This past Saturday, I was one of 34 participants in the Sandy Hook Memorial GORUCK Light. We met at Tarrywile Park & Mansion in Danbury, CT. It was about 37 degrees outside without a cloud in the sky - a perfect day for some Good Livin’. I arrived at the park about 10 minutes before our scheduled start time, which was just enough time to say hello to some GRT’s from my first Challenge (1149 in Hartford) and my first Light (521 in Hartford).
At 10:00 on the dot, Cadre Garrett appeared and had us fall into rank. He made it clear that while we were going to have a lot of fun, this event was going to be about honoring the 26 who lost their lives two years ago at Sandy Hook. Cadre Garrett gave us a crash-course in land navigation to provide us with the skills to complete our mission: orient our way to 26 points on the park map. At each point, we would hear a little about one of the 26 and do some PT in their honor.
Before we were able to embark on our mission, we got to enjoy a Light-style welcome party. We carried a couple of two logs a few hundred meters from our start point to the base of a small hill, where we enjoyed a little warm-up PT. Our first team-building exercise was to move up and down the hill as a team, leaving our rucks and logs at the base of the hill. Once we got to the base of the hill, we had to get our rucks back on and the logs off the ground. All of this was to be accomplished in under three minutes.
We did not succeed on our first attempt. We came close to making our time goal, but Cadre Garrett (along with the help of the shadows) threw us a few curveballs that forced us to adapt, communicate, and work as a team. On one attempt, we came down the hill to find our rucks thrown into some nearby brush. The next attempt, our rucks were in one pile, connected together by carabiners. On our final attempt, we had to fish our logs out of the brush pile. As the saying goes, Light does not equal easy.
After our welcome party ended, we started our mission, navigating our way around the park to the 26 points on the map. Each point was supposed to have a physical, visible marker, but we quickly found out that it wasn’t going to be so easy to find them. Most of the markers were in pretty bad shape (one was worn down to a tiny remnant of laminated paper stapled to a tree) or just plain missing. This forced us to rely more on cues from the terrain to figure out where we were and where we needed to go. This led us down some more…circuitous routes, but it all ended up working out pretty well.
As we reached each point on our map, Cadre Garrett pulled a 3-ring binder out of his ruck. Inside the binder were 26 pages, each with a name, age, and brief biography. The Team Leader or Assistant Team Leader would read an entry to the group, hold the photo up for all of us to see, and then lead us in some PT. Each exercise was performed 26 times. The lone exception was the polar plunge, in honor of girl that loved swimming.
We made our way up and down some fairly steep terrain after the plunge until we made it to a clearing. It was at this point that Cadre Garrett asked for some volunteers. I wasn’t thinking and raised my hand, along with 4 other guys that became “casualties,” meaning we had to be carried the rest of the way. Being cold, wet, and immobilized isn’t the best, but my teammates did a great job of moving us as quickly as they could.
As we reached the end of our seventh hour together, I was pretty humbled by the entire experience. One of my fellow participants was a wounded vet with a prosthetic leg. Most of us had trouble navigating some of the terrain and he did it on one leg, without complaint. I remain in awe of his heart, determination, and perseverance. It was an honor to ruck with him.
At the end of our time together, the sun set and the organizer of this custom GORUCK event read the very last page in the binder. She shared the story of her best friend - a teacher that wanted to make a difference in the lives of her students. It was a touching close to a special day.
I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to participate and celebrate the lives of the 26. I’ll wear this patch with pride.