Thats right, you aren't in the SAMA forum. Whats the worst hump, conditioning hike, or forced march you ever went on?

I lost my big toe nail and two other toe nails on a 15 miler. I ended it carrying someone else's pack and rifle along with my own. It sucked big time in summer in Virginia. We did a 25 miler a couple weeks later that was much easier. Almost a quarter of our company fell out.

It made up my mind to be a tanker rather than an infantryman.

We were doing a 25-miler. My buddy in front of me was this Korean guy, callsign Narcoleptic. The guy would fall asleep during the hump. When we had to go right I'd push his left shoulder. When we had to go left I'd push his right shoulder. He slept through 6 miles.

At about mile 20 I started puking my guts out. I fell out to the side and let go. I look up at the end of the battalion and there's my old Platoon Commander. I asked him where I was and he said, "Bravo Command."

I looked at him and said, "What the fuck is Bravo Command?" Realized that my half delusional self just swore at my old Lt, I grabbed my shit and ran to the front of the battalion and cleared the hump.

when we got done and put our gear in the armory, my buddy was so gone he saluted his Lt. with his left hand.

I was never good at humps. It made life tough when I was humping .50's, TOW's and Mk19's. No fun. Needless to say I preferred to stay vehicle mounted.

mike

Humping .50 cal around Mt Fuji, Japan.

Around & around... up a while, then back down.... just a lot of foothills. Cammies and boots were white with salt.

I started out with an M-16. Then it was 2, then 3. Then the .50 cal stuff instead. It all became a big blur. When we stopped, the world felt like it kept going. Then we had to "dig" into the molten lava hillside for our "fighting holes." Cute little e-tools (remember those? Couldn't dig a cat's paw ditch with the blasted things.)

Needless to say, the Mt Fuji "warriors," who were permanent duty stationed there - "WON" our "battle," that night. They wouldn't "die" even though my team ambushed them; they knew where our holes would be, too. I learned it's All Good in love & war. I got to see the sunrise on Mt Fuji.

good training, right?

Renee

I haven't heard of any units doing a long distance humps with front, rear, and side SAPI plates in thier vests along with full packs. If anyone on this forum has done one, I'd love to hear about it.

I think our current vest configurations (Army or Marines) has made us much less foot mobile. It can be done (just like you can hump a TOW) but I'd like to know how it went. I'm at Camp Lejeune demobilizing right now for the past couple weeks and I haven't seen anyone wearing SAPI plates in the training areas.

I think I went blind out in Twentynine Palms after a 20 miler. I thought I was hallucinating when we were getting close and I saw Camp Wilson.

No, we were only there TAD (TDY for the USAF folks). It was a 2 week field exercise. No civilian clothes allowed, etc. Couldn't even sneak away. I think it was called Camp Foster. Not sure. There were 2 girls in my unit, and there were probably 400 guys in the Camp Foster unit. I don't think they got to leave the base much. I remember feeling very Strange around those guys. Very, very weird.

I remember that hallucination feeling, TexMex. I don't know if it was from the Maximum Effort of keeping up with the 6'2" guys, or dehydration, or the drinking I used to do. LOL.... good times. Sometimes stinky times. (Still trying to figure out what the dude was talking about with eating graham crackers & cookies on a hump. I'd have Hurled So Fast...)

My worst hump was only a 9 miler back in SOI. I know, newbie stuff, but by far my worst experience ... worse than humps twice as long.

It was January 3, absolutely freezing outside. Once you get going, its not so bad. Only thing is, it was more like 12 miles instead of 9, but we still had to make it in 3 hours. Needless to say it was a full-gear run. Our company was spread in a line over 1.5 miles long, and I was close to the front carrying two rifles and two SMAW launchers. I stood in place for 45 minutes and developed hypothermia, fever, and strep throat during that hike. I felt like my body was covered in ice, it probably was. When we started moving again I could barely feel/flex my legs. I pissed myself in a vain attempt to warm myself up, I think it helped. What a mess.

Shit, they didn't even allow that stuff. If you brought your own gear you would get railed for it. One of the NCOs would probably just take it and you wouldn't see it again.

The hardest thing about drinking from a canteen on a hump is getting the bastard back into the pouch. I usually just take it from the guy in front of me. My fireteam did this frequently. If you were the first guy, you traded places with someone else. Worked OK.

In second phase of Marine recruit training, the rifle range -- do any of you remember that hump? If memory serves, that was a twenty miler. A forced march from your barracks in 'garrison' to the rifle range barracks.

I'll never forget when I graduated boot camp, parents are there, me and the family are touring freely the base for the first time. I was pissed to find out the range was something like a quarter mile down the road from our 3rd BN barracks. WTF!! I didn't realize until then how disoriented I was...

I think they did that pretty often in USMC boot camp. Miles to go, hours of humpin' and really you went 1/2 mile as the crow flies. Used to drive me batty out on the rifle range/field exercises. Something in my brain would be saying "didn't we pass this tree before?"

20 minutes later... "yeah, I think that's that same tree again!"

40 minutes later.... same tree? Who cares... keep going....

LOL

I forgot about SMEAC!! Blimey... all that stuff...

Inspection arms... Sliding B - C - T ! Click/pop! Not too fast, not too slow... all together...

I only noticed trees because I was in Search & Rescue in High School. I was living "in my head" most of boot camp, doing whatever I had to in order to get through. (Just like you, I'm sure!) Some of the goofy stuff... the three 55 gallon garbage cans of water they dumped on the deck, right before lunch chow... (we must have had time to kill, right?)

grins....

Renee

Not that they were a long distance but I hated the 2 * 10's every year. 10 miles the first day and within 24 hrs do 10 miles again. Wearing helmet, web gear and rifle. It was a bithch if you'd gotten any kind of blister the first time around.

Humping sucks.

humping has never bothered me much but, the last two i went on were a 12 and a 15 miler in the Quantico highlands. I saw some people drop pretty hard on those. One guy had 107 temp. anothers was 109. Another guy in my platoon had to be hospitalized for 4 days after completing the hike.

boring is what I remember. Just mind numbingly boring. And inhaling a lot of dust.

Shammy,

Have you done a hump with your squad carrying a log (like in your avatar)?? Woo-hoo, Quantico memories.... NCO school!