CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!

Coming up to the barbed wire part of the course was a relief as it signaled the end --and a piping hot dinner was waiting for us as soon as we completed the course. That was enough to motivate me to low crawl even in the most undesirable conditions.

Prior to taking on the course, we were given instructions by our drill sergeants such as; do not hook your rifle onto your pistol belt (oops), do not leave anyone in your squad behind, do not forgot to clear your mask, etc. The final and most important instructions were in regards to the end of the course. We were told we'd be crawling through lanes, so to speak, made of barbed wire. At the end of the wire was a bunk where our drill sergeants would be engaging in live fire. We were given STRICT instructions over and over and over that once we got to the end of the barbed wire to wait to receive a signal from the drill sergeant before proceeding. Once we were given the signal to go, we were to get up and run while keeping our head down and jump into the bunker, which was at a below ground level. Got it? Good. Let's go.

The state of mind I was in -- tired (exhausted, really), skin still burning and itching from the tear gas, wet --miserably wet, loaded down with gear (the beloved TA-50 type stuff), hungry (it was way past our dinner time) & cold (this was in late November or early December at Ft. Dix, NJ). It was extremely loud both from the live fire and the recorded sounds. It was a very distracting scene. Some of the live fire were tracer bullets which I actually liked those (yes, she found something she likes). They looked like red fireworks and against the dark night sky, it was quite pretty. Can a soldier use the word "pretty" to describe a firing range? Well, this soldier just did.

The low-crawl is exactly what is sounds like it would be. It's that pre-crawling a baby does before he actually get up on his hands and knees. You use your elbows, knees and feet to push yourself along while on your belly --staying as low to the ground as possible which means, you keep your behind down. In other words, don't stick your butt up in the air. There, I said it --I said butt. Let's move on. Your hands aren't very useful as you have to grip your rifle with those --being ever ready to fire that bad boy in case the enemy approaches. In this instance, we were crawling through rows of barbed wire so you had to be mindful to keep your elbows close to your body and keep very very low to the ground. As you're crawling through, your squad members are behind you --as in a single file manner.

When I got to the end of the barbed wire I waited for drill sergeant to signal. The bunk looked a lot like a baseball dugout --drill sergeant were standing there firing various weapons; some were live bullets, some were blanks, some were tracer rounds. There were several rows of these barbed wire lanes so you'd see 4-6 soldiers all running towards the bunk at one time. My squad was one of the last to come in --as was always the case with me. I was super weak and super slow at most Army things. The lanes to the left and right of me were empty but I had several soldiers directly behind me. I guess they were as hungry and tired as I was because they were anxious to get through.

I'm waiting for drill sergeant to signal me over when suddenly --he just walks away. Now what? Well, surely he will be back so I wait. And I wait. And I wait --no drill sergeant. Now my squad members behind me, who can't see the bunker, are getting ticked off at me, "Go!", they keep yelling. So I've got all this overhead noise, soldier yelling at me and in the state of mental and physical exhaustion. I decided to make a run for it. I get up and run across the range to the bunkers, keeping my head low like a good soldier that follows directions to the T --NOT!

As I was running drill sergeant decided to make his way back and he sees me and yells while waving his arms, " CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!" All the while he dives onto the ground towards me, grabs me by the chest and throws me into the bunker. Once in the bunker, he picks me up off the ground and in a very "shaken baby syndrome" manner, puts his hands on my shoulders and starts shaking me and yelling, "WERE YOU NOT TOLD TO WAIT FOR THE SIGNAL?" Transitioning from anger to concern, he then starts patting me down saying, "Are you okay? Do you feel anything? Are you okay?" He's a bit calmer now, not as panicked as he reaches for my helmet, takes it off and inspects it. In a very fatherly fashion, he put his hands on the side of my face, turning my head from side to side. He looks me straight in the eye, shaking his head and though I'm not a mind reader, I could clearly read his thoughts at that moment, "Stupid, stupid trainee!" By this time 2 other drill sergeants walk over asking, "Is she okay?"

Drill sergeant just looks and says, "Yeah, she's fine."