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| Saturday, 20-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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More more of the same
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11/20/04: Kinda a wasted day. I went out for the Convoy Live Fire with the 390th AG from Alexandria, commanded by MAJ Bill Fectaeu, Class of ?89, D3. The point of this exercise is to teach units to work together and fire at bad guys from moving vehicles. The range looked like found. Lots of pop ups?even a moving one. But for me the day consisted of three rides in the back of 5 ton truck. Luckily, I brought a book. It was a bit surreal. Me in flak vest and Kevlar sitting in the back of 5-ton reading old paperback copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald?s The Great Gatsby while M-16?s and SAW?s are spewing live rounds on either side of me. The hot brass kept hitting me in the face and landing in my book. When I got back at about 1500, I went to a day of CTT training with the 818th. The classes were pretty good reviews of how to treat a sucking chest wound, treat burns, apply tourniquet, call a medevac etc. Then off to the movies.
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| Friday, 19-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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Common Task and Training
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11/19/04: Today I did CTT training with the 818th a lot of it was tasks I?m not required to do, but I wanted to know about the newer weapons in the army inventory and brush up on some others. The MK 19 is pretty amazing. It?s a machinegun grenade launcher that fire about 100 grenades per minute. In other news, my orders finally were cut and made their way to me so I feel like the end is very near. I noticed that the ?period of active duty? is for 545 days or 18 months. That?s a little disturbing but my old CONUS orders said 725 or just under two years so I guess 18 months is okay. Amy made arrangements for me to go home over thanksgiving. It?s really expensive, but we decided that it would be worth it given the circumstances.
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| Thursday, 18-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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Defensive Fire
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11/18/04: I went to the defensive fire range today with the 818th. The uniform was full battle rattle. The idea of the range is to train soldiers to act as a team and evacuate injured soldiers and shoot. The basic ?shoot, move, and communicate.? I borrowed a M16 from SGT Green and did the range even though you only supposed to use a your own zeroed weapon. I spent about 15 minutes on the range and about 6 hours and 45 minutes waiting. It was pretty fun though. Silhouettes popped up all over and you just shot them down.
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| Wednesday, 17-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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The 9mm Ranger--NOT
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11/17/04: I hustled a 9mm range for today. I was scheduled to meet a driver at 0545, go pick up my weapon, and go to the range. When I got to the Arms Room, they said they sent out my M9 to maintenance because it had a loose bushing screw. Nice of them to tell somebody. Idiots and thugs. BTW, my orders are still screwed up. The illustrious Mr. Flora is trying to send me to Fort Bliss. TDS is working on it. Oy!
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| Tuesday, 16-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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SHOTS . . .OW!!
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11/16/04: My big task today was getting through the SRC. There were soldiers Mob'ing and Demobing and there was a line wrapped around the building. I wasn?t scheduled to go, but I got in because Mr. Baker ?attached? me to an AVN unit and I just acted like I was one of them. When you finally got into the building you were put into rows of waiting room chairs. As one soldier advanced, everyone would get up and move over one chair. I finished the process at 1930. As expected, it was all a repeat of my SRP at Carson. Every station just signed off and moved me to the next?except immunizations which gave me the two shots I missed at Carson? Hep B and Flu. My arm?s still sore.
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| Monday, 15-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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12 Hours of More of the Same
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11/15/04: Today was the Mob brief at the Post theater, starting at 0700. They have you sign in and give you your smallpox deferment questionnaire there. If you don?t have the smallpox paperwork, allegedly you have to do the whole brief and the SRC (Soldier Readiness Center) over. It was about 28 degrees this morning and the theater?s heat was out. They finally got the ?heat? on about ? way through the morning but the heat was not hot. Instead it just added a wind chill to the air. At one point, it got so cold that they moved us outside so at least we?d have the benefit of the sun. I worked on CGSC during the briefs. In the afternoon session, the Bragg PAO NCOIC spoke. She was very good and had a lot of really funny stories about soldiers and the press. I got a call shortly into the p.m. session that my weapon had arrived. Apparently is got hear on Friday, but was ?lost? in the mail system. The Berretta was in huge cardboard box of Styrofoam ?popcorn.? It was broken and down and scattered throughout the box. It was like bobbing for apples. I took it to the Arms Room, which is housed in an old refitted WWI stable. It appears to be run by a combination of idiots and thugs.
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| Saturday, 13-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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GAS GAS GAS
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11/13/04: This morning I got up bright and early and hooked back up with the 818th to go through the gas chamber. They have been very cool and have sort of adopted me. I went M9 PMI with them last night. My mask and weapon have not arrived yet, so today they let me borrow one. I went out with LT Warner who happens to be from Charleston, WV. The chamber was one of the block buildings with a sand floor and skylights. As we stood in line, he gave a down and dirty on how to use these masks bec. I have never used these newer ones. With these you have to do a filter exchange with a buddy in the gas tent. Anyway we went in and the gas was thick. I could feel it in my throat as soon as we went in. First they made us run laps, then we had to do side straddle hop and then low crawl through the sand. After that we had to do the filter exchange. To do this you have unscrew the filter from the front of your mask. When the filter is off, you are exposed to the gas so you have to hold your breath. Then you take your filter and screw it into your buddy?s mask and vice versa?all the while not breathing. Someone next to me dropped their buddies filter and it wasn?t a pretty sight. I can only imagine the stress in a real situation. After the mask exchange, we lined up. I ended up near the center of the room right beside the can where the CS gas was burning. Then they made us take our masks off. I tried to get big breath and close my eyes but ended up breathing some anyway and had to open my eyes to get out. You immediately start coughing, your nose runs, your eyes burn and skin itches. Later, when I got in the case, the CS on uniform started burning me again. Monday, I set to go to the 12 hour Mob? brief. Hopefully, my weapon and mask will arrive by then too.
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| Friday, 12-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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PVT Ryan Meets the Swamp Thing at the Blair Witch Project
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11/12/04: Did land nav today. I was supposed to hook up with elements of the 818th Maint. Co. from Fort Meade Md. But they failed to show, so I did course by myself in the pouring rain. It was like Buckner all over again. I felt like a real soldier for the first time since I got here. I think this is first time I have had to do a course by myself and with a pace count since I was in FAOBC. Units are sending their people through in groups and some with GPS. I had a GPS but wanted to do it the old school way. A member of the cadre had supplied me with a copy of the answers so I knew I would pass one way or another. The first point was pretty difficult bec. I lost my pace count and was redeveloping my compass skills. I got the next four without a problem. I went back to the 818th and got the scorecard to do night landnav. Again, I went out completely by myself. In the background there was automatic fire from the machine gun ranges nearby. It got very dark very fast and the rain was coming down in buckets and I got lost. I finally just shot a straight azimuth to take myself back to the road. A big tree branch broke and fell in front of me. That scared me and I started moving faster and somehow I got stuck in the middle of swamp. All around me were vines and underbrush and moonlight glinting off water. I took big leap in one direction that I thought would be solid ground and was knee deep and muck. It was kind of like being trapped in B movie, Private Ryan Meets the Swamp Thing at the Blair Witch Project.
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