I did the coolest thing today! Our brigade in 1st CAV is 3rd Brigade. Within that brigade, there are 6 battalions. Our battalion (3-8 CAV) is one of the six. Well, the 3rd Brigade rear detachment (Rear D) leadership team put together a Spouse Spur Ride for the entire brigade. Basically, it's an all-day event for the spouses and at the end, we get an award and "earn our spurs." We don't get actual spurs (what the heck would we do with them?), but we do get a little pin that we wear to official CAV events.
There were 90 of us from the brigade signed up and of those 90, 14 of us were from our battalion, 3-8. They broke the 90 up into groups of 30 and we all rotated events. For my group, we started off with land navigation. They educated us on reading their maps, using their compasses, and using their protractors. Sounds easy, but trust me, it's not that easy. We had to find four particular points and it was hilarious. For the third point, we obviously measured the degrees incorrectly because the path we came up with led me smack into MAJ Jack's truck. Not good. Then after that, we went into the shooting simulator and shot M16's and M4's! They were the real guns but obviously without bullets. I got to do it three times and OH BOY, did I love it. Seriously, I loved it. You'd shoot towards a screen whenever you saw a bad dude pop up. When it was over, they'd replay everything and you could see how many people you got. I got a bad dude each time but on the last time, I got like 5!! Very cool. After that, we did the tank simulators. These are $10million machines and WOW, they were amazing. We got to play gunner, tank commander, and loader. When I was gunner, I blew up two tanks! After that, we joined up with the other two groups and did the obstacle course. It was hilarious and we had to carry M16's the entire time. It started off with throwing grenades, then we did the tires, then the balance beams, then low crawling, then carrying a dummy, then climbing barriers, and finishing off with more grenade throwing. Yes, we did this carrying the weapons the whole time. I forgot to mention that they had people hiding in the grass, shooting blanks at us and they also heckled and yelled in our faces during the low crawl. We got all muddy and had a blast!! The best part is that we knew most of the guys giving us trouble, so it really just made us all crack up. OH! I almost forgot. For lunch, what do you think they served us? YEP, MRE's! ICK!
When it was over, we were given our certificates, tshirts, bags, and spur pins! I am SO exhausted but oh boy was it a fun day!!! I love 3rd Brigade and 3-8 CAV!!! INJECT THE VENOM (brigade)! WARHORSE (battalion)!!!
The 3-8 girls before the start of the Spur Ride!
The three Blue Birds carrying the three groups. The dude in the Army green shirt was with all of us the whole time and was the resident joker. Seriously, this guy would not stop cracking us up the whole day.
Waiting in formation for Land Nav to start. I was on the A-Team. L to R: LeAnn Volesky (3rd Brigade Commander's Wife), Lori Brooks (my Battalion Commander's wife), me!, and Tracy Lambert Jack (the 3rd Brigade Rear Detachment Commander's wife). I love these girls!
Here is at Land Nav. You can't really see, but he is wearing the real spurs.
My team discussing our map.
Here's SGT Jokester telling us how we're doing it all wrong.
That way!
Trying to read the compass.
This is at the gun simulator. I am at the bottom in the middle, shooting an M16!
Aaaaaaaand of course my weapon broke and this dude had to come fix it. NO, I didn't break it. It was acting up the whole time, so after he came to fix it, he decided that it wasn't fixable. So I got a new weapon and another turn!
Awwwww, yeah!
I swear, this is not posing. I didn't even know he had gotten in front of me with the camera. I was doing some MAD squinting to see my target.
Jessica Alley..."Gunner"
Here I am in the Gunner's seat, blowing something up with just the push of a button. The insides of these tanks are WAY smaller than you'd think. There is literally no room.
Here's Mrs. Volesky being Tank Commander.
The obstacle course. You can't see but my arm is pulled back and I'm about to throw my grenade.
About to take off!
We're off and running!! It's Krista, Chris, me, and Ashley. Buddies!
The entire group!!
Here's a picture of some of the things we got. I had already put the cute bag they gave us up in the closet. Will, the back of the shirt says "got venom?" I knew you'd find that funny.
Our Spur pin.
Certificate
There were tons of POA guys there taking the professional pictures and I know Mrs. Volesky got tons. I'm hoping to have more "action" shots within the next couple of days.
In case anyone is interested, here's more information on a real Spur Ride:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Spur
Trying to act like a teenager in love.
Sittin' on Edward's lap.
Monkey man!
She always finds the snacks.
Beautiful.
Owen hitting the pinata.
CS's turn!
Eating candy.
Loving his "bop bop."
Inflatable!!
Holding her bag of candy in the inflatable.
Giving out awards.
Explaining the next game.
Finding a bone!
Flashlight fun.
Yep, more candy. I gave up trying to control the intake. It's Halloween.
Justin having fun with O.
The gang!
The three Blue Birds carrying the three groups. The dude in the Army green shirt was with all of us the whole time and was the resident joker. Seriously, this guy would not stop cracking us up the whole day.
Waiting in formation for Land Nav to start. I was on the A-Team. L to R: LeAnn Volesky (3rd Brigade Commander's Wife), Lori Brooks (my Battalion Commander's wife), me!, and Tracy Lambert Jack (the 3rd Brigade Rear Detachment Commander's wife). I love these girls!
Here is at Land Nav. You can't really see, but he is wearing the real spurs.
My team discussing our map.
Here's SGT Jokester telling us how we're doing it all wrong.
That way!
Trying to read the compass.
This is at the gun simulator. I am at the bottom in the middle, shooting an M16!
Aaaaaaaand of course my weapon broke and this dude had to come fix it. NO, I didn't break it. It was acting up the whole time, so after he came to fix it, he decided that it wasn't fixable. So I got a new weapon and another turn!
Awwwww, yeah!
I swear, this is not posing. I didn't even know he had gotten in front of me with the camera. I was doing some MAD squinting to see my target.
Jessica Alley..."Gunner"
Here I am in the Gunner's seat, blowing something up with just the push of a button. The insides of these tanks are WAY smaller than you'd think. There is literally no room.
Here's Mrs. Volesky being Tank Commander.
The obstacle course. You can't see but my arm is pulled back and I'm about to throw my grenade.
About to take off!
We're off and running!! It's Krista, Chris, me, and Ashley. Buddies!
The entire group!!
Here's a picture of some of the things we got. I had already put the cute bag they gave us up in the closet. Will, the back of the shirt says "got venom?" I knew you'd find that funny.
Our Spur pin.
Certificate
There were tons of POA guys there taking the professional pictures and I know Mrs. Volesky got tons. I'm hoping to have more "action" shots within the next couple of days.
