Troy Trek-Who Does It?
 

To Any:

Pertaining to the Troy Trek... First, not sure what it is and I have heard that only "O"s are doing it during SFQC.

Is this still a part of the Q Course and if so, is it for Os and NCOs or just Os?

Would also like to discuss some standards for the Land Nav portion of Assessment off line by PM.

This is for a Q Course for the Hungarian Defense Force.

Thanks

Al

The only Troy Trek I know of is the one my Wife and Kids do. But thats land Nav on Horseback. Never heard any part of the Q-Course called Trekking.

Back in the 80's the O's did it. They also went to Gettysburg for a TOUT.

I have no Idea if they still do it.

Troy Trek used to be done by O's as the last event during the old Phase II (MOS Training). It was basically a 72 hour solo cross country land navigation exercise. It was significantly modified when BG(R) Butler was the Traing Group Commander and was eventually taken out of the Q-course.

[QUOTE=Chairborne64;210564]It was basically a 72 hour solo cross country land navigation exercise. QUOTE]

Actually it was a combination land nav, military stakes, and integrity check.

That is very true it did have a military stakes event at each point. It was a significant emotional event back then with a failure rate that sometimes approached 40%. I stand corrected.

Ohhhh that Trek. Thats what the O's always seemed most concerned with passing. Why did they get rid of it

Officer's stakes
 

It was also referred to as "Officer's stakes" by many.

I vaguely remember an incident of one student having his buddies from a previous class picking him up. Then driving him to a few of his points. They got caught. I would guess this was around 1983-84.

There were dumber things than that. As I mentioned it was also an integrity check. You could get a pretty good look at folks who would take short cuts and cheat if they thought they could get away with it. You cannot imagine how many folks bitched about thinking that they were being "gut checked" all over again. It was very disappointing having to sit an officer down and tell him that winning the beret was nothing compared to wearing it and that I could not trust them to make the right decisions when no one was looking over their shoulder I sure as hell could not trust them with an A-Team.

By "eventually" you mean sometime after the late 90s, right? ;) I thought it was a great event, for many of the reasons COL M mentioned. IIRC, we lost over 40%.

My class did Trek in the mountains of Pisgah National Forest. It certainly was a gut check and a lot of guys were broken off. Absolutely beautiful country; at the time, however, I was far more concerned about moving to my next point than appreciating the flora and fauna.

I am sorry to learn that SWCS has discontinued it in the SFQC. Along with SFAS and Robin Sage, Trek was a defining moment for me in the proverbial quest for the Green Beret.

Troy Trek
 

Does anyone hear know which year it was canned?

And thanks for all the interesting comments and history... Didn't think I would spark so much traffic!!

Al

You would probably have to ask those in charge during the time but, intimately knowing the climate of the times, I would imagine it became about numbers. Code was also dropped during that time for the same reason, folks were not making it through the program. It probably was a reflection of the times where leadership was replaced by management and successful management is measured by statistics that could be displayed graphically by Harvard Graphics the forerunner of power point slides. I could see it coming when I was there and fought it ,apparently to no avail.

The Trek went out around 97-98. COL M is correct that there was an incredible push for numbers coming out of the Q-course at the time. BG(R) Butler tried to institute a new standard where each O was evaluated on the effort he gave. It soon became obvious to the O's that you didn't have to do much and you would still get a go. That was pretty much the end of the Trek. Several years later their were efforts to bring it back but they never made much traction.