GORUCK SERE DOUBLE HEAVY
The Custom SERE Double Heavy...
Where do I start? How much information do I share? I guess I
will just start typing and see where this all goes.
A few years ago at Bragg, it was requested that there be
another "classic" Double Heavy. In recent years, there were some
48-hour events that were branded as a Double Heavy, but ruck weight was limited
to gear carried, PT was non-existent, and rucking miles were low. They
were based on survival skills, which although many people still had an interest
in learning these skills, they missed that physical aspect of the classic Heavy.
People wanted something more challenging. Despite what the
general population thinks, some people still love doing hard shit.
I gauged interest and within a week, collected over 100
non-refundable deposits. People made it clear they wanted this.
An amazing venue was chosen, the Summit Bechtel Reserve in
West Virginia. This location was picked because I knew it was a somewhat
central location to a decent number of people who I could count on showing up.
It is also an incredibly affordable area and absolutely gorgeous in late
October.
It was advertised as a leaf peeping event with some
rucking...
The SERE theme was chosen a bit later. It's an
event style I have wanted to do for a while, but to be honest, I think you need
at least a Double Heavy (48 hours) to have enough time to really embrace the
theme.
For those who are unfamiliar, "SERE school is a
training program for military personnel focused on Survival, Evasion,
Resistance, and Escape in hostile environments. It provides training on
wilderness survival, evasion tactics, and how to resist interrogation and
escape captivity. The training is mandatory for certain personnel, such as
pilots and special operations members, and is conducted by various military
branches."
This definitely isn't an event style for everyone. Brains
would have to be used, as well as brawn. Pride would have to be swallowed.
Mental limits would be tested in ways many haven't been tested before.
Rucks would be heavier than they have ever been, still
requiring the standard plates plus the extensive gear list.
Familiarity with certain skills would need to be learned
beforehand with fine tuning done at the event.
As time went on, 77 participants ended up dropping for
various reasons, leaving 38 sorry souls up against five of the best cadre
GORUCK has to offer.
Cadre Cleve- I wanted someone to lead this event who I was
positive would uphold the physical standard that I wanted. Cleve is intense,
but fair. He is well-respected in the community and has an incredible amount of
passion to deliver quality events.
Cadre Steve- An actual SERE School instructor. Those exemplary
qualifications aside, Steve ran my most painful event to date, so obviously I
wanted him to be a part of this one. Steve is known to have a high workload at
his events, but while also making them unique and educational.
Cadre Norwich- If there’s any Land Nav involved, not
inviting Norwich would just be irresponsible. I completed a Wilderness 48 event
with him and the amount of knowledge he not only possesses but can effectively
teach in a short period of time is astounding.
Cadre Dan- The Father of the Heavy. His love for the
community and the love he receives back is like none other. He makes his events
unique and ensures everyone takes away something meaningful.
Cadre JC- While LDB was our original 5th cadre,
he unfortunately had other obligations. JC came highly recommended by Cleve,
but I already knew why, as he was one of the cadre for my Whiskey Rebellion
custom in 2022. He is incredibly dynamic with a great mix of intensity and fun.
While there are so many other cadre I wanted to invite, I
couldn’t justify charging the participants $2,000 to have them all be there.
The months leading up to the event people shared their
training, asked questions, related concerns, etc.
Joe Baker Fitness had a solid crew completing his
personalized training program, which focused on the things we were expecting to
see at this event. Joe does this for every major event, so if you are
looking into completing an HTB or something similar, reach out to him!
He also made our incredible team weight!
I arrived at the venue Wednesday afternoon. The weather was
predicted to be cooler, but partly sunny with no chance of rain until Sunday.
I'll take it.
I was alone setting up my tent, trying my best to fight the
wind and not have it blow away on me.
Lloyd, a fellow Steel City Rucker, came next, followed by
Bradley, who flew in from Arizona and ubered to the campsite.
Earlier, Lloyd and I drove around the gravel roads in the
woods behind our campsite, knowing this was the territory we would be in for
the next 48 hours.
It was just us three that first night. I made a delicious
pasta dinner, and we had a fire. Around 9pm, we turned in for the night after
taking some time to appreciate the amazing starry sky.
The temps dropped down to the mid-30s that night. I usually
sleep hot, so I only had a T-shirt, flannel, and fleece lined joggers on. No
socks. I was frozen despite my four covers. I was also too lazy to walk the 15'
to my Jeep to grab more layers.
I woke up that morning with a "poor" sleep rating
from my Garmin. I sat in my Jeep with the heat blasting until I could feel my
feet again.
People started to trickle in that morning. We sat around
practicing knots, speculating about what the future will hold.
The day went by incredibly fast and before I knew it, it was
time to go do the Bridge Walk at the New River Gorge.
I'm someone who likes to experience whatever area I'm in
when I'm traveling, and the Bridge Walk is a must-do attraction in
Fayetteville, WV. You get to walk under the second largest steel arch bridge in
the US, clipped in with a harness so you don't fall the 876' down into the New
River, which happens to be one of the oldest rivers in the world.
After that, we went to Pies and Pints to meet up with some
fellow GRTs. Unfortunately, due to my lack of sleep, I was exhausted. We left
early and I was back in bed by 7pm, dressed in many more layers... and
socks.
Despite my better preparation on Thursday night, I still got
a "poor" sleep rating, and I started to develop a little cough. By
morning, I could feel that I was sick.
I pride myself on having a good immune system. For
reference, I have called off work sick one time in my 23 years of being
employed, so this was an unpleasant surprise. Other than feeling bad that I may
get other people sick, there was no hesitation in doing the events, however.
HEAVY 1
We showed up to the start point and lined up in alphabetical order out of anticipation. All the coupons were neatly lined up in front of us.
10 minutes before the event was set to start Cadre JC
already started yelling at us to move to a different area.
We picked everything up and formed up again.
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It's 1000. Go time.
This is where it will become a blur, so if you were at the event
and you read something that is inaccurate, let me know.
We started with a gear check. I know we didn't get through
the entire extensive packing list before we were getting yelled at and chaos
ensued.
After gear check was complete, the old school PT test began. Standard 2-minute max pushups and sit-ups, then we all took a stab at a PT test that Cadre Cleve came up with. This took a decent amount of time, and included things like pull-ups, step-ups, SB suitcase carry, KB clean and press, and a two-mile timed ruck.
I'm not sure how much time went by with JC just telling us
to get in various different positions, rucks on front, feet 6", too slow,
rucks overhead, etc. He reminded us that we haven't even been able to get in
one rep of an exercise because we couldn't even get into the position to do
so.
After getting properly stressed, we began actually doing
some PT. The exercises were switched around but the reps kept going until we
finally hit our goal of 200.
Then it was Cleve's turn...ugh.
He told us that we had more reps to do, but it wouldn't be those "easy" exercises. It would be Body Builders and Man Makers.
He kept count, speeding it up or slowing it down as he saw
fit.
I think we only got to 40 reps though before he took mercy
on our souls and we moved on to the next task. Tie a Swiss Seat, carabine yourself to the person across from you, and bear crawl the down the field. This definitely caused some laughter and exposed our shitty knot tying.
After the madness was over, we headed over to the empty flagpoles and flew the American Flag, while singing the National Anthem. After we left, the cadre also flew the POW MIA flag next to it.
We were then passed over to Cadre Norwich, the Captain of the
Compass, the Prince of the Protractor, the Guru of Gridlines. Are those enough
fake titles to emphasize that he's very good at Land Nav? Good, because I can’t
think of any more clever names.
We all sat down in the lodge, which we thankfully had access
to the entire weekend. Every person got their own map of the area.
Cadre Norwich went through a very structured rundown of how
to do Land Nav. He was teaching people who were both novices and very
experienced. He knew if we did not understand the concepts, we would be putting
ourselves in real danger, as we would be released on the hundreds of acres of
land that is the Summit Bechtel Reserve at night. Teams were divided simply
by last name, so there was nothing to ensure anyone on your team knew what they
were doing.
As I mentioned before, almost two years ago, I did the
Wilderness 48 event with Cadre Norwich and Cadre Steve, so the concepts weren't
completely unfamiliar. I also brushed up on my skills at an orienteering course
in Pittsburgh. I am by no means an expert, and I was praying someone in my
group would know more than I did, because if I was the leader, we were likely
going to die.
Since we were separated into groups based on our last name,
my group consisted of Kristi Baker, Chris Barr, Scott Brinkman, Jason Cooper,
Gage Corns, and Zeb Dudek.
Jason, fortunately, had a decent grasp on Land Nav, so
between the seven of us, we got this...maybe.
We did some practice runs around the campground. Shooting
azimuths, counting paces, pretending like we were following stars like Norwich
told us to do…
We all congregated back in the lodge and were told it was
time for our next task. We would be dropped off in an unknown location and be
told to find our way to a set of coordinates.
We were the first group to pile in the back of Cadre Cleve's
truck. The ride felt pretty long. We tried to pay attention to where we were
going, turns that were being made, etc, but in reality they didn't matter much
because we weren't trying to find out way back to the Lodge. The destination
was unknown at the time.
We pile out and he provides us with our coordinates and the
coordinates of where we need to go. He asks if we need help route planning
before he leaves to pick up the next crew. Our overly confident group tells him
we are good, so he speeds off into the night and leaves us on the side of the
road.
We weren't given any specific instructions, so our brains
went to path of least resistance, forgetting the second element of the event
theme is to evade.
We mapped out a route primarily using roads and trails. Joke
was on us because not all the roads and trails were on the map, so we got
turned around an embarrassingly large amount of times.
Cadre Cleve found us late into the night when we thought we
finally had a grasp on where we were and had a solid plan of how to get to our
destination.
He said something along the lines of, "what are you
guys doing on the roads?" but in his normal Cleve dialect and tone.
To be fair, as the first group, we were never briefed that
this was an evasion mission. We honestly just thought it was a Land Nav
exercise, and in orienteering it is usually smarter to choose trails and roads
instead of bushwhacking straight to your point.
But note taken. We were to be evading the cadre. We switched
up our route and decided to go as directly to our end point as possible. We
chose little areas of open land on the map so we could reorient ourselves to
ensure we were going the right way.
Did you know Wild and Wonderful West Virginia is the
thornbush capital of the world?
Well, it is.
Thorns were going through my gloves, in my jacket and pants,
literally stealing the hat and headlamp off my head.
We scaled up and down hills, scrambling up and sliding down
(or at least I did). My main goal was to ensure my dislocating knee stayed in
place.
We finally reached an open area and reoriented ourselves.
The end was a straight shot, literally along a road. Decisions decisions.
We chose to walk a bit off the road, but not fully in the
woods where our speed would be significantly decreased. We turned our headlamps
off. If a vehicle came, we could dive into the brush.
Well, someone thought they heard a vehicle, so we dove.
Minutes go by and we didn't hear anything, so we finally got back up and moved
on.
We see lights in the distance. It ends up being another
team.
We link up and see a pavilion in the distance. That must be
our destination.
We see Cadre Cleve.
He congratulates us, letting us know that making that
movement through the night after one lesson on Land Nav is no easy feat.
He tells us to get our canteen cups, water, and fire-starting
gear. We have five minutes to collect whatever we think we need to start a
fire. We will have 15 minutes from there to get water to boil in our cups.
I collect some larger pieces of wood to create a frame for
my cup, then lots of twigs, smaller sticks, dried grass, and leaves. If I know
anything from building fires, it's that preparation is key.
I sprinkled a few magnesium shavings on the dried grass and
it immediately sparked and caught flame. I threw the smaller twigs on followed
by the bigger ones and before I knew it, I had a nice fire going. Too nice,
because it started spreading to the mound of long dry grass next to it. Cadre
Cleve instructed me to put it out before I started a forest fire.
So yea, next time I will clear out a larger spot for my
fire...
As teams slowly worked their way in and started their fire
building task, I attempted to help others. I shared my magnesium shavings and
collected some tinder and kindling.
A group of people got a larger fire going, and it was pretty
cold out, so all those who completed the task congregated around that one until
it was time to move on.
Two of the teams piled back into the trucks and headed back
to the Lodge. They were still waiting for Team Four to arrive to the end point.
A significant amount of time had passed since even team five arrived who were
the last to get dropped off.
Maybe they died. Who knows?
My team arrived at the Lodge and had a short amount of time
to complete priorities of work before we began being tested on knots by Cadre
Norwich.
I definitely practiced prior to the event, but I came to
realize that a YouTube video may not be the same standard that the Cadre
expect. I also found out I was too fat for my Swiss seat to have secure safety
knots. Whoops.
Once all the other teams arrived (Team Four didn't die) and
were tested on their knots, we got a lesson in Resistance by Cadre Steve. We
learned how to get out of certain restraints and got some practice in.
Cadre Norwich gave us some new coordinates. Each group was supposed to do them in a different order, all ending at the same place...by the lake...
They had a change in plans, I assume due to time, and we all
ended up doing a group ruck to the lake instead of orienteering. We carried
some sandbags and water jugs.
We were steered down to the water's edge and told we could strip our outer layers off if desired.
It was time to go into the water!
I'm fairly certain I was the only one hoping for hydro burpees,
but unfortunately, I didn't get what I wanted.
We only had to "drop mortar rounds" on Cadre
Dan.
It was quick and painless.
We put our layers back on and headed down to a hatchet
throwing set up.
We were formed up into four teams and were allowed some
practice. Then we were told each missed throw would result in PT for the entire
team (there were four stations, so four teams)
Most of us were pretty terrible, so we started off with
pushups. I think we were only three rounds in before I experienced both of my
triceps completely lock up. I have never cramped there before, so that was fun.
Cadre Dan was gracious and started switching up the exercise
each miss because there were MANY misses.
When this was over, we packed back up and headed back to
Basecamp.
It had to be time to end soon. The sun came up around 7:45,
which was when we were leaving the lodge to go to the lake.
We headed back to Tower A, where we started and we got in
ranks. They made ENDEX quick and easy, knowing the break between events was
only two hours. At least I don’t recall doing anything else before ENDEX and
neither do the people I consulted when writing this.
We got patched. Only one person said they would not be
coming back for the second Heavy.
The two-hour break, in my opinion, was the right choice. Sleep
is only going to make your body start to shut down and lock up.
I felt good considering I was sick and lost my voice. No
blisters, chafing, or injuries minus plenty of scratches and pokes from thorns.
Other than the PT test and Welcome Party, the first Heavy
was fairly tame. Which, if you know me, is not the event style I prefer, but
given the fact that it is SERE School themed and we are in the middle of the
wilderness, I completely understood the reasoning behind learning the concepts
and ensuring safety before we implemented everything.
HEAVY 2
Time for Heavy #2. We lined up again in the same order we
were in before. We were ready to go before the cadre were anywhere in sight.
Enter Sandman.
The Cadre come speeding up the gravel road, blasting
Metallica.
They jump out of their trucks and immediately start
screaming at us. It was similar to the beginning of the first Heavy but taken
up a few notches with the intensity of their demeanor, their insults, and what
they asked us to do.
We became wormpigs.
Your guess is as good as mine.
We were told to crawl on our bellies and “squeal in
distress”. Since worms don’t have arms, we weren’t allowed to use ours to
advance ourselves. “Bite the deck and break your fucking neck!”
I didn’t really take a poll, but I found it hilarious, and I think most others did, as well. We played along with the insanity, asking ourselves and each other, “How did we get into this hobby? Why do we find this fun?”
There were many variations of squealing, some wormpigs were
obviously in more distress than others.
Cadre Norwich, who I didn’t know could yell so much, started
getting in the mix.
It was chaos in the best way.
The wormpigs all crawled their way into a ditch and we laid
there, our faces in the dirt, waiting for further instructions.
I asked the guy next to me, “what would happen if we all
just stopped doing what they say?”
I have always wanted to test this out at a GORUCK event but
would absolutely never do so at a “normal” event. But the theme of this one was
different.
Cadre JC informed me after the event was over that he
overheard my plans of protest and attempted to get the guy I was discussing it
with to come forward. He started to crawl towards the cadre. I told him to come
back and sit in protest.
I had literally no idea what I was doing or how it would
play out, but hey, I’m never going to get this chance again, so I’m going to
see what happens.
The guy came back to the ditch and him and I both sat in a
peaceful protest. I encouraged others to do the same.
Given that we were in one super long line, the plan was not
passed down as intended. While some of the participants joined us in sitting,
the rest continued to follow the cadres’ orders. They started to do burpees
until one by one they joined us sitting in the ditch.
I have Cadre Steve, Cleve, and JC’s faces engrained in my
memory, standing in front of me looking down like WTF.
They have a brief huddle and then they leave in their
trucks.
Ok. What do we do now?
Run!!
Hold on, let’s steal the flag!! (it was the GORUCK flag,
their “country’s flag”, which they replaced the American Flag with on the
flagpole)
Where are we going?
To the woods.
We split up into our teams from Heavy 1 and started heading
to the tree line.
Cadre Norwich caught up to us and told us to lay back down
in a new ditch. Considering we had literally no plan from here, we followed
orders. He took a phone call and then informed us that “The Underground” was
waiting for us to help us now that we have broken out of the POW camp. The
Underground consists of locals, who we may have difficulty communicating with,
but we must trust to help us escape.
Team 1 is called first.
That’s me.
Our group of seven, head down to where we see Cadre Cleve,
Steve, and JC standing at their trucks with duct tape. They start talking to us
in some crazy accents telling us we need to hurry so they can get us out of
here. They say for our safety we need to be restrained with duct tape. We are
told we need to leave our rucks in a different truck.
Zeb tries to ensure they are legit. Once they drop Cadre
Norwich’s name, we decide to trust them and pile in the back of Cleve’s truck.
So, he starts flying down the gravel roads up into the
woods. We are trying to figure out if this is really a scenario where he is
“helping” us or if we have been captured again. We all break out of our duct
tape using teamwork and the techniques we learned earlier that morning.
The truck stops on the side of the road, in the middle of
“nowhere”.
Do we get out? Is he testing us to see if we will take this
opportunity to escape?
By the time we discuss it, the truck starts moving again.
Speeding back down the way we came. Opportunity missed.
We get to a small wooden bridge and the truck stops again.
This time, without hesitation, we all jump out. We have already grabbed all the
bungee cords and carabiners that he had in the bed of his truck. For what? I
don’t know. But any gear is better than no gear.
We start scrambling up the hill.
Cadre Cleve steps out of the truck and is like, “Real talk.
You need to get back in. You’re going to need your rucks.”
Ok, I guess we took the escaping a little too seriously.
We come back down the hill. He sees all his personal
belongings in our hands.
“Are those my carabiners??”
Umm, yes.
Fortunately, he just shakes his head and lets us pile back
in the bed of the truck.
We, again, speed off to an unknown destination.
This time, we see another team there and our rucks. We are
given two sets of coordinates. One is our current location, and one is where we
need to arrive, undetected.
It is daylight now. The leaves and sticks are loud. The
route we chose is parallel to the road, but we decided to head up a hill to
stay out of sight.
I’m not sure how long the movement took, but we did arrive
undetected. Every time we heard a vehicle come down the road we would pause,
duck, hide behind a tree, etc.
We crawled in ditches, hid behind bathrooms and tents, and
finally made it safely to our destination.
Another team arrived before us and informed us we made it to
the safe zone.
We could do priorities of work until the other teams
arrived.
The teams started filtering in. From what I recall, everyone
successfully evaded.
We were allowed back in the Lodge at this point to get a
history lesson by Cadre Dan about Nick Rowe. He was a POW in the Vietnam War.
He wrote the book Five Years to Freedom and developed many of the SERE School
techniques, which are used today.
From here we are told to get our maps back out. We plot five
more points. These ones are far away. Three of the teams are told to do them
clockwise and two counterclockwise.
Our team is going clockwise. Three of us plot and find the
azimuths to ensure the work is triple checked.
We are given an extensive safety briefing, and each team is
provided with a legit first aid/survival kit. We are told at least one member
of the team needs to bring their phone to have comms with the cadre and update
when they have reached controls.
I am that person for our team. I probably should have
checked my battery before I committed to this task, but fortunately, it
survived.
We head out with about an hour worth of sunlight left.
Per the map, this control is down and then up a steep hill.
Like really steep. There’s really no way to avoid the hill without adding on
significant mileage, so we just go for it. We head down the hill. Someone hands
me a walking stick, which helped this handicapped lady out a lot.
We reach the bottom and there’s a small water crossing.
Another team is right next to us. We all briefly glance around to see if there
is a trail of some sort, because if there isn’t, we will literally be on our
hands and knees scrambling up a VERY steep hill.
The other team was a bit more apprehensive than we were. We
didn’t see a trail in the immediate area, so we start scaling the hill. We try
to give each other some space, as there are loose rocks.
One of the rocks
falls down to the bottom of the hill where the other team is standing.
Fortunately, not injuring anyone.
We crawl to the top of the hill, using our ropes and the
knots we learned to help each other out.
I’m very proud of our team’s effort to get to the top of the hill safely.
So, once we reached the top, we still needed to find the
control. The terrain started to go back downhill a bit, so we second guessed
ourselves, not remembering that the contour lines only show a descent of at
least 40’. Once we recalled this information, we found the control just as
darkness hit.
The first team to arrive was tasked with activating the chem
lights, so we are fortunate we arrived before the sun completely faded.
We took a brief break here to recheck our route for the
second control. This one was a little further away, but the terrain wasn’t
nearly as hilly.
We headed off into the darkness.
We reached a trail, which presented us with two
options…follow it and see if it went around this huge cliff (yes, it was a
cliff, Cadre Norwich) or scale the cliff.
We decided to use the trail, only to find that we were
heading too far North.
I can’t give many more details on this one because we got
turned around so much, we almost camped out in a ravine (not really a ravine,
per Cadre Norwich).
We finally found it and headed off to the third one.
At the rate we are going, we may finish the whole event with
this movement, but we know at least two of the teams are behind us. The other
two are going the opposite direction.
The third controls is pretty far away. I believe it was 2km
or so.
We decided to plot shorter points to help guide us. This
seemed to work until we ran out of water. We were getting very close to the
third control, but once we reached a road, I decided to message the cadre to
see if we could get a water resupply.
They tell us someone is on their way. Eric, Belinda,
Shannon, and Jenny our shadows, arrive with some water. We fill up and get
ready to head back out. Eric is then told to bring us to a different location
in his truck.
We cram in their vehicles and reach an area on the road
where we are met with multiple other teams. We learn that one guy has a
sprained ankle.
We all ruck to a location where we form up and get
priorities of work.
The cadre discuss our movements and discuss the Welcome
Party debacle. Cadre Steve said if we tried that at a POW camp, we would all be
shot. I, personally, disagree. They would probably shoot everyone else except
me and make me watch.
But fortunately, we are just at a GORUCK event.
Things get a little more serious when Cadre JC discusses
that what will happen next will get very real. He doesn’t give us specifics,
but we are at a SERE event. We know the Resistance Phase is coming.
He tells us if at any moment we need to step out of the
situation, we can call out “training timeout” and they will remove us without
judgement.
We start a two-hour ruck to wherever we are going. I’m not
sure if it was really two hours, but that’s the time hack I was told. We carry
the water bladders, but otherwise, we just have our rucks.
Tony, who had the sprained ankle, didn’t want to drop the
event. So, he was escorted by two fellow participants during the ruck. Cadre
Cleve stayed behind us in his truck to make sure if he did have to drop, he
wasn’t stuck in the middle of nowhere.
To set the tone, Cadre Cleve blasted a playlist made for
torture.
We ruck for a while.
Our TL mentioned we are going to be going to the Lodge soon
and there will be no time for bathroom breaks. If we need to go at all, go now.
We all relieve ourselves.
He also tells us to make sure we are wearing the layers we
want to have on because there will be no time to change. Well, my dumb brain
correlated the Lodge with warmth, so I took my jacket and gloves off, leaving me
with my compression T-shirt and a mesh GR long sleeved shirt.
We rucked a bit further and then we heard trucks speeding up
in front of us. We are instructed to take our rucks off.
“Get on your faces!”
We all immediately lay down where we are on the cold gravel.
My headlamp is still on, so all I see for the next 20
minutes or so (who knows, I have no concept of time anymore) is super close,
red gravel. I tried to turn my head to look at my surroundings when the cadre
left, but unfortunately, my ruck was directly to the left of me, and the woods
were to the right.
I hear people getting hit on the shoulder, being told to get
up. Only a few at a time.
I wonder when it is going to be my turn?
I was finally told to stand, which probably took me two
business days considering how stiff I had gotten laying on the ground. I was
given a pillowcase and told to put it over my head. I was forcefully directed
into a truck.
I have become very familiar with the back of trucks.
We are removed and led into a building. We walked through
draped plastic. We are told to kneel on the concrete floor with our ankles
crossed and our hands on our heads.
The “song” Boots from 28 Days later is blasting on repeat
with a strobe light going off.
It’s a really good thing we are at a secluded campsite in
the middle of nowhere WV or we would be getting a lot of attention right now.
Once the cadre leave, I hear some participants talking. They
are trying to get a count of how many people are in the room, where we are,
etc.
We find out we are in one of the large outdoor bathrooms at
the campsite.
I feel my calves start to cramp up in this position. I
change positions and return to kneeling when I hear the trucks return.
I don’t know how much time went by, but at some point, I’m
told to stand and go kneel in a different area. I am tied up with wraps around
my wrists, neck, and mouth.
I stay in that position, again, for an undetermined amount
of time.
I am then told to stand, and my rope is readjusted. My
pillowcase is tucked tighter into the rope around my neck. Water is poured on
the pillowcase and on my hands.
It was getting challenging to breathe, impossible to take a
deep breath, so I just focused on controlled, slow breathing.
I feel cold, but my dumbass took my jacket and gloves off,
so that’s on me.
In my hood, I close my eyes. Sometimes when I’m trying to
sleep but my brain is overstimulated it just plays super-fast slide show of
completely random pictures. Almost like a flip book, with each picture only
lasting a split second. I can’t turn it off. I can’t think about something else
and have it go away. So that was my entertainment for “a few hours” or however
long we were subjected to this.
I felt alone.
When we were being told to fix our layers and go pee, the TL
also stressed that we can’t “escape” this or we will not be patched. They
apparently had enough of our shenanigans. Understandable. They had things they
wanted us to experience, and I wasn’t going to mess with that.
But somewhere along the line of standing there only being
able to hear the same blasting song and not being able to see anything, I
convinced myself that I misheard the instructions. That I was the only one left
in the bathroom.
I debated trying to look around, but that was impossible.
The way my rope was tied, if I even lowered my hands, it would choke me. So
that was out.
I tried to listen. When the songs ended, there was a brief
second of silence. Occasionally, I heard things off in the distance, but
nothing sounded like it was happening near me.
Oh well, if I’m the last idiot standing here with a
pillowcase around their head, sobeit.
Finally, I feel the ropes around my hands being untied. I am
led by the remainder of the rope around my neck back outside.
The transition to the pillowcase being on and it being
removed is fuzzy. I have no recollection of what I first saw when it was taken
off.
I *think* people were doing bear crawls in a circle and I
had to join them. We all joined it until we were one unit again. I think we did
more low crawls and more wormpigging and then headed back into formation.
We were told to put our hoods back on. One person lost
theirs while crawling around. I think we were punished. I don’t really
remember. I do recall our TL pleading with the cadre to have mercy on us.
At some point, the sun came up. I recall being in Eric’s
truck a little after midnight, so we have been at this for quiet some time.
Our hoods remain on, and we are directed to certain areas,
and told to do certain things. You can hear screaming, banging, yelling, but
you have no idea what is actually happening.
I can hear people being pulled away to be interrogated.
It is my turn. I am grabbed by the arm and guided into
another bathroom. I am told to sit on the floor. I crack my head off something
on my way down.
I hear a few other interrogations. I already decided I’m
just going to say I’m a solo traveler, who enjoys experiencing different
cultures.
I’m told to stand up and shoved against a wall. I hear Cadre
Steve’s voice. I am asked who I am. I squeak out my my first name. Keep in mind
I have little to no voice at this point. I am asked why I’m in a war-torn
country. I explained I was just traveling. I’m asked why I’m alone. I say I
enjoy traveling alone. He asks why my voice is shaking. I say I’m sick. He asks
why I would come spread my germs into his country. Fair point. I apologize and
he moves on to the next person.
I am guided back outside and told to kneel. Intermittently,
I am being told to scream. This is a fun task, given my voice. At least
everyone knows who they are next to.
A little more time passes and everyone is interrogated. We
get back into a group with our hoods still on.
The “whore concubines” are separated from the males and tied
together. We are told to do PT while the guys watched.
At some point, we were allowed to remove our hoods and told
to run with a KB to a certain spot and back. The guys are doing 8-count man
makers while being berated. We are told to join in, but from a distance.
When we get back we are called up to where the TL is being
questioned on where their countries flag is.
At first, we played dumb, but Roberto, the TL, told us to
just tell the truth.
We do and let them know that Josh McAlister took it.
Josh is brought up and put in the front leaning rest. He is
questioned by the cadre, but informs them that he does not have it any longer.
Who has it then?
Melissa Roth steps forward and informs the cadre that she
now has the flag. She takes it out of her ruck and hands it over.
The Cadre hang the flag on the wall in front of us.
We are told to get back to where we were, the women still
separated from the men.
We are then told to bow down to their flag.
One of the participants refused to do so, even though it was
just role playing. This went on for a while.
Earlier in the night, the cadre told us that a way of
silently showing defiance is when asked to bow to a flag, the prisoners bowed
less and less deeply each time, tiny changes that go unnoticed in the moment
until you aren’t even bowing. I tried to
pass this along, but it didn’t catch on since all the females were separated
from the males, who were obviously the vast majority of participants.
This then led to the cadre asking us our religious beliefs.
Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Agnostic, Atheist. We were told to go to different
“squares” depending on our beliefs. They pointed out how easily we allowed
ourselves to be separated by religious beliefs and how this can be exploited.
We took the hint and all united in one square.
I can’t fully remember what happened after this. I feel like
we did more wormpigging. We definitely were tasked with some weird thing where
everyone’s rucks had to be in a line with our ropes going through, tied with a
different knot compared to the knot on its right and left. Basically it was
just one of those chaos tasks.
Things were not going smoothly. We were told to shoulder the
bags using the ropes. We did, but the spacing of participants was off, making
it awkward. While we tried to strategize, we were told to dump our rucks.
Everything was scattered about.
I, again, think there was more wormpigging. I recall the
emphasis on having our hands on our low backs this time to prevent us from
using them.
We were told to put our hoods back on.
We were formed up in a line. Each person being guided by the
shoulders in front of them.
We were marched around the field for a while and then placed
in very tight formation by the cadre.
We were told to remove our hoods, and as we did, we see the
American Flag being raised on the flagpole in the distance while the National
Anthem was being played.
Tears were shed.
It hits a little harder with the theme of this event,
thinking about what prisoners of war have gone through, especially the ones who
never made it home. People in America truly have no idea how easy they have it,
and this event gave us the tiniest glimpse of what it would be like if we were
caught in hostile territory.
Cadre speeches were given, and patches were handed out. We were
asked to gather our belongings and then head to the lodge for a briefing on
both the Resistance Phase, specifically, and then the event, overall.
We took some photos by the shield, which was given to the
actual SERE School Instructor, Cadre Steve, and then we headed down to the
lodge.
The briefing began after everyone was given some time to
settle in. The Cadre realize the emotional impact the Resistance Phase could
have had on the participants. People were invited to share their experiences
and Cadre Steve did a great job talking through everything to help ensure no
one left the event with any real damage.
Cadre Cleve then went over an entire AAR of the event. He
summarized the timeline, which was already getting hazy at this point. He
discussed what was liked and what wasn’t. This was super helpful in writing
this blog. It’s very easy to forget things, especially after 48 hours of
activity.
After this, everyone grabbed some BBQ, which was catered by
the venue.
We hung out, told stories, shared experiences, and had a
good ol’ time.
I don’t really consider my write-ups an AAR. It is just a summary
of the event. There’s not much I would do differently in both the planning of
this event or my training. Maybe be even more proficient with Land Nav, but
otherwise, I think I was well prepared.
A few days after the completion of this event, there have already
been talks about planning a Triple Heavy in the same location. There would be opportunities
to do a Solo or Double Heavy, as well. So be on the lookout for that, likely
Oct 2026.
Training:
I typically do my own training but loosely followed Joe
Baker Fitness. I HIGHLY recommend him if you aren’t sure how to focus your
training or if you just like to have the community aspect of training when you
can’t workout with people in person.
Primary Gear:
• 25L Rucker with Field Pocket
• goodwerks Boogie Bag
• 3L Source Bladder
• 1L Hydropak
• Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Dry Bags
• Black Diamond Storm Headlamp
• Milwaukee Work Gloves
Food consumed (per event):
• 1 Range Bar
• 1 Recpak
• 2 Epic Bars
• 1 Frog Fuel
• LMNT
• Saltstick chews
Clothing (used):
• GORUCK Simple Pants
• UA compression shirt
• GORUCK ToughMesh LS shirt
• Patagonia Micro Puff
• Drymax socks
• Topo Traverse
• Fleece Beanie
SHADOWS
Belinda
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