[NoVa-Corvairs] more stuff

[Lawrence Brent]

Daniel always knew you could dazzle them with brilliance rather than baffle
them with bull s---.way to go   L D


> [Original Message]
> From: Daniel Goldberg <goldie at danielgoldberg.net>
> To: NVCC List <novacc-list at corvair.org>
> Date: 1/29/2007 9:26:10 PM
> Subject: [NoVa-Corvairs] more stuff
>
> Hey gang.
>
> It's been a while since I've written about JAG, but the Army doesn't give
me three minutes to scratch myself, much less write prose for your
amusement.  However, now that graduation is upon us and I’m about to
commence my own personal trail of tears to Oklahoma, I thought that I could
spend a little time knocking out a few paragraphs.
>
> The academics here aren't at all difficult, and you're not required to
work very hard.  At a happy hour a month ago, the JAG school commandant (a
brigadier general) told me to begin studying for that Monday's exam on
"Sunday night, around nine."  Needless to say, I drank up.  
>
> The academics aren’t terribly interesting either – contracts, criminal
law, family law, fiscal law, administrative law, etc.  Everything you’d
expect.   However, the operational and international law courses are worth
discussing.  The instruction is remarkable because the professors (all of
whom are field-grade JAGs) are quite candid about how the administration
bollixed up detainee treatment policy and based the legal rationale for
going to war in Iraq on what amounts to a thin reed.  Whether or not you
agree with the administration, it’s astonishing that our operations
instructors aren’t government hacks.  Rather, they’re thoughtful people
(even the one Marine lieutenant colonel) who speak from real, in-theater
experience and always refrain from shrill criticism. 
>
> Maybe the best part of operations was the outdoor scenarios, in which we
applied the rules of engagement to mock situations involving detainees and
checkpoints.  Personally, I found these training exercises to be
particularly stressful – your brain is saying “adhere strictly to the rules
of engagement” while your gut is screaming “Kill! Kill!”  It’s remarkable,
I think, that we don’t hear more stories about war crimes and human rights
abuses: the Soldiers downfield are only human, and it’s natural to put
self-preservation above the law of war.  Hell, I felt that way and I’m
running around bourgeois Charlottesville with a Smurf-blue rubber facsimile
of an M-16.
>
> The physical aspect of JAG school has been rewarding as well.  When I
reported for duty in October, I felt like young Danny Russo from "The
Karate Kid."   That is to say, I had been training diligently on my own –
lifting weights and running – but I had no idea how I would do in actual
competition.
>
> While at Ft. Lee, the new JAG class was shown two films: one on Airborne
training and one on Air Assault.  We were told that this JAG class was
allotted five slots for Airborne school and four for Air Assault. 
Competition for one of the precious few slots was voluntary, but it was
impressed upon us (especially those with no military experience) that
passing Airborne or Air Assault school would give an Army lawyer that much
more credibility when addressing non-JAG Soldiers.  
>
> The Airborne film was everything you'd expect: cheesy studio-musician
electric guitar music played over montages of Soldiers falling out of
planes.  However, despite the use of the same anonymous studio hacks, the
Air Assault film grabbed me -- Soldiers rappelling from helicopters a
hundred feet in the air, ferrying a Humvee from one point to another by
slinging it from a helicopter, and, of course, clevis pins.  Clevis pins!  
Apparently, if one was to sling a Humvee from a helicopter, one would
attach clevis pins tied to long ropes secured to the chopper to hooks on
the Humvee's hood and rear.  More important, anyone who has owned four
Corvairs in twelve years knows that the damn things are held together with
rust and clevis pins.  Hell, there's not a page in the Corvair factory shop
manual on which the words "clevis pin" isn't printed.
>
> "This could be fun," I thought.
>
> The line to sign up to compete for one of the Airborne slots was about 30
deep.  However, only about 12 people signed up to compete for Air Assault
school.  Initially, I thought it was because Air Assault was less sexy than
Airborne, but perhaps it was because the competition for Air Assault is
more grueling.  The order of merit for Air Assault would be based upon a
series of rucksack marches: competitors would have to traipse four, then
six, then eight, then finally 12 miles up and down the hills of
Charlottesville, dressed in full combat gear (helmet, boots, etc.), also
carrying a 25lb rucksack (and, as I would later find out, the Smurf-blue
rubber facsimile of an M-16).  The 12-mile finale would have to be
completed in less than three hours, the eight-miler in less than two, and
so forth.  Airborne tryouts, on the other hand, would be based on run
times.  Since I'm not a particularly fast runner when compared to some of
my younger and smaller peers, Air Assault was probably a better choice for
me.
>
> So, getting back to my Karate Kid analogy, I had no idea what my body
could do when pitted against others.  Because athletics weren’t stressed
when I was a kid, I never competed in organized physical competition -- not
in high school, not in college, not ever.  Also, I'm not what you would
call "coordinated" -- that is to say, I'm completely spastic, having little
or no control over my motor functions.  However, the more time I spend in
the Army, the more I both want to belong and want to prove to my peers that
I belong.  Also, there are things that I just want to prove to myself.
>
> So through November and December I rucked.  Twelve candidates eventually
dwindled to nine; nevertheless, I always finished in the top four, even
finishing first in the six-mile march.  Despite the shin splints and
torn-up feet and the fatigue that would last all day, I couldn't imagine
quitting.  According to Chief McIntosh, the Warrant Officer who's
overseeing the competition, the Charlottesville course is harder than the
official Air Assault course at Ft. Campbell, KY, due to the fact that here
we're marching up little mountains.  But anyway, in addition to the
physical stress, the ruck marches are mentally and emotionally intense:
you're wandering alone though the pre-dawn darkness and you want to quit
because the pain is relentless, but something wills you to continue and
finish.
>
> Two Thursdays ago I reported at 0350 for the 12 miler -- the ruck march
that would count above the others.  Though the weather was clear, the
temperature was about 20 degrees.  At 0400 we were off and I led for the
first mile!  Then disaster struck -- the 25lb bag of rice I had been using
to weight my ruck came over and out the top.  I mean, the damn thing
committed suicide.  I had secured it the day before and rechecked it that
morning, but apparently I screwed up.  As I stood frozen, staring at my bag
of failures, the other marchers were fast approaching.  I was just
crestfallen, sensing that all of my hard work and training had been for
naught.  Chief, who had been jogging with us in case of an emergency,
yelled at me to stand still.  I don't know what was worse: having a man who
earned a bronze star in Iraq forcibly squaring me away on the sidewalks of
Charlottesville, or watching my peers shuffle past me.  Honestly, once the
bag of rice was again in my ruck, I wanted to quit and go back to bed.
>
> The thing is, over these past few months, I feel as though I've become a
different person.  So I kept going.  And going. Eventually, I overtook all
but one person who passed me and finished second overall, coming in behind
only a marathoner who broke the course record that morning.  My time of
2:33 was only two minutes off the old record.
>
> The next weekend I had another chance to put this "different person"
theory to the test, as I passed an exact facsimile of the Ft. Campbell Air
Assault confidence course (located at Ft. Pickett here in VA).  Some of the
obstacles put me forty-five feet in the air, which was damn scary since I
was out in the open hanging onto ladders and ropes.
>
> That Monday the order of merit list was published.  I finished second.  I
will be attending Air Assault school at the end of May so I can learn how
to assault air.
>
> There’s a whole lot more I wanted to write, mostly about camaraderie, my
new friends, drinking and raising hell, but proving myself physically will
be the most important thing I take from this place.
>
> your pal,
> daniel
>
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