Officers Don’t Fall Out Of A Hike… EVER

I’LL NEVER FORGET

I was a young midshipman at the US Naval Academy in the summer of 2006 conducting my “interview” to be a Marine Officer at a three-week rigorous physical and tactical training evolution program called “Leatherneck” in Quantico, VA along with other fellow midshipmen (college students in training to be US Navy or Marine Corps officers). We were preparing for various field exercises and my Staff Platoon Commander was salty Captain Shane Groah, USMC a prior enlisted officer with a drill instructor and military police officer background. He pulled our platoon of midshipmen in close with various exhortations and said words I’ll never forget: “officers never fall out of a hike…ever…”

Shane went on to talk about his own experiences conducting various hikes (also known as humps, rucks, or road marches) where military professionals particularly on the ground side put their field packs on weighing generally anywhere from 40-100 lbs, and then march forward in columns of individuals arm length apart at a general rate of at least 3 miles per hour for distances ranging from 3-20 miles depending on the evolution in a given day. Shane in particular told a story of being on a Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation (MCCRE) where he was the unit leader of a military police unit leading a grueling 20-mile hike. Given the standard rate of march, this can take up to 7 hours if not longer, and will usually start in the early morning hours to beat the heat if possible. He went on to explain how during this event his feet were blistered and hurting bad, but he knew that despite the physical pain he was in, dropping out was not an option because if a leader like himself dropped out to get into the safety vehicle, this could cause many of the Marines he was leading to conclude that they too could drop out based on the example they saw from their officer causing whole platoons and companies to come apart.

Officers, particularly commanders, typically are in the front of their units during hikes and are very visible. Furthermore, the enlisted members of the unit are looking to the officer and other senior enlisted leaders for inspiration and an example of how to conduct themselves in the midst of suffering. Having a poor performance in a grueling physical event like this demonstrates that it is “ok” to feel inclined to drop out when one feels some pain. A mentality like this especially in combat is not good and can completely bring about chaos. Hikes in general are very chaotic physical evolutions with the slinky effect going on where people move up and down in the formation. Furthermore, as people drop out or drop back, it causes command and control of the unit to really be difficult as the unit spreads out over a long distance. In training and especially in combat when a unit needs to move quickly to a battle position in order to accomplish a mission on time, this will mean mission failure…all because the officer didn’t live up to the ethos of sucking up pain in order to inspire the men and women around him/her.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY HIKES

As I began my Marine Corps career, I have to confess that hikes were not my favorite evolution as they were physically grueling and there were many times I would have rather quit given the loads we were carrying, the heat, hilly terrain, or distance, pain in my shoulders from the pack, legs, and lungs burning, etc. In my early officer training at The Basic School, I remember one particular evolution very vividly that was only about 3 miles…the distance of a typical Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test. However, this event took place during the hot summer months in Quantico somewhere on an infamous road called “Washboard” which was a roller coaster of a road. Our platoon commander was leading the charge and he was a motivator, to say the least. He pushed us at a very fast pace for us officer students looking to soon join the Fleet Marine Forces as the latest batch of junior officers. One of the other Lieutenants in my platoon was struggling and so we spread loaded gear so I was now more weighed down in the back of the formation not to mention a bit disadvantaged with my short legs given my height at 5′ 7″ compared to my taller platoon mates. So I started to drop back as I struggled to keep with the pace or run just to catch up (although usually this was discouraged because it could exaggerate the slinky effect) and in the end didn’t keep up with at least what I thought was the bulk of the platoon (it was hard to see given the hills and my place in the rear of the formation). I remember finishing even though I wanted to quit thinking of Shane Groah’s words. However, I was greeted by another snarky Lieutenant who had it out for me whenever he got a chance and in this particular instance, he said, “you [expletive] suck Reardon” which really made me feel bad although I tried to brush him off. When I got back to my room feeling pretty ashamed of myself for not having kept pace with everybody else even though I didn’t quit, I remember my roommates urging me to take off my pack and rest a bit as they laid their sprawled out. I would later learn that only 5 of the approximately 40 personnel platoon would ACTUALLY finish with our Platoon Commander and some Lieutenants were heat exhaustion cases with one of my roommates urinating on himself when he got back. Rumor had it that our platoon commander actually got in trouble because the heat conditions were actually close to the type where outdoor physical evolutions like hikes should be secured from what I recalled. So I realized I actually did pretty well overall and felt better about my performance.

Another hike early on in my career that I vividly remember was with the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines where I was the Intelligence Officer from 2011-2012 out in Camp Horno, Camp Pendleton, CA. The battalion commander wanted the staff to help him along with the Sergeant Major to carry a .50 caliber machine gun on a 12-mile hike along with our packs, M-4/M-16 assault rifles, and M9 service pistol…get some. A .50 caliber machine gun is a crew-served weapon with awesome firepower that weighs about 120 pounds. The commander to his credit would carry the receiver (the main part of the weapon) and the Sergeant Major would carry the spare barrel. My office at the time was next to the Sergeant Major and I remember him looking like the Battalion Commander went crazy, but he went along with carrying the spare barrel while the battalion. For my part, I volunteered to carry the tripod which weighs in at 40 lbs and is pretty awkward to carry and usually is balanced on your pack while carrying the rest of your stuff. Having come from the air wing prior to this tour and being an intelligence officer, I was not you may say one of the “boys” having gone through the infamous Infantry Officer’s Course like my Ground Intelligence Officer counterparts or being an infantry leader. So I certainly had to prove myself to be respected.

The first 3 miles went fairly well, but I noticed I started to feel a bit light-headed. Remembering Shane Groah’s words as if he was right there next to me, I knew that falling out of the formation was an unacceptable option and could kill my reputation for the rest of the time I was at the unit not to mention be a bad example to the enlisted Marines around me to include my own section of intelligence Marines who are sometimes hit or miss when it comes to physical performance depending on individual motivation and talent. I also foreshadowed that if I kept trying to push it, my body might just say “screw you” and I would achieve the same result as quitting let alone likely passing out and getting a rectal temperature check in front of everybody else…an embarrassing thought. While quitting wasn’t an option, passing out as an officer would also likely put me in the category of “this guy can’t hack it.” So I made a decision to take the third option, ate some humble pie, and handed off the tripod to another staff officer. Over the next 12 miles, the tripod was shared between myself and a few other staff officers including the Logistics Officer, the Navy doctors, and a few other guys. We made it together as a team and I felt proud of all of us that we held our own without dropping out.

CHARACTER TRAINING = CHARACTER STRENGTH

I bring these stories up because they serve as physical metaphors and experiences that have formed the backdrop of my character trained early on that applies not only to my career as a Marine Corps Officer with 15+ years active duty now, but also in life as a husband, father, and leader within Christian circles a.k.a. the Church. I have been called to lead myself, my family, my fellow warriors, my fellow citizens, and my brothers and sisters in the Church. Many are watching me all the time even though I often don’t know it or perceive it. In physical training with my Marines or during difficult evolutions during training or real-world operations, it would be easy to quit or slack off on holding myself up to a higher standard. It would be very easy for me to “fall out” or “drop my pack”, but I recognize that if I do, there is a real danger that many others would do so as well. One of my friends, Jeremy Stalnecker, the Executive Director of Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs, wrote a book called “March or Die” based on his experiences as a Marine Corps Infantry Officer in the initial invasion of Iraq. He describes from physical combat experience with analogies to the spiritual realm from a Christian perspective how when things get hard, we have two choices: march…or die. Dying might not mean physical death, but it may mean death in a relationship, a dream, etc.

LESSONS FOR YOUR LIFE “HIKE”

To get really personal here, I think about my initial lessons learned as a Marine Corps Officer hiking or from inspiration from men I respect like Jeremy or Admiral McRaven when I think of initiatives at home or at work. At home, I am a husband and a father. When I swore an oath (military terms for saying my marital vows) to my wife before God that I would love her for better or for worse…in sickness and in health…and to be faithful to her only, I didn’t realize how in a few short months those very words would be put to an extreme test. A few short weeks after getting married my wife informed me that she was pregnant and soon she started having severe symptoms of morning sickness followed by a long period of health challenges that created many challenges in our relationship exacerbated by spiritual warfare. The emotional pain of it has tempted me to quit on my family or quit on following God’s way given to me from his Word a.k.a. the Bible or the Holy Spirit’s prophetic direction to me given through many godly men and women at various times over a decade in various locations. In particular, I knew that I was called to be a major influential leader for godly influence in the nation to spread the message of Jesus but also as a government leader with a God-given plan to have significant influence and authority inside the US Federal Government. The enemy however would regularly tempt me to abandon these plans instead of taking a path of life with seemingly more comfort and stability if he couldn’t tempt me to give into blatantly disobeying God’s Word. On top of this, I was regularly reminded by the enemy of failures of the past such as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy stemming from a failed business venture in 2016, having ministry activities face opposition and delay, or career challenges like finding out I was passed over for promotion for O-5 putting me at significant risk of being potentially forced out of the Marine Corps despite my high level of documented performance.

Amplifying all of this over the course of a long desert season that is still at play (7 + years now ongoing), I then would receive comments from Christian friends and mentors in my life that in summary would seem that I was facing all of my struggles because I was doing something wrong and certainly not following the will of God much like Job’s friends did in the book of Job. I found myself lonely whether looking for fellowship, support, or partnership and life seemed like quicksand or Lilly pads I was constantly trying to negotiate while always keeping my eyes on the Lord as I walked towards Him in the midst of the storms of life. COVID-19 exacerbated these difficulties as it did for everybody as my ministry model was rapidly shut down in 2020 almost as soon as it started an overseas 13-month unaccompanied tour where I uprooted from a support network in New Orleans, quickly built one in Bahrain, and then struggled to develop a new one in San Diego, CA. Coming back from an overseas tour, I came back to a lot of challenges in my family due to health conditions including dealing with the hardship of supporting my wife and son through a cancer diagnosis and follow on brutal treatment protocols with the final death of my beloved father in law early in 2022. I suffered, prayed, and worked hard in obscurity with nobody aside from the Lord for the most part seeing my secret faith and perseverance or at least commending me for it. For sure I had made some mistakes that I later realized were not in line with God’s Word because instead, I had based my decision-making on feelings, interpretation of positive circumstances, and watching other Christians making similar decisions find success. Other mistakes were simply the cost of being a pioneer where there is no road map and it is part of the journey. Regardless, every day I decided that I would not quit no matter what. I would die physically before I ever quit. I made an active choice of a posture that essentially said: “death before dishonor.” I made a decision and have kept to that decision that no power of hell can steer me to drop out of the hike of my life. Why? Because I recognize that my afflictions are truly temporary compared to the eternal glory that awaits me with reward from heaven when I look back at the legacy I am in the midst of creating and the eternal difference of true life I will pave for many to follow in my footsteps.

As a military man, I have considered very carefully with conviction and peace in my heart that if God calls me to danger to face the barrels of guns which leads to my own physical death on the battlefield and I don’t get to be in my young son’s life as he grows up, then that is ok. I believe with strong faith that God will protect me but even if he doesn’t, much like Daniel’s friends who faced the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel instead of bowing to an idol, we must consider the reality that God for His own purposes may not save us from physical harm in order to bring glory to Himself. Our job is to simply trust and obey regardless of the consequences. In fact, I’m truly not afraid of death or how I will face it. The other day I saw a post on Facebook by Adam Davis, a former police officer turned evangelist who spoke about a dream he had where he was observing his funeral when thunderous words from God echoed stating “did you do what I created you to do?” That really has stuck with me because I want nothing more than at the end of my life to hear the precious words from Jesus “well done, my good and faithful servant.” To get to heaven and learn that because of fear, laziness, or indifference that my life on earth was wasted for eternity would be terrible knowing life could have been so much different. I cringe at looking back from heaven thinking “what if”. As my mentor Kurt Parsons told me one fateful night when time seemed to stop driving over a bridge near Annapolis, MD, “Christopher, we get one life to live…so go big or go home.” I have never forgotten that. As one of the most famous quotes in the movie Gladiator goes, “what we do in life echos in eternity.” I can’t control external circumstances, but as long as I’m alive and persevering, God has maneuverable room to glorify Himself. If I decide to quit, He’ll get glory elsewhere, but not through my decision to give up. God help me if I ever choose to do so. I hope that the reader of this post will never quit on God’s plan for their life either. Our life’s legacy and the eternal life to come for us and many others are too much at stake for us to seriously consider quitting. In the New Testament, a letter to Jewish Christians who were tempted to quit in the midst of hardship, confusion, and persecution that was very well costing some of their lives on this earth exhorts the following:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood [in a modern context, you aren’t dead yet] in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)           

Jesus also exhorts his followers:

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” (Matthew 16:24-27) 

6 PRINCIPLES TO HELP YOU NOT FALL OUT OF YOUR LIFE’S HIKE … EVER

So, how do we do it? How do we keep trucking when hell seems to throw the kitchen sink at us and life brings us to our knees? I will give a few principles here:

1. Determine in your heart your convictions ahead of time that you will never quit on. “Set aside Jesus as Lord in your heart” first. (1 Peter 3:15, Luke 14:26). This means Biblical values, loyalty to key people in your life such as your family, commitments to key goals, and commitment to your dreams; especially God-given ones with albeit flexibility and patience in seeing them through. to commit to the task at hand no matter what until your external circumstances keep you from staying on your particular path. You must also count the cost of what you are willing to lose in order to gain something of value. This may mean for example that in order to follow God’s call, you may have to disappoint or even lose family and friends opposed to His way for you, let go of a work-related position, sacrifice material resources, or even your own very physical life. Anything less leaves open the door to fear and second-guessing to steal your conviction.
2. Ask for help from God and from others. The Bible says that “pride goes before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18) and that “God gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6) meaning support. Jesus also says that “He is the vine and we are the branches…unless we remain rooted in Him, we have no power.” (John 15:5) Given that the collective organization of the Church is the “Body of Christ”, we gain the ability to bear fruit and His grace by remaining connected to His Body (1 Corinthians 12:12-28)Our relationship with God must be solid and we must depend on Him. We also must seek out friends to walk regularly with who will lift us up. To paraphrase the wisest man to ever live according to the Bible, Solomon from his words written in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 “two are better than one for they can help each other succeed..but one standing alone can be attacked and easily defeated.” Just like I sought out the help of my fellow staff officers on the hike in Camp Pendleton to share the load among ourselves to avoid our mission failure or my physical passing out along with the emotional support from my fellow platoon mates after a grueling hike at The Basic School, so you and I are not meant to do life alone. We need God and others, especially Christian brothers and sisters in our lives to give us support in all types of ways and are called to support them (Hebrews 10:25, Galatians 6:1-3).
3. Eat the elephant…one bite at a time. Focus on your next immediate step or steps. It is easy especially when the road has been long and painful and the road ahead is filled with either known or unknown obstacles with no seeming end to the pain that your mind gets the overwhelming urge to quit. Compartmentalize the pain and focus on the reality that you can do the next thing you are called to. You have the strength, the knowledge, and the guts. When you complete that, focus on the next thing ahead. As the old song goes, “put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking out the door.” Another good quote is “yard by yard it is hard…inch by inch it is a cinch.” It has been said that the mind is ready to quit when you have only given 40% of the true physical capacity you have when you still have 60% of the physical ability to still march on.
4. Calm your nerves and heart rate in a difficult emotional or physical situation through tactical breathing. Your breathing is one of two aspects of your autonomous nervous system you can control (blinking being the other) and so it can slow your heart rate, and your adrenaline in order to get your brain back into logical thinking vs. fight or flight “freak out mode”.
5. Practice positive self-talk vs. negative self-talk. A retired Navy SEAL friend of mine told me a story where he was at BUDS and woke up to a student telling himself in the mirror that “nobody will look down on you for quitting.” That same student was one of the first the next day to ring the bell. My friend on the other hand decided he had no Plan B and although he was not as fit as other students and even was slightly on the heavier side, he outlasted many others and not only went on to do a 20-year career in the Navy SEALs but ended up having his two sons also become Navy SEALs with one of them even going to the infamous SEAL Team 6. A Christian friend of mine, Robert Owens, who is an endurance athlete with the claim of being the “fittest 66-year-old” says to say things in your head like “easy day, I got this”. I like to think of Bible verses like “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) or “I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:37). Remember, the body feels and eventually acts on where the mind goes. If your mind is negative, you are sure to feel and act out on your mental state. Dr. Caroline Leaf, a Christian neuroscientist, describes the effect of both the positive and negative on our brain cells when we meditate on either positive or negative thinking. She teaches that science has proven the Biblical exhortation “as a man thinketh, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7) because our thoughts literally form brain cells and have real physical-chemical effects on our body and emotions. Thoughts determine our emotions and emotions determine our behaviors. If you want to change your emotions, change your thoughts. I literally went through this today while waiting at a military gate unexpectedly that was shut down causing me to be late to a meeting. I practiced positive self-talk telling myself I couldn’t control the event, the event would pass, and I might as well just sit and be patient. As a result, I stayed calm and felt at peace. On the other hand, I was tempted to get impatient, angry, and start to worry which would have done nothing other than put me in a bad mood.
6. Take care of yourself physically. Get adequate rest every night, hydrate regularly, eat right, train for difficult events, and keep your muscles stretched. Physical pain from not taking care of yourself physically exacerbates emotional and mental pain like a self-inflicted gunshot wound. We see multiple times through the Bible the practical wisdom of nourishment and rest to keep on going including the admonishment of an angel to the prophet Elijah who told him to eat and drink after he got some rest because he was “freaking out” and needed strength for the journey right after he had a major victory over the enemies of God when a wicked queen told him she was going to take his life (1 Kings 19:4-8).

FOLLOW GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY

In closing my friends, when life gets hard, especially in the conduct of doing God’s work, keep your pack on and keep marching. Many are watching you. If you fall out, it is likely your choice will also cause others to fall out too. On the flip side, your commitment to persevere will likely inspire others in hard times to keep going too. For men especially, our decision to follow God wholeheartedly statistically has such an outsized impact on your family. It has been said that when a father/husband is following the Lord that there is a 70% chance of his kids attending church for the long haul even after the kids grow up. If it is only the mother/wife, there is about a 30% chance that the kids will stick with their faith. So for you men out there for the sake of your wives and your kids, your spiritual walk affects them and can either propel them forward into the great plans God has for them or play a significant role in dragging them down in the plans the enemy has. Outside of our immediate family, our extended relatives, our friends, our co-workers, neighbors, and many others we may never meet are depending on seeing the Bible lived out in practice. If not you, then who, and if not now, then when? Life isn’t about me and it isn’t about you and the stakes of the game are literally for eternity. Yes, we matter, but others do as well and so we must keep fighting the good fight of faith knowing that in the end, our trials will end. For God, Family, Country, and ultimately the Kingdom of God, we must keep our pack on and keep trucking.

If you are interested in receiving more training to develop spiritual, mental, and physical toughness like what I mentioned above, I encourage you to join our Tactical Garage Gym Facebook Group where we provide free weekend “Hero Workout of the Day” workouts with Christian YouTube content to listen to either by yourself or with friends from your garage gym as part of our Garage Gym Church initiative!

Land of the Free Because of the Brave,

Chris Reardon

Major, USMC

Founder/Executive Director

Freedom Fitness America

“Fit for the Fight and Life”

https://freedomfitnessamerica.org

“The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.”

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