‘By Far the Hardest Thing I Have Done’: Aviation Soldiers March Through Arabian Desert for Nordic Skills Badge
Some 100 U.S. soldiers in Kuwait grabbed their loaded rucksacks and marched through the desert in a bid to prove their mental and physical endurance was up to Nordic standards. Those who finished the 18.6-mile trek in under about 5 hours earned a badge first awarded in 1915 to Norwegian recruits who completed the challenge …