Whoo Hoo! RSP Weekend!

Recruit Sustainment Program or RSP is a program designed to keep kids motivated until they ship and hand them off to their new unit. I explained it in detail here. This was the weekend we had RSP. And we had it at my armory. The armory where I have my office has sweeping pastures as well as dense woods.

This morning we had training on how to advance (low crawl) through the pasture. The kids were broken up into 4 squads. Each squad leader called out orders to manuver their squad through the pasture while the seasoned soldiers shot air guns simulating live fire. It was hilarious. We had Floyd County's finest show up because some of the neighbors were concerned about the sound of gunfire! :-)

After a lunch of MRE's we made our way to the woods. Each squad took turns advancing into the woods where the seasoned soldiers were lying in wait with paintball guns. If you have ever seen documentaries about sniper school training, this was very similar. We were not allowed to shoot at them if they were doing the right things. But if they raised their heads to look around, or stood up or did anything other than stay concealed or low crawl; they were open game! Hee hee. Off to the sides of the course we had trashcans that we threw firecrackers into to mimic the sound of machine gun fire. We also shouted things like "Allah is God!" as well as "Die Americans".

OK, it was hilarious but it was also very educational. The kids loved it but we also taught them why we stay in teams and how to look after each other. The winning squad got to pick the movie to be shown tonight (X-Men), got first chance to shower and get to eat breakfast first tomorrow morning.

I didn't stay the night, but drove home at 2030 hot sweaty smelly dirty nasty and grinning ear to ear.