It Was So Close!

With Map Reading under my belt, I only had a few other obstacles to overcome and really, these were more or less hands on experiences more than tests to pass so once you get to this point you pretty much passed the course --pretty much.

So PLDC was winding downs and soon I'd get back to my normal life or maybe my normal soldiering.  Serving my country was better suited for me from behind a desk, wielding my pen instead of my weapon.  I'm not a big fan of the outdoors.  I mean, I actually love the outdoors and without fail, I'm in awe of The Creator when I see the things around me, the beauty that surrounds me but I'm not one to just want to be outside very often or for very long.  You know in the summer time when restaurants have an outdoor patio you go out to eat?  I HATE getting seated outside.  That's just me.

So needless to say, spending 3 days and 2 nights (or was it 4 days and three nights?  I don't remember) in the great outdoors was less than appealing to me.  Making things worse, it wasn't like I was going on a cool camping trip or picnic.  No, I'd be wearing my TA-50, carrying my weapon and leading soldiers that knew far more about this than I did.  I wasn't very excited.

 But I had to go.

It wasn't unusual for females, not all but some, to try and get out of a field exercise some claiming female problems, others just coming up with whatever excuse they could.  That wasn't me and in fact, it angered me.  We were never going to be taken seriously or treated fairly if every time the going got tough we all raised our hands and claimed menstrual cramps.  Don't get me wrong, just like you can't assume all male soldiers are like the ones that were dishing out sexual harassment, you also can't assume all female soldiers were like this.  But you know, just like Mom used to say, "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch."  As hard as other females were working and doing well, it only took one to claim she had female problems and that undid it all --what everyone else worked so hard to build up.  And others just feigned other illnesses, blisters on their feet ---whatever.  I saw this happen time and time again in Basic Training, AIT, in my unit and now PLDC.  As much as I hated these type of exercises, as much as I didn't want to go, I also didn't want to be that female soldier.

We had 4 platoons and we were set up to play war games, each platoon against the others.  We had to use our map reading skills and all those things we learned in the classroom.  This was like the culmination of the course --putting into action the things we learned.  I don't remember much detail about the field exercise except for a few things that happened.  I do remember being miserable and just my luck, it rained and you know, the Army is like the post office --not rain nor snow . . . . I guess the only good thing was that since there were so few females (even much fewer than we started off with), we did not have to share a pup tent so we each had our own.  Or maybe I had my own because I was Platoon Sergeant --like I said, details are sketchy but I was glad to have some privacy and a somewhat comfortable sleep because pup tents aren't very big.  In basic training I "bunked" with a female solider that snored --it was a long night, very long.

So that's all I had left to do now --spend a few days outdoors, complete a 5 mile run attend the Dining In and --GRADUATION.

It was soooo close.  I just couldn't blow it now.