The Conn: Raiding Party

Raiders Party

In the traditions of the Great Sioux Nation, raiding parties were small groups of highly trained warriors who would sneak into the enemy camp and steal horses, food, or other desired materials. In keeping with that tradition, Marion Military Academy presents Raiders party.

6:30 am on a Saturday, the key turned in the lock and echoed down the deserted hallway at our school. The soft footfalls were determined in their cadence as they went to retrieve their gear. The bus was waiting outside and soon they'd be on their way to stake a claim in enemy territory, West Port High School.

With the signal from their judge, the rope bridge competition began promptly at Zero800. Juarez gave the signal and the team began assembling their harnesses. They had exactly five minutes to get in gear and get all their equipment laid out and ready.

With their harnesses complete and all gear awaiting inspection, the judge went to each member of our pack and checked the harness for safety; no kinks in the ropes, properly tied knots and open carabiners.

The whistle sounded sharply in the morning air and the fog was still lifting from the main fields as the team raced toward their post. Boggz lead them setting the first ropes in motion while McSeaton attached his carabiner to his rope and raced to the other post to tie off, just as they had practiced.

On the other end, the team worked furiously to establish and draw their rope as taut as possible. A sagging rope, in the beginning, means that your team could be dropped into the water an swept away before you even reach your objective.

With their lines secured our team began to cross the bridge

One by one they arrived and slipped out of their harness to help bring their pack mate across.

With everyone across the clock stopped and it was time to break down and stow the gear to get ready for the next trial.

Next up was the medical test. Cadets trained and tested over and over again to be able to answer questions on diagnosis and treatment of field injuries and the best way to triage and stabilize a pack mate who gets injured on a raid.

In the absolute worst case scenario, the entire team might have to scrub their mission and get their injured member back to a field hospital. This requires every member of the team to be physically fit and capable of relieving each other without stopping. To test their determination, the entire team had to run a three and a half mile course carrying an eighty pound "injured" person on a gurney.

Some cadets looked on in amazement as they began their run.For the rest of us...

There's not much to do, so we waited and got to know the locals...

Eventually, our team reappeared and, realizing they were in the home stretch, pushed themselves even harder to shave seconds off their time.

Boggs offering shouts of encouragement to his pack!

Good soldiers aren't born, they are built through some of the toughest training imaginable.

After a rest and some recovery time with food and water, the team was ready for their next ordeal. The obstacle course.

This consisted of a run around the track field and then a team carry of a gigantic log.

Next came the kettle run. Each warrior has to pick up a weight and run the length of the filed with it while the clock relentlessly ticks on.

It's not enough to run the course once. True warriors have to be ready for anything so they had to run the course in reverse a second time! By the end, the wear and tear began to show as our heroic warriors began to fray around the edges. Boggs, ever the Alpha went back to follow his last warrior while shouting words of encouragement to her the entire time.

One of the events that everyone was looking forward to, was the tire flip. True warriors train harder than the task they are going to perform and our team is no exception. The General, the tire they normally train with weighs just shy of a whopping 800 pounds! The tire used in competition seemed anorexic in comparison, weighing in at a sleight 400 pounds.