We started with 160-something men in our battalion, all between the ages of 19 and 22. Fresh young men, impressionable and looking to make a name for themselves on the battlefield. Did I mention that it was extremely hot out today? In fact, there was a point during today's battle where I found myself wondering if Augusta, GA was somehow closer to the sun than the rest of the world? Anyways the battle began and before I knew it our battalion had turned rouge. IT WAS EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!!! Perhaps the biggest skirmish within the battle was keeping one's self stocked up with ammunition (water). Within the first 30min of the battle most soldiers had already fired off their first two bottles of ammo and the pace of the firefight would continue. I went back to our roving HQ (Joe Holmes in the team car) multiple times within the first 25 miles of the battle to gather more ammo for myself and my good Army buddy, Ian Crane. Before we knew it though a unit of approximately 30 soldiers had separated themselves from the front of the main group and the remaining soldiers in our until battalion seemed to be on the verge of surrender.
I pedaled my machine gun every so slightly harder after about 30miles of fighting and ended up off the front with one other rider. I though we were beginning a 74 mile march to no man's land with the main battalion behind us taking a nap and the front unit several minutes ahead of us. It wasn't long though before my 2-man unit began to pick up some stragglers who had abandoned the lead unit. We became 5 men, then 16 men, and we kept growing our ranks. We closed some of the ground to the front unit, but still had a long ways to go if we were going to reel in the front unit. Eventually our chasing unit seemed to become too big for its own good and with only a few men willing to do much work. With a bunch of good for nothing hanger-onners our momentum began to fade.
Somewhat suddenly, with about 10miles left in the battle the main battalion that I thought had maybe surrendered caught us from behind. It could have been a full on ambush. Thankfully it turned out that these men who had become foreigners only wanted to trade war stories and share a few laughs. After spending 65 miles firing my machine gun through no man's land in between the front and rear battalions I was hungry for the some more fighting and to at least win some sort of war prize for my efforts. So with less than 3 miles left I attacked this large group of soldiers with 3 others and we pushed onwards towards the finish of the battle. We managed to stay clear and I secured a 25th place ranking in this great National Championship Battle. That in itself may not seem so significant but I was the 3rd ranked soldier that didn't make the original early front unit. I'm happy with how I fought and my only regret is not going with the lead group in the early stage of the battle. I've lived to fight another fight though.
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| Most photo journalism from the battlefield has not yet reached the news wire. So this single photo will have to suffice. |
*I cannot vouch for the proper use of any military terms in the post. To those men and women who are currently or have in the past served our country, Thank You.
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