Soldier For A Day

Last weekend, we had a fun day at Fort Hood. The 1st brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division had a great event for soldier's spouses. "Soldier for a day" allowed spouses to do some of the things that their soldiers do. Now, the interesting thing is that Laura got to do things that I cannot do. Since I am a non-combatant I cannot touch weapons. Anyway...

The day included:

- physical training (PT) - push-ups (regular, wide arm & diamond), crunches (regular and bicycle), side straddle hops (aka. jumping jacks), flutter kicks and jogging in place.

- clearing a structure - There was a wooden structure that the ladies had to go and check for "bad guys." In the structure there were two bad guys that they killed with their blank rounds. Laura was so funny. She was the leader of the stack. When she entered the room where the "bad guys" were, she used up a good portion of her ammunition. After they were "dead" they were told to search the "bad guys." Laura walked up touched the dummy and then backed away shot him a few more times and said, "He is dead!" What happened to the woman I married? :-) LOL!!!

- grenade course - Laura did very well in this event. I did not know that she had an arm on her like she does. There were two targets and one bunker that she had to grenade. For the two targets she had to throw about 30 or so feet. She threw the grenades right on target! On the bunker she had to run up to the bunker and throw the grenade in the opening.

- disassemble and reassemble a M4 - Laura did this beautifully. She has never really been around weapons before but you would not have known it. She did it in the time allotted!

- firing at a stationary target - Laura was given ten rounds to hit the target. She got it on the first round. She was shooting blank rounds but the weapons and targets were equipped with MILES. I do know know what the acronym stands for but it is basically military style laser tag. I have a sharp shooting wife.

- nine line medi-vac - Laura got to take care of a wounded patient (weighted dummy). She also got to transport and load said patient to a black-hawk helicopter. I have not been so close to a chopper as she was. She loved it!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day. Enjoy!

 

Awards were given to the teams with the highest scores from the events. Laura's group did not get any awards. It was not because they were not good, it was because there was only four of them and the other teams had about a dozen plus. After awards were given, we had dogs and burgers. 

I guess the best way to describe the day is to say that Laura made a great soldier for the day!! I am proud of her!