I remember a similar exhausted field training excercise. Our platoon was to make a night assault on an enemy position. We were seperated into squads and then the squad leaders told us to sit tight while they got their orders from the platoon leader. My squad waited quietly, all of us trying to stay awake but enjoying the rest and quiet.
Our squad leader was gone for a long time, and we could hear some of the other squads moving out toward their objective. Still no sign of our squad leader. I considered taking the initiative and trying to find our dear leader, but I was really tired and it was only an FTX. Let that idiot find us himself! No one else seemed to be willing to get up from our comfy spot either. No one spoke.
Then suddenly all hell breaks loose from over the ridge. The assault is under way! Still no sign of our dear leader. A lot of time goes by. I slide in and out of consciousness as the firing dies down and the rest of the platoon starts to get organized and starts back toward us. I get the squad on their feet as the rest of the platoon approaches and we agree to pretend like we made the assault and just melt in with the rest. As we are doing so our squad leader shows up looking scared. I give him a one eye-brow salute and he knows to keep quiet.
No one besides the members of the squad ever find out that we didn't participate in the assault. Later on I talked to our squad leader. He had turned the wrong way on way back from talking to the platoon leader, and had only got reoriented when the firing broke out, at which point he ran his ass off cross country to get back. He was very relieved to find us first, before anyone else noticed that he wasn't with his squad.
Our squad leader was gone for a long time, and we could hear some of the other squads moving out toward their objective. Still no sign of our squad leader. I considered taking the initiative and trying to find our dear leader, but I was really tired and it was only an FTX. Let that idiot find us himself! No one else seemed to be willing to get up from our comfy spot either. No one spoke.
Then suddenly all hell breaks loose from over the ridge. The assault is under way! Still no sign of our dear leader. A lot of time goes by. I slide in and out of consciousness as the firing dies down and the rest of the platoon starts to get organized and starts back toward us. I get the squad on their feet as the rest of the platoon approaches and we agree to pretend like we made the assault and just melt in with the rest. As we are doing so our squad leader shows up looking scared. I give him a one eye-brow salute and he knows to keep quiet.
No one besides the members of the squad ever find out that we didn't participate in the assault. Later on I talked to our squad leader. He had turned the wrong way on way back from talking to the platoon leader, and had only got reoriented when the firing broke out, at which point he ran his ass off cross country to get back. He was very relieved to find us first, before anyone else noticed that he wasn't with his squad.
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