What I Learned from our Cavalry Spouse Spur Ride

Our brigade hostes a Spouse Spur Ride today and I learned lots of new things. Here are my biggest lessons learned ...

The tradition of having to “earn your spurs” reaches back to the beginning of the Cavalry when green troopers arrived to their new cavalry units and were required to prove their proficiency and skills before they could earn the right to wear spurs with their uniform.
The purpose of a Spouse Spur Ride is to build unit cohesion and learn more about what our Soldier heroes do each day while deployed ... and 'earn our spurs' as Cavalry spouses!
ACU pants are not flattering on any female form.

The Field Artillery gun ... the Paladin! Hooah!

Our battalion's CSM's wife and me in a Bradley. The Soldiers stationed at this vehicle failed to convince me that this was cooler than a Paladin, but they did their best. My observation was that the biggest difference I saw (other than the obvious size of the gun) was all the cushions on the seats in back. They didn't think that was funny.

No room for claustrophobia as a tank driver! And we didn't even close the hatch. God bless our Soldiers and their willingness to take on crazy jobs in defense of our country.

I'm ready to check vehicles ... and gun down the bad guys if needed. I also learned that Soldiers REALLY don't want you to pull the "quick release" cord on their gear. Here, I'm wearing SGT Jones' gear and he physically paled when I joked about using the quick release to get out of it. Apparently, it's not easy to put back together.

Aforementioned 'bad guy' on the ground. He was very poorly behaved and even reached for my weapon once. I got to use my big voice and yell, "On your knees!" He was a good sport.

Ready for the Warrior Skills Trainer

We're on a simulated convoy, armed and dangerous.

One group of the ladies who went through the Spur Ride. Our field artillery battalion spouses went through the Spur Ride with the BSB spouses. We had so much fun together!

This was the craziest station to me ... you actually get INSIDE these little boxes and simulate driving tanks and taking out 'bad guys' ... unfortunately, the building had a FIRE ALARM go off while we were enclosed in these things. I had a crazy few minutes of wondering if anyone would remember which box I was in. =) It all turned out well and the simulator was very cool, and something totally new to me. Very fun.

And yes, we marched in formation, cadences and all!

Ready for the obstacle course!

We competed in teams of three ... our team lost 1st place by just 3 seconds!

We threw hand grenades (aka water balloons) at Rear Detachment Soldiers. The 'catch' was if they were able to catch your water balloon (instead of it exploding on them), they could return fire! So fun!

Low-crawling (sort of) through the Obstacle Course.

Some Red Leg spouses carrying their injured to safety. I love how the 'injured' is so happy! =)

The litter carry ... with a pregnant 'injured' spouse. We are hardcore.

Final formation for awards ... it was hilarious to watch these Soldiers work so hard to get this huge group of spouses into formations by battalion, then by alphabetical last names. They're not used to leading people who don't already know how to get into a formation ... and who tend to chat and laugh and play while getting there.

Whole Group Photo ... we had over 200 spouses from 6 battalions from the Black Jack brigade.

Field Artillery Ladies (minus a few who had already headed home).
Red Dragons!

TORCH and ADVON

Photo: ADVON returning from a year-long deployment. Okay, I have to admit that after 15+ years as an Army wife, I don’t know what ‘TORCH’ and ‘ADVON’ stand for. Something about advanced party … but there’s no ‘p’ for ‘party’ … so I just don’t know. I do, however, know what it means. It means your Soldier comes home FIRST!! We’ve never had the honor of either of those designations. My husband somehow manages to get himself into the ‘stay-behind-and-make-sure-all is-well-out-here’ job and comes home late or last. Not that I’m complaining, though, as I am happy these TORCH and ADVON folks get here and get the place ready for everyone else to come home. In a way, it’s reassuring to me. The wheels are turning, the process has begun … our unit actually is coming home and coming home soon! Homecoming becomes reality, not just a long-sought-after dream. It’s good to see our unit patch and our unit Soldiers back at home, on U.S. soil and on our Army installation. It’s heartening to w

The Change of Command Ceremony

Last Friday, my Family and I participated in the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division change of command on Fort Hood, Texas. Hubby became the battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment and joined a wonderful group of "Red Dragon" Soldiers and Families. It's a dream come true for us ... one of those things you hope in the back of your mind you'll get to do one day, but know realistically that the chances are slim you'll get to do it. When I first saw his name on 'the list' that the Army publishes, I was elated for him. No one knows more than I do his passion for the Army and for the Soldiers in it. He is a wonderful leader and cares so much. We both knew that this would be the adventure of a lifetime. We explained this new job to our two boys (ages ten and six) as best we could and they kept saying, "We'll have 500 new friends on Friday!" as their summary of the discussion. =) The ceremony was amazing, a st

A Letter to My Cousin and Friend

As I was cleaning out our home office today, I came across an old college notebook from a writing course I had taken at Baylor. Our assignment was to write a letter to someone filled with memories of time spent together. I had chosen to write to my cousin Lori and, although it was a rough draft, I just had to post it. I finished out the last part and laughed out loud at some of the superfun memories with Lori, my cousin and friend. Dear Lori, As I reflect on the time we have spent together, I remember so many wonderful memories with you. Laughter always comes first to mind because we have shared so much of it. We start out giggling over some trivial nothing and soon are rolling in teary-eyed, side-splitting, I-can’t-catch-my-breath laughter. Days later, we will laugh again when one thought triggers another and we think of the same funny thing. After all, we are ‘more funny repeated.’ Our memories together are vast and varied for they have been collecting since, well, basically fr

Fabulous Army Life

Search This Blog