A Frozen Fox

Mike belongs to Fox Company here at The Basic School in the USMC. Once a month, Fox Company has to spend a week in 'the field.' The company is deemed "The Frozen Fox" because all of their field exercises are during the winter months.

So last Monday, Mike packed up a ton of Marine stuff in this gi-normous camoflauge backpack that he calls a "ruck." I helped him strategically pack it, putting his clothing in plastic freezer bags to keep it dry during the forecasted thunderstorms. The ruck ended up weighing around 75 pounds, which he had to carry around for five days in the freezing cold. They were truly roughing it. No bathrooms, no showers, no tent, no fire to keep warm - only a sleeping bag. Temperatures got down to 22 degrees at night. I bought Mike some Baby Wipes (maybe he'd rather I call them wet towelettes... ha, ha) so he could semi-bathe, but he said they froze solid!

This time they practiced certain 'enemy objectives' which have a bunch of names you wouldn't understand. Well, maybe you would, but I don't understand them enough to explain them anyhow. They also watched artillery demos (ie: watched a bunch of big guns unload), a close air support demo with an F-18 (ie: watched a really loud jet fly around) and then ended the week with an 8-mile hump (ie: a really long jog carrying 100lbs on their backs).

Needless to say, he came back a dirtball and couldn't wait to get into the shower. He's been brushing his teeth several times a day since his return - just because he can, I guess! Good thing he has another month before he has to do it all over again!