Another Update

So its been a bit since I put anything down here.  We've been out in the field for a while and without internet, and I wasn't quite ready to try updating the blog from my cell phone. Right then...on to the blog

So after my last blog we went to one of the training sites off main Camp Atterbury, Muscatatuck Urban Training Site...which is a former mental hospital.  Seemed fitting with the makeup of our Battery.  Supposedly the place is haunted, and a bunch of the guys spent all their free time trying to play ghost hunter (In an unrelated note, the TV show Ghost Hunters filmed an episode there a while back) and failing.  While we were there, we sat through more classes on the language and culture of the area of Afghanistan we're being sent to.  In the three days of language classes, I was able to learn the VERY basics of Dari, namely basic conversation skills, essential phrases (ie stop, hands up, dont shoot, I need to search you, etc.), and of course the ability to insult the guys at a third grade level.  We also got some hands on time with some old Soviet/Russian artillery pieces we might end up seeing overseas, and being the gun bunnies we are, figured out how to work them in a matter of minutes.

The last day or so there was spent running real world training on how to deal with the Afghan people and interpreters.  That was pretty fun, because we got to actually do something for real, not just in a classroom setting.  Once that training finished we came back to our barracks and crashed for the night.  The next day we were back out training on how to deal with IED's again...this time in vehicles.  Lots of common sense stuff, as well as stuff you have to be taught to look for. (Not gonna go into detail because honestly its always changing, as well as being kinda hush-hush).  After a LONG day there we came back to the barracks and repacked for a 48 hour field exercise on defending a base.  More classes there, as well as simulated attacks from insurgents and the like.  Came back from there and crashed....again.

Had another day or so to rest and then went BACK out to the field for gunnery training on the vehicles.  This mostly involves driving down a road on the range and the TC (truck commander) and Gunner identifying and engaging targets...as a driver I didn't do very much.  In fact I didn't do anything, I missed a class one day and ended up having to ride in back and hand ammo up to the gunner.  Yesterday instead of sitting in the back seat I was put on range gate duty...pretty much I sat in a Humvee at the gate to the impact area and stopped people from going through.

What I was looking at all day

Yours truly on guard duty...thats me, 4 layers of clothing, and body armor.

At the end of the day there, I was getting out of my ride back to the tent when I slipped and fell.  On the way down, my ankle folded under me and I felt and heard a pop.  Ended up having to go to the ER and have x-rays done on my foot.  When all was said and done it ended up being a very severe sprain, and I'm currently stuck on bedrest for the next 3 days as well as being on painkillers cause it HURTS.  I've got crutches and an air cast as well but I'm not planning on putting much weight, if any, on the ankle for a while.

We're starting to pack everything up to head off to our next training site within the next week or so.  I'll let you know how that turns out when we get there...I'll probably be blogging from my phone so things will be pretty short.  Feel free to leave comments here as well, they'll be emailed to me and from there sent to my phone, so I'll be able to respond.  Gotta love having a Droid...I can do just about everything on it.

Sharpshooter!!

Sorry for not updating the last few days.  I've been a little busy/broken, plus the internet here hasn't been working all that well.

Went back out to the range today to finish zeroing/qualifying with my M4.  Got there before the range was even set up for the day, so we sat around for a while doing nothing (hurry up and wait much?).  Finally got onto the range and zeroed my iron sights in about 18 rounds...spot on.  Moved to my CCO(fancy red-dot optic) and took another 21 or so rounds to get that right, mostly because it was my first time shooting with it, other than a familiarization back in March or April.  So once I finished that the group of us from my unit walked over to the qualifying range...which was a bit of a shit-show.  They only had 6 lanes running at a time, which meant we had to sit and wait again to get out there.  The warming tent was up and running but it was so warm in there the ground around it was that deep, sticky mud that its hard to walk through.

Once I got out onto the range with my coach for the day things went great.  Last time I qualified I shot a 23 out of 40...the minimum.  Today was a little different.  The range was clear, no trees or stumps blocking targets, and the targets worked well (mostly).  The NCO running the range was outstanding, he walked us through which targets belonged to which lane, which ones didn't always drop down after you hit them, and which lanes were doing well that day.

I got to my firing point and got comfortable in the position.  Shooting block just right...legs comfortable...rifle tight to my shoulder...optic just bright enough to see but dim enough that the dot didn't wash out the target.  When you qualify you fire 40 rounds total, hypothetically 1 per target...20 on the ground with the rifle supported by the block (prone supported), 10 more on the ground with you supporting the rifle (prone unsupported), and 10 kneeling.  Out of those 40 targets I hit 31!!!!  Best I've ever done.

After I received my score from the range officer, I moved back to the zero range to do NBC qualification.  That's when you fire at a pop up target 50 meters away while wearing your gas mask.  You've got 20 rounds and you need to hit 11.  Not too hard...get it sighted up and hold it there...wait for it to pop up and shoot.  Right now I'm waiting to head out again for the night fire...same kind of thing, just at night (no gas mask though).

After that the 3 of us at the range are going to meet up with the rest of the unit at a field training sight where we're going to be spending the next 4 days or so.  Once we're back from that we move out to a 2 day field exercise so it might be a while before I get a chance to post again.

Range Time

Yesterday was a range day.  We sent guys to a bunch of different firing ranges....I went to the M4 range to re-zero and test.  Zeroing is a slightly complicated process by which we set our weapon to ourselves, this way when we qualify and go out overseas, we can just aim and squeeze.  It was a pretty cold day out that morning so we all bundled up....multiple layers...hand warmers...extra water...oh and our body armor and weapons (can't forget those).


We got there pretty early (0730) and proceeded to start a fire in the barrel next to the bleachers to keep warm.

We ended up with a nice warm fire....and 30 soldiers all trying to crowd around it.  They grabbed the first group of us to head out a little later and we got to our firing points, got our ammo and magazines for the day, and settled in for a very monotonous day.  When you zero a weapon, you start by taking the weapon as is and firing 3 or 6 rounds (depends on the preference of the NCO in charge) downrange at a target 25 meters away.  This is the target you're shooting at

 

You look at where those rounds hit, and the paper tells you how to change your sights to get closer to the center of the paper where you're aiming.  Once you make adjustments you continue to fire in 3 round groups, each time making adjustments as needed until you get 5 CONSECUTIVE (thats important) rounds into that circle.  You have to do that for your iron sights (built onto the weapon) and your optics (fancy red dot sight).  Once you do that for both sights, your weapon is set...usually after you zero you qualify....we didn't all get a chance to do that.  There were 60 of us in the first round of zeroing...and another 60 in the second.  Firing 3 rounds every 5-10 minutes, checking your target, making adjustments to your weapon, and firing again takes a LOT of time to zero both sights.

A few of us had medical appointments, so we didn't get a chance to do much other than zero, test it quickly, and then stand around waiting to see if we could get back on the range before we had to leave.  After that I spent the afternoon doing the doctor visits and cleaning my weapon.  Today was more time on the heavy weapons for those who didn't get a chance to the other day, so my day was spent packing my things for our few days in the field and watching movies.

Time for another example of the Army and their "interesting" ways of doing things.  We aren't going to be overseas for another few months, yet we still had to pack away about half of our stuff today into our footlockers and put it into a connex box (metal shipping container) to meet us overseas....a month after we get there.  Go figure.

More Boring Life

Well we've finally finished all our medical and personnel processing. Spent a whole day...started at 0600 Sunday with the urinalysis. Why someone feels the need to give a 10 minute briefing on how to properly piss into a cup while all of us are sitting there with our back teeth about to float away is beyond me.

From there we went in groups to Medical. Physical exams, hearing tests, vision exams...the whole shebang. Got the optometry tech to refer me to the doc...ended up with a new prescription. Should get those in a week or so. After that we went to the next building and got all of our shots...and I mean ALL of them. I left with a total of 9 plus my PPD (TB) test. Anthrax (that's a gel, you have to massage the injection site daily or it'll harden), Hep A/B, H1N1, plus a few others I can't remember. Not everyone got their smallpox vaccine....that'll come later in the week. Met with yet ANOTHER shrink about my mental health (maybe that's a sign). Finally finished that part at 1400...that's right, it took 8 HOURS to finish medical. Must have been all the lines.

After a break for a crappy bagged lunch, we moved onto paperwork. Met with a personnel specialist and went over all my forms, someone from the finance office to make sure I'm getting paid properly, and a sit down with the chaplain to talk about the next year. That part was probably the best of the day...because it took about 5 minutes. It also didn't help that I asked to speak to one of them outside of the readiness processing. Once I finished with the chaplain, I met with someone about my clearance, had my pictures taken for the recovery database (don't ask) and finally turned my records in at 1850....rushed over to get chow before the chow hall closed and finally got back to the barracks and crashed.

The last few days have been spent unloading stuff from our trailers...getting new gear from supply....running battle drills with our squads...sending individual people off to the firing ranges...the big training should start soon. Or at least I hope...I'm running out of movies to watch.

Day 3 down

So today is almost done. Had our dental processing first thing this morning. Sat in the chair...talked to the doc...had my papers stamped and left. Moved on to the Behavioral Health section. Spent an hour and a half sitting waiting to speak to the shrink, then took a baseline TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) test. They tested my reaction times, memory, and reasoning skills...which involved sitting in front of a computer screen for an hour clicking on stuff on the screen.

We've had a lot of downtime lately. Lots of movies being watched...naps being taken...books being read. I've spent a lot of my time just walking around the post and thinking.

There are some pretty,shall we say interesting rules around post. One of them is that if you are walking outside after dusk or in inclement weather, you need to be wearing a reflective belt or vest. What surprises me is that overcast skies and very light snow flurries is considered inclement. The logic is that a driver cant see you if you're walking on the sidewalk. Now I can look down the street from my barracks in this type of weather and see the gym at the end of the road...a good 200 meters down. In fact I can see past that to soldiers walking the path from the PX back to the cantonment area (where all the barracks are). Why I would need to wear the belt when theres good enough light that we can shut the overhead lights off in the barracks and still have enough light to see what we're doing. I understand the safety aspect but its rules like this that make us soldiers bitch and moan about things.

Looking forward at our schedule, I may not be able to blog every day once we get into the actual training. I'm trying to set up my blog to accept updates from my phone so that once we get to our next training post, if there's no internet, I'll be able to keep you all updated.

Another day....and more briefings

Home sweet home....

Today was a death by Powerpoint day. 4 hours spent sitting in an overcrowded auditorium listening to the same sorta briefings we've been getting for the last 8 months. Tricare...VA benefits...JAG...Post Orientation...the usual stuff. I got kinda scared when they started the briefing on our smallpox vaccine and the room got deathly silent. All the things that can go wrong...and if it doesn't react the way they want then you have to get it again....scary. After that was done, we headed back to our barracks area for chow and then sat through our first hush-hush, classified, "tell you but I'd have to kill you" briefing. That killed another 4 hours after chow, but the worst part about that was the fact that chow tonight was hot dogs, with beans, fries and chili.....the room REEKED!!

Speaking of that...the food here is pretty decent. Much better than we had down at JRTC and better than what we usually have down on Cape Cod. The barracks we're living in are ok...open squad bays (2 squads per bay) and a communal latrine. I lucked out with a bottom bunk.

Right now we're all relaxing in the barracks after moving all our weapons from the connex shipping container into the supply room. Tomorrow we start the medical and dental portions of the processing...expect long lines, boredom, and another long freaking day.

Start of Mob Station

Well the deployment has begun. Left the unit...lots of tears..nice flight down. Started to snow last night so we're wandering around the post here in nice powdery snow.

Today was mostly a "get yourself situated" day. Trips back and forth to the PX and unpacking. From what I've seen of Atterbury its not too bad. Squad's gonna go to the gym in a few so I'll post more when I get back.