Marine Recon HTB
11/04/2022-11/05/2022
Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. - Cadre JC
Heavy
- Admin - straight forward no real ball busting 40 in formation, 30 going for HTB
- movement to beach with team weight and Jerry cans.
- Beach welcome party:
- filled up sandbags on beach including 200, “100” likely 140, few 120s, SB KBs, lots of others. Had 7 Jerry cans I think.
- pushups, burpees, situps, flutter kicks all with ruck in the water usually in between those we low crawled back up to dry sand to sugar cookie.
- JC love with overhead holds, up/downs, squats, and lunges
- deck of death with 8ct body builders, brickyard man makers, ruck swings, and 4ct flutter kicks. Aces 15, faces 10, then numbered. Joker beach run around guard tower then to surf for 10 burpees.
- to this point it’s pretty chilly low 50s, with wind likely in the 40s and wet.
- first movement is a little over a mile on soft sand carrying all the weight, slow slog.
- first break attempted to clear sand and empty the pound of sand out of each shoe.
- long movement to the mountain in camp Pendleton. Pushing pace. Enforcing no break in contact. Cleve tracking anytime it takes more to 3s to touch ruck in front of you. He’s keeping track to make us pay later… Later comes believe me.
- Take switchbacks up to Hornos Crosses, never ending, steep elevation on rocky dirt terrain. Carried the 120-200s all the way up. GB3 notices a certain group always carrying this stuff. Tells us to push back to create “opportunities” for others. Cleve tries this later on too but forcing rotation to the back. The tried and true rotation groups for speed are lost during these times but the back end surfers are forced to get under weight outside their “comfort” zone.
- We finally summit by comm towers and day break is nearing, bios and priorities of work.
- time to pay the piper, we spread down a rocky trail on a slight decline. We did 50+ 8cts, 4ct flutter kicks, pushups, ruck jump squats, quarter squat holds, split lunges. Probably an hour smoke session ending just as sun was about to break.
- continued a couple small hills till we got to the crosses as sun broke the horizon over the mountains. Surreal. Emotional. The moment of you do these things for.
- we start coming down mountain, crazy steep straight down faces. Just rolling sandbags down. People sliding down on buts or reverse bear crawling down.
- near bottom we have a team race up mountain, need to beat or first time. End up taking another ruck so a struggling team mate can make our time hack.
- continued to Recon training facility and pool, on the way JC forces all coupons to be carried overhead. Carrying a partial full Jerry can overhead is sadistic.
- we pay the price of 500 pullups, 750 pushups, and 1000 situps as a group in the pt pit 10 minute goal to drop weight. Proud moment of being able to contribute ~30 pullups 12 hours into a heavy.
- hard top ruck about 5 miles back to beach, JC lulls us into comfort saying he wanted to finish early let’s push and get back. We had to low carry everything for about a mile, including the 200. At one point was challenged to carry 300m without switching to drop the Sand KBs, forearm felt like it was going to explode.
- surprise MF-er! Beach PT with GB3. Silent instruction of burpees over ruck and ruck thrusters.
- as leaving Beach, we took casualties and had to figure out how to move them. Crosby was casualty, initially he talked into just being legs then Cleve made him ambulatory and had to carry him.
- push back to endex as sun setting, Recon pushups with JC.
- had rehearsed Marine hymn earlier, sang it at endex with bag pipes
- patch, beers, Carl’s Jr then back to campground for shower, refit, and the best fucking sleep in a car I’ve ever had. 90 minutes out cold with authentic ocean sounds as white noise.
Tough
- Admin Straightforward, 39 in formation, 22 return for HTB
- it’s noticably colder then the night before and we know the ocean awaits
- movement to beach, fill SBs, form in circle for JC love.
- surf pt, fuck its cold and windy. An extra push of, why are you here!?
- sugar cookies
- the tide goes out quickly between sugar cookies exposing rocks and possibly saving us another dip in the water.
- deck of death - 8ct BB, thrusters, swings, and 4ct flutter kicks. TL doesn’t understand a thruster and adds a clean before every thruster. BF.
- over a mile of soft sand coupon carrying
- break and priorities at same spot as heavy. Added an extra layer. Now I have base layer, T-shirt , Omni heat quarter zip, and wind breaker. Cold.
- head different direction from break point
- get to backside of 1st Sargent’s Hill. This is the “easy” way up since it’s not straight up. We attack the hill and about halfway up Cadre starts having us dump weight. I saw 4 people struggling to low carry and 80 up. I grab it and not remembering I’m on the side of a mountain in loose dirt and steep incline clean and press it and feet come out and I fall down. Not far to fall, but catch myself didn’t drop SB. Stood up and got to the first summit, to see the next one is even fucking bigger. We drop more weight. Cleve says fucking fight up the hill, scramble up, don’t worry about any formation. I grab a SB KB and try to keep up with Chad Malone. Continuous false summits and false summits, at least 6 of these. We make it up to the 5th Marines group memorial crosses.
- head down mountain
- did a team run, no ruck up and over a dirt hill. First time set, second time not good enough, third time they want a fast runner to lead. I get flag and set pace. Crested the mound with the flag high, caught foot and fell. Life flashed in front of me as I slid under the flag to keep it from touching the ground. Fucking close, flag stayed upright the whole time though.
- movement to endex did some recon bounding in groups through terrain, recon shuffling for speed.
- at endex we did 30 ruck burpees from GB3, then 25 pushups, 400m run, then back for 30 Recon pushups from JC. Cleve is pacing back and forth shuffling cards, threatening another deck.
- we had rehearsed the national anthem earlier and then sang it with bag pipes at endex.
- patches, beers, and Carl’s Jr. Breakfast.
- refit and priorities about 45 minutes of sleep maybe
Basic
- High spirits, beautiful weather, 52 lined up 22 for HTB
- elected TL with Crosby as ATL Ruck to beach, fill SBs, then ruck shuffle to find open water as tide is out.
- start together with everyone doing flutter kicks and holds in the surf. Then pretty quickly HTB folks get pulled side for extra love. We add the biggest rock we can to our rucks and then start our own special welcome party with JC. Used the rock to do lunges, squats, and more PT. Overhead ruck holds galore and absolutely to failure. OH hold plus lunges, mountain climbers, more flutter kicks.
- bear crawls back to coupons, shoulders thrashed and ends up being a crawl.
- formed up and moved out
- stopped after a bit, listen to special guest Simmons talk. Silver start recipient. Sniper, who took out 18 enemies and kept all his Marines alive during a battle. Real life fucking hero.
- movement to bios, then split into 3 platoons. Dividing weights and then raced back to endex.
- carried the 120+ up dirt trail hill to and through parking lot to endex. Pushed passed a perceived edge here. 40hrs in and carried that weight for close to a half mile. Progress.
- endex we did 30 ruck pushups
- patches, beer, fucking food truck
- GB3 hella motivational. Exchanged words while patching me got HTB about my strong leadership and helping the team push the whole weekend. To earn respect from these dudes, indescribable.
Gear of Note
- Altra Olympus 4 trail shoes, lone peaks with more cushion and vibram soles. Freaking clutch tread for days for mountains, drained well, great soles for rocky terrain. No blisters.
- GORUCK hoody - why the hell is it so comfortable!? It was clutch in allowing me to sleep like a baby as much as possible between events in a damn car!
- Combat Ready Tape - did lower back, shoulders, and back of neck. Held very well and had no chafing.
Highlights
- Hornos Crosses
- Ocean PT, badge of honor that sucks but is freaking epic. Made it worse in my head then it actually was.
- Climbing mountains and the unreal landscapes
- the moon, so bright we didn’t use head lamps
- when the moon set, it was dark on the mountain top. Stars were incredible. Immense darkness plus no sleep led to some interesting vision and seeing things that weren’t there.
- gainig some respect from highly admired Cadre and Badass Recon Marines for putting out all weekend.
- meeting and talking with Chad Malone, nicest and strongest dude you’d ever meet.
- did the whole basic without gloves just forgot them. No issues surprisingly.
- nutrition and hydration on point. Continuous small snacking and electrolytes in rotation every so often worked perfectly.
Weakness Exposed
- Overhead holds - surprise surprise. Initially good, but entrance isn’t there. Better but need more work.
- flutter kicks and leg lift hold - no endurance. Strong in heavy, nothing left for tough and basic
- mountain climbers in sand declined. Fuck that’s hard.
- mountains, boy were my glutes screaming.
- mid heavy I got ab cramps that were unreal. Looked like a freaking brick trying to pull out of my stomach. Crosby gave me some salt, I couldn’t bend down to get into ruck for my salt pills.
Quotes
“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.”
You ever hear something and it just lives in the back of your head. The quote above was that for me. Cadre JC said this before we even stepped off for 40+ hours of Marine Recon HTB good living. Every moment of weakness when exposed this popped in my head.
“You will be tested physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually this weekend.”
Cadre Cleve laid it out plan and simple. Honor the men who trained on these hollowed grounds and paid the ultimate sacrifice by fucking putting out. Seeing memorials normally reserved for Marines bringing back “Fallen Angels” from war is something I’ll never forget.
“Why are you here? Think about it, I want your answer later when I ask for it.”
Cadre GB3 with the hard hitting question. This was asked during the welcoming party which includes getting smoked with PT in the surf, covering ourselves in sand, and doing it again. Absolutely a time of wondering why the hell am I here. When asked several hours later while I and the rest of the team held our rucks overhead after another PT session, my thought was the same as on the beach. My kids. I replied, “To show my kids we can do hard shit, Cadre!”
What a weekend, growth physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I found edges and pushed passed them, weaknesses were exposed, tears were shed for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. I spent the weekend with some badass Americans. My cup runneth over. 💀⚡⚡⚡
