August 20, 2006

by Bob Thobaben

937-382-4739 (H)

The 14^th Commando Orienteering Meet was held at Thobaben’s Farm in Clinton County. The weather was comfortable at 81 degrees and 10 to 15 miles per hour wind. Thunderstorms were approaching but they never materialized. The Commando is a challenging event that tries to incorporate several survival skills into one competition. This year we had the 4.8 km Orange Course followed by archery followed by climbing two deer hunting stands, followed by a swim in a farm pond to get "Pirate Doubloons" from a raft in the pond, followed by a 12.8 km bike ride. If the competitor was skilled they could get 5 minutes off their time for accurate shots, and 20 minutes off for bringing me a gold plastic coin from the pond. The pond was an optional part of Commando.

The White Course was attempted by only two individuals, the Orange Course was taken by eight individuals and the Commando course was undertaken by eight individuals.

MVOC would like to thank Mike Allen who helped Bryan Waid who was injured when he stepped into a woodchuck hole along a soybean field. Bryan was in severe pain, but his partner was able to drive his vehicle through a farm lane to take him to get medical treatment. Bryan is OK but he is in a cast for a severely twisted ankle. We hope Bryan a speedy recovery. This is the first bad injury we have had since the competition started.

Next year we will again have a similar challenge, but we will substitute cornhole competition for archery and biking to controls that have time deducted for the farthest out control to less time for the closest control. Below are the results.