Well folks week one of training at FT Jackson is complete and to celebrate I have just coated my back and shoulders the best I could in Icy Hot. The first week was all about weapons and gear immersion. The first step is just getting used to the gear. In Iraq when you leave the fence line (the base) one must carry approximately 70 pounds of gear. For me it includes the following:
- Interceptor Body Armor complete with front, back, sides, shoulders and my favorite groin protector
- Kevlar Helmet
- M-16 Rifle and bullets
- M-9 Pistol and bullets
- First Aid Kit
So to get us used to it we wore it pretty much everywhere. All of which as you can imagine has done wonders for my back and shoulders.
Our days activities this week can be summed up in pretty much one word shooting. This week we shot, than we shot and to add a cherry on top of it we shot. We shot the M9 and the M16. We shot standing. We shot kneeling. We shot laying down in the prone position. On Saturday we got a break and had some classroom instruction in first aid and to kick off the class on a high not we watched videos of people getting shot.
At night there isn't much to do at night in hotel FT Jackson. We are living in open bay barracks, which is one rack next to the other down the line. Our barracks has two rooms and lucky for me I'm in the smaller of the two. I only have 5 roommates. When I arrived I picked the rack next to the Air Conditioner, which is usually a good call, however South Carolina is currently undergoing a cold streak and the Air Conditioner refuses to go off and has one setting, icebox. As I type this it is becoming more and more likely I will start a small fire in the garbage can for warmth. The showers are set up as open gang shower. Its amazing how similar this place is to being in prison. The warmest the water gets is luke warm unless someone flushes a toilet any where within I believe 15 miles of this place than the water slows down just a little bit for any where from half a second to a minute at which point in time it miraculously shoots out scalding hot water. Which helps keep us on our feet.
All of my roommates are deploying to Iraq for varies periods of service. I will be going for the shortest amount of time so its hard for me to bitch ... but don't worry I still do. One of my roommates Mike just found out that his wife is pregnant. He is scheduled to be deployed for approximately 7 months if you add the usual extension and well he should make it back in time for the birth, hopefully.
As you can imagine the recent events in Iraq (the resurgence of activity by Al-Sadr's militia) has brought up a lot of short conversations. To be blunt, I don't think its doing a lot to help ease our anxiety about the upcoming mission. Two of the people in the room still don't know where they are going in Iraq and could thus could possibly be going directly to the hot spots. Thankfully all Iraq conversations are cut short and generally end with one of us referring to another as a homosexual or they just claim other enjoys performing the act.
Military members are a lot like Eagles fans when in doubt just call someone gay.
Anyway thats the short recap, I am looking forward to enjoying the day off and my only plans are to not put any stress on my back.
As always more updates about this fun journey to follow.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The journey begins
For those of you who don't know I am deploying to Iraq. So to be able to keep in touch with everyone and to document this experience I created a blog.
In an effort to help out our countries fight against terrorism and because of the spirit of patriotism that burns inside them our fine Admirals in the United States Navy looked into their hearts and figured out the quickest way to get a promotion would be to volunteer to send others to war. So the Navy set up the Individual Augment Program (IA) for short; the basic of the program is that after a quick training process we would be able to go off and join the Army forward deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar and Djibouti. To simplify the Navy is whoring me out to the Army and unlike a good pimp the Navy isn't even giving me the courtesy of a crack addiction.
To make it worse I am going to the Army Corps of Engineers who had a General in need of promotion so he decided to augment some of his folks to the State Department. Problem was he had no people left to augment but lucky for him (and yes I assume its a man not because I'm sexist but everyone knows women can't be flag officers) he knew an Admiral in need of promotion. So I am being augmented to be augmented and yes that's good for the moral. So to sum it up as so far I was whored out to the Army, which I believe sold me to the State department for two packs and an old Playboy. So that translates to me going to Iraq to lead a reconstruction office in Northern Iraq. Yeah what fun.
Which leads us to today; I am working through step two of the three step process. Although they have had five years to perfect it the Navy still has not gotten the augment process down. Perhaps if McCain is elected president and we have another five years of war they will be able to smooth out the kinks maybe. The first step to process was at the Navy Mobilization Processing Site (NMPS), which lasts one week. The Navy has four centers spread throughout the country so the Navy with its keen business scents sent me to the most cost effective location, San Diego. Its one fun filled week of standing in one line just so we can go stand in another line, it's the military version of Disneyland. The highlight is when we get to see the "provider" Navy slang for an 18 year old kid who has the same intense medical training as a lifeguard. The provider decided if you were fit to deploy. So naturally being the coward that I am when it was time for me to see the provider I claimed I had every medical condition I heard of on television. After he gave a courtesy glance at my medical record he smiled and said, "Let's get you into a uniform." So after I got into a new uniform it was on to FT Jackson for phase two basic combat training.
The whole time we were at NMPS we were told over and over again, "The war begins the second your foot touches the ground at FT Jackson. You hit the ground running." Well when my foot hit FT Jackson on Saturday and my "war" began I was greeted to a pleasant briefing given my barracks assignment and than proceeded to drink a lot of beer. After two days of this when I was just starting to get used to that type of "war." the fun began. FT Jackson is a basic training camp so we have drill instructors teaching us. The problem with that is a drill instructor only knows how to teach one thing, 18 year old recruits. The training is dumbed down to the level of an 18 year old high school drop out. To say the least the instruction is basic; here is an example of a lesson we had on the M16 A2 rife. Our drill instructor got up in front of the whole class pointed to the end of the rifle and said, "You see this here whole. Out of this whole comes the bullet. The bullet travels fast you see. It will hurt or kill anything that gets in the way. So if I see you put your hand over the whole I will smack ya. If I see a put it on your foot I will take that rifle from ya and butt stroke ya. AND IF ya put it near ya head I will tie ya to my truck and drag you across the street. " As you can tell by the example they also threaten us with physical harm.
So thats were I stand. More to follow. Maybe even with pictures but I make no promises.
In an effort to help out our countries fight against terrorism and because of the spirit of patriotism that burns inside them our fine Admirals in the United States Navy looked into their hearts and figured out the quickest way to get a promotion would be to volunteer to send others to war. So the Navy set up the Individual Augment Program (IA) for short; the basic of the program is that after a quick training process we would be able to go off and join the Army forward deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar and Djibouti. To simplify the Navy is whoring me out to the Army and unlike a good pimp the Navy isn't even giving me the courtesy of a crack addiction.
To make it worse I am going to the Army Corps of Engineers who had a General in need of promotion so he decided to augment some of his folks to the State Department. Problem was he had no people left to augment but lucky for him (and yes I assume its a man not because I'm sexist but everyone knows women can't be flag officers) he knew an Admiral in need of promotion. So I am being augmented to be augmented and yes that's good for the moral. So to sum it up as so far I was whored out to the Army, which I believe sold me to the State department for two packs and an old Playboy. So that translates to me going to Iraq to lead a reconstruction office in Northern Iraq. Yeah what fun.
Which leads us to today; I am working through step two of the three step process. Although they have had five years to perfect it the Navy still has not gotten the augment process down. Perhaps if McCain is elected president and we have another five years of war they will be able to smooth out the kinks maybe. The first step to process was at the Navy Mobilization Processing Site (NMPS), which lasts one week. The Navy has four centers spread throughout the country so the Navy with its keen business scents sent me to the most cost effective location, San Diego. Its one fun filled week of standing in one line just so we can go stand in another line, it's the military version of Disneyland. The highlight is when we get to see the "provider" Navy slang for an 18 year old kid who has the same intense medical training as a lifeguard. The provider decided if you were fit to deploy. So naturally being the coward that I am when it was time for me to see the provider I claimed I had every medical condition I heard of on television. After he gave a courtesy glance at my medical record he smiled and said, "Let's get you into a uniform." So after I got into a new uniform it was on to FT Jackson for phase two basic combat training.
The whole time we were at NMPS we were told over and over again, "The war begins the second your foot touches the ground at FT Jackson. You hit the ground running." Well when my foot hit FT Jackson on Saturday and my "war" began I was greeted to a pleasant briefing given my barracks assignment and than proceeded to drink a lot of beer. After two days of this when I was just starting to get used to that type of "war." the fun began. FT Jackson is a basic training camp so we have drill instructors teaching us. The problem with that is a drill instructor only knows how to teach one thing, 18 year old recruits. The training is dumbed down to the level of an 18 year old high school drop out. To say the least the instruction is basic; here is an example of a lesson we had on the M16 A2 rife. Our drill instructor got up in front of the whole class pointed to the end of the rifle and said, "You see this here whole. Out of this whole comes the bullet. The bullet travels fast you see. It will hurt or kill anything that gets in the way. So if I see you put your hand over the whole I will smack ya. If I see a put it on your foot I will take that rifle from ya and butt stroke ya. AND IF ya put it near ya head I will tie ya to my truck and drag you across the street. " As you can tell by the example they also threaten us with physical harm.
So thats were I stand. More to follow. Maybe even with pictures but I make no promises.
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