Merry Christmas

After a long 23 days of training at FOB Patriot (Fort Bragg) I finally have a break for the holidays.  We spent about 2 weeks on and off the range with getting people qualified and doing range detail.  Have no fear, f I am attacked by targets that pop up for anywhere between 2-5 seconds, I have time to setup my shot, I’m relaxed, and I know where they will be coming from I will have no problem laying them down.  I’ve gone through so many Warrior Tasks, not once, not twice, but three times.  I have also re-certified my combat lifesaving license and I have a permit to drive a wide range of vehicles.  We also went through a Humvee roll over exercise, which was pretty fun.  Although it was not as nearly as fast a real roll over, but still fun.  I kept pushing for it to go faster, but it had one speed…slow.

Our 16 man condo.  Wonderful plastic covered mattresses and plastic flooring.

The Humvee roll over experience.  I was the driver and my ACH (helmet) and my body got wedge as I was trying to get out.  We had to get out upside down.

Me getting ready to give an IV to some poor sap.

Laundry service trailer.  There are 8 washers and 6 dryers.  There were only 3 of these on the FOB and about 500 or more of us.  The math does not add up, but thankfully a week before we left they opened up a laundry tent…way to go Army.  By the way right next to the laundry trailer is our wonderful bathroom.  Not sure what’s worse having it as sauna or as an icebox.  Much of the time it was in the 40’s at night….I think you get the picture.

That was my home for 23 days.

One of the things I have a permit on.

So from here I head to Mississippi to Camp Shelby for about a month a half.  I have no idea what to expect accept madnesses and chaos…organized chaos hopefully.

Till next time folks.

How Quickly December Will Be Here

Sunday I got done with a long week and long days (5 AM to 9 PM) of training and paperwork to get me ready for deployment. It was only suppose to be Monday through Friday, but in typical Army fashion someone screwed up. Originally my orders were suppose to be till Friday so they just extended my orders till Sunday. Imagine my surprise when they told me this news. Monday through Thursday was SRP days (Solider Readiness Processing). During this time I get screened for my medical (started my HEP B shots), personnel, clothing issues, & briefings (not underwear briefings Jen). This is all in order to get me ready for SRC (Solider Readiness Check) which is about the same thing as an SRP but more in detail. Then Thursday through Sunday we were in the Field doing Warrior Task Training and Battle Drills. Oh lucky me on Wednesday I felt I was getting sick and sure enough Thursday it kicked in, I’m guessing I got it from one of the other 450 soldiers. Needless to say the last few days were miserable, exhausted, not being able to talk, sore throat…and out in 90 plus degree weather. I don’t mind being out in the field doing training, but being sick just makes everything worse.

So Saturday I was just beat from fighting this cold and my NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge) told me to get with the medic.  So I went and saw the one of NCO Staff members who could contact the medic.  I explained my situation to him.  He asked me “You wouldn’t be doing this to get out of training would you? I’m just kidding, don’t take it the wrong way.”  I chuckled and he chuckled.  I knew he was kidding, but I said back “If I wanted to get out of training I would’ve done it on my wife’s birthday”.  Anyway I eventually got with the medic, who was useless, told me I had a cold and I need to take some medicine.  of course I already knew I had a cold and I was already taking medicine.

Even though the week had it downers it did have some good things. I met some of the people I will be deploying with as well as found out some information on what to expect over in Iraq. So December 1^st is when I will be leaving for training and then in April I will be leaving for the Sandbox…Iraq. I can’t believe how quickly August will be over and how quickly December will be here. I will get to come home for Christmas and New Years, but I will be leaving again on January 2^nd…yes my birthday. Happy Birthday Bobby you’re going to Mississippi.  I’ve heard nothing but bad things about Mississippi.   Jen has shared the story of her mom treating to leave her Dad if they did not move from Mississippi.  Can’t wait!

Till Next Time.

In the Army Now

In the future there will be more and more post regarding my deployment and instead of talking about it in a cryptic way I figure I’ll just go head and say it.  I found out last month at drill that I was being involuntary transferred to another unit being deployed.  What that means is I am being transferred from the unit I am in now to another unit so they can meet their numbers…essentially I was resigned to another unit.  Since I’ve told people of my deployment some have felt sorry for me.  I ask please do not feel sorry for me.  Jen and I knew of this when I re-enlisted and I’m excited to go.  This is why I joined the Guard so I can serve.  Before I was involuntary assigned to go I was in the middle of deciding if I should volunteer to go or just wait to see what happens.  For those who signed up for free college they are in for a big surprise when they have to fulfill what they signed up for and I have no sympathy for those.  If they do not want to defend their country that’s fine, but don’t expect a free ride to college.

Last weekend was a weekend full of cleaning weapons and working on my promotion packet at drill and I also found a bit more information on my deployment.  I found out my school dates for my job reclassification and I also found out which unit I am going with.  However, nobody knows for sure where this unit is.  I have been given 5 or 6 different cities where this unit is.  I also got my orders for my SRP (Solider Readiness Process), which is in three weeks.  For those who do not know what an SRP is, it’s a week long 11+ hour days of doing paper work, getting shots, and equipment.  We need to make sure we have our will’s and power of attorneys are in order, are pay in straight, and all other necessary paper work.  Every solider who is going to deploy has to go through this lovely experience.

This morning I was doing research for things that I may need while deployed (items that the Army does not issue) and I realized that I will have no need to buy any regular clothes at least for a year.  Plus I have all my stuff (tools, my mountain bike L, paintball gun) at home that won’t be used for over a year and I need to figure out what I’m going to do with it.  By the way, for those who come across this if you’ve been deployed before your suggestions for things to bring to Iraq would be greatly appreciated.

Some other news, Friday night we got a dog and no I did nothing to persuade Jen into it.  We’re not sure what he is and either does the adaptation agency.  We think he has yellow lab and basenji, which is kinda like dingo.  Looking at the picture he really does look like a dingo or basenji.  He has really taken to Jen and as for me he’s scared.  We believe that whoever owned him before that a man used to hit him, whenever I try to pet him he cowers.  He’s about 2 years old and is very friendly not a mean bone in his body.  The cats get along with him fine mainly because he’s afraid of them.

That’s all for now.

Real Quick

Nothing real long here I’m really sick.  Went to the doctor this evening and I have Type A Flu….oh joy.  Just wanted to let you know that it is official.  I’m no longer a member of the Army Reserves and I am now a member of the National Guard.  I’ve attached a picture of me after being sworn in, sorry they do not allow cameras during the ceremony.

 By the Colors.

Following Up

I guess I should have followed up my statement of how I would have done things differently in my previous post. More than likely served my time overseas either in Iraq or Afghanistan and I would have taken advantage overall of the opportunities I had. In regards to the Reserves I don’t know how I could have done things differently. I went into it thinking I would be doing all this great stuff, but that was not the case as explained in my last post. I can only do so much when I’m limited to one unit within traveling distance and openings. April 24th, 2008 my contract will be up and I will be out of the Army totally. Jen and I have talked about me re-enlisting, but if I were to re-enlist it would not be into the Army. More than likely it would either be the Air-Force or the Navy. At the same time I don’t think I could leave Jen back home by herself because more than likely I would be deployed. What I am learning through marriage is that less and less I can no longer only think about myself, but I need to think about my wife as well.

Thanks to Jen she was able to get a picture to me of the problem with the formatting.  I never saw the problem because I avoid Internet Explorer like the plague and I’m assuming the ones who are seeing problems are using Internet Explorer.  I use Firefox and the formatting was always correct for me.  I’ll be sure to check the formatting from now on.

Got another e-mail from Chip today:

Hello everyone, another update from Afghanistan.  My time is getting short so I want to thank all of you for your support and I am asking that no more packages be sent because I might not get them.  We only got 6 mail flights in Jan. due to the extreme winter weather and so far in Feb. we have received 3.  We went out on another HA mission today.  I am at the point in my deployment I get to pick and chose which missions I go on and I get to assign the others.  I did not go out on today’s but I should have.   It was winter emergency relief aid to 10 villages and we were to take it to the soccer stadium and distribute it there.  When the team got to the stadium there was a huge crowd waiting for them and they rushed the 7 and half ton truck full of the supplies.   The Afghan soldiers tried to cordon off the truck, then shouted at the people and then tried to threaten them with their weapons and bayonets.  None of this frightened the people and they got on the truck and started throwing things off to the crowd.  My mission commander I assigned to this mission told me it was a mess.  The ANA soldiers did manage to rescue 2 bundles of blankets and bring them back to me.  Why should I have gone.  Experience.  With close to 100 HA combat missions under my belt I would have told the convoy to keep going and park a half mile down the road and send the Afghan Col. back in a truck to speak to the village elders and set up a 2nd drop zone away from the crowd.  We were lucky no one got hurt today.  The team I sent had some rookies but the team leader was a veteran of HA missions.  This shows we can all make mistakes in judgement from me on down.  This will also a good learning tool to use for future missions.  I have to send these people out as training because I won’t be here in another couple of months to continue to run these missions.  I have started to pass the baton over to the next group.   The last 3 weeks of my time deployed will be flying, turning in gear, and demobing.  In case you are wondering I had to learn the hard way too. I was on a HA mission when a crowd overwhelmed the Afghan soldiers and went for the truck.  We managed to get the truck moved before they got on the truck.  So far 90%  of all the HA missions end in success.

Behave

It All Makes Sense

Every now and then the news will report a positive story out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but most of the time it’s something negative.  My father in-law for some time now has been sending me e-mails of a friend of his who is in Afghanistan with the National Guard.  It’s really good stuff to read about the positive stuff.  You know what, in the year or so I have been receiving the letters I can’t recall one of them being negative…interesting.

Hi everyone, I did a Humanitarian mission to downtown Herat to the Deaf Center today.   I was pretty good.  They are teaching the deaf Dari and English, math, carpentry, seamstress, have an art school and computer classes for the Deaf kids.  I talked to the director and he was deaf.  It went like this.  I talked to my interpreter who talked to the technical director who signed to the director who signed back to the technical director who talked to my interpreter who then spoke to me.  They were excited to see us and the kids wanted to show us there skills in English and math.  They wrote things on the chalk boards in English and then did math problems in English.  They showed us their carpentry shop, seamstress shop, computer lab, and their art school.   It was pretty fabulous.  The disabled ctr, blind ctr, and the deaf ctr have hardly any money coming in and I look at what they are accomplishing and it puts our systems to shame.  Yes I am going to help them with some aid.  I am in the process of getting it together.  Missions like these make it all worthwhile.   In the deaf ctr the women are more women working there and this ctr has 5 stated goals.  I will be writing an article on the deaf ctr this week.   Well that is all for now.

Behave and I will try.

It dawned on me this morning as I was reading this.  Most of you who read my blog are aware of my attitude towards enlisting into the Army Reserve.  It all make perfect sense now, my attitude isn’t anything against the war or the people I served with, it was because when I went to weekend drill I taught myself how to pick desk locks with a paperclip, I sat in on a lot of useless meetings that had absolutely nothing to do with anything, oh and I cannot forget the numerous formations to wait around for who knows what.  I never did anything like the stuff Chip talks about during my drill weekends…heck I didn’t even do any type of training.  The most training I did was in basic and that was almost 8 years ago.  We rarely went to the firing range and when we did I spent more time sitting waiting to fire then actually firing.  I think back on my deployment and It stunk being away from my family, but I think if I had a second chance I would have done it differently.

As I get more e-mails from Chip I will keep posting them for you to read.