The annual Legion 9/11 Memorial Run and Gun to support the 5th Special Forces Group is known to be one of the more tough and technical Run and Gun events out there. I was unable to get into the event last year, as it sold out minutes after being posted. This year, I was on the course of the 17 South Sweat N’ Bullets Run and Gun when registration opened for Legion, but I made sure I made arrangements to get registration taken care of. This year’s event was to be held at the Dead Zero Shooting Park in Spencer, TN.

(Disclaimer, all images save for the ones of my personal gear were shot by Lisa Stennett. She gets photo credit for all the event shots. Additionally, if I have featured you, and you don’t want to be featured, please email me and I will remove your photo. )

Having first heard of this event last year, I became intrigued as past participants discussed the format of Legion. The event day itself is best known for its ability to not only lean on you physically, but also mentally as many stages are based upon past real-life missions or battles. These stages often include a requirement of recalling information from a prior stage, paying attention to clues along your run, tough shoot-no-shoot situations as well as in-stage memory recall.

While all the stages at Legion are run “blind” you do at least get to read about the real-life battles they are based upon well before the match. I’ll be honest, I started off reading these in an attempt to gather information but ended up absolutely intrigued and touched by the stories of these heroes. A sharp reminder of what this event is about and who it honors is impossible to ignore as you brief yourself and imagine all the possible stage layouts. You also quickly realize that no amount of stage dramatization or pain and suffering on the course could touch what these units and these heroes have been through. It’s a sobering reminder that the ultimate sacrifice has been made time and time again, just so I can sit here and freely write about my experiences doing things I enjoy.

Prior to the event, the stage director Matt Stennett sent out an email warning of the difficulty in course navigation due to the thickly wooded areas around Dead Zero:

“I've hinted at this already, but after marking the roughest parts of the 10k course yesterday I feel obliged to issue an outright warning: this course is WILD and the woods are THICK. In many places there is no path to follow - just yellow caution tape every so often while you fight your way through the woods. Pay attention - don't run with your head down. Don't get lost. Print a hardcopy of the map out and bring it with you. Maybe even bring a compass and/or download something like Guru Maps to your phone, which allows you to download background maps ahead of time and use GPS even when there's no cell signal. Because there is NO cell signal. If you're colorblind or have trouble seeing yellow tape in mixed sun and shadows and heavy woods, maybe even stop briefly at each piece of caution tape and don't move until you find the next one - much like tracking an animal. To help illustrate this - look at the attached picture. There are FOUR pieces of yellow caution tape clearly hanging from branches marking the course. Try to find them all. And then realize that this is one of the more "open" sections of woods on the course. If you get hopelessly lost, head due east and you'll eventually hit Hwy111 (which runs north to south). It depends on where you hit it, but the odds are good that heading south on 111 will take you back to the range. The course IS well marked and as long as you take this seriously you'll be fine. Someone always surprises me though and this IS 2020 after all, soI'm being a little extra cautious. “

Now, if you have followed any of my prior Run and Gun blog entries, you will know that I have exactly a 50% chance of getting lost on even the most clearly marked courses, so needless to say this email raised the blood pressure a bit. I knew that my preparation for the event just got a little more involved and that I would need a plan just to stay pointed in the right direction.

Speaking of preparation, I knew this event would add some brain games to the mix and I was already coming up with a strategy in order to be successful in such an environment. I am typically capable of a run score in the top 10% or better of any of these, but I certainly have a habit of doing so blindly and situational awareness and competent shooting can suffer significantly when I am running on the edge. At this event, my plan was fairly simple: Run slower, shoot faster when comfortable, pay attention to everything, complete all shooting stages and don’t get lost. I knew that my streak of 100% stage completions in Run and Gun events would definitely be in jeapordy here with just one missed clue along the run, one mistaken hostage or one lapse in memory and I did not want that to happen.

Finally, because this event was in support of the 5th Special Forces Group and there were to be both former and active duty 5SF and other active duty military running the event, I knew the competition was going to be much higher than what I was used to. I knew that skill-wise and physically, I was going to be at a significant disadvantage to all these young professionals, so if I was going to try to place decent, it would only be because I ran the stages as clean as possible with minimal mistakes. Coming off my last run and gun with a personal best 5th place finish, I was excited to get back out there but I had reasonable expectations that this one would be much tougher.

First things first, I decided to go ahead and tackle the navigation problem I was sure to face. I sat down with the rough course map given to us and pulled it up on MapMyRun.com. MapMyRun allows you to draw a course out and measure distance. I simply used the satellite view on the website and drew the course in, noting exactly how far each stage was from one another and also noting any landmarks or river crossings along the way. Every entry into the woods, exit into a field, sharp turn or river crossing was marked with an exact direction and distance. This way I could look at my watch, see how far into the run I was and know what to be looking for next. I printed out the map with a couple of notes on Rite-in-the-Rain paper and taped it inside a Rite-in-the-Rain flipbook notepad.

Each stage had its own page in the notepad. I wrote down the stage number, the distance the stage was from the start line, any notable directions to get there, the minimum round count and any notes I thought might be pertinent from studying the real-life battles. For instance, on what I thought would be a long-range stage, I made a note to make sure I had the magazine ready that had my match grade ammo in it, my bipod legs out and that my scope was set up how I wanted it. I also carried a Rite-in-the-Rain pen with me so I could make note of any clues along the way or write down any coordinates or instruction given to me that I thought might be useful later.

The round count for this event was a touch higher than prior events and given all the stories about wasted ammo if you didn’t pay attention or made an ill-advised move, I decided I would make sure that ammo supply was one thing I wouldn’t have to worry about. I added one more Esstac 5.56 pouch to my belt and also added one more pistol mag pouch in the form of a polymer HSGI Mini-Taco, I love the mini-taco as the first reload out, its very fast. Also, for the first time, I left my Sig P365 at home and decided to run my Shadow Systems MR920 pistol along with Magpul 21 rd mags and Delta Point Pro. Not only would this be my first competition without the P365, it would be my first competition ever without a sub-compact pistol and the first one ever with a red dot. I tend to always run the same pistol in competition that I carry but this was an experiment in breaking with that trend and running something more suitable for the task at hand.

The rest of my equipment remained roughly the same. The same pants, same shoes and same Under Armour 3 panel hat. I haven’t touched on the hat before, and while it looks a little goofy and is built for running, I simply haven’t found a better shooting hat. These three-panel hats are well ventilated, incorporate a sweatband rim and have a very soft and floppy bill that can be run down or turned up. When down, it does what hat bills are supposed to and block the sun. When turned up, it holds my glasses out of the way and provides a very clear and unobstructed view of my scope or my pistol. I really like them and someone out there should make a tacticool camouflage version of these hats just for shooting events. You are welcome. Different this time was my shirt as I was running an Under Armour Breeze shirt made from Gore-tex Infinium fabric. Simply put, in testing this out prior, this is the lightest, coolest, fastest drying t-shirt I have ever worn and it’s not even close. I absolutely love this shirt and it will be a Run and Gun staple from now on.

My event started off on the wrong foot as I arrived to the hotel Friday night in excited anticipation for the next days experience. I shot off a message to a couple of buddies I knew would be staying in the same hotel, asking why they had not yet arrived. A couple of “LOL’s” and “LMAO’s” later I had realized the 10k event was not until Sunday and I had arrived a full two days early. Typically the accompanying shorter, or rimfire events are held the day after the “main event”, on Sunday. Not this one. The 10k run was to be on Sunday and I paid no attention to that after registration so I found myself in a hotel in the middle of nowhere with an extra day to kill.

Since I was free as a bird on Saturday, I decided to show up to the 5k safety briefing and event speech. I figured it couldn’t hurt to get two listens in before my run. What really stuck out at the event speech was Matt saying:

“Very few of you will finish every shooting stage. In fact several of you will likely fail every shooting stage. Do not let that discourage you.”

This really stuck with me. Although I knew my plan all along was to slow down and pay attention, I knew right then that I really wanted to be a part of the few that had zero stage failures and I was going to do my best to make sure that happened.

After the briefing, I decided to go shoot a side match they were having for the event that included a Barrett MRAD rifle in .300 Norma Magnum at the 1,000 yard range. The rules for the side match were simple. $10 per shot, 5 shot maximum. Every round in the X or 10 ring at 1,000 yards gives you a raffle ticket to the drawing. The prize was your own Barrett MRAD rifle in caliber and color of your choice….valued at $6600. I decided to throw $50 toward the cause and take my 5 shots. The gun shoots like a dream. I don’t recall any more recoil than my precision .308s. My first three shots hit the 10 ring and shot #4 pushed slightly outside when the wind picked up. I thought about holding the correction for the 5th shot but decided to stay the course. It proved to be a mistake as #5 was also pushed slightly outside and I ended up with 3 out of 5 as winners and three chances to win the rifle. The resulting group was 1.12 MOA and I walked away impressed by the rifle and a healthy respect for the .300 Norma Magnum cartridge.

I took a little bit of time to recheck zero on my match rifle and make sure all my DOPE was correct while I had the availability of electronic targets and a downrange chrono. With one small .1 MIL windage adjustment I felt confident and ready for Sunday.

I woke up Sunday morning, early, and went on a 1 mile “shake-out” run. I did this before my previous run and gun and it worked out great, knocking the edge off my nerves and getting my legs warmed up and ready to go. After the run, I quickly showered up and began lightly snacking/fueling up and made my way over to Dead Zero Shooting Park. Upon arrival, I once again went through the safety brief and once again listened to Matt discuss the high likelihood of failing stages. I kept reinforcing to my inner self that controlling my run was going to be of utmost importance, no matter how much I felt like pushing the pace. I knew that was going to be the key for me in an event that would require as much mental acuity as I could muster.

I considered saving this last piece of information until the end (considering I found out about it after my run as well), but I think presenting it upfront will provide a better visual as I walk through the stages. I also think it will give some insight into why I shot some stages in a manner that was not beneficial to me according to the scoring method used:

In past Run and Gun events, if you did not complete the stage by the end of the par time (90 or 180 seconds) you would receive a “DNF” for that stage, or essentially a score of zero. Under this system, all the top places are always filled by those who had zero stage failures. For all intents and purposes, you could not shoot well enough on all the other stages to ever outscore someone who completed every stage if you in fact had a DNF.

I made a very bad assumption that this is how this match would be scored and that, combined with Matt’s speech and my intent in making sure I completed all stages, led me to shoot in a way that ultimately cost me some placement in the shooting rankings. The match was scored, more, USPSA style I guess I would say, with speed having slightly more weight than accuracy. If you ran up against your 180 second par time, instead of getting a DNF, your score would be 180 seconds, plus time added for targets left standing or penalties. In some of the stages, there would be a significantly different approach you would want to take depending upon the scoring system used. Let me be very clear, this was my fault, as I certainly could have confirmed the scoring method prior to the start of the match, and its a lesson that I can assure you I will only have to learn once.

In each of the following stages, I will post the real-life battle and hero story that I had to go off when trying to prepare for the event, followed by the actual stage briefing that you only receive one you arrive at that particular stage. I realize this will get a bit long-winded, but I feel both are crucial in understanding this event and its cause.

There were to be 76 participants in the Sunday 10k “main” event. My launch time was to be 8:56 am and as is typical of these events the last 20 minutes or so leading up to the timer going off seems like an eternity. I double and triple checked all my gear, sprayed myself down with Deep Woods Off (there were reports of some participants in the 5k and RO run pulling off 80-100 ticks!) and headed down to the start line. At exactly 8:56 am CT, the rest of the world did not exist and I was all alone with just my rifle and pistol….

The run to stage one was brief, approximately .27 miles, but the fun was just beginning:

STAGE 1:

OSS AND MARINE LIEUTENANT COLONEL

Hero: PETER J. ORTIZ

10 pistol hits required

Peter J. Ortiz was the recipient of two Navy Crosses, an Order of the British Empire, and numerous French awards for his service during two stints in the French Foreign Legion, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the OSS Operational Groups. There are entire books written about this legend, but here’s just one excerpt from https://sofrep.com/specialoperations/marine‐col‐peter‐j‐ortiz‐oss‐career‐reads‐like‐ fiction/: His legend grew, there are several stories of him waltzing into German occupied towns in full uniform and having a go with the German troops. While the stories vary, they reinforce the fact that he was not afraid to go anywhere in his operational area. In the book “Herringbone Cloak–GI Dagger: Marines of the OSS” written by LTC Robert Mattingly, perhaps the best version of these events unfolded: Ortiz, in particular, was fond of going straight into the German‐occupied towns. On one occasion, he strolled into a cafe dressed in a long cape. Several Germans were drinking and cursing the maquis. One mentioned the fate which would befall the filthy American swine when he was caught. (The Nazis apparently knew of Ortiz’ existence in the area with the maquis) This proved a great mistake. Captain Ortiz threw back the cape revealing his Marine uniform. In each hand, he held a .45 automatic. When the shooting stopped, there were fewer Nazis to plan his capture and Ortiz was gone into the night.

On arriving at Stage 1, you were looking out over a pistol bay with 13 or so 8-10” steel plates at various distances. In front of you were TWO 1911 pistols, loaded with 7 rounds each I believe, and sitting on the deck. The stage was simple. On the buzzer, pick up both 1911 pistols, one in each hand, and begin engaging all the steel targets until both pistols run dry. Each target must take one hit. If you run empty on both 1911 pistols, draw your own pistol and finish off the rest of the remaining steel targets.

What a cool stage, who doesn’t want to envision themselves walking into a Nazi bar with dual-wield 1911’s under a trench coat and going to town? Well done.

If you know anything about me and stage guns, well, we don’t get along too well, but I felt like this one, in particular, would not be an issue. On the buzzer, I picked up both 1911’s and flipped the safety off on each one. I began engaging the steel one by one and had a couple of misses on my left hand. I did not shoot too quickly with the 1911’s instead trying to focus on getting one hit per trigger pull. When the pistols ran dry there were three targets still standing and I quickly drew my own pistol and made one hit each. While I had some misses with the stage guns, the ease with which my red dot found the plates and speed at which I was able to engage those last three, left me feeling very confident in how my pistol was going to go for the rest of the day.

My time was 27.46 seconds for a stage ranking of 18th place.

There was another short run to Stage 2 that came up 0.6 miles in.

STAGE 2:

MOH RECIPIENT STAFF SERGEANT ROBERT J. MILLER, 3SFG

24 rifle hits required

Medal of Honor Citation, awarded October 6, 2010: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller distinguished himself by extraordinary acts of heroism while serving as the Weapons Sergeant in Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3312, Special Operations Task Force‐33, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force‐Afghanistan during combat operations against an armed enemy in Konar Province, Afghanistan on January 25, 2008. While conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol through the Gowardesh Valley, Staff Sergeant Miller and his small element of U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers engaged a force of 15 to 20 insurgents occupying prepared fighting positions. Staff Sergeant Miller initiated the assault by engaging the enemy positions with his vehicle’s turret‐mounted Mark‐19 40 millimeter automatic grenade launcher while simultaneously providing detailed descriptions of the enemy positions to his command, enabling effective, accurate close air support. Following the engagement, Staff Sergeant Miller led a small squad forward to conduct a battle damage assessment. As the group neared the small, steep, narrow valley that the enemy had inhabited, a large, well‐ coordinated insurgent force initiated a near ambush, assaulting from elevated positions with ample cover. Exposed and with little available cover, the patrol was totally vulnerable to enemy rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapon fire. As point man, Staff Sergeant Miller was at the front of the patrol, cut off from supporting elements, and less than 20 meters from enemy forces. Nonetheless, with total disregard for his own safety, he called for his men to quickly move back to covered positions as he charged the enemy over exposed ground and under overwhelming enemy fire in order to provide protective fire for his team. While maneuvering to engage the enemy, Staff Sergeant Miller was shot in his upper torso. Ignoring the wound, he continued to push the fight, moving to draw fire from over one hundred enemy fighters upon himself. He then again charged forward through an open area in order to allow his teammates to safely reach cover. After killing at least 10 insurgents, wounding dozens more, and repeatedly exposing himself to withering enemy fire while moving from position to position, Staff Sergeant Miller was mortally wounded by enemy fire. His extraordinary valor ultimately saved the lives of seven members of his own team and 15 Afghanistan National Army soldiers. Staff Sergeant Miller’s heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty, and at the cost of his own life, are in eeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.

For Stage 2, there were 4 different shooting locations, each with one close-range paper target up front and, in the open, a mid-range (50-60 yard-ish) steel target located directly behind it in the woods. In front of each one of those locations was a sign with coordinates on them. On the buzzer, you were to move to the shooting location and engage the paper target 3 times, and the steel target 3 times with your rifle. After neutralizing the target, you were to use the radio given to you at the start of the stage and radio back your coordinates and then move to the next location until complete.

Not wanting to risk a DNF by leaving a target un-neutralized and not knowing if only A or C-zone hits would count on the paper target, on the buzzer I decided I would give each paper target 5-6 hits for extra insurance instead of just 3. Other than shooting double the rounds in each paper target, I felt like I cleared this stage fairly quickly. I had a little trouble locating the steel target in the woods each time just because they were shaded and already shot up a little bit, but nothing too difficult. At my final location, I made my final hits and called in my last set of coordinates.

My time was 60.30 seconds with no penalties, good enough for 11th place on the stage.

After completing Stage 2 there was a 1 mile run to the next stage through a couple of segments of woods and some open fields. I was feeling pretty good at this point but by reading the battle preview, I knew this stage would likely be physical so I was trying to maintain a nice steady, and easy pace.

STAGE 3:

MOH RECIPIENT SERGEANT FIRST CLASS MELVIN MORRIS, 5SFG

20 rifle hits, 5 pistol hits required

Medal of Honor Citation, awarded March 18, 2014: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Staff Sergeant Melvin Morris distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Commander of a Strike Force drawn from Company D, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, during combat operations against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Chi Lang, Republic of Vietnam on September 17, 1969. On that afternoon, Staff Sergeant Morris’ affiliated companies encountered an extensive enemy mine field and were subsequently engaged by a hostile force. Staff Sergeant Morris learned by radio that a fellow team commander had been killed near an enemy bunker and he immediately reorganized his men into an effective assault posture before advancing forward and splitting off with two men to recover the team commander's body. Observing the maneuver, the hostile force concentrated its fire on Staff Sergeant Morris’ three‐man element and successfully wounded both men accompanying him. After assisting the two wounded men back to his forces lines, Staff Sergeant Morris charged forward into withering enemy fire with only his men's suppressive fire as cover. While enemy machine gun emplacements continuously directed strafing fusillades against him, Staff Sergeant Morris destroyed the positions with hand grenades and continued his assault, ultimately eliminating four bunkers. Upon reaching the bunker nearest the fallen team commander, Staff Sergeant Morris repulsed the enemy, retrieved his comrade and began the arduous trek back to friendly lines. He was wounded three times as he struggled forward, but ultimately succeeded in returning his fallen comrade to a friendly position. Staff Sergeant Morris’ extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

For Stage 3 you were given a hand grenade to start things off. You were to toss the hand grenade onto a target on the ground (tarp) and then move to the first position and engage one close paper target with 3 rounds rifle and two steel targets with one round each, approximately 100 yards away. You would then move to position two and repeat. Same for position 3 and then position 4. Once engaging all your targets at position 4, you were to ground your rifle and grab “Randy” which is the name for the very heavy body dummy and drag him all the way back to position one. Once you have drug him to the proper location, you would then go to your pistol and engage the last paper target 5 times.

When I look at the scores on this stage compared to how I remember it, I can only come up with the conclusion that yes, “Randy” was indeed much heavier than I expected. My shooting on the stage had little to no hiccups, was fairly quick and smooth, but when I got to “Randy” and grabbed his arms to pull, he did not budge. I am not sure how much he weighed, but I weigh 135 lbs and he certainly felt nearly twice as heavy as me. After trying to drag him with little success, I finally reached down and got under his armpits and squatted as much of his body off the ground as I could. I finally was able to begin moving backward, but my legs were burning the entire way. Any other time, I would have paused to take a break but I did not want to run out the clock. Despite my legs and arms burning I pushed through and finally got him back to position one where I drew my pistol and put down the final paper target with 5 hits.

I did not shoot this stage bad at all, and I actually felt pretty good about it, but alas, I think the time dragging “Randy” around cost me significantly. More Wheaties needed next year.

The total time for this stage was 117.45 for 39th place.

Another half mile run on a fairly open path led me to Stage 4, located 2.16 miles in…

STAGE 4:

SPECIAL RECONNAISSANCE OPERATION DESERT STORM [excerpt taken from a Master’s thesis written by Major William M. Johnson]

12 rifle hits required

Unknown 5th Special Forces Group Soldier crawls into position during Operation Desert Storm The first mission was conducted by a split detachment, comprised of three SF soldiers from 1st Battalion, Detachment A‐532, and commanded by Master Sergeant Jeffrey Sims. The team had wanted more low‐level reconnaissance planes to photograph the infiltration sites just prior to D‐day but the Air Force had been busy with sorties for the two Army Corps. The infiltration, conducted on the evening before G‐Day, 23 February, by MH‐60 from the 160th SOAR, crossed the Iraqi border at 2100 hours and was in position north of the Euphrates River and less than 100 miles from Baghdad. Upon touchdown at their pre‐designated position at 2200 hours that night, they would have roughly five hours to prepare their hide site. The helicopter had landed in a freshly plowed field, its furrows almost three feet deep. Boots sank into the loose dirt. They were greeted by the eerie and unwanted sound of dogs barking from somewhere nearby. No one owning the dogs was apparently interested in their midnight howling. In eight hours, the XVIII Airborne Corps and the VII Corps would cross the border. By first light, after hours of hiking to their position and digging their hide site, MSG Sims and his fellow operators were in position. During the night, a 50‐car train rolled closely by and MSG Sims SATCOM communicated this information directly to the XVIII Airborne Corps. As soon as the sun shone, people came out. Farmers and sheep herders began walking within hundreds of yards of the hide‐ site. For the next eight hours, the team sweated out discovery as people passed by their position. No one had expected so much foot traffic. One sheep herder walked in front of the hide‐ site within a foot of the peephole. Miraculously, the herder did not notice the hide‐site and walked on. Another shepherd, this one with a dog, strolled dangerously near. At roughly 1400 hours the team's luck got worse. A small girl and her grandfather stood frozen, staring in the direction of the hide‐ site. They slowly made their way to the hole. The old man tried to look inconspicuous, but inched closer to the hide‐site. Then the girl bolted toward the hide‐site. The old man, who appeared to be in his sixties, followed closely behind. Slowly, she lifted the lid and gazed wide‐eyed at the three Green Berets. The three men aimed their 9‐mm pistols, equipped with silencers, right at the girl's head. The team was already compromised and shooting the two civilians would serve no purpose. The old man started screaming at the other shepherds now wandering several hundred yards away "Americans are here! Americans are here!” The old man and the little girl scrambled to their feet and ran away. Sims let them go. Meanwhile, the team radioed for extraction due to their compromised position. After running to another ditch, some 500 meters away, Sims knew they'd simply have to find another hole from which to make a stand. Within 30 minutes, Iraqi troops began arriving by truck along the highway. The team began sniping the enemy soldiers, knocking them down one by one. The killing was methodical. No rifles were set on automatic. That would waste precious ammunition. Then two busloads of soldiers arrived, increasing the odds against the team's survival. Armed civilians began sneaking across the right and left flanks. Several village men stood on an old masonry wall surrounding a stone house nearby and waived their hands to direct the soldiers to Sim's position. The Green Berets picked off one of them. But the precious firing could not protect them forever. Villagers and soldiers crept up along the irrigation ditches. The team would gun down several and the squads would retreat. But not for good. More busses carrying soldiers came. Finally, one and one‐half hours after they had been compromised, an F‐16 Eagle roared overhead. At Sims direction, the plane dropped cluster bombs and thousand‐pounders into ditches just 300 yards from Sims' position. ODA 532 was rescued by a single MH‐60 flown by CWO Randy Stephens and CWO John Crisufulli. It was the only daylight hot extraction carried out during DESERT STORM, with over 240 nautical miles covered by the 160th SOAR crew across enemy territory in broad daylight. The extraction itself was one of intense fire‐fight, as MSG Sims element all survived and got aboard the aircraft. It was a successful extraction.

Seems to me that there is always one or two stages in these events where I nearly have a meltdown and for this event, that would start at stage 4.

First things first, on the buzzer use your final coordinate numbers from BACK AT STAGE 2 to engage three rifle targets with one hit each in the proper order from position 1.

Wow. This is not starting off well for me at all.

Remember when I said I was going to run slow and pay attention? Well, I certainly never thought about remembering or writing down the coordinates I was calling in from Stage 2. Now two stages and 1.5 miles later, I am in danger of screwing up Stage 4 all because I cannot remember those coordinates.

The stage was setup so that the coordinates you should have remembered from Stage 2 was your first shooting order in position one. After shooting from that position, you then take the coordinates from position one and use that to shoot the proper order at position 2 and so on. There were 4 positions, the first one had no support, the second one was on a tank trap, the third no support, and the 4th from a “helicopter” which would be a platform on chains that moves and swings.

With each target downrange numbered 1-2-3 the one thing I did know was that my final coordinates from Stage 2 was not 1,2,3 or 3,2,1…or I would have remembered that. So on the buzzer, I removed my bipod legs, stuck them in my barricade stop, loaded my rifle, and laid down to shoot from prone. While my scope could see the targets, my barrel could not and I fired directly into the dirt on the first shot. Not knowing if I could move forward any to get a clear shot, I then attempted to use the sign holding the coordinates as a rest and the RO yelled that I was not allowed to use the signpost. I then moved directly to the right of the sign kneeling and the RO yelled that I could not fire with my muzzle close to the sign or it would tear it up. I moved further over and the RO yelled I was still too close. Geeeeez. Already rattled and a lot of time ticking off the clock, I finally stood up and attempted to send rounds downrange. I started with target 2 and at this point was so shaky I had a very hard time hitting it. I sent several rounds downrange and finally hit it and then moved to target 1. When I hit target one, the RO yelled “Wrong Order!” At that point, I went back to start over and shot target #2 again first at which point the RO yelled “You already engaged that one!” From there I knew all I had to do was hit target 3 and then target 1 to finally move on from this disastrous position. Looking back, the targets were far enough and small enough that engaging with my Deltapoint Pro atop my scope didn’t make much sense, but I kept trying to engage through my LPVO at max magnification offhanded, losing sight of the target with each round fired and having to require. I should have shot this with my scope on about 3x magnification. Big mistake.

After what seems like an eternity, I finally hit the first set of targets in order, 2-3-1, and ran to position #2 with the coordinates from the position 1 signpost in my head. I knew at this point, I was in danger of timing out on the stage so I sprinted to the tank trap and fired 3 shots, 1-2-3, sprinted to position 3 and fired three shots standing 3-1-2 and Pete Rose’d onto the helicopter pad firing the last sequence of 2-1-3 to stop the clock. I immediately looked up at the RO and asked “Did I make it?” He confirmed yes, I had indeed beat the clock, but not by much. This is one of those stages that I was hoping somewhere on the course there would be a do-over option with some tricky bonus stage, but that was not the case.

Good news is I completed it, bad news is it took me 151.42 seconds to do so for a stage ranking of 60th.

Stage 5 was set to be roughly 6/10ths of a mile from Stage 4 and would include the first river crossing. At the crossing point, there was a slackline that could be used, or you could choose to wade through the river. Though my plans for river crossings prior to the event were to include just running through the river and saving time and arm strength, I decided perhaps this one might have had a slackline because it was very deep. I could not see the bottom so I decided to throw my legs up over the rope and scoot my way over the river. It definitely made my arms tired but I had no issue getting across.

Immediately after the crossing, I came upon two half-man upper torsos in the woods. One torso was wearing a Multicam shirt with the words “These are your Enemies” and the other torso, dressed in Digital ACU’s had a sign saying “These are your Friends”. I stopped my run and took the time to jot that down in my notebook, just to be sure, but I felt like there was no way I was going to forget that. Multicam, the latest camo of our Armed Forces would almost always designate a friendly in the mind of a shooter, the sign stating just the opposite was a lasered into my head as a real attempt to trip us up, and I was determined not to let that happen. A short run later and I arrived at the stage.

STAGE 5:

MAQUIS, WWII

25 pistol hits required

The Jedburgh Teams and Operational Groups from the OSS worked closely with the Maquis (French resistance fighters) in WWII to organize, equip, and lead them against the Germans. The OSS is usually talked about as the “precursor to the CIA”, but in many ways it very much foreshadowed missions typical of the Army Special Forces. Heavily armed members of the French Resistance to the Nazi occupiers, these Maquis are typical of the irregular soldiers who inflicted heavy losses on the Germans and kept thousands of them from the front lines. OSS often cooperated with the Maquis and provided leadership and organization to their ranks. Known as Paul, this physician from Corsica killed three Germans with a pistol during a Maquis patrol. Along with the difficulties of finding, communicating with, organizing, and equipping the Maquis, OSS struggled with just identifying friend vs. foe and were frequently double‐crossed in the field.

On this stage, your mission was simple. Move through the woods and locate various targets and neutralize with 5 pistol hits each. All targets were either dressed in Multicam or ACUs. At the end of the stage you must report back the number of enemies killed and any number of friendlies injured. For whatever reason, I heard the RO differently. I thought I was to report the number of enemies killed and the number of friendlies that survived.

With this in my head, and not knowing how long the stage was to go on, and how many targets I was going to have to keep count of, I proceeded to engage each set of targets that I located, holster my weapon and write down the number of friendlies and enemies at each location. As you can imagine, this took quite a bit of time to do, and about halfway through I lost my pen and started trying to keep up in my head. I realized I was doing something wrong by the look on the RO’s face. Regardless, I finished up the stage, albeit slowly and methodically. In the end, I called in the number killed and the number remaining and I believe this incorrect call-in of Killed/Injured is what gave me a 10-second penalty to further increase my stage time. In hindsight, my stage time on this should have probably been 50% of what it was, if I had listened correctly it would have been nothing to run through the course shooting only the Multicam targets and simply counting how many I put down, but that is the price you pay when you miss the important details. Also, not knowing until later on that even shooting friendlies on this stage would just merely result in a 10-second penalty instead of a DNF meant I really shot this stage in the wrong manner. I spent an extraordinary amount of time counting and writing, reholstering and drawing, almost none of it necessary…

I was 55th on this stage.

The path to stage 6 had two more river crossings and I decided since I knew this stage was to be only 1/3rd of a mile from the previous one, that I wasn’t going to risk my arms being tired when I got there. I ingored the slacklines and hit the river crossings. Mud sank deep up my calf and water rose up near my waist. Just on the other side of the second crossing, I arrived at my favorite stage of the match.

STAGE 6 :

MOH RECIPIENT COMMAND SERGEANT MAJOR BENNIE G. ADKINS, 5SFG

15 pistol hits required

Medal of Honor Citation, awarded September 15, 2014: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Sergeant First Class Bennie G. Adkins distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an Intelligence Sergeant with Detachment A‐102, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces, during combat operations against an armed enemy at Camp A Shau, Republic of Vietnam from March 9 to 12, 1966. When the camp was attacked by a large North Vietnamese and Viet Cong force in the early morning hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense enemy fire and manned a mortar position continually adjusting fire for the camp, despite incurring wounds as the mortar pit received several direct hits from enemy mortars. Upon learning that several soldiers were wounded near the center of camp, he temporarily turned the mortar over to another soldier, ran through exploding mortar rounds and dragged several comrades to safety. As the hostile fire subsided, Sergeant First Class Adkins exposed himself to sporadic sniper fire while carrying his wounded comrades to the camp dispensary. When Sergeant First Class Adkins and his group of defenders came under heavy small arms fire from members of the Civilian Irregular Defense Group that had defected to fight with the North Vietnamese, he maneuvered outside the camp to evacuate a seriously wounded American and draw fire all the while successfully covering the rescue. When a resupply air drop landed outside of the camp perimeter, Sergeant First Class Adkins, again, moved outside of the camp walls to retrieve the much needed supplies. During the early morning hours of March 10, 1966 enemy forces launched their main attack and within two hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins was the only man firing a mortar weapon. When all mortar rounds were expended, Sergeant First Class Adkins began placing effective recoilless rifle fire upon enemy positions. Despite receiving additional wounds from enemy rounds exploding on his position, Sergeant First Class Adkins fought off intense waves of attacking Viet Cong. Sergeant First Class Adkins eliminated numerous insurgents with small arms fire after withdrawing to a communications bunker with several soldiers. Running extremely low on ammunition, he returned to the mortar pit, gathered vital ammunition and ran through intense fire back to the bunker. After being ordered to evacuate the camp, Sergeant First Class Adkins and a small group of soldiers destroyed all signal equipment and classified documents, dug their way out of the rear of the bunker and fought their way out of the camp. While carrying a wounded soldier to the extraction point he learned that the last helicopter had already departed. Sergeant First Class Adkins led the group while evading the enemy until they were rescued by helicopter on March 12, 1966. During the thirty‐eight‐hour battle and forty‐eight hours of escape and evasion, fighting with mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles, small arms, and hand grenades, it was estimated that Sergeant First Class Adkins killed between one hundred thirty five and one hundred seventy five of the enemy while sustaining eighteen different wounds to his body. Sergeant First Class Adkins' extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Detachment A‐102, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces and the United States Army.

I certainly hope you read the excerpt from above. This story resonating in my head, along with the type and thickness of the foliage at this stage deep inside the woods, had Jesse Ventura ringing in my head saying “This makes Cambodia look like Kansas,” and he would have probably been right. The backdrop for this stage was pure awesome.

At the start of the stage you were to run to a mortar sim and drop the mortar down the tube 3 times. You then would make 5 pistol hits on a steel target out in the woods. You would then grab another “Randy” and drag him to your next position where you would put 5 pistol hits on another steel target. After that you would grab ammo cans from position 2 and move them back to position 1. From there you would move to the third shooting position and once again engage a steel pistol target 5 times. Finally, once you complete that you would run to position 4 and fire the recoilless rifle (simulated by a shotgun with a bird bomb shot into the air).

The only difficulty in this stage was keeping up with the order in which I had to do everything. I listened to the RO along the way and shot it smoothly but could have been quicker if I had confidence in the exact steps required. The “Randy” at this stage seemed a good bit lighter than the previous one and I didn’t have much trouble moving him. I probably could have engaged the steel a bit quicker, but overall I was OK with my performance here.

80.09 Seconds for 26th place.

Stage 6 was located 3.09 miles into my run and Stage 7 was set to be at 5.83 miles in. Knowing I had over 2.5 miles of running ahead of me, and knowing I had yet to fail a stage, I settled into a nice pace that would keep me moving but wouldn’t sacrifice my mental ability. The woods were thick and the trails were non-existent in most areas. I tried to watch ahead as far as possible, searching for caution tape. A couple of times I had to stop and search for a few seconds but I was able to stay on track much easier than I expected. At one point, I came upon a sign on the ground next to a gate that said “Over.” I flipped the sign over and there was nothing on the back other than the price of the sign and the UPC number. Being overly paranoid about what clue it might be, and also having lost my pen on stage 5, I repeated that price and UPC number in my head all the way to the start of stage 7. Turns out, that sign was on the gate when the gate was closed the previous day and was not needed at all. 5.8 miles into the run and I guess paranoia was finally setting in.

STAGE 7: HORSE SOLDIERS

13 rifle hits, 5 pistol hits required

In the days following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Defense Department sent two teams of Army Special Forces soldiers to Afghanistan to bring down the Taliban. SFODA 595, the “Horse Soldiers,” went on missions that were extended for weeks and months. They did it all without body armor or tactical vehicles, living with Afghan partners and following an Afghan plan – often using horses and pack animals. 595 was charged with leading the Northern Alliance and the men of former (assassinated) Ahmed Shah Massoud to unite Afghanistan against Taliban rule. These Green Berets were among the first to deploy to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Some of them rode into battle on horseback alongside fighters from the Northern Alliance. There were no guarantees that General Dostum of the Afghan Northern Alliance would safeguard the team, and many members had never ridden horseback before. The team found itself uniquely postured to react to the Nation’s call to duty after the 9/11 attacks.

At the arrival to stage 7, I knew I was one stage away from completing all the shooting stages. I had told myself when the stage came into sight to calm down, try to be smooth and not get overworked.

This stage featured a wooden stage horse. Several small falling steel pistol targets were located on the way to the horse that had to be engaged. Once those targets were hit you were to mount the horse and proceed to engage 13 rifle targets from on top the horse. There were 3 targets that I estimated to be 300 yards away, two targets at what I estimated to be 200 yards away and all the rest were at various ranges from maybe 60-125 yards are so. The targets on this stage were small and a level of precision was going to be needed just to hit the 200-300 yard targets that would have been a cakewalk if they were standard IPSC/IDPA size and you weren’t on a horse.

Upon the buzzer I began shooting the small pistol targets while on the move. I think I missed maybe twice before knocking all the targets down on my way to the horse. I holstered my pistol and climbed on top and in my typical fashion, I went straight for the farthest targets first. In hindsight, due to the scoring system, this was really dumb. Had I never hit the far targets I would have been left with a 180 second time and a whole bunch of standing targets, each at a 10-second penalty. Because I thought this was a DNF scoring system, and nothing would matter if I didn’t hit them all, I wanted to start with the hardest targets first, that way if I am up against a time crunch later in the stage, I am engaging the closer, easier targets under the pressure of the clock.

Regardless, because I estimated the farthest targets at 300 and that distance in my reticle is somewhat of a “tweener” hold, I decided to go ahead and dial my dope to 1.4 mils and hold center. There was quite a bit of wind on top of this hill during my shoot time and I kept trying to hold and get the correct windage. I spent a fair amount of ammo trying to get that first initial hit. Once I finally got the first hit, I felt more confident and moved to the other two targets at that distance utilizing my last hold. Upon hitting the last target at the furthest distance, I dialed my scope back to zero and held dead on the roughly 200 yard targets. I don’t know how big these targets actually were, but trying to hit them while sitting atop that horse was not easy. I scooted my butt back, leaned over and jammed my barricade stop into the horses ear for stability. Once I finally got my hits there, I walked my rifle from the furthest steel poppers on the ground to the closest, speeding up as hits became more consistent and easier.

My time for the stage was 135.56 and good enough for 15th place.

After dismounting the horse, I put my rifle on my back and ran as fast as I could to the finish line located only about a quarter of a mile away.

After finishing up, I headed back to the hotel to shower off in case I had multiple ticks on me like many of the other participants. I’ll spare you the picture, but somewhere along my run, I felt my leg sting and then burn like it was on fire for about 10 minutes. I thought I was stung by a hornet. Back at the hotel, removing my clothes revealed a perfect penny-sized circle that was completely void of any flesh. Those who have seen it, say it is a brown recluse spider. The wound did not heal at all for a week, still with raw flesh in a perfect circle, but it never advanced either. I don’t know what it was but if I got lucky and my body fought it off or it didn’t get enough in me, I won the lottery.

Back at the event and talking with other competitors, I was feeling good about my run. 2/3rds of the field had not completed Stage 7 on the horse and as I predicted several really good competitors I know shot friendlies on Stage 5. I was thinking the list of us with zero stage failures was going to be small and maybe I would place much higher than I had hoped. I was still thinking those would result in DNF’s but that would ultimately not be the case.

When it all shook out, I ended up in 16th place out of 76 competitors that day (run ranking of 7th) and stuck somewhere between disappointed and satisfied. Disappointed because my failure to nail down the most basic part of a shooting competition, the scoring, ultimately cost me some valuable placement. Satisfied because I did exactly what I set out to do. I ran slower, shot a bit faster where I could, and completed all the stages. Ultimately, these things are not about winning or losing, but they are about the preparation, the struggle, and the test that the event puts on you and your equipment. It is sometimes hard to swallow knowing you could have done better but the bottom line is every single competitor that goes out and runs could have done better. You are not the only one with hiccups. You can “what if” yourself to death but your placement on that given day, under those conditions tells you exactly where you stand.

This event was awesome. The location, the stages, Matt Stennett, the match director is awesome and all of the RO’s were great. The best times at these events are not only out in the field but hanging out before and after sharing stories with your buddies. I have yet to meet anyone at these events that were not pleasant to be around. If you were unable to make it out this year, keep an eye out for next year’s registration. This is one Run-and-Gun event that will likely become a non-negotiable for me going forward. I can’t wait for 2021.

To chat about this blog entry and much more, join us on Discord:

https://www.twobluescrews.com/join-us-on-discord

Oct 4 2020 Legion 9/11 Memorial Run & Gun

Jul 11 My 1991 Honda Acty Attack

Aug 30 Barrett Rec7 Di SBR Build in .300 BLK