Going without food or sleep
A little reminder that the academic life is easy.
My friend’s husband Dave used to be a sniper in the Army Rangers, the elite special operations force that specializes in infiltration, raids, rescuing stranded Americans, and the like. So far I have hesitated to ask exactly what countries he may have snuck into, which enemies attacked, or how he got the injury that almost resulted in the amputation of his hand– imagining it’s probably all top secret (or rude of me to ask). But I was fascinated to hear the stories he did volunteer, on making it through Ranger training.
Ranger training is designed to weed out the weaklings, leaving the few tough and crazy guys who can make it through 9 weeks of hard physical training with almost no food or sleep. Ranger candidates spend almost 20 hours a day planning and executing military missions, carrying up to 100-pound packs. Meanwhile, they get all their food rations at the beginning of the month– 2,000 calories for each day. (That’s how much I eat every day, and I just sit in the lab all the time.) Since everyone is so calorie-deprived, some people start to binge on their rations, running out of food part way through the month. Then they get desperate and crazy and try to steal food from other people’s packs. Anyone who gets caught is kicked out; you also get kicked out for falling asleep. While the military claims that soldiers "micronap" up to 4 hours a day, there is no uninterrupted sleep– you can be sent on a mission at any time. Instead, your body learns to shut down when it can. Dave said he could basically "sleep" while walking, as long as he hung on to the pack of the guy in front of him.
By the end of training, he had dropped below 100 pounds, started to lose his color vision, and had to be put on IV. And for a year afterward, he couldn’t drive a car without immediately falling asleep. But he made it through. Was it worth it? Absolutely. For someone with a career in the Army, making it through Ranger school is the ultimate accomplishment. You only succeed if you decide beforehand, with an absolutely firm will, that you will not fail, and are prepared to sacrifice even your physical and mental well being to do so.
2000 cal/day for combat operations is insane. When I hiked the Appalachian Trial, I carried 4400 per day, and I still ran a deficit.
On an unrelated note, here in Australia there was a minor scandal when some Domino’s employees were busted for tresspassing on a mlitary reservation. It turns out that they were delivering pizzas to random grid locations, where they would find cash payments. I have no ide if the military ever caught the guys calling in, or if the offenders secured their positions well enough to complete their “voluntary objectives.” Either way, it makes you wonder; is it better to have soldiers who are tough, or resourceful? Ask Dave.
Comment by Lab Lemming — August 3, 2006 @ 8:23 am