{"id":70403,"date":"2023-12-19T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=70403"},"modified":"2023-12-20T20:38:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T20:38:31","slug":"south-carolina-guardsman-conquers-french-desert-commando-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=70403","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina Guardsman Conquers French Desert Commando Course"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n U.S. Army Sgt. Liliana Munday, a Soldier with 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina National Guard, Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, practices grappling techniques with another Soldier as a part of combative training during the French Desert Commando Course Nov. 29, 2023, at the Centre Dentrainment Au Combat Djibouti. Participants who completed the training, hosted by the French 5th Overseas Interarms Regiment, received the prestigious desert commando pin. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Haden Tolbert)
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\n U.S. Army Sgt. Liliana Munday, 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina National Guard, holds her French Desert Commando pin Dec. 19, 2023, at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. Munday was one of 40 U.S. service members and the only female to go through the most recent iteration of the French Desert Commando Course. (Department of Defense photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan Gentile)
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DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti – For nearly 50 years, French soldiers stationed in Djibouti have made their way to the Arta Mountains for the grueling, five-day French Desert Commando Course to test their physical, emotional and mental limits. This year, 40 U.S. service members signed up for the challenge, including U.S. Army Sgt. Liliana Munday.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Munday, a Soldier with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina National Guard, gravitated to outdoor physical activities. She was immediately interested in the French Desert Commando Course, but concerned about the physical demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I was ready for it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut Staff Sgt. (Samuel) Perez kept pushing me to try out because he saw that I wanted to do it and he had faith in me that I could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the pre-assessment phase of the course, service members meet the basic physical requirements and train to earn a spot in the commando phase. In the second phase, they head out to the field for night obstacle, rope and swimming courses and combative and desert survival skills.<\/p>\n

Munday\u2019s training regimen began in September and included rucks and runs around the installation before dawn, weightlifting and dynamic, high-intensity exercises nearly every day. At the peak of her training, she fit in three workouts each day while balancing her regular work schedule.<\/p>\n

After three months of training, Munday remembers the nerves she felt on the drive out to Arta Mountains where her hard work was put to the test immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost had an aneurysm, I was so scared,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the way out there I kept thinking, ‘Am I ready? Am I gonna do this? These guys are gonna smoke me, I\u2019m just gonna be out here stranded and be sent home on Day 1.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Day 1 consisted of a 5-kilometer ruck run with a full kit, followed by a fitness test and rope climbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nervous because rope climbs are very hard for me and in training I could only do one,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

Her training partner, Perez, was there to support and encourage her as she steadily made her way to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see she was nervous because we saw the other competitors struggling with this climb,\u201d Perez said. \u201cI was there telling her she could do it; I knew she could. She got up there and when she came back down she had a big smile beaming from her face she was so excited and she ran over and gave me a big hug.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the first big hurdle behind her, Munday moved forward in the course with a newfound confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason, after completing that first day I was good. I started to feel like I could do this thing and I proved to my squad that I was here to work and I deserved to be here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Each day and night Munday and her squad faced a new obstacle. She said the mountain obstacle course was the most difficult.<\/p>\n

Participants 200 meters above the ground were required to jump across five platforms spaced several meters apart, jump and grab onto a steel pole and slide down to the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re doing that mountain obstacle course you don\u2019t realize how far each platform is from one another and there are points when you\u2019re not clipped in,\u201d she explained. \u201cI thought, if I missed even a little bit, I\u2019m going down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Day 3, after pushing herself through numerous challenges and rucking nonstop from one training location to another, she thought she had reached her breaking point and seriously considered quitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour joints just start to scream. It\u2019s painful,\u201d she confessed. \u201cI kept thinking, \u2019I cannot take this pain anymore. I\u2019m almost done but I cannot do it anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the dirt, mud, sweat and pain, Munday\u2019s spirit and drive helped her push through. That spirit and drive, she said, comes from two of the strongest people she knows.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom and my grandma \u2014 they\u2019re such strong women and they never let me quit when I was younger. They have strong personalities and it\u2019s within me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was very nice to tell them that I did this. They were like, \u2018No way, that\u2019s awesome!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At graduation, she received the French Desert Commando pin. The black and gold pin features a scorpion resting on the outline of the country of Djibouti. Along the rim are the words \u201dAguerrissement Zone Desertique,\u201d which translates to “Desert Zone Hardening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now able to look back and say, I did that. We did that,\u201d she said with a smile. \u201cCompleting something and not giving up even though you may want to \u2026 it sticks with you forever. I use this as fuel to my fire when I feel like I can\u2019t do something. I think to myself, \u2018You can, because you have already.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the support she received from her family and teammates, Munday\u2019s success is a testament to the adage, \u201dPreparation is the key to success.\u201d It\u2019s a message she\u2019s shared with her fellow Soldiers since completing the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone I work with said he wanted to do the FDCC but he didn\u2019t think he was ready,\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018Sir, you\u2019re never going to be ready.\u2019 I didn\u2019t think I was ready. But I got ready. So if you truly think or know that you want to do something no matter the current status that you\u2019re in, if you want to pursue it you\u2019re just gonna have to train and do what it takes to get to that point. There is no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

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1 \/ 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 U.S. Army Sgt. Liliana Munday, a Soldier with 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina National Guard, Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, practices grappling techniques with another Soldier as a part of combative training during the French Desert Commando Course Nov. 29, 2023, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70405,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70403"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70408,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70403\/revisions\/70408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}