FEX 1

First off, you’re probably wondering, “what in the heck is a FEX?!”.  FEX = Field Exercise.  I CANNOT emphasize enough how much Marine Corps lingo I have learned!  That may be another post in itself…I will test you all on it because, by golly, I feel like I’m being tested!  Kyle already taught me the phonetic alphabet, so I’ve got that down at least!

Anyway, this first FEX was Tuesday, May 31^st – Friday, June 3^rd.  I will explain to you a bit about Kyle’s 1^st FEX and also about how I kept myself busy while he was gone. And when I say “gone”, I mean GONE, as in no texting, no phone calls good night, nothing…nada…zip. It’s zero communication for those 4 days.  So, here we go:

Kyle’s FEX Experience

Every morning the men woke up at 0430 (working on my military time) to start their day.  Every night each person had 1 hour of fire watch, which consists of “standing and staring into the darkness”.  A direct quote from Kyle ;)

Each day the following is what they wore/carried

·      Wore their flak jacket, which is a bullet proof vest with sappi plates in it that protect from rifle rounds.  Weighs about 30 lbs!

·      Here comes another acronym…FLC that stands for Fighting Load Carrier.  This is basically a vest with pockets, but it’s purpose is to hold magazines.

·      Then Kyle, carried the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon).  Someone from each fire team volunteers to carry it.  Kyle volunteered to carry the 24 lb. “gun” and regrets volunteering just a bit ;)

One of the main events of this FEX was “land nav”.  They did land nav as a group and individually. When it came to the group land nav, they had an objective.  When they found their objective they would then buddy rush through it, which is basically diving on the ground, firing, getting up and then leap frogging with their partner.  I can just picture the Marines now leap frogging with a buddy haha :)

At the end of the week they did their individual land nav.  Their goal is to find 8 boxes in 6 hours over a 15 square kilometer area.  They are given an 8 digit grid coordinate and then they have to FIND IT!  Ultimately, they plot their map, find a familiar location on the map to draw a line between the familiar location and one of their boxes, find the azmith (the degree they’re walking in), and then follow the azmith using their compass. Easy right? ;)

When Kyle got home he was a stinky fellow!  They have no showers and sleep on the ground the whole week.  Plus, the 100-degree weather on their first day with a heat index of 110 didn’t help!  It “cooled” off to the 90’s the rest of the week though.  Even though the heat was a bit unbearable, Kyle still found one other thing to be worse…the CREATURES!  For one, we have found more bugs in our apartment than we have ever seen in Oregon.  One of the worst bugs for me was a centipede! A CENTIPEDE!  We found a dead one in our bathtub and a live one crawling on the wall! ICK!  Those one’s were about the size of my pinky finger.  Kyle found one much bigger in the field and it just so happened to be crawling on his leg!  He said its body alone was the size of his middle finger!  EEWWW!!!  I’m glad that one didn’t make its way inside our apartment.  But, that wasn’t the most disturbing to Kyle.  Him and a buddy were standing about 2 feet apart and heard a loud “thump”.  They looked around and some other guys were cracking up and told them to look down.  Kyle looked between him and his buddy and there was a 4-foot snake that fell from the tree above them!  For those of you who don’t know, Kyle isn’t too fond of snakes, so needless to say he was a little freaked out :)

After the FEX, Kyle expressed that he doesn’t really care for the field…or the “little” creatures for that matter!  Here are some pictures of Kyle’s experience during FEX 1.

 Their beautiful sleeping arrangement! Kyle said in this picture their campsite was NOT tactical, which means it was easy for the "enemy" to spot them, so they had to take it down and set it back up.

Kyle and his buddy Wiseman. Kyle is holding the SAW.

Kyle and Nick Wiseman again, in a 7 ton truck.

7 ton trucks...the name is self explanatory...they can carry up to 7 tons

Britt’s FEX Experience

Since this was us “wives” first FEX we decided to plan a lot to stay busy together.  Here is a little of how my week went:

Tuesday

Up at 7 to work on homework for my Masters courses.  Then headed to the gym around 10 to go run around 2-3 miles and then go to Rep Reebok, which is a weight lifting class and I LOVE IT!  I attend that with a fellow wife, Marissa.  Then headed home around 1, showered up and I met the wives for lunch at Panera at 2, which is our Tuesday ritual. 

Wednesday

Up at 7 again to work on homework.  Headed to a bible study at 9:30 that just started up with some wives.  An older woman is our leader.  Her husband is a retired infantry officer and they felt led to move back to Quantico to minister to those wives and men at TBS.  So she is leading this wonderful and much needed bible study for some of us wives :)  After Bible Study I headed to the gym to go to Spinning class which I am also addicted too!  Another wife, Megan, usually attends with me! My instructor is awesome and kicks my butt every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!  Got home around 1, lathered up the SPF and hit the pool to work on my tan!  Came home, got cleaned up, relaxed and then hit the movie theater with about 10 wives to see Bridesmaids.  It was basically a female version of The Hangover, but it was quite funny.

Thursday

Three wives, Amy, Megan, Morgan and I drove south to Fredericksburg for the day.  We spent the day walking around downtown and spending hours in a store called Hobby Lobby.  We don’t have those on the west coast, but I know my sister and mom would love it!  It is sort of like a Michaels, but with more home décor.  It was HUGE!  I do admit I bought some scrapbooking stuff, but it was all 50% off…so that’s how I’m justifying it ;)  After Fredericksburg we drove home to Stafford and went to a cute little winery near the base.  We got a cute little dinner and had an enjoyable conversation.  I am sad to say I forgot my camera that day :(

Friday

Same as Tuesday…up at 7 to work on homework.  To the gym to workout with Marissa and Megan.  Home to the pool, but had a tanning partner, Marissa.  Then about 15 of us wives met up for dinner at Pancho Villa before the men came home.  It was a blast!  After dinner, Amy, Megan, and Marissa and I were going to hang out until the guys got home.  It was already 9pm.  Marissa and I had to come home to check on her puppy before we went to Amy’s.  We got to Marissa’s (She lives in the same complex as us) and her 3 month old black lab had diarrhea in his cage :(  Poor puppy!  That moment made me realize I can hold off on a puppy for awhile longer haha!  While we were cleaning up, I got a text from Kyle saying he’d be home soon.  Marissa and I decided to just stay together since they would be home “soon”.  I should know by now that soon is never really soon.  Marissa and I ended up hanging out for about 2 hours, talking until the guys got home around 0100…1 am! It was nice to have a meaningful conversation with another wife though.

Overall, the FEX wasn’t too bad…for me at least.  I think staying busy with the other wives really helped keep my mind off not having Kyle home.  We are planning on keeping busy like that again for future FEX’s which actually starts tomorrow :)