Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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14 UCW MAY 11 - MAY 17, 2022, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Soldiers regularly arrive at Camp Mackall to undertake what has been deemed one of the most stringent selection processes in the U.S. Army. ey show up, set aside rank and unit, are organized alphabetically by last name, and embrace 21-days of "suck." e Special Forces Assessment and Selection process is a gruel- ing one. But it is only the beginning. ose selected then enter the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, and attend the Special Forces Qualification Course, where they are met with challenges and learning op- portunities that will, if they persevere, deliver them to the ranks of some of America's most elite soldiers. Many of these soldiers do not arrive to the Q-Course alone; they arrive with their spouses and families in tow. Several of those spouses signed up for a unique opportunity to walk in their partner's footsteps, even if only for an afternoon on Wednesday, May 4. is is the second year the Spouse Q-Course, organized by JFKSWCS and Orient, Navigate, Employ, Train, Educate, Advise and Mentor (O.N.E. T.E.A.M.), has been offered. DeeAnn Rader, the JFKSWCS family resiliency coordinator, explained that the event took on a life of its own, with spaces filling up very quickly. "ere was huge interest" Rader explained. One participant signed up to gain insight into what her husband was experiencing and to meet new people. "I signed up mainly to get the experience he went through, and the second thing was to meet other wives, other spouses," said Ashton, whose husband is in the Special Forces Delta (Medic) Q-Course. e day began with a briefing on the events planned for the day. After being separated into groups, the spouses rotated through differ- ent modules, each representing some form of the training their partners have experienced or will be experi- encing on their journey to becoming Green Berets. Arriving in a caravan of white buses, participants disembarked at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Es- cape (SERE) training facility at Camp Mackall. At the SERE facility and under the instruction of the school's cadre, the spouses were introduced to forms of makeshift weaponry such as atlatls, an ancient style of spear, and wooden bows. Each took a turn with the weapons while learning skills and details similar to what their spouses are taught when they attend the SERE school. After demonstrating the construc- tion and use of the weapons, the instructor explained that the weapons help the soldiers feed themselves in austere conditions. "Now we have something we can kill with, with a lot more accuracy," a cadre member said. After learning how to create an ac- tive means to feed themselves through weaponry, the spouses took a stroll through a winding path of preset snares and traps. "In Vietnam, one of their [Prisoners of War] main sources of protein was trapping," an instructor explained. "When they [soldiers] are out evading and need to feed the machine, these are some of the techniques we teach them." Beginning with Figure Four, a baited trap, the SERE instructor explained how each trap could help a soldier survive. "is is a baited trap, and as we tell y'all's husbands you need to catch the nose first," he said. As explained to the participants, each trap on display has a particular mechanism designed to target specific types of prey and each trap or snare works best when placed in the right environment. "It's got to be in the right area," he explained. After learning about trapping and snares, it was time to learn about the other wildlife that can make or break a soldier's survival chances. Entering the Little Muddy Training Area, a classroom with stadium seat- ing and a wall of primarily venom- ous snakes, another SERE instructor welcomed the participants. "is is the survival training area," explained a member of the SERE cadre. "is is the first-place students come before they continue on in the SERE pipeline. We set the ground rules for everything we need to be able to survive behind enemy lines." After a joke or two about escaped snakes, civilian instructor John Breach, originally from the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), taught the visiting spouse-students about the different types of snakes on display. While most were dangerous, one of the menagerie was a harmless corn snake that was passed around to the participants. Some squealed, some faced fears, and some handled the serpent like old pros. As the participants filed out of the facility, they were greeted by the "Roadkill Café." Two types of meat were presented on a grill over a smok- ing firepit. Each pile of meat was accompanied by the corresponding creature's leg to help identify which was deer and which was goat. Cadre offered the teams of spouses small portions of both to sample. One of the spouses asked about food preparation techniques. "If there is one thing we stress, there is no medium rare with wild game," explained the Roadkill Café chef as spouses collected their samplings. "You thoroughly cook it and then boil it until it's nice and tender and then I cut it up, put it over the fire and let the smoke take care of it." After grabbing a piece of each Roadkill Café offering, the students assembled on bleachers to learn all Spouses get a taste of the Green Beret Q-Course by EMILY SUSSMAN COVER STORY A participant commando crawls across a rope on Nasty Nick, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School's legendary obstacle during the Spouse Q-Course at Camp Mackall May 4. (U.S. Army photo by K. Kassens, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School) Spouses form a team to decipher a logic puzzle during the USAJFKSWCS Spouse Q-Course. The spouses who participated in the event received training on survival skills and primitive weapons and tools at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape course, ate an MRE and ran the Nasty Nick obstacle course. (Photo by Emily Sussman)