FEX 2 (Patrol Fex)

It's been about a week since Kyle came home from his second fex. It was Monday, June 13th through Friday the 17th. This fex was called a "Patrol Fex". The men spent the week in the field and once again, we weren't allowed to communicate. Thankfully this week went quickly for both of us!

Kyle's patrol fex means he went on foot mounted patrols. In Kyle's words, "basically, this means we just walked on foot throughout the forest". They were divided up into squads, which consists of around 13 men. They walked and walked until they spotted the "enemy". The "enemy" is another squad. Once they spot the enemy they start to assault them. They assault them by using pairs. One guy would shoot blanks to protect, while the other guy ran closer to the "enemy". They would switch off who shot and who ran. When they reach the "enemy", they are done. Essentially, it is adult men playing war, like when they were little boys, except now they have real guns, but with blanks :) I think they are all loving it!

Kyle and McCormick having a fun day with weapons.

They would also partake in night patrols where they use their NVG's. Here we go with another acronym. NVG = Night Vision Goggles. Kyle says they are difficult to see. When you look through them you have no depth perception. During night patrols, certain squads were told to hide off the road and wait for the squads who were told to walk around. Then they would assault the "enemy" like during the day patrols.

During this fex they also had Land Nav 3. I talked a little about land nav in the last post. They need to find 6 boxes out of the 8 to pass. In Kyle's terms, "the terrain is heinous!" There is so much overgrowth that it is difficult to find a direct path to your box. Some of the bushes/plants are taller than him! During the last land nav Kyle did not pass because he only got 5 boxes :( BUT...he got 100% during this fex! I'm very proud :) These land navs are not graded though. They do these as practice for their Final Land Nav in September. So we will pray for 100% then!

Overall, Kyle said this fex went "alright". He enjoys certain activities they do in the field, but he doesn't like sleeping on the ground too much. But I can't blame him! Plus, this week it cooled off quite a bit so he got a little chilly :( Luckily, he only had about 5 hours to sleep (1am to 6am) in the cold and then he was able to get up and move around to get warm...lucky right? ;) Kyle also met an instructor in the field from OSU! He said it was nice to have someone who had a connection back to home like him.

My fex experience was similar to the last one. I spent time at the gym with some wives attending spinning class and rep reebok (weight lifting) class. Also spent some time at the pool with wives, bible study, get togethers, and dinner :) I'm so thankful to be making some wonderful friends in fellow wives :)

I will leave you with one lesson Kyle learned from Fex 2: Be sure to check EVERYWHERE for ticks! Whenever Kyle is in the field for days or just a couple hours, he will come home and have me check in places he can't see. Friday afternoon we found 9 ticks! But...Kyle forgot to check one place and Friday night he unfortunately found it in a place no man would want to find one! He's been taking antibiotics just in case it had been on there since Monday. He's being a good sport about it and we can laugh about it now :) He's making sure he tells all his Marine buddies to check EVERYWHERE because it can happen! :)