Troop 4277 Pictures

The Troop went to Ft. Hood on September 18-20, 2009. Some of us had been there before, while this was a first for others. Our liaison was Sgt Heath Barr (no joke), and he was a great host who managed to pull together some cool stuff for us.

We arrived at Camp Arrowhead, which is on the east side of Ft. Hood, late Friday night. Sgt Barr had an area laid out for us and even had some large light on so we could see what we were doing. Everyone quickly got their tents up (well, except for Mr. Zippe) and began to relax. The adults had some Oreo's, and we quickly realized the benefit of having a certain individual (Mrs. Rodriguez) along for our campouts. In the morning, we had some breakfast and got ready to get on the bus that would take us into Ft. Hood.

There are some videos below that require QuickTime to view.

Once we were on base, our first stop was the M16 Rifle Range simulator. The boys all seemed to really enjoy this, as did the adults. I think Sgt Barr made note of a few of the boys' names to submit to the recruiting office.

Here are two videos (requires QuickTime), the first being the boys getting ready to shoot, the second one has then shooting.

Shooting video #1 Shooting video #2

After spending a couple of hours fighting off the Taliban, it was time to get some lunch. We got to eat in the dining hall with other soldiers.

With everyone's stomach full (we hoped, since some of the boys seemed to eat more than their body weight), it was time to move to the museum. Half the group went into the museum while the other half looked at the outside exhibits, then the two groups switched.

A gentleman at the museum gave the boys some sticker to remember their visit. That wasn't the best idea....

Our next stop was the trained dogs. They have a number of dogs that are trained for different purposes: drug sniffing, weapons detecting, attack, etc. The guys doing the first part of the demonstration had Labradors, then a third dog, an all-black German Shepherd was brought in. The German Shepherd was a little aggressive and could not be approached.

Dog video #1 Dog video #2 Dog video #3 Dog video #4

Dog video #5

We got to see a couple of demonstrations of how the German Shepherd was trained to attack.

Dog Video #6 Dog video #7

At this point, we were told that our Scoutmaster, Mr. Sands, would be going into one of the buildings to put on a protective suit. He would then get in the fenced area with the German Shepherd, and the dog would attack him. Most of the boys thought that sounded like a great idea. Some of the older boys started chanting, "Mr. Schuck! Mr. Schuck! Mr. Schuck!" Off Mr. Sands went to get the suit on.

Dog video #8 Dog video #9

As we were waiting for Mr. Sands to return, one of the soldiers who went with him came out shouting, "Greg Schuck! We need Greg Schuck." This couldn't be good. Turned out that the suit did not quite fit Mr. Sands, so he gave them my name. With a level of protest I was assisted with getting the suit on and soon was walking into the fenced area with the 100-pound dog - 98 pounds of muscle and 2 pounds of teeth. Let me tell you how exciting it is to have a dog that is full of attitude coming after you at full speed to bite you, and he gets praised for doing it. The really nerve racking part of this experience was knowing that the dog was not immediately responding to his handler's commands and was having to be forced to release his bite.

Dog video #10 Dog video #11 Dog video#12

With that excitement complete, we moved on to our last event, the Horse Calvary Detachment, to check out the horses. They don't have sharp teeth.

With our visit on the base complete, we went back to camp. We soon decided it was time for some dinner. Sgt Barr was kind enough to get us several cases of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), so we could experience the same kind of food soldiers have in the field.

Once dinner was finished, it was time to start the fishing contest. There were three categories: Biggest Fish, Smallest Fish, and Most Fish Caught. Most of the boys were looking forward to this all day. We found out from Sgt Barr that he got about 250 fish put into the pond that came from an Academy Sporting Goods event, as well as a bunch of other fish that the base had put in for us. There were so many fish in the pond they were practically crashing into each other. If only Mr. Hood had been there.