The VW Story
On the last night of operations at VIGILANT WARRIOR, there was a lot of emphasis on how important it was that we, the OTS students, do a good job at agressing the FTO "enemies". So, myself and Mark Robertson, along with Chad Ellsworth and Terry Wanner, Jr., decided to implement a new tactic Mark and I developed that called for us to lay in wait for the FTO's a good long ways forward of the normal defensive fighting positions (DFP's).
It was not even our squadron's turn to pull defense, but being the last night of the campaign, the roster kinda went out the window, and our 4 man team took position at around 1700 hrs. We assumed posts that we had, during the daytime, cleared out and made pretty defensible. Under small trees, at the heads of clearings where we thought we would have a pretty good chance of catching the enemy.
Now, Mark was the best tracker on our team, so he had a good idea of where they would be approaching from. But the problem was, they attack did not come from the direction we were facing, but rather from the other side of the camp. So, we wound up laying in our positions, which were evenly spaced along a 200 yard span that made a big long semi-circle.
The normal music was played through a loud speaker. The intent was to distract us to the point of erroding our effectiveness. Songs included the Macarena, MmmmBop, the Barbie Girl song, and some song from Ali Baba or something.
At 2300 hrs, our little ambush team had lain in one place for severl hours, and I really needed to go to the bathroom. After so long in one place, my eyes and ears were playing tricks on my mind. I moved slowly out of my position, and I was sure I could detect movement to my rear. Then, I really heard it.
Behind me, I heard what sounded like several people running loudly through the woods. This meant one of a couple of things to me: one, our guys were hauling ass in support of some operation that was pretty important to risk running that fast and loudly through the woods, or two, it was a group of FTO's who had just wacked a bunch of us in a raid and were now getting the hell out of dodge.
I decided to position myself behind a tree and pop out and take out some of these guys if they were FTO's. Well, they were, and they were moving so fast that they ran right past me before I could react and agress them.
On a whim, I decided to fall in behind their column, which I could now see was about 8 men in length, and follow them a bit. I followed them to the dirt road that wound through the obstacle course, at which point they started walking and talking (smoking and joking, we called it in those days). It ocurred to me that now I was very vulnerable, being in the open, walking, and under a bright moon. I didn't take part in any of their conversation, which was led by Capt Swiger, by and large. They led me to "The Tower" an obstacle in the course that the FTO's were using as their HQ. I fell out behind a nearby tree as quitely as I could, and waited.
I oveheard conversation between the FTO's to the effect that they had kidnapped the OT Wing Commander, and maybe the Vice Commander as well. It became obvious that the students were trying to locate the little HQ that I was standing before, and I was undetected and already on scene. I did not know if anyone else was on the way or not, since I had no radio. So, I decided the thing to do was attack.
I yelled into the night, "Halt, get down on the ground!" as loudly as I could. To my suprise, it worked. I heard them shuffling and it sounded like it was working. I asked if Creden, the commander, could move. Swiger yelled back, sarcastically, that no, he could not.
So, I told them to all push their weapons aside, and ordered Swiger to leave the tower with his hands up. He paused, then said, "...no!". I began to realize I had no influence over them, and they came to the same conclusion as I heard them standing back up. They began laughing at me, and I knew I had to regain control fast. I re-ordered them to freeze, that I had them surrounded. This struck them as funny, and they asked me if I was alone...I tried to avoid this question by re-re-ordering them to freeze, that I had them pinned and they might as well give up. They asked who I was, and I told them, and, between laughter, I heard my FTO, Capt Jason Riera, expressing his pride in me while his peers laughed at both him and me. With my heart beating in my ears, and aware I was loosing the game, I started to approach, thinking I needed to keep moving. I had already heard such ominous phrases as "yeah, he's over there....that small tree..." Then, I heard a twig snap in front of me, and I saw the light: Swiger shot me in the eye, I yelled "Freeze!", and he said, "Improper verbage--you're dead."
I was sent packing down the road to the exercise morgue...with the jeers and jabs fading behind me. When asked why I did it, later, I replied that to walk away would be more humiliating, in the long run, than it was to fight and loose. I'm not so sure of that these days. But, I did earn a little bit of respect from the FTOs...but only a little bit.
This story has been retold many time, but this is the true version. These photos are the official public re-telling at the last 00-04 Cobra commander's call, and Neil Hicks officiated. I've head a lot of bull about what did or didn't happen...for instance I never hit an FTO (can you imagine?) and I didn't crawl into the tower. But I did survive, if not with honor, then at least with humor. -guru mcculley