Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Ft. McHenry week 2

Hello again everyone,

  For week two I spent a few days with the maintenance division and went to PRWI to participate in the wildland firefighting training.  While in maintenance I went to Hampton for a day and helped install some window air conditioners in the lower house.  My other days in maintenance were spent helping to paint stripes in the parking lot across the street from Ft McHenry in preparation for the event to celebrate the bicentennial of the start of the war of 1812.  It was a little hot out there, but there was a nice breeze so I didn't notice the heat too much, we wore traffic vests to make sure that we could be seen because there were tractor trailers using the lot at the same time that we were painting it.  It may not seem like it but it was actually a lot of fun and it was important to make sure that everything was measured out correctly so that there won't be any parking problems once the event starts.

 

















  Our time at PRWI was also very fun because I got to see some fellow ProRangers that I hadn't seen for a few weeks.  The first thing we did was take the pack test and everyone there did very well on it, later we moved on to practicing setting up our fire shelters and I for one know I could use more practice doing that to improve my speed. 

We also got into squads and practiced making a fire line and even though we only made a small one it was a pretty good indicator of just how much work really goes into making a good fire line for a real fire.

We also had some classroom instruction on the ten standard orders and eighteen lookout situations of wildland firefighting which are very useful things to know.  The last thing we did was practice hose lays which was turned into a competition and it was my personal favorite part of the day.  I hope everyone is having as good of a time as I am and look forward to reading posts from all my fellow ProRangers. 

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