Training Excercise

If I were to recall one of the most vivid memories I have so far experienced from my training, it would be my second field exercise in the woods at the Connaught Range training area. We arrived on the weekend our rucksacks filled with what we would need to survive the next two days in the woods. After being bussed out to the training area in the pitch dark around 11pm we were told to "go to ground" we set up our shelters and slept. We awoke around 5:30 am, received breakfast and began to march 3 kilometers to the training area where we would start our navigation exercise. In the forest, it became our mission to navigate ourselves using a compass and map to 12 different locations during the day and 12 at night. We patrolled through the forest, sometimes encountering knee deep swamps that spanned for hundreds of meters. 3 hours into the exercise, we ran out of water with 7 points remaining to be found. Under the heat and weight of our vest and weapons we trudged on. Dehydration began to inch closer as we did to finding out final points. After our last point was found, we speed marched 2 kilometers to the area where there was dinner. After 7 hours of patrolling we finally got to drink water. Water had never tasted so good in my life.