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Magical Moment 463, "Booyah!"

I love this video!


It's a "Booyah!" moment. And it reminded me of my own booyah moment...


Years ago, back when I was an eager, young ROTC cadet, I competed in an event called the German Armed Forces Badge of Merit Proficiency. The competition consisted of 7 physical challenges over the course of 3 days. At the end, depending on your score, you qualified for either the Gold, Silver, Bronze, or no badge.

There were over 60 soldiers competing and only a handful of them were females. I was the only female from my school to attend. On the first day, I came across 2 active duty Army captains. Like most young, females in the military, they found me to be an easy and visible target. And like most young, naive females, I said nothing as they took their shots. 

They made light of the challenging physical activities and teased, "Why did we bother to prepare if they have females competing? This should be the easiest thing we've ever done. What a joke." Etc. Since I had been preparing for the competition, I began to think how unfair it was that I had to work so hard to complete the tasks, and they could do them apparently without trying. And then proceed to boast and rub it in my face simply to promote their own egos. They're boastful and disrespectful attitude was nonstop for the first few days.

The final event was the 15 to 18 mile ruck march (15 for females and 18 for males. I did the entire 18 so I could finish with my comrades). This was done with weapons and in full combat gear, a total of about 60 pounds of extra weight. I had been mentally and physically preparing for this event, ruck marching all over my hometown for the last few weeks (quite a sight in Lincoln, NE). 

The route layout was simple, half way out, turn around, and come back. I felt good and strong when I began the march. I was able to run most of the entire first half. Even when I dropped to a fast walk, I felt like I still had the strength of steal. I stayed in the top 5 five for the entire duration of the march. 

I reached the halfway point and turned back for the last leg towards the finish. And after a few miles, I saw those two Army captains. They were miles from reaching the halfway point which I had already left in my dust. It took a long time for us to cross paths on the straight, long road. But I watched their faces the entire time we inched closer to each other. One made eye contact with me, then quickly turned away. For them, it was a very long "awkward moment." I savored the steps it took me to pass them. No words were exchanged. It was their turn to stay quiet and just "take it." I was one of only 4 females who qualified for the Gold badge. The 2 captains earned the Silver. And though I kept my mouth shut, I was thinkin, "BOOYAH!"

"The Four Golden Girls"
I wish I knew the names of the 3 women to the left, but sadly we never kept in touch.

**I regret to inform you, that the above video was staged!!! My heart sank when I found out, but at least it inspired my post for today!!!


Comments

Shame on the folks who posted the staged video, but congratulations to you on your accomplishment. You're pretty amazing.
Rick said…
Good for you ! And looked really good on those 2 captains - I'll bet they never told that story to ANYone !

btw - staged or not, that was a great video !

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