"Walking Away From The Ledge” The Cut List: Vol. 13. These are the stories that didn’t make the cut to the final edit in my book. Some of these stories will jump around, but I’ll do my best not to leave you, the reader, guessing when and where they happened.
A month later, it was time for our training mission. We all took turns in March, rotating who would be the OPFOR, so that the other platoons could conduct a three-day training mission after an expedited two-day planning period. While planning, I noticed that our OBJ was near a river and told the team to start planning for Zodiac boat insertion with no engine, just paddles, minimal gear, and comfort items.
One reason for this was to keep our walking distance to a minimum, but even more important was to rub it in the water platoon’s face that I, being on a HALO team, was conducting operations with a Zodiac, while the water platoon had used vehicles for insertion. Fucking POGs couldn’t even use their boats. If we could have been inserted by HALO, I would have, but the boat was even easier in my eyes. I pleaded with the CO, who initially said “no.”
I kept on planning the mission based around the use of Zodiac and some shit version of a plan that involved a 12-click walk or so that crossed numerous hardball roads and other built-up areas that made it look not tactical in the slightest. I then took a quick breakdown of the Course of Action (COA) version of these back to the CO to show him how the boat mission was more tactical and would be a more feasible option.
He relented a bit and asked why I wanted to take the Zodiac so badly. I said something to the effect of “Sir, I’m well-trained in these operations and can do it. Also, I hate the water platoons PL and want to rub it in his fucking face that I did this and they didn’t. Not one of his teams used a boat, and I WILL pull it off!” He smiled widely and said, “I have one condition: you go all in, you have to hide and camouflage the boat so as not to be found, and send us a 10-digit grid to pick it up the next day with a truck.” I agreed with a smile, and we were off.
Mission planned, boat prepped. The only other alteration to the plan was that we had to take one extra person from OPS with a short-range Motorola radio, in case of an emergency on the river. Safety first, as they say, I had no qualms about it. It worked in our favor as there was one spot in the river where a downed tree prevented passage around, so we had to go over. He got out first and pulled the boat up to the tree, steadying it for us. We all got out onto the log, which was surprisingly stable, and pulled the boat across while he steadied it again as we all got back in.
Somewhere along this transition, the tree shifted a tad, he lost footing and fell in, but he laughed about it since he wasn’t staying in the field with us, and he was glad he could help us stay dry. We arrived at the RP, began camouflaging the boat and the small trees and branches we used to cover it, and then went our separate ways. Our buddy got a ride out, and they came back the next day to recover the boat. He walked by it twice. We didn’t even let the air out of the boat and were able to conceal it that well. Eff you, water platoon.
The rest of the training was a breeze, and we were on to being OPFOR. It was essentially a comfortable camping experience for a few days. We had grills, steaks, tents, hammocks, and any other comfort item you would bring on a camping trip to make it more bearable; we had it. To give the trainees something to report on, we even received approval to acquire a sheep, slaughter it, and cook it up, which was also a valuable learning experience for those who had never done so, including me. We had a large grate that we placed over a decent-sized campfire, and we cooked the whole thing up.
It provided an alternative to the usual stuff we would do out there, such as counter-surveillance operations, training on map reading, or hide site construction, which we still did with the FNGs. Writing about this and remembering those times reminds me why I enjoyed my infantry days more than my aviation days: camaraderie. It wasn’t as tight-knit anywhere else in my army career.
Before the deployment, we did one more training event that was somewhat new to me and noteworthy nonetheless, Wet SPIES. I had been a part of SPIES training numerous times now, but never from the water, and this presented a new and fun challenge. First, we would hop on a Blackhawk, conduct a water insertion by jumping three peeps out of each door, and then float there in the water. 
Then, they would come back by, drop the SPIES rope, and we would hook up to the line while floating. The helicopter would ascend, and we would exit the water two by two. Once cleared of any obstacles, they would fly us about two minutes away and drop us off. Then, we would get in a Humvee, head back to the pickup point, wash, rinse, and repeat, but with rucksacks. I forget how many times we did this in total, but we had the Hawks for the afternoon, so each team had about 8-10 attempts. I only had one incident while wearing the rucksack.
Somehow, the safety line, a secondary line from the main harness that we wore for hookup, got routed under my arm, and as we were being raised out of the water, my left arm was also being pulled up. Luckily, it didn’t do anything more than cause my left arm to be raised, as if I were asking a question, for the duration of the short flight. However, my arm lost circulation and felt tingly, similar to when you wake up after sleeping on your arm.
We wore fins and I wasn’t able to remove those during the flight so when we touched down, I had to fall on my side, remove both fins with my right arm since my left was dead tingly, get back up and run to the side so the Hawk wouldn’t land on any of us while we disconnected so they could pull the line back in. There is nothing special about this story except that we got to do it and have fun with it. Something that an average person or even an infantryman will never experience.
Want to know more about some of these situations? You’ll have to get the book “Walking Away From The Ledge" for more details (links below)! If this story hit home—or reminded you of your own service—drop a comment below or share it with someone who might need it.
https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/
https://books.by/w-brand-publishing/walking-away-from-the-ledge
