A message from somebody post-GRC after talking with me beforehand

muddybadger:

Just had to tell you that the GORUCK was one of the best things I have ever done! Thanks for being one of the factors that pushed me of the fence. =)

 I can’t say enough great things about my experience.  I had Cadre Drew, that man is silent but deadly.  See the video below, he speaks so softly but you have no doubt it better get done.  

Video of the first few hours of class 483 - http://youtu.be/oJNC_DVYOAw

The Challenge | Patrick Rhone →

packlite:

If you are still unsure whether you want to take the GORUCK Challenge, please read my good friend Patrick Rhone (of Minimal Mac fame) post about it.

He managed to capture the essence of the Challenge, the why we do this. His post is, for lack of a better word, beautiful.

Thank you Patrick for writing this.

After it was all said and done, and she gave me back my jacket, she said that if not for having it she surely would have quit. What she likely does not realize, and what I hope to make clear, is that keeping her from quitting is what got me through. If I had not given her the jacket I might have quit too.

I’ve heard more than a few Cadre in the course of my research about the Challenge tell the teams, “Look at the person to the left of you. Look to the person on the right. This is not about you. It’s about them!”

These words kept running through my head every time I wanted to give up. If I quit, I was not really letting myself down. I was letting down my teammates who I had pledged to be there for. Conversely, if I had quit, in a way I would be telling them they let me down. This idea rang no more true to me than when I gave Ayn my jacket. It was not about me, it was about her.

GORUCK and St. Baldrick's | The Good Stuff →

tacticalstuff:

Those who where there heard my story.

Held at the Crossfit Boston gym, about 100 people (having sold out the tickets to the event, which were $10 to cover costs) gathered to drink some PBR and hear the stories of some of our best trained soldiers. Speakers, of which there were five, were a major in the Green Berets, an Israel Defense Forces recon sniper who trained American snipers in urban combat and ended up unofficially becoming a patrolling member of a Marine sniper unit in Fallujah, Iraq, two enlisted Green Berets, and an enlisted member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), the elite “Night Stalkers” of Black Hawk Down fame. Their stories ranged from poignant (one Green Beret’s description of a mission to rescue a kidnapped 11 year old boy named Wi’am) to hilarious (the description of shitting his pants during that unexpectedly long mission). The IDF soldier’s story of losing his brother Marines (because he did, in effect, become one of them) to a pair of IEDs, that he barely survived, was heart-wrenching, and he could not even complete that part of his War Story as it was still, after all this time, too painful for him. The stories of embedding in Afghan villages told by the major and one of the enlisted soldiers were hilariously different, as the officer talked about the positives and how he was proud of what he did, and the enlisted man discussed his boredom and the immature (his word, not mine) activities that took place during these missions. After each story, though, I felt like I, as someone who has never served in the military, had a better sense of what these men and women go through and experience, and I had a really great time. If you get the opportunity to attend one of these events, do so; it is a really, really fantastic opportunity. A lot of the money that GORUCK makes, through donations, sales, and event fees, goes to charities that work with veterans and military personnel.