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Getting down and dirty in the field is nothing new for soldiers.
But for one day, it was their spouses taking a turn at slinging some mud.
Sergeant Derick Call has the scoop on Operation Better Half.
[men cheering] Let's go! You've got it! Come on!
[Call] Crawling through mud and getting shot by a paintball gun
may not sound like fun to you,
but that's exactly what these spouses came out for. [paintball guns firing]
Operation Better Half was a day for spouses of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade
to just get together, hang out, and have fun.
We love Combat Spouses Day! [laughing] Oh, goodness.
[Call] They definitely love Combat Spouses Day.
Oh, yeah. It was a competition too.
The teams really got into it.
They had special costumes and names, and one thing was clear:
From tug-of-war to paintball, these teams were in it to win it.
[cheering]
Oh, man. This is just an awesome event for all the women to come through
when the the guys are deployed.
They take the kids for us, and we're just allowed to be women for the day
and get dirty and muddy, and it's just a great experience for us.
This is something we look to do
every deployment with this unit just to kind of get everybody together--
all the spouses--and go ahead and compete out there
while their husbands are away, just keep them busy, keep the morale high.
[Call] These gladiators left tired and covered in mud and paint.
But at least for a couple of hours, they got to put life on hold and have some fun.
Reporting from Katterbach, Germany, I'm Army Sergeant Derick Call.