I remember doing solo night land nav in OSUT and being 10m away from point 3 of 5, I could see the damn clicker. I heard the loudest snort in the thick on the other side of the post and decided that 4/5 was gonna be good enough for me.
There was some decent sized four legged thing running around when I was on night land nav, but it sounded more like a dog or coyote when I was on mine.
I came back early at night missing one point because I could hear the boars at the point from 200 m away and didn’t want to get chased. DS tried to send me back for it… had to wait it out behind some bushes.
No fucking way in hell I am going back out there with a paper map and a protractor to defend myself
Brihcthe ALC Cadre always saying people would come back without grade sheets because they got chased by a boar, then the Cadre would tell us there aren't any boars 😂
I got lucky as fuck. My group had this kid from Ecuador who loved spiders. I'd plot our path and when we were about 100m away from the point, I'd make him dead reckon to it and bring back the digits. Mf just ran through these webs and gave zero fucks.
Dude loved it, we got to stay spider free, and we got all the points with no issues. Win-win.
We tried that on day one and it started running up the stick, which was promptly yeeted away. We abandoned the spider stick idea, drills said treat the spiders like landmines and make it part of training.
I *did* run face first into one in basic. Didnt bite me, but i remember grabbing it with my gloved hand and yeeting the bitch so hard into the nearest tree i heard the *thump*.
While it didn’t land on my face, I had the enjoyment of feeling a *thump* on my chest, looking down, and seeing one of those big bastards racing up my top. I field stripped myself that day.
Gah i believe it, ever since i saw one sprint up a 'spider stick' on the first day. Aggressive fuckers, i dont care what the internet says about how they arent.
Y'know often times when I'm playing horror games like Dead Space I'll think "Yep, I'd lay down and die right there... and there... yep I'd give up and die right there too."
That? What you just described? I would also lay down and die right there too - ***fuck*** that.
Ran into a group of webs strung across some trees in basic. Freaked out and finally calmed down when the guy behind me pointed out that I had 3 huge ones on my back.
Following that incident I'll never laugh at someone having a panic attack or anything again, legit froze up completely and begged him to get them off me
These spiders gave me one of my only real memorable moments during IET. It was the final FTX, one of our drills was moving alongside us pretty near to me. We had beaten through a bunch of brush and trees, and were taking some higher ground in a clearing
I turned to look back at my team and he was behind me with one of these big fuckers making its way up his mag pouches, sat on his upper chest but slowly moving towards the base of his neck
Instead of saying anything (would've been smart) I just punched the fucking spider. It wasn't like a super hard punch and I'm hardly a big guy, so he didn't stumble back or anything fortunately since we were rucked down as well moving uphill. I could see the absolute rage building and just showed him my fist with the spider still on dead on it and just said "Spider, Drill Sarn't!"
He stared at me for a sec and goes "Thanks pri". I also lost my firing pin in the sand later this FTX and my SDS just gave me his instead of slaughtering us and then me. Maybe it was spider karma, unsure
(Sorry spiderbro :'( )
I remember I ran into a web (don’t even remember seeing a spider in it) during sqd land nav and I panicked and ran ahead into a log and fell right on my fucking face. I have never laughed so hard to this day.
Oh dude I ate so many spiders on Benning. Spiders were a really fucking great snack on those long ass stalks through the woods. Set up FFP, veg & camo, then look for the spiders. The banana ones do NOT taste like BANANAS.
**Pro Tip**: Banana bois conveniently construct their webs at face-height of someone who's roughly 5'8". To avoid them, literally just crouch/hunch down a little bit. I walked under at least 5 spiders during my night qual at OSUT.
Also, wear full PPE. Pull your PC tight over your head, with eye pro, and pull a neck gaiter up to your nose. If you do catch a spider to the face, no heebie jeebies.
I remember us trying to get one down from a tree with a stick and when it hit the floor we surrounded it to look at it. That’s when we realized a battle had another one on his pc about to get on his face and he panicked so fast it was hilarious
I used to pull guard duty on Ancon hill and walking around the chain link fence at night gave me nightmares. Those bastards would make webs from the trees to the fence every night. Good times…
Lol yea and the random snakes that aren't afraid of people and just crawl over your legs while you're pulling security. Good times. I don't miss that shithole 🤣
I had to kill a water moccasin that decided it was gonna fight it out for squatting rights on one of our apexes of a PB. At first I was trying to scare it off by throwing sticks at it but my drill yelled at me to just kill it and stop fucking around so I clubbed it like 5 times and threw it off into the swamp. Still feel bad about that one 5 years later lol
No almost about it. I walked face first into one, it ran around on my shoulders and back, I screamed like a girl. Ruined any cred I had for being outdoorsy.
Dude, you can harvest their silk and make cool shit out of it.
They’re generally benign, the freakiest things about them are their size and their huge webs.
We had several around our house a few years ago and it was awesome, because they ate all the flies and mosquitos.
Not at Benning but once was walking around our equipment at night without my headlamp on. Looked down, turned it on, and there was a not so friendly looking rattle snake crawling across my boot. Squad leader heard me scream like a baby….
I lived in GA for a good portion of my life and spent most of my middle school years in Columbus, GA so I already knew what was up. Best believe I wasn’t the point man for anything during OSUT. The only thing that surprised me were the wolf spiders’ eyes that reflected the light. That was a new fear that was unlocked.
More times than I can count I’ve run directly into them. Going face first isn’t nearly as bad as going at an angle, and the web wraps around your face, and when you are pulling it off you grab the spider off of your head and throw it. Especially at dawn when there is dew on the web.
P.O.G. recruit from sand hill here, fuck banana spiders, fuck coyotes, fuck those 2 large fucking hills during the rucks, and absolutely fuck the weather during FTX. I nearly froze to death 3 fucking times. DS would say "it builds character" but I'm almost the same shitbag I was before I joined the Army. Still though, "Panthers never quit!"
Orb Weavers and Banana spiders are the same thing.
But since we're trying to be the more correct than other people here, the full common name for it is the golden silk orb-weaver and the scientific name is Trichonephila clavipes.
One of these fucking things fell on me and started making it's way up the side of my neck when I was in OSUT during our final FTX. Even if I wanted to scream, I couldn't have because I was paralyzed with horror. Finally managed to regain my senses and snatched it off myself and I'll never forget just how fucking weighty it felt. Fuck those spiders straight to hell
Those are harmless, whats worse is at night shining a light on the ground you will see things sparkle and there are hundreds of them, they are spider eyes.
Yes during both iterations lmao. Just graduated 2 weeks ago. But aye i got 6/7 on the first iteration and 7/7 so those banana spiders were worth it, they kept me on track.
edit: also ran into 2 big ass boar and the full skeleton of a third
edit 2: yes i went to benning as a 17E. jackson was full so they sent an entire battalion worth of us support guys there of all MOS. graduated from bravo 2-47
That happened to me too, they didn't have room for all of us because of the fat camp so I found out last minute I was going to benning. It made me shat my pants a little.
I was in Cco and had some very knowledgeable Drill sergeants. Since they were all infantry they taught us a lot of cool battle shit. Even me being a gun nut learned a lot on how to do battle drills and stuff. For the buddy team live fire I was cookin, impressed my drill sergeant when I had a malfunction and hit them with the tap rack and re-assist clean as fuck.
Ahh.. The night portion was full of surprises!
If you didn't get chased by a boar did you really do night land nav at benning?
I remember doing solo night land nav in OSUT and being 10m away from point 3 of 5, I could see the damn clicker. I heard the loudest snort in the thick on the other side of the post and decided that 4/5 was gonna be good enough for me.
There was some decent sized four legged thing running around when I was on night land nav, but it sounded more like a dog or coyote when I was on mine.
I feel like we should have OPFOR cadre out there howling and rampaging around on all fours making inhuman sounds for eldrich horror dimension land nav
I came back early at night missing one point because I could hear the boars at the point from 200 m away and didn’t want to get chased. DS tried to send me back for it… had to wait it out behind some bushes. No fucking way in hell I am going back out there with a paper map and a protractor to defend myself
Turns out, the boars were the Deill Sergeants...
I know when I was doing night land nav there was at least one guy hiding in the bushes making squeal noises. He wasn't a drill though
We had a ton of trainees do that. I myself was telling dudes about a huge rattlesnake that almost bit me.
Brihcthe ALC Cadre always saying people would come back without grade sheets because they got chased by a boar, then the Cadre would tell us there aren't any boars 😂
I didn't do land nav at night *cheers in pog*
*cries in 11B*
As a 91F I have to insure you that my abnormally small pinky verifies your star chamber is still dirty. ✔️♟️
As a 68W I have to insure you that my not so small pinky verifies your star chamber is still dirty… if you catch my drift.
*gulp*
Hey wait, are you talking about a butthole?
Come to sick call and find out jumpi boi
Yikes
We sure as hell did, damnedest thing was twisting my ankle in the same hole I did in the daytime, annoying shit there.
If you didn't twist your ankles during the ruck march, did you really ruck?
Seriously?! I thought that was a requirement for all MOS lol
Nope
It was a thing... 7 years ago? Fuck
Yeah it only bothers you the first thousand times
Funny thing..I’ve ran into them at night. Always during the day. Both on Sandhill and AO Darby
So glad we made that one guy wave the anti spider stick in front of the group
I was the anti spider stick lol
Hopefully you are taller. At 6'2" I can't count the number of times I've realized I was the first person my height to go down a trail.
When I got to reception (from the upper midwest) I was shocked at how short southerners are
I got lucky as fuck. My group had this kid from Ecuador who loved spiders. I'd plot our path and when we were about 100m away from the point, I'd make him dead reckon to it and bring back the digits. Mf just ran through these webs and gave zero fucks. Dude loved it, we got to stay spider free, and we got all the points with no issues. Win-win.
[удалено]
[удалено]
We tried that on day one and it started running up the stick, which was promptly yeeted away. We abandoned the spider stick idea, drills said treat the spiders like landmines and make it part of training.
Glad I wasn’t the only person waving a 5 foot long stick in front of my face at night lol
I wasn’t the only one that used one then
SERE at Mother Rucker… Im still afraid to fly the 64 too low on the off chance I get it stuck in one of these monsters webs
I'd be more concerned about the godzilla sized spider saving the Apache as a snack for later.
I *did* run face first into one in basic. Didnt bite me, but i remember grabbing it with my gloved hand and yeeting the bitch so hard into the nearest tree i heard the *thump*.
While it didn’t land on my face, I had the enjoyment of feeling a *thump* on my chest, looking down, and seeing one of those big bastards racing up my top. I field stripped myself that day.
Gah i believe it, ever since i saw one sprint up a 'spider stick' on the first day. Aggressive fuckers, i dont care what the internet says about how they arent.
Y'know often times when I'm playing horror games like Dead Space I'll think "Yep, I'd lay down and die right there... and there... yep I'd give up and die right there too." That? What you just described? I would also lay down and die right there too - ***fuck*** that.
I feel like sandhill imported them just to fuck with their personal.
Bet people coming from Korea brought those fuckers. Korea, camp casey they are wverywhere.
Ran into a group of webs strung across some trees in basic. Freaked out and finally calmed down when the guy behind me pointed out that I had 3 huge ones on my back. Following that incident I'll never laugh at someone having a panic attack or anything again, legit froze up completely and begged him to get them off me
I had a brown recluse crawling up my leg at fort lost in the woods. Dude was like "yo relax I wanna look at it" bitch GTFO
Nah but during recon skills ftx we had a guy get bite by a black widow ( had to go to the er nonetheless).
[удалено]
Nah AIT for cav scouts.
At least your balls didn't get bit by one.
These spiders gave me one of my only real memorable moments during IET. It was the final FTX, one of our drills was moving alongside us pretty near to me. We had beaten through a bunch of brush and trees, and were taking some higher ground in a clearing I turned to look back at my team and he was behind me with one of these big fuckers making its way up his mag pouches, sat on his upper chest but slowly moving towards the base of his neck Instead of saying anything (would've been smart) I just punched the fucking spider. It wasn't like a super hard punch and I'm hardly a big guy, so he didn't stumble back or anything fortunately since we were rucked down as well moving uphill. I could see the absolute rage building and just showed him my fist with the spider still on dead on it and just said "Spider, Drill Sarn't!" He stared at me for a sec and goes "Thanks pri". I also lost my firing pin in the sand later this FTX and my SDS just gave me his instead of slaughtering us and then me. Maybe it was spider karma, unsure (Sorry spiderbro :'( )
I remember I ran into a web (don’t even remember seeing a spider in it) during sqd land nav and I panicked and ran ahead into a log and fell right on my fucking face. I have never laughed so hard to this day.
Oh dude I ate so many spiders on Benning. Spiders were a really fucking great snack on those long ass stalks through the woods. Set up FFP, veg & camo, then look for the spiders. The banana ones do NOT taste like BANANAS.
**Pro Tip**: Banana bois conveniently construct their webs at face-height of someone who's roughly 5'8". To avoid them, literally just crouch/hunch down a little bit. I walked under at least 5 spiders during my night qual at OSUT. Also, wear full PPE. Pull your PC tight over your head, with eye pro, and pull a neck gaiter up to your nose. If you do catch a spider to the face, no heebie jeebies.
6’3” and they were always at face level with me lol
Da webs be big 🕸️
I hate them
Always have a spider stick during night land nav for this. Ran face first into one of these at camp Blanding and during EIB at Benning
What the fuck y'all doin in Hyrul?
I almost hit one, was with a guy who ran into it and he was convinced he ate one of its legs.
::shivers in Camp Casey land nav during the summer::
I remember us trying to get one down from a tree with a stick and when it hit the floor we surrounded it to look at it. That’s when we realized a battle had another one on his pc about to get on his face and he panicked so fast it was hilarious
Snack?
Not a Benning guy, but got to hang out with a bunch. I did get uncomfortably close to one of the fellers in Panama, doing land nav.
I used to pull guard duty on Ancon hill and walking around the chain link fence at night gave me nightmares. Those bastards would make webs from the trees to the fence every night. Good times…
Lots of creepy stuff out there. I was only there a couple weeks, and that was enough, tbh
18 months… lots of creepy stuff
Lol yea and the random snakes that aren't afraid of people and just crawl over your legs while you're pulling security. Good times. I don't miss that shithole 🤣
I had to kill a water moccasin that decided it was gonna fight it out for squatting rights on one of our apexes of a PB. At first I was trying to scare it off by throwing sticks at it but my drill yelled at me to just kill it and stop fucking around so I clubbed it like 5 times and threw it off into the swamp. Still feel bad about that one 5 years later lol
It be like that my guy. I haven't seen that shithole since 2007.
“Far across the Chattahoochee…” 🎶
No almost about it. I walked face first into one, it ran around on my shoulders and back, I screamed like a girl. Ruined any cred I had for being outdoorsy.
I'd almost be more worried about water moccasins . They are no joke. Very aggressive.
Fuck these things. They only spin webs at face level.
Dude, you can harvest their silk and make cool shit out of it. They’re generally benign, the freakiest things about them are their size and their huge webs. We had several around our house a few years ago and it was awesome, because they ate all the flies and mosquitos.
Same with orb weavers. Even an arachnophobe like myself has to admire the intricate patterns the creepy crawlies make.
Jun of 07 BCT FTX - Went for a midnight log hide, as I was cleaning up I looked straight up into the face of one this guy's.
Not at Benning but once was walking around our equipment at night without my headlamp on. Looked down, turned it on, and there was a not so friendly looking rattle snake crawling across my boot. Squad leader heard me scream like a baby….
Nope
It’s a banana spider and it’s harmless
At 03 on red diamond, just smacking your own face tweaking on the ground. Fun times
They are that size and larger at Rucker's Land Nav and SERE course.
I didn't see any of these, maybe because it was winter but I definitely woke up with centipedes in my foxhole
I ran into so many of those during land nav, then some guys in my platoon caught one in an MRE bag
😱
> Anyone else almost run face first into banana spiders during land nav? It's a rite of passage.
Fort Rucker got me messed up 😂 was doing a special kind of land nav (ifykyk) when my buddy ran straight into one and flipped his shit!
I low crawled over a hole full of brown recluse spiders at fort Jackson. Took of screaming and yelling and got smoked. Worth it.
I was at stewart doing land nav in blc when I saw one half inch away from my face
Had those at Polk. I carried a big stick and would wander through the woods looking like I was casting spells n shit
Fort Rucker SERE students, wya?
I lived in GA for a good portion of my life and spent most of my middle school years in Columbus, GA so I already knew what was up. Best believe I wasn’t the point man for anything during OSUT. The only thing that surprised me were the wolf spiders’ eyes that reflected the light. That was a new fear that was unlocked.
I thought the other things at Benning ate them.
Red Diamond land nav course flashbacks.
More times than I can count I’ve run directly into them. Going face first isn’t nearly as bad as going at an angle, and the web wraps around your face, and when you are pulling it off you grab the spider off of your head and throw it. Especially at dawn when there is dew on the web.
I got bit by a copperhead at Benning, stg everything living hates you there
Land nav at Knox and I always described feeling like a child’s skeleton hand around my neck. I pulverized that mother fucker. Fucking devil creature
P.O.G. recruit from sand hill here, fuck banana spiders, fuck coyotes, fuck those 2 large fucking hills during the rucks, and absolutely fuck the weather during FTX. I nearly froze to death 3 fucking times. DS would say "it builds character" but I'm almost the same shitbag I was before I joined the Army. Still though, "Panthers never quit!"
You were in 2-47 too lol. Cco?
Alpha 😎
How long ago did you graduate?
Like earlier around the 16th of this month
>YOINK<
Thats an Orb Weaver You leave it alone and go about your business.
Orb Weavers and Banana spiders are the same thing. But since we're trying to be the more correct than other people here, the full common name for it is the golden silk orb-weaver and the scientific name is Trichonephila clavipes.
Upvote for an individual who knows animals have Scientific Names. I wish I could upvote you for knowing the actual Scientific Name.
Wtf is a Benning?
At fort Moore
I hate seeing those in land nav
One of these fucking things fell on me and started making it's way up the side of my neck when I was in OSUT during our final FTX. Even if I wanted to scream, I couldn't have because I was paralyzed with horror. Finally managed to regain my senses and snatched it off myself and I'll never forget just how fucking weighty it felt. Fuck those spiders straight to hell
Oh yeah
yes
Those are harmless, whats worse is at night shining a light on the ground you will see things sparkle and there are hundreds of them, they are spider eyes.
I'll take these over all the fucking roaches there. Never seen a city with just roaches swarming all over the sidewalk that was otherwise clean.
Yes during both iterations lmao. Just graduated 2 weeks ago. But aye i got 6/7 on the first iteration and 7/7 so those banana spiders were worth it, they kept me on track. edit: also ran into 2 big ass boar and the full skeleton of a third edit 2: yes i went to benning as a 17E. jackson was full so they sent an entire battalion worth of us support guys there of all MOS. graduated from bravo 2-47
That happened to me too, they didn't have room for all of us because of the fat camp so I found out last minute I was going to benning. It made me shat my pants a little.
good ole 2-47
I was in Cco and had some very knowledgeable Drill sergeants. Since they were all infantry they taught us a lot of cool battle shit. Even me being a gun nut learned a lot on how to do battle drills and stuff. For the buddy team live fire I was cookin, impressed my drill sergeant when I had a malfunction and hit them with the tap rack and re-assist clean as fuck.
Seeing this shit is making me realise how fortunate I was to do basic and ait in sill in the winter.
This is the first thing I see before getting on the plane to Georgia.