To honor our troops on September 11th, Kid Rock put on a HUGE show at Fort Jackson. He invited Blackberry Smoke to share the stage for the event, and I was lucky enough to tag along and document the day’s happenings… which included a boot camp of sorts and tour of the base for the band.

Upon our arrival we were all given U.S. Army hats. Here, Brit is proudly displaying his, before getting suited up for repelling.

Paul and Charlie were all ready to go… and were having a laugh at the others getting all tied in.

Drill Sargeant Ferguson gave them a quick lesson on how to lean back and let your ‘guide hand’ stop you in the event of trouble. Here he is demonstrating how you can hold all your weight with one hand. This tower had an incline to it to prepare them for the next round of repelling action.

After the demonstration, it was time to scale the tower.

Richard went first.

Then Charlie.

Next up was Brit.

Then Paul.

And finally, Brandon.

Next up was the 45-foot tower. No incline here, and much more intimidating. This gentleman set the tone for not to do things. You can see about half-way down, his decent goes awry, and he slams hard enough to make a shock-wave. Luckily, the material he fell on is finely shredded tires – which was surprisingly soft.

This soldier was climbing down this giant rope wall. About 3/4 of the way down they would have to drop off backwards onto a giant pad filled with air. It looked scary!

Lucky for the band… there was a stairwell that led them to the top of the tower. It didn’t seem so bad from the ground – but once up top… it was VERY intimidating! Here the boys are sizing things up.

Brit was the brave one, and went down the wall first.

Richard had some solid hangtime on his way down.

Brandon repelled next.

Then it was Charlie’s turn.

And finally Paul’s chance at death.

Here you can see Drill Sargeant Ferguson recapping what they just did through the reflection in Charlie’s glasses. Everyone agreed that by the time they got about 2/3 down the wall, it got easier… and they wanted a bit more wall to repel down before they reached the ground.

Next it was off to check out soliders being trained in MMA hand-to-hand combat. We got to try Army-issue ‘Gatorade’, called Victory Juice. It was REALLY good.

After we observed the fight training… it was time for lunch! I was fascinated how the soldiers stand in line for the cafeteria. I also thought this photo was cool considering the painting on the wall.

It really was an honor to be on base on September 11th.

The guys enjoying Army food. I’m sure if you eat it every day… it gets old – but we all enjoyed the food. I thought it was really good!

So good, in fact… that I took more than I could finish. I had chicken and rice (sweet & sour-ish), cottage cheese, veggies, and a heaping of baked beans. I was STUFFED.

Stay tuned for more from Fort Jackson, as we get to enter a firearms simulator and do some shooting!