WEBVTT

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my name is

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Theodore Zakaria . I am an E four and

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I'm with charlie Company 11 43rd

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Airport . Yeah ,

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I had first formation sometime around

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05 . Once we had everything set up , we

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got onto the busses , I just love

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driving busses down to Quantum Airfield .

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We got wheels up and uh we did in

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flight rigging . So before usually we

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would sit in a hangar and get all our

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gear on there , all of our chutes and

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get jam P ID in the hangar and have all

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our gear on us ready to jump and then

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we would walk out to the aircraft ready

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to jump . This time we took everything

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with us on the plane and we had , I

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don't know maybe like 10 or more jump

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masters on there . So while we were

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flying in the aircraft while it was

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moving they were able to get all of our

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gear on us inspect it and get us ready

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to jump . The in flight rig is

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definitely proof of concept that our

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airborne company can deploy anywhere

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very quickly . With a short amount of

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notice . Honestly , like

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when we were getting rigged up , it was

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obviously a little bit uncomfortable ,

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very crammed in the aircraft . But as

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soon as I got to that door ,

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right , It was during sunny

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florida . You know , we just got back

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from Rhode island . It was , it was

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snowing and there was like right at

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sunset once you exit the aircraft uh

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airborne operation , you have about six

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seconds before your main chute the boys .

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Once your parachute deploys , you look

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up , everything's fine . It's just

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silent and peaceful , had a great

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landing . Honestly couldn't invest for

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a better landing jump went very

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smoothly . I think some people had

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rougher landings but I don't no like

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actual injuries . Okay . Oh

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once we did that , we had a decent

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length ruck um all the way to our area

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of operation did about an eight mile

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ruck to the live fire shoot house .

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Once we got to our destination , we

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bedded down for the night because we

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had an early morning , I think we got

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to bed . I want to stay around maybe 11

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or 12 . It was a little cold out there .

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The weather hovered around the 40s

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because it got very very wet and very

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very windy . Um you just have to go

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through the and move on from . There is

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just one of the things we do the second

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day there we worked with blank rounds

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in the shoot house this weekend . Going

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into the shoot house , there was a lot

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bigger than anything I've experienced

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before . There was long hallways ,

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plenty of rooms . I think we we ended

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up clearing , I think five rooms in

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total was the most moving through those

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rooms is something that as an

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infantryman you need to know how to do

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well and safely . So when you're , when

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you're going through with blank rounds ,

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it's it's not too bad because I mean

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they're they're not real rounds , you

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know ? But once once we started using

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live rounds , obviously there's uh more

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of a safety concern . That craziest

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rush is definitely operating at night .

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Um , and with live , because that's

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where there's the most room , uh , for

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failure before the army , I've never

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used night vision goggles and it's ,

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it's not as easy to use as you'd expect .

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It's really just like this little tube

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as if like you're looking through like

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a paper towel . It's , it's just

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everything's green and you , you don't

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really have much peripheral vision . So

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you really just have to be very

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conscious of , of what's around you and

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everything . It's really , really tight

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inside of the shoot house is you have

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to be able to move safely and

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effectively . It needs to be very ,

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very perfect . There there's there's no

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room for error , but as long as you

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trust your teammates , you know ,

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you're doing everything , everyone

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comes out safe for the blank iterations .

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And the night iterations , we ended up

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staying up until around midnight ,

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Blank iterations ended up about 1130

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and live iterations ended about

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midnight . So the sleep was very

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limited . But that's one thing as an

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infantryman , you have to understand

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that you need to uh , function on these

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low , low , low levels of sleep .

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Next morning woke up early again ,

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probably the same time around 0506 . Um

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the machine gunners , which is what I

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am , we headed over to our range , our

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machine gun range , then we rolled into

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some Machine gun drills and we would

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start at the base of the hill . Charge

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up , lay down our tripod , mounted to

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40 on the tripod , all of this as

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quickly as we can . We practice um

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suppressive fire , grazing fire ,

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plunging fire over different distances ,

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different targets at different

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distances . We also practice rolling

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guns , which is another method of

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engagement . We used to employ machine

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guns to support our maneuver elements .

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We also did a little bit of

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unconventional positions like hit

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firing the 2 40 or shoulder firing it ,

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which is something that we don't

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usually do , but if we had to it's good

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to know how to and what to expect . As

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the night came on we threw on our nods

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and conduct some night fires . After

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that we uh we broke down , went back to

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the shoe house where the rest of the

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company was and just got ready for the

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next morning because we're we're

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heading out pretty early again This

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morning . We woke up really early ,

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probably lost 0445 and got

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all our gear on . The busses headed

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back to the airfield , Loaded the C130

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all our gear uh and flew back to

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quantico . Overall , it was it was a

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great drill weekend honestly , like

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from start to finish , it was great .

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We started off with the jump , which is

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always a really exhilarating experience .

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I mean everyone's nervous no matter if

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it's your first jump or your 100th . Um

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definitely got really good quality

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training on that definitely became more

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proficient in using the machine gun .

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I'm more confident in my own skills .

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Yeah so I actually I'm I'm from a town

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called Phillipsburg New Jersey . So

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once we finish up cleaning our weapons

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and everything once we get released I

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actually have to make a 4.5 5 hour trip

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home . And I got school tomorrow

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morning at nine o'clock . I know a

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bunch of guys from the unit , they're

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from Jersey , A couple of guys from

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texas florida people come from all over

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the country to to be in this unit

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tomorrow . Um After I drove home home

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to New Jersey I'll wake up to start

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work . So after I leave here probably

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gonna be later on hopefully around six

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gonna be able to get home shower

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because we all none of us have showered

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in what three or four days here , we're

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gonna have to wake up early tomorrow

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probably around seven to get to work

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for nine . Um After that I actually

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have class after work . So tomorrow is

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gonna be a full day and That is

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essentially your typical four day drill

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and Just Gotta wake up now for work in

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the morning at six