A match I now look forward to twice a year is the Whisky Hotel Team Ruck Match. When I say “match,” I don’t mean it in the traditional sense. It’s the kind of match where you leave completely drained, aching (at least us old folks do), and yet, completely satisfied. I’ll drive home with my kids asleep in the back of the truck, a smile on my face, and memories I’ll never forget playing in my head.
As you might have guessed, a team ruck match is usually a team of two. In this case, I received approval from the match director to have my team include my 11-year-old son, my 14-year-old son, and me. We wouldn’t compete for a score—that was never the point. This was a chance to connect with both of my sons on a level that only fathers can understand. As fathers, one of our primary goals is to raise men who can thrive in the world and be upstanding citizens.
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Cool Kid Gear
The team ruck match has many different components and is designed to give you real-world skills. The match involves rucking (hiking, more or less), weapons manipulation, target identification, problem-solving skills, team-building skills, and so much more. Did I mention that all of this is done while carrying your rifle, a weapon-mounted light, a minimum of one quart of water, at least five full 30-round magazines, a full individual first aid kit (IFAK), and a total weight of 25 pounds, excluding the consumable gear? Our team slightly modified these rules since we weren’t shooting for a score. It’s tough for a kid who might weigh a total of 60 lbs!
I’m assuming you’re like me and enjoy some great gear, so let’s review what we used. The kids both had to wear their AceTac Gear chest rigs with three fully loaded 30-round AR-15 magazines, a Tasmanian Tiger ruck, and an IFAK kit. I ran my AceTac Gear plate carrier and MSP Assault Pack with the four 30-round magazine placard, AceTac Gear plates, and a Micro Dangler Pouch. We also had gloves and carabiners on us at all times—more on that later. The whole team was wearing Axil wireless hearing protection.
When it came to rifles, the entire team was decked out with IWI Zions and KCI 30-round magazines. Both of the kids were running Holosun optics (AEMS Max and ARO), a Holosun 3x magnifier, and (shocker) a Holosun RAID light. The rifles for both kids were also outfitted with Wolfpack Armory suppressors. I was running my Primary Arms 1-8x FFP, side-mounted Holosun SCRS, IWS6k suppressor, a Holosun IRIS4, and a sick Vietnam Tiger Stripe Cerakote from Pro2Customs.
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Let’s Get Rucking
Enough about the gear, let’s talk about what we had to do with it. At the start of the event, each team is given a team number, and you choose a team name. This is written down on a small piece of paper that has places to write times and scores for each of the stages and rucks. This is all completed at the Landing Zone (LZ). For a ruck, the person at the LZ will inform you when you can leave, marking the start time on your team’s paper and then recording your completion time when you return.
Now you might be thinking, “What if you just hang out somewhere and return, claiming you completed the ruck?” Well, you’re obviously a jerk, but you also have to bring back data points to show that you completed the ruck at the LZ. Generally, these are code words written down at different points of the ruck. For the summer team ruck match I’m writing about, we had three rucks that covered around four miles of hiking along all different kinds of terrain. The real point is to test your physical fitness and ability to complete tasks that generally require target identification and problem-solving skills that any man should have.
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Embrace the Suck
While I love a good ruck as much as the next guy, I really enjoy shooting guns far more. As I mentioned before, this isn’t your typical firearms competition. There are no run-and-gun stages at this event. Instead, the stages are designed around specific skills that any red-blooded American should have. One stage that both my kids and I enjoyed the most was the target identification stage.
Here, there were numerous moving targets; some were intended to be engaged, while others were not. In general, the targets you were meant to engage either had firearms spray-painted on them or had cutouts of guns attached to them. The goal was that when a threat presented itself, each shooter was to engage the target with three rounds. There were targets you were not supposed to shoot mixed in, and even in the background, so that your bullets could go through a target and hit a non-threat. Any non-threats that were hit resulted in a five-point penalty. This was a HUGE penalty, to say the very least.
Shooting Stage
Another stage included shooting staged guns at point-blank range to over 400 yards, throwing fake grenades, and shooting fake mortar rounds. This stage was a blast, as you had to go through the motions of loading and firing the fake mortar after completing each task on the stage. This added a whole new level of mental stress, and it took you out of the groove of shooting just long enough that it threw off your progress and rhythm. There is nothing like loading a mortar with your kids, throwing grenades with them, and engaging targets out to 400 yards as a team.
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The most challenging part of the event was the river crossing stage. It started by strapping any or all of your gear to a spinal board using any materials your team had, plus the ropes, straps, and other devices supplied by the match. After securing your gear, you had to carry it about 75 yards to a predetermined point on the bank of a creek/river. There was a rope that spanned the width of the water, and you had to get both your spinal board and your teammates across to the other side.
Overcoming Challenges
Teammates or gear that touched the water incurred a stiff penalty. The distance to cross on the rope was around 50 feet. While that may not sound like a lot, it is a significant amount, and it can drain your energy. I had purposefully purchased Swiss seats for this event, as I had heard of stages like this in the past. Let’s say they like to throw curveballs and make it impossible to plan around what happens in prior years.
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The rope was anchored so far off the ground that to get my kids attached to the rope via a carabiner and their Swiss seat, I had to lift them with all my strength while simultaneously attaching their carabiner, while they attempted not to drop their rifles. My youngest son ended up running out of steam, and I had to walk through the water and pull him to the other side. That’s where we ran into the next issue.
Keep Pushing Ahead
My youngest was entirely out of energy, and he was now suspended over six feet off the ground, attached via a carabiner to a rope that he could not disconnect. He had to lift his body high enough to relieve the pressure on the carabiner and rope. I ended up lifting him and disconnecting him, but only after an unreasonable amount of energy was used. My oldest was able to pull himself across, but again, I had to walk through the water and lift him to disconnect his carabiner.
At this point, I was completely drained of energy, and after a few attempts, I just walked across the water. As if this wasn’t bad enough, you had to cross again after carrying your spinal board to another crossing point. This time, I piggybacked both kids across the water and called it a day.
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You Can Walk, You Can Crawl, You Can’t Quit
The Whiskey Hotel Team Ruck Match is not just a shooting match, and it’s not just a ruck. It is a hybrid of sorts. Something designed to push you to a point of discomfort physically. It is meant to make you dig deep and find parts of yourself that you didn’t know existed. The match brings you closer to your teammate as you embrace the suck together and keep pushing forward.
One thing I have told both of my young men since the earliest point I can remember is a paraphrased version of a Dr. Martin Luther King statement. I tell them that it’s OK to walk if you cannot run, it’s OK to crawl if you cannot walk, but it’s not OK to quit. This match exemplifies that very statement, as you see so many teams at the point of physical exhaustion, but they keep pushing forward to complete their assignment.
The men at this match are generally the men I want my sons to be around. I want my sons to see men handling business, even if it means struggling to complete their task. My sons will see that people struggle. They will see men get physically hurt along the way. They will also see men push through all of that and keep moving forward. Those are the traits I hope my sons can mold into their lives.
