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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Action & Adventure
- Subject: Adventure
- Published: 02/05/2026
Mud. Mud. Mud.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States.jpeg)
Mud.
More Mud.
And even more Mud.
Every war, every where...Mud.
I got to experience Mud. Both as a Straight Leg Grunt in training and in a Mechanized Unit with APC's stuck above the tracks in mud.
Mud. Yech.
Where my experiences with mud were no where near those of those who were in Combat Mud situations...they were (with the exception of fear) just as likely to piss me off.
My first experience, of course, was with the Low crawl under wire in Basic and later in AIT. But the AIT Cadre were all Vietnam Veterans...so they delighted in making the course a tad...shall we say...muddier?
The Basic course was just 25 meters..and you were toast after just one run. And cleaning your weapon and gear....only to do it again that next day. Well, let's just say that might be where "bitching" becomes an Art Form in the Military.
In AIT, the course was 50 Meters. Deeper Mud, and more trials.
I was 11 Charlie (Mortars) So we had to do the course a minimum of four times. One with our personal weapons.
One with the 81 mm Barrel.
One with the Base Plate.
One with the Biipod.
And for good measure, one with the Plotting Board.
I found the Bipod to be my own personal version of "Worst thing to carry in mud."
And before that little foray into crawling through mud with full gear for half a football field, the most exhausted I had ever been was Third Period in a HS Westling Match against a stronger opponent. And let me tell you ...mud ...is...stronger.
So when I get to Germany, we had tracks. Little did I know, that Tanks, tracks, and Deuce in a Halves, also have "mud courses." Only now, your APC is stuck, with a thrown track or a tree branch stuck in the sprocket wheel. And now you jump down into the mud, and try to get a track replaced, or a branch removed, while using tools never designed to go through four feet deep mud.
And at places like Grafenwoeher or Wildflecken...well, getting a tank out of a mud puddle is an all day event.
Later, over in Hawaii...well, we had recurrent Mud Training. And to rub salt in the wound...you had to dig the course first, then fill it with water and make it muddier. And with all the Brass and Senior NCO's watching you...you couldn't make it a little shallower, or a bit shorter. Longer and deeper with thicker mud was the goal.
Mud. It seems to be a Universal condition.
And cleaning it out of your vehicles, gear, and parts of your body never designed to hold mud...is another training exercise in and of itself.
Mud. Ugh.
More Mud.
And even more Mud.
Every war, every where...Mud.
I got to experience Mud. Both as a Straight Leg Grunt in training and in a Mechanized Unit with APC's stuck above the tracks in mud.
Mud. Yech.
Where my experiences with mud were no where near those of those who were in Combat Mud situations...they were (with the exception of fear) just as likely to piss me off.
My first experience, of course, was with the Low crawl under wire in Basic and later in AIT. But the AIT Cadre were all Vietnam Veterans...so they delighted in making the course a tad...shall we say...muddier?
The Basic course was just 25 meters..and you were toast after just one run. And cleaning your weapon and gear....only to do it again that next day. Well, let's just say that might be where "bitching" becomes an Art Form in the Military.
In AIT, the course was 50 Meters. Deeper Mud, and more trials.
I was 11 Charlie (Mortars) So we had to do the course a minimum of four times. One with our personal weapons.
One with the 81 mm Barrel.
One with the Base Plate.
One with the Biipod.
And for good measure, one with the Plotting Board.
I found the Bipod to be my own personal version of "Worst thing to carry in mud."
And before that little foray into crawling through mud with full gear for half a football field, the most exhausted I had ever been was Third Period in a HS Westling Match against a stronger opponent. And let me tell you ...mud ...is...stronger.
So when I get to Germany, we had tracks. Little did I know, that Tanks, tracks, and Deuce in a Halves, also have "mud courses." Only now, your APC is stuck, with a thrown track or a tree branch stuck in the sprocket wheel. And now you jump down into the mud, and try to get a track replaced, or a branch removed, while using tools never designed to go through four feet deep mud.
And at places like Grafenwoeher or Wildflecken...well, getting a tank out of a mud puddle is an all day event.
Later, over in Hawaii...well, we had recurrent Mud Training. And to rub salt in the wound...you had to dig the course first, then fill it with water and make it muddier. And with all the Brass and Senior NCO's watching you...you couldn't make it a little shallower, or a bit shorter. Longer and deeper with thicker mud was the goal.
Mud. It seems to be a Universal condition.
And cleaning it out of your vehicles, gear, and parts of your body never designed to hold mud...is another training exercise in and of itself.
Mud. Ugh.
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