots. We were scored on each and our best score was recorded. I didn't do very well the first time, I was shooting really low. I learned what I was doing and fixed it for the second round. I scored a perfect 20 out of 20!! I was the first one to get them all!! They then put up a city scene and we had to shoot at the bad guys that would pop in and out.

Props to this trooper... her baby is due this week and still did the entire thing with us!! They didn't make her lay on her stomach to shoot, but she still ended up with a 20 out of 20!

The third event was a written quiz. We had to match ranks to their symbol. We also had to write who was in charge and second in charge for the different chains of command. That was no problem. Those are the things I studied last night, so I knew them all!!

The fourth event was an obstacle course. This was the most difficult thing to do during the day. We had to low crawl, then high crawl under wires, then flip a tire a specificed distance, then high knee through some tires, pull someone on a sled, and the last thing was to push a humvee. I was the first one out of the shoot. After the low crawl, we had to stand up and run to the high crawl. I took a dive to get under the high crawl. That got my half way through the wires already. Let me with some grass stains, but it was fun!!! We had the best time of all the troops!!

The fifth event was a grenade toss. We had four different stations, some of them kneeling, others laying. We had a certain area we had to get the grenade into. I got three out of four. I missed the one because I jumped over a wall first and did a barrel roll before throwing the grenade. I wasn't quite focused and threw too far to the left. Ohs wells!!

The last event was assembly and disassembly of an M16 and an M9. Both were pretty easy because I had already practiced them. We had to do each one within 2 minutes. I got both done in around 30 seconds. No problem!!

We had a little awards ceremony at the end, when every lady was called up and received her spurs. We got little spur key chains. They are pretty cute.

Now I just have to figure out how to get really bad grass stains out. My shirt has a good one and the knees on Jay's ACU pants that I wore are pretty green. It was all worth it though!!

Way to go Blackhorse ladies!!