Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
Recruits with B. Co, 1st RTB, participate in a pugil sticks match at @MCRD_SD, Jan. 18, 2022.
https://youtu.be/ieaTKgpPJVg
Prior to the Pugil Sticks event, recruits run through the Bayonet Assault Course. The course was comprised of different obstacles ranging from shallow trenches to crawling under barbed wire.
“The recruits run through the Bayonet Assault Course because it gives them that combat mindset, and it makes them apply everything that they have learned under a more stressful situation,” said Sgt. Christopher S. Merrill, drill instructor, Platoon 3223.
Recruits ran events, such as Pugil Sticks I and II, through half of the Bayonet Assault Course. Each time through they would build on what they had learned.
“We are almost half way through Phase III right now, so everything the recruits have learned from Field Week, such as buddy rushes, will be reiterated here,” said Merrill, a native of Austin, Texas.
Tired and fatigued from the course, recruits then fought their pugil stick battle.
One end of the 5-foot pugil stick resembles a rifle with the bayonet attached and the other end represents the butt-stock, explained 23-year-old Merrill.
