Radio Ruck, pictured here with Java in the summer of 2009 in the great Southern town of Oxford, Mississippi, has been on our shelves far too long. We thought way back when that it was better to have the Echo be much smaller than GR1, which it is. The Radio Ruck seemed too close to GR1 at the time, but we’ve gotten a lot of requests for something a little smaller than GR1 and bigger than the Echo, so here is it, the Radio Ruck.
Lieutenant Harp is the coolest guy we know, and though the circumstances are less than ideal, we’ve been fortunate to get to know him since GORUCK got involved with the Bionic project at West Point. Harp’s vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on May 15, 2010 and he sustained major injuries to both legs. It was his last patrol on his last day in country.
Ten years into two wars, there is more reason than ever to focus on a functional bionic limb. A team of engineers at West Point was tasked with designing and building a powered prosthetic (aka bionic) limb to allow below-the-knee amputees to run and walk more easily than they would with a conventional prosthetic. Working …
A hole in all our hearts and the origins of GORUCK. Though time has passed, I can recall with absolute clarity the rage I felt after 9/11. Soon enough our memories of Ground Zero will have a memorial, and a monument, and an anchored skyline. And when the Challenge comes to NYC, 1 World Trade Center will always be on the route. Not so much for what it was as for what it is.
The Navy owns the water. That was our theory anyway, and 90 midshipmen at the Naval Academy didn’t prove us wrong. The colder the better, apparently, as several went so far as to challenge sub-zero wind chill temperatures with shorts on, pants not necessary. That makes for some good livin’ for such a hearty crew. They took all that we gave them: telephone poles for miles, back and forths over the oh shit bridge, 200 meters of bounding bear crawls…and continual uncertainty. By the end, each of the classes, 011, 012, 013, and 014 relished the shared experiences that outsiders could not quite comprehend. And because Beaux (Challenge Cadre) couldn’t let them have all the fun, he checked out the waters himself and reported back with big smiles that the Navy could keep their cold as hell waters all to themselves. And so as we left Annapolis, now friends with some of America’s best young leaders, shared smiles and shared shivers revealed our pride in proving our original theory right.
The Blue Angels stole the show on a hot yet overcast Ohio day at the Dayton Air Show, but between bombers and daredevils, jets and (planned) explosions, all the sorties kept our eyes in the sky, nodding and smiling in approval and awe.
