This post is all about the Fall Field Training Exercise, aka FTX.

Here at Penn State we have 2 FTX sessions per academic year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The FTX this past fall semester was from September 22 to 23. We did tons of training and spent the night in the woods. Because this happened early last semester I don’t completely remember everything that happened but I’m going to recall it the best I can.

At the start of FTX, we had to report to the Armory behind Wagner Building around 0430. We wore our camo OCP uniforms and had to pack our rucks with a specific list of items:

One by one, each of our 6 platoons started rucking to the place where we have FTX called AO (Area of Operation) Lion. It is an area north of campus that has lots of woods as well as open fields which makes it good for field training.

After a few miles of rucking we arrived at AO Lion right at sunrise. The first thing we did was draw weapons, which were rubber ducks (fake M4 rifles). Then we were given 2 MREs each, which are Meals Ready to Eat. They are full meals that contain a ton of calories in order to give you enough food and energy to last the day. That was our food for the next 2 days.

Because I am an MSI, the first day of FTX consisted of a lot of learning from older MS levels. We rucked between stations involving things like field sanitation, hand signals, radios, camoflauge, weapons, squad movements, and more. All of this learning was in preparation to conduct a mock squad mission the next morning.

Before sundown we had to learn about and then create a patrol base. Patrol bases are a platoon’s headquarters for no longer than 24 hours. You create it in a triangle shape with 360º security.

Once we made the patrol base and it got dark, we settled in for the night. Because the patrol base has to have constant 360º security, everyone in the platoon had to take shifts “pulling security.” This meant laying down prone on the ground with your rifle pointed outwards of the base. If this were a real operation, those pulling security would have to keep watch for people approaching the base and ask them the code to get into the base. But for our purposes, we were just practicing the act. I was lucky to be given a security shift from 2100-2200, but some people had to be woken up at 0200 to pull their shifts.

Around 0500 we all had to wake up, eat, and conduct hygiene. At around 0530, each squad of the platoon met and went over what their mission was going to be. Periodically throughout the morning, each squad would move out of the patrol base and go conduct their mission. This is a whole other process in itself, but we basically moved throughout the woods and attempted to take down an enemy target. After my squad completed ours, we sat near the enemy base and watched the other squads come through. Once each squad from my platoon went, we all rucked back to the place where we were given rifles the previous morning. We then handed our weapons back and all formed up to ruck back to Wagner. Once we all got back to the Armory we were dismissed from FTX at around 1500 the next day.

Overall, FTX was a challenging but rewarding experience. I certainly learned a lot from being out in the woods and going through the motions like an actual soldier would. On April 5 we have our Spring FTX, which will be longer and harder. I will make a blog post on that once I complete it!