Yesterday, Fox Company went on a six mile hike. We had about 50 lbs. of gear with our packs, flak, kevlar, and weapons. As platoon commander, I was in front of the platoon with our staff platoon commander (SPC). We were the fifth platoon in the company formation. If hikers in the front on the formation start falling behind and don't move to the side for other to pass, a gap is created and a "slinky" effect is created. You slow down for a minute and then there is a huge gap where you end up running to catch up.
About three miles into the hike, two things happened: 1. The slinky effect. 2. Humidity so high we were swimming. End result- about mile five I overheated and fell back into the rear of the formation, which is considered a "hike drop." I continued on, but at a slower pace to cool down. This is the first time I have ever fallen out of a hike and what made it more humiliating was having the billet as platoon commander where I was responsible for the accountability of the platoon and reporting any drops or injuries to the staff platoon commander.
As I dropped near the back of the formation, another lieutenant from a different platoon went down as a heat case. I helped him take his gear off, called for the corpsman and moved on. About 100 meters along, a lieutenant from another platoon went down as a heat case. I moved on a little further and a third lieutenant went down. About that time, the company called an administrative black flag (a black flag is called when conditions outside are unsafe, usually too hot, for physical training. An administrative black flag was called because medical was overloaded.) We were told take off out kevlar about a half mile from the end which helped us cool down.
When I finally rejoined the company, everyone was seated and all gear was removed. Only billet holders of squad leader and above were allowed to be standing so that they could get accountability. The company was seated for about 30 minutes. When I was reporting accountability for the platoon to my SPC, I was just waiting to hear about how a billet holder should never fall out, and I must lead from the front, and not being physically fit enough to go on a little 6 mile hike will kill the Marines I lead. I was surprised when he said nothing about it and just told me to get a sight count of all the weapons.
As we were getting up to return to the barracks, a Marine in my platoon could not get up. His legs were cramping and he started to vomit. Medical came and took him in an ambulance. The rest of the company cleaned up and attended classes. During chow, I went to give my mid-day report to my SPC (still awaiting to hear about falling out of the hike), but he wasn't in his office. In fact, there were not any SPC's in their offices. After classes, I came back to give my end of day report. I gave my SPC a list of the platoon's 7 hike drops and he said he will see them Monday. He then told me to get the platoon together so he could address us. I was expecting to hear that we needed to ramp up our physical training to keep up with the hike pace, but that wasn't the case. We were congratulated on being the only platoon to not have anyone end up completely dropping out of the hike and ending up in the medical van. We also had the fewest drops in the company.
We have three more hikes and honestly, this one shouldn't have been so bad. At OCS in the middle of July, we were fine in nine mile hikes. I think the heat, humidity, and slinky effect pushed us over the edge. But, I still need to work on my level of physical fitness. In several months we will be hiking 15 miles.
