Another week down

Last week actually went pretty fast. It started off as usual - too soon and too early! I managed to get in a little trouble (again), and I lost more blood than I would have liked. However, we had some pretty good training. The first day of the week we did convoy training and then went to a convoy simulator. This was really fun to me since it was at the Battle Simulation Center and was actually just like a big, interactive computer game. As you might guess, it's also where I got in some trouble. The purpose of the "game" is to give us practice on communicating among vehicles and reacting to different scenarios that are currently faced in Iraq. We are split into vehicles and sent to different rooms where we each have our own computer and headset. The first 30 minutes we get to practice on the controls and are just supposed to get into the Humvees, practice driving them, getting in and out, and shooting our rifles. After 5 minutes I had the basics down when I spotted a tank I could get into. 25 minutes later every vehicle and building in the simulated base was destroyed and on fire. As expected, the programmers weren’t too happy that they had to re-create everything. One of my buddies told me later in the week that they got a lecture when they went through a few days later to use only the Humvees and under no circumstances are they allowed to get into tanks! Besides that though, the exercise went well and it was good practice for our team. We learned that communication while under fire is harder than expected and having established procedures will benefit us greatly.

The next two days were spent practicing moving dismounted (aka walking) throughout cities. We had to practice moving with our teams and reacting to friendly and insurgent forces, clearing buildings and rooms, and detaining possible hostile threats. I got in trouble for kicking a door in too hard but the evaluator had a good point about maintaining my balance.

The last 3 days we spent doing combat lifesaver training. This is basically how to treat casualties on the battlefield. The first day was alot of slides and classroom stuff so I was bored beyond control. The next two days were all practical exercises though, so I was much more involved. The second day of training, the practical portion, involved actually initiating an IV into your partner. This is where I lost some blood. The point of actually doing the IV is to give us practice so that when our buddy gets shot for real we aren’t putting a needle into a vein for the first time. That's great theory and all, but I lost alot of blood just from the IV! My partner was pretty nervous and missed my vein the first stick. This surprised me because I bled alot for no vein to have been hit, and if you've ever seen my arms my veins are very noticeable. The second stick got me though, but it also caused my blood to go everywhere since it was a big vein. The funny thing is that I was laughing as my blood spurted out and tried to calm down my partner since she kept twisting the needle inside my vein! My stick was a 1st time go, and although I did put the needle all the way through her vein, I just had to pull it back a little. Paybacks are a bitch huh?

The weekend was great because my uncle Eddie drove over 7 hours from Denver to visit me. It was great to see him and a familiar face! That he took that time to come see me really lifted my spirits and I am very grateful for it. Its just what I needed to get through the next two weeks until I can see my family and Rachael again!!

Stay/Wasting Time

For those who don’t know me real well, you'll soon come to realize that I love music (and therefore tend to reference songs alot). So the title of this blog, and the theme of last week, comes from my favorite artist, the Dave Matthews Band. So why was I wasting time? I need to describe the week in a little better detail than I've been doing for you to understand.

The week started with us doing a full day of pre-marksmanship instruction (PMI) on the .50 caliber and M240B machine guns. (For more info on these weapons go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M240_machine_gun ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning_machine_gun; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_BMG)
PMI is definitely necessary, especially since we had the .50 cal range coming up the next day. What happens in a PMI is that we learn how to disassemble, assemble, clean, and fire the weapons in question. I was familiar with both these weapons since we used them when I was in the 10th Mountain Division, so these classes were just refreshers for me.

The next day we had the .50 cal range, and this is when the week really became an exercise in patience and tested my ability to entertain myself. Here’s how it went: At 5am we woke up, got ready for our day, ate breakfast and formed up for accountability. We typically take school buses, which are “escorted” by armored Humvees’s to our training location. The purpose of the escort is to give each team a chance to practice convoy procedures and rehearse possible actions upon contact. We loaded the buses at 7am and moved out to our range, which was approximately 25 minutes away. 90 minutes and 4 wrong turns later, we arrived at the .50 cal range. That was my first indication that this was going to be a long day.

Once there, we filed into the bleacher and received a safety and familiarization briefing. During this briefing I noticed that the person next to me didn’t secure his 9mm in his holster, so I very deftly took it from his holster and hid it. It took him about 20 minutes to realize he didn’t have it and then he started freaking out (loosing a weapon is obviously a big deal). I couldn’t contain my laughter for long and so I gave it back to him when he noticed the tears flowing from my eyes as I tried to contain myself. Since he was our SGT in charge, that little prank earned me the right to ammo detail for the morning. This consisted of breaking down crates of .50 cal ammo in full body armor and moving it to the ammo collection point – pretty back breaking work! It was ok though because I was busy and not sitting around. After ammo detail I got a class on foreign weapons; we learned to take apart and use AK47s, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), and other pseudo-Russian made weapons that are popular with Iraqi insurgents. These weapons are simple and highly effective, firing 7.62mm bullets (compared to our 5.56mm bullets). After that class we sat in the bleachers for about 5 hours and did nothing, since the people on the weapons systems were having trouble qualifying. I finally got to fire the .50 cal around 5pm, and it was fun!! That weapon really packs a lot of punch! After that we ate our MRE (meal ready-to-eat) and got ready for the night fire portion. At around 10pm, we still hadn’t put a single bullet downrange. Finally, the range maintenance was complete and firing began around 10:45; soon after, all power failed and the firing was halted. At approximately 12am, the range was considered closed and cleanup began. SO in summary, I was at this .50 cal familiarization for around 17 hours, and I fired only about 200 rounds. It was probably a textbook definition of inefficient, especially since there were some people who didn’t fire at all!

The next day we did language training and simulated getting attacked by mortars. Interesting exercise – I had my hand “blown off” and had to be treated by some medics. The whole exercise went well, but started off as a cluster. One of the underlying themes of annoyance to me here is that I have been through real life occurrences of many things we are “simulating” or practicing, so when I see people who haven’t been through it do the wrong thing and then claim that’s how it would really work, I get pissed off. In any event, I usually don’t have any problem biting my tongue so I quickly let everyone know what they should be doing (despite my “injury”).

The last two days of the week were super boring. We had classroom instruction on the Army’s “Blue Force Tracker” (http://www.gpsworld.com/gpsworld/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=146087&pageID=1), which is like an interactive navigation system for the Humvees, tanks and aircraft. Since I had used it in Afghanistan and had recently received refresher training on it at Ft. Lee just one month prior, I was very bored! When I get bored I have trouble paying attention, so after these two days were over some people on my team were calling me CPT ADD, which is pretty funny since I have that problem most of my life. The instructor didn’t find me funny though, and after I decided that attacking the class with a nuclear bomb and several F-16s would be entertaining, he let me know that I was officially “unplugged” from the system. Oh well . . ..that just gave me the chance to follow the NCAA tourney!
I posted more pictures and I tentatively plan on updating this page at least once before next Sunday. However, our days are usually long and Sunday is the only day we have off, so as of now it’s the best time for me to purge my thoughts. Thank you to everyone reading this and thanks you for your support. I am overwhelmed by how many people have expressed their support and it has given me a newfound sense of motivation.

Are we there yet?

The training here at Ft. Riley is still very good and is definitely necessary. However, I feel like I am on a long car ride, similar to one I took as a child where 8 of us crammed into a minivan and drove to Disneyworld. In the beginning, your grandma peeing into a cup every 20 minutes is funny; by the middle of the trip you start to get sick and beg to be let out of the car so you can walk the rest of the way. That’s pretty much how I feel now.

This past week we had qualification ranges on our rifle's and our 9mm's, and at the end of the week we had a 3-day briefing on cultural awareness. The ranges were fun (albeit long since we had to night fire as well) and it was cool using the scopes on my rifle for the first time. I basically feel like I cant miss with that little red dot!

Cultural awareness was interesting but being in a conference room for 8-9 hours a day wasn’t. The concept is great though. Since our mission in Iraq is training their Soldiers, it would be fairly ignorant of us to try and train them without being aware of the culture. We learned alot and the sessions were interactive, and most of us agreed that it will be very helpful to know. I wont go into alot of it now (plus some of the material was classified), but once I get in country I plan on writing about the differences and similarities I observe between our cultures.

New Stuff

I had several fears when I learned that I would be going to Iraq with a reserve unit, based mostly upon misconceptions formed when I was on Active Duty. Two of the biggest fears I had were that we would be using old, 1980s style equipment and that the unit wouldn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground. The last two weeks have put these fears soundly to bed.

The first few days here were more of the same - paperwork and medical readiness checks. Luckily, I received most of my vaccinations when I deployed to Afghanistan, so I only needed two shots. By the third day, most of my aforementioned fears were assuaged as I had been through equipment and weapon issue and I was ready to start training with my new team.

The weapons and equipment I was issued are all brand new. Never before have I seen a new weapon in the Active Army, let alone the reserves; yet here I am with an M4 carbine rifle and 9mm Berretta pistol right out of the box! My rifle is mounted with a laser sight/scope, and I was also issued body armor (which weighs about 50 lbs), camelbacks, gloves, fleece caps, etc. etc. Five years ago we wouldn’t have received any of these things, so it’s good that the military has figured out some basic needs of Soldiers in combat.

Once I began training time started flying by. While most days are long and tiring (especially since everywhere I go I am in full body armor with my weapons), the training has been pretty fun and realistic. I am no longer with my friends from Ft Jackson and Ft. Lee - we've all been placed into different "teams" that will be doing different jobs in Iraq. I still talk to my friends though – we just aren’t spending as much time together.

The team to which I am now assigned is from one reserve unit and they all know each other well, so the past week of training I've spent alot of time trying to get know them. We've spent hours in a language lab learning Arabic, driven through roads that simulate being in Iraq (i.e. how to react when attacked), learned new hand-to-hand combat techniques, and received classes on various topics dealing with Iraq. I am definitely glad to have this time because it will prepare me even more for situations I haven’t had to face in over 3 years; however, I still wish we were leaving tomorrow to go to Iraq so I can get home sooner! I will be posting pictures of our training in my pictures link so check that soon. Also, thank you to everyone who is reading this, and thanks to all who have left very supportive feedback!

The Wizard of Oz . . .

. . . might have been the best thing to come out of Kansas. No, seriously, I drove through about half of this state, from KC to Manhattan, and might have seen about 4 buildings, all of which were abandoned farmhouses. The only interesting part of the drive was that I was in the back of a stretch limo. The limo ride itself is actually worthy of a post, because I haven’t done much else in the 3 days I've been here.

Life must really hard if I'm taking a limo across Kansas, right? There's actually a good reason we (my 4 friends from Ft. Lee and myself) took the limo. After leaving Ft. Lee at 7:30am and spending most of our day in the airport because of delayed flights, we finally arrived in Kansas City around 3pm. Upon arrival, we were told to contact the shuttle that normally transports Soldiers from KC to Manhattan. The shuttle, however, couldn't pick us up until 7pm that evening, and it would be a 3 hour ride because of its required stops. Being the good Soldiers we are, we decided to arrange for alternate transportation. The only company willing to pick us up within the hour that had prices comparable to the shuttle was a limo company! So of course, we didn’t hesitate to roll across the Kansas countryside in style.

It was actually a pretty interesting ride. No, not because of the scenery, which as I mentioned consisted of a few abandoned farms and a race track; it was interesting because seemingly every car we passed honked their horns and waved frantically at us. A couple of girls even leaned out of their windows and blew us kisses! They must have thought we were celebrities, and clearly not many stretch limos make that drive.

The comedies of the limo didnt stop once we arrived at Ft. Riley. The gate guards also thought our choice of transportation was comical, and foreshadowed our time here when they told us it would be the last nice thing we would have while we were here. Ft. Riley is a very large post and it took us a while to find our building, but we finally did and pulled our stretch limo in front of the Task Force headquarters. I wish I thought of taking a picture, because there were at least a dozen Soldiers who crowded around and gave us high fives for our stylish entrance. I did take a picture of all of us in the limo with our bags though, and it’s posted in my picture link at the right. They too echoed the sentiments of the gate guards, and told us they hoped we enjoyed the limo because there wasn’t much else we'd enjoy while we're here! Wow - what a great introduction to the next two months of my life!

Since the limo ride, we haven’t done much. We all got split up into different companies and buildings and were taken to our rooms. The team I am on has been receptive and made me feel welcome, and the training we have scheduled looks challenging, but I am glad for it because the time will move fast. This week will be more paperwork, vaccinations (the anthrax should be pleasant), and briefings. After that, we will do realistic training that aims to simulate life in Iraq and will allow our team to gain cohesion. Hopefully it moves quick and I will be that much closer to home!!

The land of powerpoint

The last two weeks in Fort Lee have been great, yet depressing. We have nice accommodations, free time, and an overall stress free environment - much different than Ft. Jackson and the Drill sgts. The best part about being here is that I am relatively close to home, so for the last two weekends I have been able to see Rachael and my family. Yet, when I come back to Ft. Lee after a weekend of normality, it’s tougher than ever to get my mind wrapped around this vacation again.

The training here consists of nothing more than classroom instruction. At 8:30am every day we go to class, sit through about 975 PowerPoint slides, and get released around 4pm. So our minds have alot of time to wander - especially my ADD riddled mind. I think it was actually easier at Fort Jackson because when you are physically engaged in tough training, your mind is focused on completing the task at hand. When you are in a warm, comfortable classroom, your mind tends to think about other things - in my case other things are home and the life I had a short time ago.

Ok at this point I'm asking myself - wow, am I really complaining about being in a hotel and seeing my family?? The point is, I wish I was in Iraq already - right now it just seems like we were called up from IRR to sit around and think about being called up from IRR (the bad part of a blog is that I am now documented as saying that, so in 6 months if I am bitching about Iraq it'll look pretty stupid). The point I am trying to make is that I can’t wait to have a more engaging and tough mission to take my mind off being away from my family. My next stop on the IRR tour should provide that, since we will be joining our actual unit and conducting mission specific training for several weeks before Iraq. I probably wont write anymore until I get there, since there is much else to say about the world of powerpoint. Oh yea – if anyone has questions or comments, please post them in the comment section. I’d love to answer any questions/comments that come to mind!

Closer to home

The 1SG was an E-7 in 10th Mountain Division who advised me in Afghanistan. He gave our group everything he could, including use of the company van when we needed it. However, we still were assigned to the run down barracks and had at least one roommate (I had two – my human roommate and the 3 foot cockroach living in my shower). It was Saturday, so at least we had nothing scheduled until Monday morning.
On Monday morning, we went as directed to the Captain’s career course that was currently going on. As expected, no one there really knew we were coming. We filled out some paperwork and went into the classroom, where we met the Major who would be in charge of us while we were at Ft. Lee. As it turned out, he would become our biggest ally. We sat through class while the “Active Duty” Captain’s filled out their paperwork and received their welcome briefs from high ranking officers. During one of these welcome briefs, a “full-bird” Colonel asked how everyone’s accommodations were, expecting to hear all of the Captain’s answer “great!” When I raised my hand and told him how much I enjoyed living in the dirty barracks with cockroaches, his eyes widened and exclaimed that our conditions were unacceptable. It seemed our luck was turning. After that brief, the Colonel made reservations for us at a local hotel and for the last 10 days, I have had a pretty good situation. I have my own room, a TV, and was able to go home for a weekend to see my family. Classes during the day are informative, and I am glad to have them since it’s been a few years from the time I last dealt with most of the subjects. I am excited to go to Fort Riley because it will be one phase closer to deploying and coming home; yet at the same time Ft Lee is a known entity and I am comfortable. Neither matters though, because in a few days I’ll be off to Kansas and beginning the next phase in my wonderful vacation.