Road march marks the end
By Trisha Weber
Staff writer
The morning’s sun was still an hour away from rising when the red flashlights appeared through the blackness, indicating the Cadets were arriving.
With only yards left of the 6.2-mile road march through Fort Knox, their chants became louder as exhausted Cadets and cadre of Co. E 1/46th Inf. raised their flags higher for supporters who stood along the finish line applauding.
Since 3 in the morning, they marched from Brandenburg Station Road Gate to Memorial Grove.
The march marks the culminating event for the Leader’s Training Course, designed to test Cadets’ endurance and mental toughness, said Lt. Col. Kyle Rambo, a platoon tactical officer for Echo Co. He said that for some of the Cadets it was the furthest they had ever moved by foot.
Co. B 1/46th Inf. finishes up its early morning 10k journey up Misery Hill. Photo by Jeff Sainlar
“My group was a little anxious,” Rambo said about his platoon. “But I think there was a sense of exhilaration when they crested the top of the hill and could see the finish line.”
That hill is known as “misery” and poses the greatest challenge for most Cadets, who are already exhausted by that point, along with “agony,” which is a steep downhill just before misery.
Adding further challenge, each Cadet is loaded with a weight of about 35 pounds — carrying a rucksack packed with a change of uniform, boots and fresh water, a load-bearing equipment vest with more water and an M16.
Capt. Chad Hutchins, another platoon tactical officer for Echo Co., said it sums up everything the Cadets have learned at LTC.
“It’s just a test of physical conditioning for the strengths a Soldier will need,” he said.
After three days at the Bold Leader FTX, Cadets get a 2 a.m. wake-up call, bus over to their starting point and march.
“It really wasn’t that bad,” said Oscar Simmons, an Echo Co. Cadet and student at Georgia Military College. “LTC prepares you for it, whether you know it or not. On the way through I was motivated. I was up front with the company guidon, and all of us kept each other going.”
He said the hardest part was keeping everyone at the same pace for the entire six miles.
“Some people who didn’t think they could make it, we pushed them forward and they made it to the end,” Simmons said.
Fellow Cadet Caleb Mote, a student at New Mexico Military Institute, said although it wasn’t easy, he felt prepared because of the training he and his company had already endured prior to the march.
“We did some practice ruck marches, so we got our blisters out then,” he said. “The hardest thing about the march was it drug on.”
But it was a sense of camaraderie that kept him going.
“It’s your battle buddies, your left and your right,” Mote said. “There are difficult things in life, you just have to remember to have fun with what you’re doing. That’s what gets you through the hard times.”
