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Show v ' rikM - f- - 7 - . w1. . . x.w'ft' i' . THE SAMPLER A6 by SFC Phil Hale : JL lr pt i i ? w .... jFv Who in their right mind would take 43 folks, load them aboard two Army buses at one oclock in the morning, drive to Moab, climb into rubber rafts for a 14mile trip on the Colorado River, climb bade into the buses and then drive back to Dugway, arriv- J-:- ;T 4 '".i-X- ': IV M t r jliqjl ing at 2 a.m.? V : contortions to achieve some degree of comfort on the bus as we steadily made our way to our destination. The sun was just rising as we peached Green River and breakfast. The buses split up, and invaded two restaurants that were really not ready to ' . Well, "Admiral (CPT) training trip, the "adventure turned into a heck of an ordeal for the 25-ho- ij0 14 ' ; "&(' fei. ytr :; -- i '1 ur . men and women who went. ; Armed with thermos bot- tles of coffee or coolers of "CMON SARGE, PUT A CAP ON IT! These smiling enthusaistic faces were among those who committed themselves to the 25 hour ordeal on the Green River Oct. 20. soda, and carrying blankets and pillows to try and catch the ours, buses. all there because we wanted '' .. . '; . , '; rT . ,V Drivers for the trip were 1SG Larry Washburn and Sp4. David Duran who drove . is: the smokers ' ' "r '.4 i BREAKFAST AT GREEN RIVER was a welcome sight, this group of military personnel found the pancakes bigger than their appetites v '5 ,'s Xizx.x 'X; jt . . 4 l' (l H ' ja ' ' 5 a "v, . f. s V i s " Vv i. v.; 4 A'.n f .. 7"?1 ' sTLjrv. aLSlAT- . ' ' ' v' ' 4vi '?' ' f" vw' s '0 - ' ,4 ' i , . . ' v s r, ft ? X iv- 'C. ' W is' i , .. .. ;., ... s ' .i; x.si ..'41 ' ..v Vy?-, , The trip to the drop off point parallelled the Colorado River up a very picturesque canyoiL The main guide felt it necessary to describe in minute detail the geological the area. SP4 Howard Levite's main concern, however, was' "Whats for lunch? River level was understandably low this late in the season. We received our safety briefing, and our life jackets and loaded aboard the his-tory.- of . five rafts. Four of the rafts were the "paddle your own variety with a crew of eight or nine and a guide, the other was propelled by one person using oars. ' . The temperature quickly rose to the 70 mark, and there being no wind, the current of the mighty, muddy v. iif "' Vs ' - i1'- V: non-smoke- rs buses respectively. Once on the road, most felt too keyed up to sleep immediately, so some singing broke out, and SGT Tom Kelley invented a game called squeeze play that was interesting to say the least. About 4:30 . a.m. we stopped for gas and surprised yp ? and "river-ninni- n clothes, somewhat jealously eyed Top Washburn as he donned his diver's wet suit, and loaded aboard a couple of rickety, older than idea that the Commander pulled any tricks to get us there, let me say that we were to, besides, most of us had never seen close order drill with paddles before! minutes. We arrived at the jumping off point in Moab of North American River Expeditions and met our guides. Loading our valuables into blue painted ammo cans. we changed into our the interrupted sleep they missed, our intrepid adventurers arrived in the dark of the morning on Oct. 20 at Ware Barracks to begin their journey. Now before you get K$ U Colorado began moving utf downstream as the crews got the hang of controlling the rafts. After the first two rapids, the crews turned to more serious adventure training . . . water fights. The warm weather and relatively calm water seemed just right for grabbing buckets, maneuvering close to another raft and letting fly with bucket after drenching bucket of cold, muddy Colorado River water. None escaped, though evasive maneuvers were tried again and again. Around noon, the boats headed for the muddy beach and a lunch of fresh stacked sandwiches, cookies, chips and soft drinks. Before the lunch boat arrived, however, several mischievous members decided a contest was in wet order. Two things learned from this (1) sweatshirts dont wet down like and (2) trying this on uncooperative participants is likely to get the initiator wetter than the unwilling contestant. . f v. v ' i, v.; ; 7 . '' ' ' , L A Jt v ' '&; '' i ';(. T - -- 4 f - v fA.f , k - v : .y . Jt. ; H . WHAT WE CAME FOR! This crew strokes into one of . A' T-shir- y . ' i trek near Moab, Utah. ' v .fc . T-sh- irt r' : ..... : the rougher sections of white water encountered on the I4-ml- le . receive that many hungry customers, but still managed to feed us all in just 45 Billed as an adventure ' as several soldiers received, free Colorado mud facials before the horseplay ended. Due to the water fights,' dry clothing was hard to find, and locating something to stop. Most tried any amount of Mansel A. Nelson for one! . vV' v K.ij i .'- --.- I ough and imidslinging began the attendants at the truck . ITI ' River Oct. cwenru moeirs fiadfcle - o1'-- TFeattcnn Thursday, November 3. 1983 HHG- i.:. .t. ts, Water wasn't quite en start a warming fire was , equally difficult. Back into the river, most of the boats kept a respectable distance from each other as the better rapids seemed to hit faster and gave the intrepid crews quite a workout One fell into the river, and an unexpected rock almost deprived one raft of its guide, otherwise, the remainder of the run was fairly uneventful. As the first four boats cautiously approached the offload ramp, wondering if those mischievious folks on the bank would try any mon- key business, life jackets were tied together, the boats rinsed and stacked on trailers and then the wait for the last boat containing the Captain among others. It was worth the wait, as they came into view, the wholes crew began a series of precision close (extremely close) order maneuvers with their paddles. This clever show of precision paddlesmanship was un- fortunately greeted with buckets of cold water from the group of unappreciative Cretan critics wanting to get back to the buses for a dry change of clothes. Dinner was a 43 soldier invasion of Moab's Pizza Hut, and the folks quickly found out what it was like to literally feed an Army. Once the last slice was devoured, it was, to quote Willy Nelson, "On the road again!'' as the green buses lumbered up the hill past Arches and Canyonlands National Parks bathed in the rich colors of the autumn sunset. In a very short time, the only sounds to be heard oh the buses were sneezes, coughs, and the drone of the diesel engines as the drivers steered the machines north- ward toward home. After 25 hours straight, the lights of the gate looked pretty good to those who rose to greet them. Dirty, happy and ed the river runners dragged off the buses and headed for welcome showers and warm beds at 2 a.m. non-mobi- le Oct 21. This was just the latest in an adventure training program that already has a ski trip to Solitude in the works for Dec. 9 and other such diversions. Our thanks to MSA for the finding help, Capt. Nelson for his support and participation, all of our supervisors for letting us go. North American River Expeditions, the two restaurants in Green River and Pizza Hut Moab for their, patience, and especially to our drivers 1SG Washburn and 5P4 Durant for getting us there and back safely. f . t - ',;fce 4' 'Vi. kiv usmmw v,. - V |