Update from the Field

I'ts been two days out in the field, I'm pretty tired. We've slept 4-5 hours per night, training from 5am to 10pm. We've had weapons training - M16, .50cal, Mk-19, M249, M9 and M4; MOUT and combatives. I'll explain more later, I only have a few minutes now. I also have pictures.

We did some sparring during combatives training last night, I'm pretty sore all over. It's a total physical effort, trying to subdue another person. Two of the guys I was up against outweighed me, one by 40 pounds and one by 60. Throwing around that much weight is not easy. Think of UFC without the punching and kicking.

That's it, I'm going to bed.

ANCOC

The Advanced Non-Commissioned Officer Course at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Or ANCOC at APG, MD. I'm in the middle of the first week of the two-week course.

I am a Sergeant First Class, and this class is intended to make sure all Soldiers at my rank and in my MOS (military occupational specialty), are trained in the same areas and are proficient at our jobs.

I'm a mechanic and at my rank basically I'm in charge of a motor pool and a platoon of mechanics, usually 30 soldiers. I'm responsible for keeping the equipment up and running, scheduling preventive maintenance and keeping my troops trained and ready for the next deployment, when and if it comes.

So this week we have been getting lots of really boring, but necessary, training in logistics management and personnel management. Basically how to order parts for the equipment and how to deal with problem Soldiers.

Next week will be more fun. We will be taking training in Combatives, or hand-to-hand combat. If I make it through the course and pass all the tests I will be certified to teach Level 1 Combatives.

I had some hand-to-hand training over the years that I wasn't very impressed with. This is a new program the Army has adopted in the last two or three years, and it's supposed to be pretty good. I think the Marine Corps is using a similar program.

I'll post when I can.

HERE is a link to the Army combatives manual.

Traveling in Uniform

I'm sitting in the USO at the Baltimore/Washington Airport, waiting for a van to come that will take me to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. I'm going to a two-week leadership school called the Advanced Non-Commissioned Officer Course.

The new rule in the Army is that when you are traveling on official orders, you must travel in uniform. So I spent the day in the Denver Airport, on the flight over here and now am sitting in the USO, in uniform. Used to be that you could not travel in uniform. I don't mind being in uniform, it is a bit like being under a microscope all the time though. But it's fun when the little kids see you and do a dead stop. "Daddy, LOOK!" It's cute.

While I was standing in line for a sub at the Denver Airport, a guy came up and asked if he could buy my lunch. I thought that was pretty cool. Then on the flight another guy offered to buy me a drink. If I drank, I would have taken it.

I sat for almost an hour talking to the lady in the seat next to mine about Iraq and what the media is not telling everyone. She said I should write a book. Maybe I will.

This seems like a hub for people coming from and going to theater. There are a bunch of Air Force people here. Judging from how clean their duffle bags are, I'd say they are getting ready to go over.

Well, looks like it's time to go. If I have internet access at the NCO Academy, I will write more while I'm in school. If not, see you in two weeks.

Another watch post

No politics this time.

I hesitate most of the time to post things that are very personal. I worry a little about having so much info about me out on the net. That's why you never read about my kids or anything very sensitive here. But after hanging around for a while on the couple of forums that I read, I realize that I'm not the only insane person posting stuff on the net. Actually, by comparison, I look pretty normal.

So I will go into the latest chapter in my search for the perfect watch. I took my blue "Bond" Omega Seamaster back to the dealer and traded it. So I traded this:


for this:



This is the insane part: I spent days agonizing over this. You would think choosing a watch would be pretty much a cut and dried issue. Find one you like and buy it. But for me it's different. Read this post first, to give you an idea what I mean. And this for part two of the story.

But here is the rationalization that I came up with for all this angst. (Really it's only a rationalization too, after all it IS just a watch...)

I started out looking for the ONE watch that could do everything. I was looking for a watch I could wear everyday for everything: sports, dress, going to the field or back to Iraq. I, of course, found out that this watch doesn't exist.

A couple of things bothered me about the blue Seamaster. I didn't like the hands, they look a little cheap to me, plus they don't show up at all in the dark. I didn't like the bracelet that came with it either. But the main thing is that I looked at this watch and I saw a businessman's watch. Not a Soldier's watch. So I traded it for the black Seamaster.

So here is my solution to the watch dilemma. The Seamaster for just about everything, a cheap digital for running, a Suunto Vector for hiking and in the field or on a deployment (along with the Seamaster), and this watch for dress:



A gift from my lovely wife.

Hopefully this solution will last.

Waiting for the wave

I just got through reading another story about Post-traumatic stress disorder. This one was about how homeless advocates are awaiting the next wave of homeless vets. "It's just a trickle now but the wave is coming," said one.

I've written other posts about this idea of servicemembers as victims. I read these stories all the time about the poor, victims of this war. There have been in the neighborhood of a half-million people deployed to the theater, more if you include Afghanistan.

Why can't the people who came home and continued on with their lives without a lot of drama be featured in a newspaper or magazine article? There are way more of us than there are of the PTSD sufferers. I had a little trouble when I came back adjusting to a "normal," civilian style life again. I jumped a bit at sudden noises, a pile of junk on the side of the highway made me break into a cold sweat and had my heart racing for a while. The biggest adjustment was just working myself up to care about anything at work that wasn't life or death. "You want me to care about this spreadsheet?" It didn't seem to matter after going on and sending Soldiers out on convoys for a year.

I wasn't a direct combat troop, so my experience can't be compared to someone who was. And I'm not saying that there aren't men and women out there who have real problems. There are and they need to be taken care of and their stories need to be told. But there are many, many more support troops than there are combat arms troops. Most of us come home and get on with life. Where are our stories?

All I'm saying is if you don't know any Soldiers, and your only knowledge of this war comes from media coverage; you are getting a very distorted picture of the situation.

When I look at coverage of the war, my impression is that all the troops over there are under a constant barrage of mortar and sniper fire, that every platoon loses three or four soldiers during their tour, and that every Soldier comes back either wounded or mentally screwed up for life.

Believe me, that's not the case.

I also keep reading about Reservists on their third or fourth tours in Iraq. I'm an Active Guard and Reserve Soldier. That means I'm on Active Duty but I support a Reserve unit. I know for a fact that very, very few Reserve Soldiers have done more than one involuntary tour in Iraq. That may change, but I'll tell you that the unit I deployed with in 2003/04 has not returned again and none of the Soldiers in that unit have been involuntarily sent back. The unit I am currently assigned to was deployed during the same time and none of the Soldiers have been involuntarily sent back. I know Soldiers from all across the country and the situation is the same.

Many, many Reservists have gone back for second and third tours voluntarily, but that's their decision.

I hate to say it but I get the impression that there are people out there who can't wait for the "wave" of homeless vets to hit the streets.