Pogue

He's baaack...

2009-03-20T20:06:00.002-07:00

We're getting ready for the next deployment - to make things a little easier I'm opening a new blog here.

MOS Qualified

2008-09-01T16:55:00.004-07:00

I'm now officially a UH-60 Blackhawk Repairer, MOS 15T. It's nice to be back home, and now I can start on my aircrew qualifications, not to mention continuing on my civilian flight instructor certification. It's going to be a busy year...

Training Update

2008-07-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm way over due on updating this, so here's some random thoughts on my field trip to Ft Eustis. The post is not very large, and in addition to housing the bulk of the Army's aviation maintenance training is the home of Transportation. Being big into training the command is a little more, shall we say nit-picky (another term comes to mind) than most places but even at that it's not bad for a visit. As an NCO I was billeted off post at a local hotel since there's something of a housing shortage so I certainly can't complain about the living conditions! We report each day to "H" Company for accountability and PT each weekday morning at 5:50 am. Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays we normally do a 3 mile run, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for strength training. As with most Army installations - even those down range - there's an excellent gym available. This being an active Army base I was a little concerned about keeping up with PT, but I'm happy to say that while I'll never be a PT stud my scores are decent and I'm running with soldiers half my age. Passing the PT test is a requirement for graduating from any of the MOS schools so "H" Company does everything possible to ensure that everyone is ready to pass when the test comes around. After PT we're released to shower and get ready for class. I usually eat in the Dining Facility for breakfast and lunch, and the food is pretty good although the menu is somewhat monotonous.
Class typically starts at 9:00. Our class has 9 Army and 9 Air Force students, 4 of which are already qualified in an MOS and are considered prior service. The remainder are right out of basic training and are still kept under pretty tight control by their Platoon Sergeants. They are allowed out on weekends, but for the most part they still have to march any where they go and are subject to basic training discipline. Our instructors are a combination of active duty Army and Air Force as well as civilian contractors who are generally retired military. Initially we spent most of our time in the classroom which was important but somewhat tedious while we learned the Army documentation process and how to navigate the technical manuals. Fortunately once past the first couple of weeks of the course most of our time is out working either on trainers for simple components like landing gear or real UH-60 helicopters. The course is broken into phases so we are usually tested about once a week. The tests have both written and practical components, and are timed. As we've progressed the systems get more complicated so the bar is raised each week.
We generally get weekends off except for the occasional duty assignment, so we have the chance to unwind. In my case I try to get over to Hampton Roads Helicopter on Saturdays and get a little flying in so I don't forget everything I've learned so far at Quantum... That leaves the rest of the weekend to take care of laundry, shopping, and usually a little walk to stretch out. That pretty much covers the routine here and I have to say time is really flying by.

A bleg

2008-06-20T15:54:00.003-07:00

Last month Army Girl received a phone call - not the worst you can get, but a pretty rough one none the less. She's been working to help her soldier and his wife while they're at Walter Reed. Please check out her site if you can help, or you click on the image above this post if you care to donate to the couple.

A What-zit?

2008-06-08T14:45:00.002-07:00

This is revenge for John's 347 gotcha...

Memorial Day, 2008

2008-05-23T15:00:00.003-07:00

Donald Layman
Darrel Kasson
Charles Browning

A New Chapter

2008-05-03T19:51:00.003-07:00

It's been in the works for a while, but things have finally come together with my new assignment with the Guard. As I've mentioned in previous posts I've been working to get into the Aviation branch since Arizona is decommissioning the Field Artillery Brigade. My preference has been to get a Blackhawk Repairer position (MOS 15T) which is a flying assignment as a crew chief. For the past several months I've been working on getting waivers taken care of, my flight physical and getting a school scheduled while finishing my phase 1 BNCOC course. This weekend I'm drilling for the first time with the new unit, and next week I drive out to Ft Eustis, Virginia for a four month training school. Once I get back I'll start doing the unit level training to become fully qualified.
So I'll be taking a break from work and from my Flight Instructor training, but I think it will be worth it in the long run!

No news is no news

2008-03-16T12:24:00.004-07:00

Obviously it's been a while since I updated this blog, and since my reader is due to check in sometime in the next couple months I thought I'd correct the situation. On the National Guard front progress is slow but sure - I have one more weekend drill for BNCOC which has proven to be something of a disappointment after WLC. Alpha Battery is winding down and I should be checking out of the unit next month. It's been a great unit and I'm going to miss it, but there's no sense in dwelling on it. The move to aviation is exciting, and my new readiness NCO has been working to get all the appropriate ducks lined up for me. I'm scheduled for the Blackhawk Repairers Course at Ft Eustis, Virginia from May through August after which I'll have a new MOS. I also need to get a fight physical for the Army this month.
One the flying front once I completed my Commercial license I've had to wait for an instructor to start my Certified Flight Instructor training. Three of us did about a month of ground training with the lead instructor, and a slot finally opened up so I've been flying from the left seat and working on my fundamentals of instruction. While I'm making progress I doubt I'll finish before heading off to Virginia, so I'll have some catching up to do when I get back. That's OK, it's all flying. It looks like there's a place near Ft Eustis that flies S300's so maybe I can get a little time in them while I'm there.

Is the ground supposed to be up there?

2007-12-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's something of a truism that a professional helicopter pilot strives to make the ride as smooth and unexciting for his or her passengers as possible. I suspect that's a true statement throughout aviation. Interestingly enough it also applies to some types of flying that it would seem incompatible with. Having just received my commercial helicopter license I decided to do something a little different to celebrate. Enter a gentleman of my acquaintance - Jon Melby of Jon Melby Airshows. In addition to performing at air shows around the country Jon takes people up for an introduction to aerobatics.
So on a beautiful Saturday morning I find myself over on the fixed wing side of the airport getting a safety brief on the Extra 300L we'll be flying. Lex, trust me, you want one of these! At 2095 pounds and three hundred horsepower it looks to be a pretty frisky airplane. A closer look at the specs tells me it's certified as a sport, performance and unlimited category aerobatic aircraft, has a roll rate of 360 degrees per second and is rated for +/- 10 g's. Hmmm, we're not flying Southwest here. Jon gives me an intro to the aircraft and emergency procedures, how to use the parachute if necessary, and just what we're planning to do. The plan is I'll follow along on the controls till we get outside of controlled air space at which point he'll have me fly a bit, then we'll do a few maneuvers with Jon demonstrating and then me trying it. Uh, did I mention that while I have a couple hundred hours flying helicopters I have zero, zilch, nada stick time on fixed wing? OK, we'll work with it.
The seat in one of these is semi reclining, and while I wasn't surprised by the 5 point harness, I didn't expect the ratchet system to tighten the seatbelt. Oh yeah, this thing is designed to take g's. With only an airspeed indicator and altimeter up front I don't think I'll be suffering from information overload. That's OK, Jon will handle all that pilot stuff from the back seat. Canopy closed, engine start and taxi to the active runway. Wow, visibility on the ground really sucks in a tail dragger! We taxi in a zig zag pattern so we can see what's in front of us. After our pre take off checks we get clearance to the runway and we're off. The take off roll seemed pretty normal, but this pulling g's on climb out is a little different. We're still midfield when Jon turns south (apparently all turns in this type of aircraft must be 90 degrees or more bank angle). Once we level out it's my turn to fly and apparently this helicopter stuff works for fixed wing, too. Straight and level is working fine, and Jon directs me to come left about 20 degrees to get us pointed to our practice area while checking to see if I'm going to tend to over control.
As it turns out I didn't find the controls excessively sensitive compared to the R-22, so I adapted pretty well I thought. First off Jon shows me a chandelle and then has me try a couple. OK, not real pretty but not spectacularly bad, either. Our next exercise will be a loop. Again Jon demos one and as we level out it's my turn. Let's see, 160 knots indicated, pull up - pull, pull, pull... ease off on the ~~cyclic~~ stick, let it float... look up, there's the horizon and now we're pointed straight down, must be time to pull the stick back and wow, we're straight and level again. That was cool! Now for the barrel roll - Again I get the demo ride first, followed by a half Cuban Eight to get us turned around to stay in our practice area and wow, this is kind of neat... Nose up like you mean it and left stick - watch the horizon - all the way around and stop the roll... and we're in level flight again. Jon tells me to try another one with a little faster roll rate, so I do another that feels like it's maybe 3 seconds for 360 degrees. I'm a little stunned that I seem to be finishing the roll right where I want it, not undershooting or overshooting. I think part of this in the way Jon is talking me through the demos and part of it is this plane is clearly designed to be doing this.
We take a short break to get positioned back to the center of our area, and I notice that Jon has been making sure to give me a break between each maneuver. He's also making sure that I'm comfortable with what we're doing and that I'm not having any problem with the g's. Some of that professionalism I was talking about earlier. We're not really pulling much, 4.5 g's was the max for this flight but it definitely feels different from anything I've experienced - not uncomfortable but a little weird. After assuring him I'm good to go we're off to the next trick, the hammerhead. This is the one I had the most problem with mechanically. Rudder pedals are different from the anti torque pedals I'm used to, and I'll need them for this one. To start we dive to get our airspeed up above 160 knots and then pull up vertical... watch the horizon off the left and let the air speed drop... patience, wait for it.... OK, a little right pedal since the plane wants to spin around the prop (thank you, Sir Issac) and now full left pedal, stick forward, right pedal and stop it with the nose pointing straight down... let the airspeed build up and pull up to level. This is so cool... Now Jon has me do a Cuban Eight to try and put it together... OK, 160 and start a loop... over the top and now in about a 45 degree inverted dive so roll it right side up and level out... repeat.... Done properly the end result should look like a figure 8 on it's side. I'm probably looking more like an Infinity logo, but I'm still pretty pleased with myself. I get to take another try at each of the maneuvers and while I'm having a ball, I can't help but notice my stomach is getting a little queasy... Very strange, I've never been prone to motion sickness, and it's not like it's really bad, but discretion is the better part of valor so I try a little flying around a point. While I would have liked to get a spin or two in, I don't think it's the best idea at this point so we head back in for a touch and go followed by a normal landing. Normal for an aircraft that doesn't have flaps, that is... I was actually pretty comfortable with it since it's a lot like a 180 degree autorotation.
As we taxi back we discuss the flight and Jon tells me I did pretty good (for a guy who's never flown a plane before, at least!) I know I certainly enjoyed the experience. Thanks Jon!

A Guard update

2007-12-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

It seems like the period between September and the new year always gets really busy. My theory is that after the heat of the summer everyone goes nuts once the temperature drops. For those of you that live in colder climates think about being housebound all winter...
I've been neglecting posting about the National Guard situation mostly because I haven't been sure where everything is going. The good news is that I made the list for E-6 and normally would have put it on by now. The bad news is that since the decision has been made to eliminate Field Artillery in Arizona there's not much demand for gun chiefs right now. Our unit tried very hard to get those of us on the E-5 and E-6 list promoted, but the state froze all advancement for the 13 series MOS. To be honest, I can understand the states point of view, and as nice as the promotion would be, it wouldn't really be doing me any favors since finding a slot and qualifying for a new MOS as an E6 would be that much more difficult. They are sending me to the first phase of BNCOC so it's nice to get that out of the way.
I will give the state credit - they arranged a "job fair" where all of the units that had openings were present with a list of the jobs and requirements. We were all given the heads up to figure out what we would like to do beforehand so it was really an opportunity to have a hand in your own future. As a semi amusing aside one of the few units in the state not picking people is the Infantry battalion. They're already at nearly 200% strength. I wouldn't have minded an infantry slot. Having deployed as Security Force already the wartime MP mission is OK, but I'm not all that interested in being an MP full time. Nor do the engineer positions interest me that much. So since I've got a background in aviation I've been working on getting into the Helicopter Regiment. So far it looks promising. I need to get through a waiver processes to change into aviation and I'll need to go to a technical school but if all works out I should end up working on UH-60's.

Keeping Busy

2007-10-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

We're well into the busy season here, and it will be continuing for a while yet. Things don't usually calm down till after the new year. As I posted a couple articles ago Arizona is eliminating Field Artillery from the National Guard. First battalion became Infantry, and it looks like Second Battalion is just going to be retired. Charlie Battery is becoming an engineering unit, and the rest of us will be absorbed into other units in the state. As a result there will be a "job fair" at our December drill where we'll have the opportunity to sign up with one of the other units, assuming we meet the qualifications. Personally I'm looking at trying to convert to MOS 15T (UH-60 Aircraft Repairer) and with any luck get a crew chief position. From there I can work towards getting an age waiver for pilot training. If that doesn't work out I can work towards my Airframes and Powerplants license. On top of that the battery has put me in for BNCOC school which if it works out will involve doing extra drills for six months.

To add to the schedule we're into the shooting season now, and I'm way out of practice. Her Accuracy & I shot in the Creedmoor Cup match this weekend, and she just walloped the daylights out of me. I guess I'd better get out and start practicing. Fortunately we have the Patriots match coming up before the State Championships.

On the flying front however, I've been making progress. I'm now nearing 25 hours in the R-44 and have completed the stage 1 check for my Commercial license. The stage check is not a regulatory requirement, but rather a school procedure to verify the students and instructors are performing to consistent standards. The Commercial stage one actually doesn't cover anything new, but is almost like a Private Pilot check ride where you're held to tighter standards on how well you perform the required maneuvers. Moving on to stage two will involve planning and performing some simulated commercial flights followed by more practice for the FAA exam. I'm planning on continuing to fly the R-44 for the rest of Commercial and then switching back to the R-22 for my flight instructor and instrument flight instructor (CFI and CFII, respectively) ratings.

Now that I've got a little bit of time in the R-44 I thought I would make some observations about the two birds. First a little about the R-22 - designed by Frank Robinson and certified in 1979 it was intended to be an affordable private helicopter for personal or commuting use. Instead over the years it became the primary helicopter trainer in the civilian world largely replacing the Bell 47 and Hughes (later Schweizer) 269 in the training market. It's very light, maybe the lightest certified two place helicopter in America at a maximum weight of 1370 pounds and an empty weight around 880 pounds. It uses a Lycoming O-320 or 360 engine which is derated to 124 or 131 horsepower depending on the model. It's a twitchy helicopter requiring a light touch on the controls which makes it a little more of a difficult helicopter to learn in. Once you get used to it the R-22 a lot of fun to fly being very responsive and and having decent performance. Cross country cruise is 80 knots indicated airspeed and while it has a ceiling of 14,000 feet, we usually fly around 1000 feet above ground level. There's not really much reason to go high in a helicopter.

The R-44 was introduced in 1991 and is very similar in construction to the R-22 but seats 4 people and has a maximum weight of 2500 pounds. It's faster (100 knot cruise) and more comfortable, and has actually been challenging some of the light turbine helicopters like the Bell Jetranger in the light utility and transportation roles. Robinson would like to see the basic model R-44 take over the training market, but I think that's unlikely any time soon based on the economics of it. The R-22 costs half the price to operate. After flying both of them the only surprise was that while I enjoy flying the R-44, the R-22 is still just as much fun.

Oh, yeah, I'm also starting to train for this years Ragnar Relay. Did I mention I was busy?

Back to flying...

2007-09-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Since my last update I've made some more progress on flying. I had started on my requirements for my Commercial license before attending the four day safety course at Robinson Helicopter in August. I had originally been scheduled for November but a slot opened early, so it was a nice break from the Phoenix summer. This is an excellent course that is almost mandatory for insurance purposes (and is mandatory for flight instructors.) It is mostly a ground course where you cover previous accident causes, things to do (and not do) to avoid accidents, maintenance and inspections, etc. They also do a nice factory tour - they complete about 17 helicopters per week - that's a respectable production rate for any aircraft manufacturer! The highlight of the class is the flight you get with one of their test pilots. This is where you get instruction and demonstrations of some of the flight envelope that you are normally expected to stay away from. A very good class.

Once I returned I started flying the R-44 to get some experience in it. While it costs twice as much as the R-22, it's performance is comparable to the Bell 206 Jet Ranger. It's a fun aircraft to fly and my plan is to get at least 25 hours in it before moving back to the R-22. Aside from being a little bigger and holding two more passengers the R-44 has pretty good performance for a light helicopter. It's top speed is 150 mph and it holds enough fuel for almost 3 hours flight time. The controls are hydraulic assisted so you can fly it with a light touch. And it's air conditioned...

So what is involved in getting a commercial license? Aside from having to meet some minimum time requirements there's not really anything new in terms of flying, you are just held to higher standards of piloting. Now you need to be able to hold your airspeed to +/- 5 knots instead of +/- 10 knots, and altitude within 50 feet instead of 100. Basically all of your tolerances are reduced by half. There's some additional knowledge requirements, particularly in the area of regulations.

After all the flying around with a hood on for the instrument course I'm really enjoying looking out the window again. Yesterday we were sharing the pattern at one of the little regional airports with a Cessna 172. We were doing autorotations and running landings and he was doing touch and goes. After a while we went and practiced some hovering auto's and some confined area approaches. This is all simple stuff, but it's a lot of fun. If you look at the video above, you can see the upper right instrument in the tachometer. The right needle is the rotor rpm, the left needle is the engine rpm. You can see as we're descending into LAX the engine rpm drop down to around 70% while the rotor rpm stays up at 100%. That's what an auto looks like from in the helicopter.

Last Round

2007-07-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

As most people know when you are in the National Guard in addition to the one weekend a month drill there is a 15 day annual training period. Ours was the second half of July this year and was something of a bitter sweet experience. Because of deployment schedules the entire battery didn't attend, about half of us having just returned from Iraq. We adjusted by combining guns and sending 3 gun sections instead of the usual 6. My gun section was combined with section 4 and the team jelled as though we had been working together for years. I'm happy to say we set the standard for the battalion even though we were short handed with only 7 men in the section. Anyone who has muscled an M-198 howitzer into position will appreciate that. On the down side, the Battalion Commander came by and confirmed the rumors that we had been hearing - this is the last year for Artillery in Arizona. This wasn't a suprise given the operational environment in the Army these days, but it was dpressing none the less. The photo above is of the last round fired by the 153rd Field Artillery Brigade.
So where do we go now? At this point we don't know. Charlie Battery is becoming an engineering company, and we know that the state is standing up a couple of combat engineering units, a couple of MP companies and a Sapper unit. Smart money is that Alpha will become an MP Company, but that's not confirmed at this point. Many of us are hoping they convert us to Infantry to go with the 1st battalion that converted last year. We like being in Combat Arms. Our infantry battalion is staffed at 170% even though they deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year so there's not much of an opportunity to move there. Personally I'm checking into aircrew in one of the states Blackhawk units since I have an aviation background, but that may or may not work out. I'm not really thrilled about converting to MP, but if that happens, at least I'll be deploying in my MOS next time.
Some thoughts on our annual training - We went to Ft Sill and spent the entire time operating out of a FOB (Forward Operating Base). Because of all the rain in Oklahoma of late our originally assigned area was under water so they put us in a prepared FOB that is being used for mobilization training. While we didn't have any laundry services we at least had a shower trailer, something that we wouldn't have had at our original FOB. We also had power to the tents which allowed for a fan to move the air around a bit. Ft Sill temperatures are lower than in the desert, but the humidity is much higher which takes some getting used to. No heat casualties in our battery, but there were some people who fell out in the other batteries. The shooting was limited, but we did a couple days work and a night shoot as well as direct fire. For our indirect fire we were set up with Charlie battery as a 6 gun line which gave me the chance to take some pictures and a little video. Direct fire was a lot of fun - we were engaging targets with HE rounds at distances I've shot with a service rifle (under 1000 yards). We also did a couple of "Killer Junior" shots where you set the fuze to detonate over the target. This technique was developed in Viet Nam to deal with enemy trying to over run your position.
We also sent some people to qualify with the M16 (some people were due) although the had to qualify on the Alternate C course (25 meter reduced). Given Ft Sill is an active Army installation I would have expected the 300 meter pop up range, but to be honest I didn't get the impression that they really wanted to bother with a National Guard unit. We also did a couple of days worth of MOUT training. I expect we'll be seeing more of that... The only breaks we got were a trip to the Ft Sill Museum and a trip to the exchange - the rest of the time was in the field.
One comment on the travel arrangements - We flew charted flights there and back, and once again that's the only way to fly. It reminds me of when I was a kid before airline security became an issue. We drove up to the planes, loaded our baggage and climbed on. On the way back the crew had the cockpit door open and invited all interested to come up one at a time and sit in the jump seat and chat with the pilot and copilot. I remember when the Boeing 707 was the hot new aircraft - Wow, a jet! and the crew would always invite kids up to see the cockpit.

Interlude

2007-07-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I squeaked by and am now an instrument rated helicopter pilot. Next will be the Commercial license, but first, I'll be spending a couple of weeks at Ft Sill. Sadly, I don't think the weather will be as nice as in this photo...

Instrument Training

2007-04-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

Instrument flight training in a helicopter in an interesting past time, although one with little immediate practical application... Unlike fixed wing aircraft which are inherently stable, a helicopter requires constant input when flying. What does this have to do with instrument flying? In short, the FAA requires a certain amount of stability to certify an aircraft for flight into instrument conditions. These requirements include among other things an autopilot, which is an expensive proposition in a helicopter. So while you can take a properly equipped Cessna 172 instrument, a properly equipped helicopter is a multi million dollar aircraft. I won't be flying many of these anytime soon...
This leads to the next obvious question - why bother? For me, there are a couple of answers to that question. The first is because the IFR training makes you a better pilot. More experience is always good, flying by reference to instruments focuses you on precision flying. Another reason is should you happen into instrument conditions by accident (inexcusable, but it happens) the training makes it possible to get yourself out of trouble. And finally, its fun!
That being said I thought I would write a little about my experiences so far. Instrument training is normally done in visual flying conditions. The student wears hood that limits vision mostly to just the instruments. The standard hood looks too much like the lampshade put on pets for my tastes, so I wear set that's more like a set of glasses with a shade on them (image). Not only do I not feel as silly wearing them, they don't catch the wind so much when we're flying with the doors off. The instructor acts as a safety pilot and makes sure that there's no conflict with any traffic in the area.
The first part of instrument training involves learning how to fly using only the instruments - no peeking outside. This involves using your gyro instruments that give you pitch, bank and heading information. So when you're flying straight and level your attitude indicator (artificial horizon) gives you pitch and bank information, and your heading indicator tells you you're flying in the right direction. You also have a turn coordinator that tells you how fast you're turning. This is handy because you're supposed to use standard rate turns. (Three degrees per second, or 2 minutes to do a complete circle.) So all the normal flying - climbs, descents, turns, speeding up, slowing down is stuff you relearn using just the instruments. You also learn how to do all of this stuff "partial panel", that is with one or more of these instruments out of service. After getting proficient at these tasks, the more difficult part of the training begins - approaches. Instrument Approach Procedures are published every couple of months by the government and basically consist of directions on how to land a a particular airport using specific aids. In my case we use three different types of approaches - VOR (radio navigation) and GPS approaches which get you lined up on the runway in question but do not give you glideslope information and are known as non precision approaches, and Instrument Landing System (ILS) which is a precision approach. All of these approaches are designed to get you to some height above the runway where hopefully you have conditions that allow you to land visually. There are systems that will let you land in zero visibility conditions, but those are advanced systems that require special certification. Also important is holding patterns and how to enter them. The interesting thing about all this is that the actual flying isn't that difficult, but when you add all of the procedure knowledge and communications requirements it is very easy to get overloaded. Thats where practice comes in... Another interesting thing is that because you're in training and not actually in instrument flight, the air traffic controllers can be quite creative to allow you to get your practice while still managing all of the regular traffic. As a result we do some odd things that would not normally happen, like land in the opposite direction from regular traffic. Flying approached into Williams Gateway's runway 30C I've had Harriers and FA-18's come by in the opposite direction, or VFR airplanes cutting in front of you to land. ATC does a really good job of letting you know what's going on with all of this, but it really makes you pay attention to your radio traffic. Next comes a couple of cross country flights flown instrument only to put it all together. And then another exam and practical test for the IFR license. (More photos here)

Ragnar Del Sol

2007-04-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been a little different... As may be evident from some of my entries, I’m something of a recreational runner. Aside from being necessary for the Army Physical Fitness Test that I get to take on a regular basis, it helps keep me in reasonable health. Since I have a reputation for being a runner I was approached a couple months ago to be part of a team entering the Ragnar Relay Del Sol event. This is a relay race that starts in Wickenburg and ends in Scottsdale after meandering through 187 miles of Arizona. No, this isn’t an April Fools joke... Teams consist of 12 runners in the normal category or six runners in the Ultra category. The team breaks up into two vans with 6 runners each and each runner take three legs of anywhere from three to seven miles in length so on the average everyone gets to run around 18 miles. I selected legs 2, 14 and 26 for a total of 17.1 miles.

As intimidating as this kind of race sounds, we had a blast. There were about 74 teams entered and the start times were staggered on two hour intervals from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Friday. We started at 10:00 which made for a good run down US 60 to Highway 74 and the Lake Pleasant park. For most of us this was a good warm up run with Tad setting a great pace from the outset, and Josh wowing everyone with his speed, but poor Jackie had the leg into Lake Pleasant and had to deal with a serious hill 3 miles into her run in the heat of the day. She powered through it without a problem. Around 2:00 pm we made it to Lake Pleasant where we met up with van 2 who had the next 6 legs up through New River and down into Cave Creek. Jackie and her husband Joe very kindly had us over to their house for a chance to rest and shower and fed us an excellent spaghetti dinner. So after a 5 hour break it was off to Cave Creek to pick up on our night legs through Carefree and Cave Creek. Reflective vests and lights were required for the night legs, but with the full moon and clear skies visibility wasn’t an issue. While there were a couple of places where runners were just off of high traffic roads, most of the routes were through neighborhoods with low traffic. The course was well marked with signs so there wasn’t even a problem with getting lost. We finished up our night leg around 1:00 am which was two hours ahead of our projected schedule.

Unfortunately there were restrictions on how early we could enter the Tonto National Forest so van 2 was held up for an hour. We used this time for a (cold!) shower and some sleep at the Fountain Hills Middle school.
About 5:00 am we were off again on our last stretch through Fountain Hills and on to the Tonto National Forest for a spectacular morning run. Tough run of the day was Gene’s leg 27 with a steady climb into a brutal hill about half way through it.

Unfortunately Roger injured a calf muscle on leg 28, so Jackie finished strong by running a double leg wrapping up van 1’s run at 9:10 am. After we turned things over to van 2 for the home stretch, Josh, Tad and Jackie had to leave for other commitments, but the rest of us headed over to Eldorado Park (after a short break to clean up the rental van and have a little pizza.) Jim was the anchor and came in strong at around 2:10 where we all crossed the finish line with him. It was a great time!

And I slept really well Saturday night...

For the perspective of van suv 2 click here...

Flight Training

2007-03-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Helicopters are pretty neat, and I’ve been interested in them for years. One of the side effects of my National Guard deployment in 2005 was the addition of VA benefits. It seems that a new program has been set up for OIF/OEF veterans, and since I hadn’t used up all of my eligibility from my Navy enlistment, I now have some new benefits. Since I was also able to save up some money and pay off bills while in Kuwait what better thing to do with them but to pursue my commercial helicopter license?

For those who aren’t familiar with the FAA rules for pilot licenses, when it comes to helicopters there are several different levels - Private Pilot, where you can rent, own and fly for your own entertainment, Instrument Rating where you can fly without reference to the outside, Commercial - necessary if you are going to get any compensation for flying, Flight instructor and Instrument Flight Instructor for teaching and Airline Transport for larger passenger aircraft. The Veterans Administration doesn’t assist with the Private license, but does kick in for everything else. So while flying is still expensive, the assistance takes a lot of the pain out of the process.

So after doing quite a bit of research, last May I started on my Private Pilot Rotorcraft/Helicopter license with Quantum Helicopters in Chandler, AZ. They set me up with Ray Hodges, a retired airline and Alaskan bush pilot as an instructor. Since I work full time, I try to take at least two flight lessons and one ground lesson per week. This is really just barely enough to keep from having to spend half of each lesson relearning the last one. While I try to add another day in when I can, I did need to fly more hours to get to the levels of proficiency I needed compared to a full time student, but it worked out.

Helicopters are different, in case you hadn’t noticed, and when they take you up on your first flight you are encouraged to stay lightly on the controls, and are given the opportunity to fly straight and level, as well as doing some turns, climbs and descents. While a helicopter needs to be flown all the time unlike an airplane where you can take your hands off the controls, as long as you’re flying more than about 35 mph it’s not terribly difficult. Below that speed it gets more challenging. The next several lessons introduce pattern flying around the airport and you spend quite a bit of time learning to hover. Learning to hover is kind of like learning to ride a bicycle. It takes some practice then all of a sudden you’re doing it. With hovering it’s usually somewhere around 4 hours.

Once you get past that hurdle you can now learn to take off and land. Hovering is the first milestone, then comes being able to take off and land unassisted. When you start flying the entire lesson without the instructor having to step in is when you start feeling like a pilot. Next you start learning emergency procedures and autorotations which is where you set the controls to enter a glide, something very useful if you were ever to have engine problems.

Once your flight instructor is confident that you can fly on your own it’s time to solo - the first time you fly by yourself. The routine here is the instructor flies with you until you’ve settled down, and then you land and he gets out. That first solo is about a half hour of hovering and three of four times around the pattern, but it seems a lot longer. After a while you learn to relax a little which makes it much less of a workout!

Now we start learning how to do all of the things that make helicopters fun - landing on slopes, pinnacles and in confined areas, steep approaches and high performance take offs. You also learn how to do running take offs and landings - useful for heavy loads and operating out of high elevations. You get to fly at night and do cross country flights both with your instructor and solo.

All the while you take ground school to learn procedures, weather, radio techniques, navigation, aerodynamics and a host of other things. Then before you know it, it’s time to take the written test. Once you pass that you have the check flight with the FAA designated examiner. For this you have both a ground session where you answer questions and a check flight to demonstrate you can perform all of the Private pilot’s requirements to the standard. Mine was January 30, and I’m happy to say I passed on the first try.

Now on to my instrument rating! (Pre Solo videos here) (Cross Country videos here)

Still here, would you believe...

2007-03-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

OK, it’s been a while, what can I say. Something I’ve been meaning to post about was a trip to the Midway Museum Karen and I made last year. A little background - my first real duty assignment with the Navy was back in 1975 with VAW-115 aboard the USS Midway. I got there right when the Navy redesignated CVA’s as CV’s, CVS’s no longer being required. So when the effort was started to make the Midway a museum as opposed to razor blades I followed with interest. It took a while for me to get around to going, but that was OK, it gave them the chance to add more exhibits. We plan on making the trip again sometime since they keep adding things, and we did enjoy it.

I’m not sure what I expected, certainly a nostalgic visit to my home more than 30 years ago, and maybe some reminders of old see stories and events. That was all there, but I also felt a little sadness - People talk about ships being alive and mostly you think of that as a figure of speech, but visiting the Midway was like seeing a close friend lying in state. The shape is there, but the life is gone. It was little things like the cat tracks being closed off, the cross deck pendants removed. She didn’t smell right. Those who’ve served on a warship know what I mean.

There were also differences from when I was aboard. Sea Sparrow (BPDMS) had replaced the three 5” 54 caliber Anti aircraft guns that were useless for anything other than scaring the daylights out of you when you we walking by on the flight deck and they’d do a firing run to starboard. The island had been reconfigured for newer radar in the late 70’s.

But she was still Midway. Walking around I had forgotten how small the mess decks were. How in earth did we all get fed? Of course we had cases of C-rats and Ramen noodles up in the shop for operations on a 45 minute cycle with a 60 minute chow line. Nothing was open on either the O-2 level or the 300 level so I was unable to get to either my old shop or the berthing area. Maybe next time. I was able to get down to one of the engine rooms, and into the SINS computer room (navigations stuff) as well as the bridge and Pri Fly - all areas that were off limits to a 3rd class AT back in the day. I really wanted to sneak off and explore.

I enjoyed the aircraft displays, giving Karen a little background on the aircraft that had been in service when I was there. I did have to refrain from the occasional comment, most notably when touring the CH-46 and noticing that the relief tube in that aircraft is pretty much in the open behind the pilot’s seat. I was about to point out that one couldn’t be bashful when nature called when a lady who was also touring the helicopter decided that it must be a sound powered microphone and started talking into it. I managed not to suffer any internal injuries...

Some photos of the trip...

2006-03-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

Trigger Time

One of the odd things about the Army is how little actual trigger time you get. You carry your weapon around a lot, but aside from periodic qualifications or occasions where it gets entirely too exciting you don’t shoot very much. Since Karen (also known as “Her Accuracy”) and I participate in NRA High Power Rifle competition I’ve really been enjoying the range time we’ve been able to take. The bad news is that now I have to get back into the groove.

For those who are unfamiliar with High Power a brief description is in order. For competition purposes a high power rifle is defined as one that shoots a center fire cartridge as opposed to “Smallbore” which is fired using .22 caliber rimfire. The more observant among you will have no doubt noticed Her Accuracy with an AR-15 which also has a .22 caliber bore. What can I say... The rules were defined before the military decided to adopt the mouse gun... Anyway, High Power is broken down to several categories, the two major ones being “Match Rifle” and “Service Rifle”. The Service Rifle is basically an M1 Garand, M14 or M16 (or the commercial equivalent of any of those rifles) with specific modifications allowed such as sights and trigger work to improve accuracy. The Match Rifle doesn’t have to be based on a military rifle and has a different set of rules to conform to. It is inherently more accurate than the Service Rifle, but not spectacularly so. To be competitive the rifle needs to be able to group “Minute of Angle” or one sixtieth of a degree. This means that at one hundred yards all of the shots go into a one inch circle, or that they all go into a six inch circle at 600 yards. Now anyone who reads a lot of gun magazines is no doubt thinking “Piece of cake! Why, in Hunter Harry’s latest review in Shoot ‘em Up magazine he was describing shooting a dime size group at 300 yards!”

Hunter Harry lies like a rug.

A typical course of fire is the 80 round National Match course. This consists of 20 rounds slow fire, i.e., one round loaded at a time in a twenty minute time period at a range of 200 yards. This is done from a standing position with no additional support. In the photo above Her Accuracy is shooting 200 yard standing, (For those in the know, this was at squadded practice at the Nationals last year which is why her sling isn’t in the parade position as is required in competition.) This is followed by two rapid fire strings, also at 200 yards. Each of these strings is started from standing. In 60 seconds you take a sitting or kneeling position and shoot 10 rounds with a reload after two or five rounds depending on the type of rifle you’re shooting.

Now we move back to 300 yards, where we shoot prone rapid fire. Here again we start from standing, assume a good prone position, and fire ten rounds per string with a reload as in sitting rapid fire. You get 70 seconds for each string here.

Finally comes 600 yard prone slow fire. Did I mention that this is all using iron sights? No scopes here... Just get a good position, read the wind - yes, it can be quite the factor at 600 yards - make the appropriate sight adjustment and break the perfect shot. Repeat 20 times.

All of this is shot at targets with scoring rings for 5,6,7,8,9 and 10 points, with a smaller “X” ring inside the 10 ring used as a tie breaker. So a perfect score for this match would be 800. It’s been done. Once.

Not being a contender for that perfect score any time soon, I’m just trying to get my form back to the point where I can shoot consistently. I can and have shot in the low 190’s for standing and prone slow fire and the high 190’s for my rapid fire stages, but I’m not consistent. While it’s unreasonable to expect to be able to put all of your best stage scores together in the same match, I’m trying to reduce the spread between my good and bad strings. A lot of that is technique, but most of it is concentration, and that needs practice. We have the Regional Championships coming up next week, so I’ll be able to see if I’m progressing here in short order.

2006-02-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Running the Hills

One of the down sides for me of being deployed was the lack of trail running. For the first six months most of my running was on a treadmill in the gym, which is good exercise but not very inspirational. Once we moved to Camp Virginia I started running the perimeter which was at least outside. Kuwait is, however, really flat...

Since returning home I've resumed running with some friends from work at the Phoenix South Mountain Park. South Mountain is the largest city park in the country, with loads of hiking, biking, horse and running trails. While the official site has some poor trail maps, one of our group has decided to map the running trails with the aid of GPS technology, a web service called Motionbased, and Google Earth. Jot's write up describes the route we took on my first run since returning. He is generous in claiming the hour and forty minute time was due to his recovery from a recent marathon - I was pretty much acting like a boat anchor on this one... Still, the views are so nice that even though my legs were protesting for most of the distance I was still thoroughly enjoying myself.

2006-02-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

Cold War Curiosity

Having grown up during the cold war I’ve always been fascinated by military equipment, both ours and theirs. Since I was an Air Force brat I had plenty of opportunity to see our equipment but could only judge Warsaw Pact weapons based on second and third hand opinions. As a sailor in the 1970’s I got to see a little Soviet hardware for myself, but still only from a distance. The small arms I’d had a chance to evaluate such as the SKS and AK series rifles and the Makarov pistols seemed reliable and rugged enough if not all that exciting when it comes to fit and finish. I had never been able to take a good look at any of the heavier weapons systems till just last year.

While deployed to Kuwait with the National Guard I had the chance to take a close look at a Ukrainian BTR-80. While I didn’t get to drive it or even power it up, I found it an interesting enough vehicle that I decided to write a few casual observations.

The BTR-80 is an 8x8 amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier capable of carrying a three man crew and seven troops. It is armed with a turret mounted 14.5 mm KPTV machine gun and coaxial 7.62 mm PKT machine gun. It has a rear mounted 260 horsepower 8 cylinder diesel engine and is capable of 80 k/hr (50 mph) on paved roads or 9 k/hr (5.5 mph) afloat. Maximum range is 600 km (370 miles) on roads.

The vehicle I got to look at was on it’s way home from a mission in Iraq. Apparently the Ukrainians flatten the tires on their vehicles to prevent theft. I understand tire pressure can be internally controlled in the BTR series so I’m not sure of the reasoning for this. Even considering the flat tires on the BTR I looked at I was surprised at the low profile of the vehicle. Looking inside my first thought was that it must have been designed for shorter people than the average American. However after exploring for a while I found that while cramped, there is plenty of room given the mission. Unlike many US fighting vehicles the driver and commanders seats do not elevate so the vehicle can be operated with heads exposed. Instead there are large armor panels that close over a fairly large window for each position. Driver and commander each have a hatch above their positions for entry and exit. While you can get to the seats from the troop area it’s somewhat cumbersome to do so. The driver has a detailed control panel and multiple periscopes for visibility when the armored window shutters are down. The Vehicle Commander has a movable periscope with a typical Soviet style range finding reticle installed. The optics appear to be high quality. Also to the right of the Commander is a radio set.

Directly behind the driver and commander positions are folding center facing jump seats. By using both jump seats it appears that you could transport 11 soldiers instead of the 10 advertised. Behind the centerline turret are the troops seat configured such that three troops sit facing outboard on each side with the side opening troop doors being at the rear of the troop compartment. These doors are two piece with a downwards folding step to the bottom and a forward opening hatch with gun port on top. The doors are located between the second and third sets of road wheels. Including the ones in the doors there are four firing ports on the left side and five on the right including the forward facing port for the commander and a special port for an RPK light machine gun. The side mounted ports are all angled about 30 degrees forward, and there are several periscopes facing 90 degrees out on either side as well as some angle forward. While designed for the AK series of weapons, an M-4 will fit in the barrel opening and can be sighted through the heated port window. An M-16A2 could be fit in the opening designed for the gas tube on an AK, but the sights would not be usable.

The turret looked like it would be uncomfortably tight to me, but once I managed to slither into the gunners seat I was surprised at how comfortable it was. A CVC helmet would be a must on any kind of rough terrain, though. The periscope sight is equipped with 1.2 x and 4 x magnifying optics and are comfortable to use. The sight is a little dim due to the thickness of the armored glass of the turret. I don’t know how much of an impact this would have at night. While there are several features of the sight I wasn’t able to figure out due to a lack of Russian language skills, one I did like was the ranging reticle. As can be seen in the photo section there are two sets of range markings on the sight, one for each machine gun. The horizontal stadia wire is adjustable so that you can set the stadia such that elevation of the weapon you are shooting is automatically set. The weapons are solenoid fired with the firing switches being located on the traversing hand wheel. There turret is traversed and weapons elevated manually via hand wheels and are intuitive to operate. The traversing and elevating mechanisms can be locked. It looks like a good system to me, but without actual operating experience I couldn’t say if there are any inherent problems with the design.

For the level of armor on the BTR the crew is well protected, although at the cost of visibility. None of the periscopes are oriented past 90 degrees, and only the gunner can view the rear by traversing. He is also the only person who can fire past about 100 degrees as the front angled firing ports limit the ability to engage to the rear. Also dismounting troops are immediately in the open instead of exiting behind the vehicle as is common in US APC’s. In spite of those limitations I’d have to say I’m impressed with the BTR-80. I’m not sure how it compares with the Stryker, but for escort missions I suspect it’s superior to the uparmored HMMWV’s we’re currently using in Iraq.

2006-01-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Home again

Well, it's finally here!

We left Kuwait on the 16th of December and arrived at Ft Dix in the early morning hours of the 17th. After doing some medical and administrative out processing we returned to Arizona on the 22nd of December. We're now on transition leave until the 20th of January when we return to National Guard status.

I guess it's appropriate to wrap up with a few observations...

Our unit had detachments in Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq. In Kuwait over the last year we provided escort to 500,000+ troops either entering or leaving the theater. Personally I was involved in over 700 escort missions. In addition we did route regulation through out Kuwait, provided quick reaction forces and checkpoint security. Our detachment in Qatar provided personal security for some of the Central Command staff as well as security for the base. In Iraq our detachment assisted with security in Mosul. We were successful in all of our missions. We brought everyone back that went with us, though sadly we lost one of our communications guys after our return. We'll miss Specialist Johnny Cardenas.

Since we arrived there have been two elections in Iraq with better than 70 percent turnout. I've been voting since the '70's and I don't recall a US election that has had that kind of turnout. While the Sunni's largely boycotted the first election, they learned from the experience and showed up for the second. They've already learned that unlike the old days, they can vote against someone now. It wouldn't surprise me to see what is now Iraq end up being two or three different countries somewhat like what happened in the Balkans. Considering that the countries in the Middle East were largely defined by outsiders, it's not surprising that there are ethnic divisions that will need to be worked out.

Of the 18 provinces in Iraq, 14 of them are stable now. That's not to say all the problems are solved, but that's quite the improvement from only a year ago. In the region as a whole, since 2001 Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya are no longer "terrorist" states, Saudi Arabia is actually pursuing Al Qaida instead of merely providing lip service. Lebanon finally kicked Syria out and Kuwait is looking at their first election where women can vote - they just noticed with some concern that there are now more women than men registered to vote there! Syria and Iran are still problem states, but of them Iran has some serious internal problems they're not likely to work out soon and Syria is reasonably well isolated.

Probably the biggest shock coming back is watching the news. In short, they're terrible. If you want to keep up with what we're doing over there, go to http://www.centcom.mil/. You can get the same news feeds the networks are using and a better picture of what's really happening day to day. If you want to stay away from US sources try http://www.iraq.net/ or http://www.kuwaittimes.net/ - They all carry the bad news as well as the good.

Personally, I still believe we're doing the right thing. I'm glad I went over, and if we get mobilized again I'll go over again. For now, I need to lose the weight I put on in the last month and get ready to go back to work!

Click here for the latest photos:

1. SSgt Perez and Sgt Cassidy walking back to the tents. SSgt Perez was my squad leader for the second half of the deployment. Sgt Cassidy was one of the other team leaders in my squad. This was while we were still turning over to the new guys since the HMMWV's are still in our parking area.

2. Some of the 101st Airborne practicing patrolling while they wait to deploy. While this kind of patrolling looks simple, the training is useful for both tactics and physical conditioning.

3. Sgt Petersen contemplates packing. He had an amazing amount of stuff. I think he brought it all back as well...

4. Prior to leaving we turned in our gas masks and body armor to lighten our load. We ended up flying back with one bag and a carry on - everything else was shipped.

5. Loading bags on a 5 ton.

6. Once all the bags were loaded it became a waiting game. Sgt Pete kills time with some upper body workouts. Yes, he took all 80 pounds of dumbbells home in his duffle bag.

7, 8 & 9. More waiting...

10. A nice sunset shot I though would be my closing photo of Kuwait.

11. The flight home! About 18 hours worth... We got a kick out of the stewardess, "Uhhh, Please put your guns under your seats with the butts towards the aisle and the, uh, pointy ends towards the middle." We also laughed at her when she gave us the "Please fly with us again..." speech.

12 & 13 - We arrived at Ft Dix around 4:00 am, and the USO was there with snacks and goodies. The USO doesn't get much press, but these men and women make it a point to be there for every unit that comes in, regardless of the time of day. They don't get paid for it, it's all volunteer.

14 & 15. Our arrival back at the armory in Phoenix.

16. Thanks everyone!

2005-12-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

Winding down

Things are starting winding down for us now. Since my last update we've transitioned our mission over to our replacements (although they are just now in charge of it.) We spent some time riding along with them showing them the ropes and are now taking care of packing and all the chores and training required for us to head back home. While there's a surprising amount to get done with the packing of equipment, customs inspections and all, it's been going quite smoothly for a change.

Now that I'm working days and actually have some extra time to boot, I've been able to get a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

1. Shoes - Since we're on a normal schedule now, a little in the way of outdoors recreation is possible. Here Sergeants Farnsworth and Jimenez tossing horseshoes.

2. Toss - Sgt Felix seems to be the most accurate with the shoes. Here he shows off his form.

3. Football - This was our Thanksgiving day football game. It may not have been broadcast on TV but a good time was had by all.

4. BBQ - Also on Thanksgiving we had a barbecue. The chow hall went to a lot of effort to set up Thanksgiving dinner and had special hours for serving. Unfortunately word didn't get out to everyone so a lot of people missed it. To their credit, the chow hall recovered and made sure everyone had the traditional dinner. To be honest, I really think that the big holiday dinners are done more to make the powers that be and everyone at home feel better about soldiers being deployed.

5. Decorations - What can I say... there's always someone with Christmas lights up at Thanksgiving!

6. Truck - This is one of the new style uparmored 5 ton trucks.

7. Palm - Only the Army would procure uparmored Palm Pilots...

8. Artillery - Some 105 mm rounds impacting to the north of camp. This is friendly fire and a routine occurrence. Usually I sleep through these even though the concussion causes the doors to the tents to open.

9. M119 - This is the M119 105mm Howitzer. Our unit is supposed to be transitioning to these when we get back. These belong to the 101st Airborne who are coming in for OIF 4. There were gracious enough to let us check out the guns and play around with them for a while. We were trying to go out with them on a range day where they calibrate the guns, but the weather interfered (foggy) and I'm not sure we'll get the chance now. We thought the guns were kind of cute...

10. M198 - This is the 155mm Howitzer that we're currently assigned. The photo was take last year in Florence, AZ. There's a lot more muscle work involved with these than there is with the M119, and they're a lot louder as well!

11 & 12 littlesaw and HeavyM4 - These guys are from the 101st. The SAW in the first picture is the cool version with the short barrel and collapsable stock. This makes the weapon a little lighter and easier to move around than the full size version I carried. If I were the weapons designer I'd also remove the upper hand guard and the M16 magazine well to lighten it up even further. The M4 is another case where every time someone does something to lighten a soldiers load, someone else finds a way to increase it again. If you do some research you'll find that the average grunt has carried about 100 lbs. of weapons and equipment since at least WWII. The basic M4 weighs about 7 pounds, which is around what the original M16 weight (the current ones weigh about 8 lbs.) This one has an M203 grenade launcher, an Aimpoint dot sight, a backup iron sight, an infrared laser marker and a Surefire flashlight mounted on the other side. Since they're Airborne troops they tie everything to the gun so it doesn't fall off when they jump out of airplanes and the like.

13. Replacements - A couple teams of our replacements (not including the Japanese soldier). They're wearing the new ACU uniform that we should be getting soon. There's quite the history behind the uniform, most of which revolves around inter-service rivalry. A few years ago the Marines decided to redesign their uniform and introduced the new digital pattern camouflage in desert and woodland patterns. They moved pockets around to places that make sense with the gear they wear and generally did a pretty good job. They got so much positive attention that the Army couldn't be left out and decided to redo ours. We couldn't just adopt what the Marines did of course, so we made several changes including attaching all the patches with velcro, zippers instead of buttons, a mandarin collar and a digital camouflage green that doesn't blend into anything during the day but does a pretty good job of disappearing at night, Personally I like the Marine uniform better, but the ACU's are OK. All of this activity drove the Air Force nuts, since they have always considered the real enemy to be the other services. They went out and announced at blue tiger stripe uniform that didn't blend into anything, but did challenge the "Don't ask, don't tell" rule established during the Clinton administration. The Air Force took so much ridicule over it they redesigned and are testing a new tiger stripe uniform that actually has some camouflage characteristics. Who knows what the Navy will do...

14, 15 and 16 - Japanese vehicles. The first two picture are of a Japanese armored car. It seems to be the most common vehicle over here for them. Photo 16 is one of their armored personnel carriers. I'm not sure but it appears to be amphibious.

17 through 20 - Soviet design BTR-80. A Soviet style armored assault vehicle, the BTR is one of the vehicles we expected to see a lot of in the cold war days. I suspect that the current Army Stryker owes a lot of it's lineage to this and the Soviet BMP, although I'm also sure the designers would deny it... This one has been sitting here with flat tires and one of the drive shafts out, so I thought it was abandoned, although I'm not so sure after looking it over. It has all of the sights and equipment inside and is in remarkably good shape so it may belong to one of the former Warsaw Pact countries currently over here. While we were looking at it some Slovokians came over to check us out, but they didn't seem too concerned about us nosing around it so I don't know if it belonged to them or not. Picture 18 shows the interior looking forward. To the left of the drivers window a religious icon is taped, so this wouldn't be a captured Iraqi vehicle. It looks like you could put 11 troops in this including driver, commander and gunner, although it would be tight. Photo 19 shows it from the side where you can see the firing ports (the circular ports with the covers) where AK-47 muzzles would fire through and one of the entry hatches. Note the seriously flat tires indicating it's been sitting a while. Picture 20 shows the breech of the 14.5mm gun and the gunners sight as well as one of the periscopes visible in the background. There is also a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun mounted to the right of the 14.5. It had the night vision periscopes stored in their boxes as well as other tools and equipment in place. There was also a jury rigged cassette player and speakers set up, which really makes me think it wasn't abandoned after all...

21. Me again - Finally, a picture of me with my issue weapon of the week... The M4 is nice and light, not to mention compact.

2005-11-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

More of the Same

Yep, it's that time again. The time of the month that I go crazy taking pictures because I realize I don't have anything for the web site! We've been really busy since my last update. While the R&R missions are getting smaller we're dealing with OIF/OEF 4 coming into theater and and OIF/OEF 3 starting to leave. We've picked some additional missions which have us patrolling pretty much the entire country as well. There's still lots of foreign troops coming though as well. Having grown up in the Cold War years it still kind of gives me the creeps standing in the chow line listening to former Warsaw Pact soldiers speaking Russian...

The weather has gotten much milder - 80 to 90 during the day and in the low 50's at night. We've even gotten some light rain. This means it's time to break out the cold weather and wet weather gear. Like Arizona, it's not so much that it's cold as that the temperature is dropping so fast. It's also a sign that we're getting closer to rotating out. We will start working with our replacements later this month, and they should have the mission in December sometime. Our people in Qatar will be doing the same and once they move back up here we can start getting ready to head back. That still looks like early January but we won't know until the actual flight is scheduled.

Anyone who sends me anything should probably not mail me stuff past the end of November. With the Christmas rush coming up and the uncertainty of our schedule it's questionable whether I'll receive anything sent after that date.

Click here for this months pictures.

First an update on some of our unofficial mascots... The powers that be discourage feeding the local animals. They (the powers that be, that is) are routinely ignored.

1. Cat - The cat at the airport is still doing well. We were worried that it would get run over by all the bus and truck traffic in the area, but it seems to be pretty fast on it's feet. It's particularly fond of Spc Cordoba which may have something to do with the tuna fish he brings it.

2. Watchdogs - These two guys have been hanging around one of the checkpoints for months. They're basically scavengers but we'll water them once in a while. They really like Americans and get along well with the Kuwaiti Police at the checkpoint, but will raise the alarm at anyone else who approaches. They also try to chase cars away that get too close, much to our concern. Since we do a lot of night over watch from this particular checkpoint we really like having these guys around. Nothing gets anywhere near without them noticing it.

3. Rollover - The female loves boots. I think she thinks they're puppies.

4 and 5. Refineries - These are a couple of the refineries in southern Kuwait. I wish we had a couple of these in Arizona, it would really knock the gas prices down. Probably create some new jobs, too!

6. Cards - We've decorated the ready room with Thanksgiving cards from a third grade class. Some of them are really pretty creative, and they do a great job of brightening up the ready room.

7. Grenades - This is some of the stuff we carry around with us. These are rifle grenades for the M203 grenade launcher attached to the bottom of some of the M16's. Around here we carry mostly marking and signaling types - colored smoke, star clusters and parachute flares. Other types we have available are HEDP (explosive and armor piercing) HE (explosive) and canister (Buck shot). While these are the same size (40mm) as the grenades used in the Mk 19, they have a much weaker propelling charge. These only have a range of about 400 meters as opposed to the Mk 19 with it's 2200 meter range.

8. Filling radios - One of the daily rituals... putting the encryption keys in the radios. It never ceases to amaze me how much the technology has improved just in the time I've been exposed to the military. The equipment gets smaller and more reliable every day.

9. Loaded HMMWV - OK, so it looks like a junk yard! A typical nights load in the HMWWV - ammo, food and water plus cold/wet weather gear, maps, night vision equipment, GPS, binoculars, medical supplies - all sorts of stuff. The scary thing is that we all know where it is.

10. R&R - This is at the LSA in Ali Al Salem. This group of soldiers are on their way to R&R and are dropping off their body armor and helmets so they don't have to carry it home. They'll pick it up first thing when they come back. Most will take a C-130 or C17 flight back to the main LSA's in Iraq or Afghanistan and then helicopter or convoy back to their forward operating bases.

11. KMOD - A Kuwait Ministry of Defense gun truck. The have KMOD with us on almost all of our escort missions. Depending on they type of mission and the threat level we also work with KMOI (Kuwait Ministry of Interior - the police), the Kuwait National Guard and the Kuwait Secret Service. Coordination with all these organizations can be a real treat.

12. JN Army - This picture was kind of funny. The Japanese have a reputation of being camera happy tourists, and their Army is no exception. They must have take thousands of pictures posing by our HMMWV's, with us, of us, you name it. One day I saw the two girls in this picture walking down the street taking pictures of everything in sight so I figured what the heck, I'd take a picture of them taking pictures. As soon as the camera came out every Japanese soldier in the immediate area dropped everything and posed. I'm still chuckling over that.

2005-10-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Back in Kuwait

It October already, and the weather has cooled down. Our daily highs are only in the low 100's now, and at night it's getting down to the 70's. We're keeping busy, and we're seeing some more countries represented coming through camp. We just had some Georgians (from the former USSR, not the state) come through and some Albanians just arrived along with more Japanese. And of course we still have plenty of Army and National Guard coming in and out.

After returning from R&R I've had quite the schedule. We're continuing to do our escort missions along with patrols that cover a significant amount of Kuwait. My team also went on some refresher training for convoy escorts and was selected to provide security for a group of soldier making a tourist trip into Kuwait City.

Click here for pictures...

1. Northern Kuwait - This is pretty typical of what much of Kuwait looks like. Occasionally you see a natural gas burn off fire from some of the oil fields but mostly there's pretty much nothing. On the bright side, it makes it difficult for people to sneak up on you.

2. Staff Sergeant Perez - Since I was promoted I picked up my own team which moved me out of my old squad. SSGT Peruse is my new squad leader.

3. Team 14 - And this is my team. Yours truly, SPC Ruben Cordova on gun and SPC Jeremy Smith as driver.

4. Class - Some refresher training on the .50 cal. This was at the Udari Range complex in northern Kuwait.

5. 5 ton - Smity posing with an armored 5 ton truck. Pretty much all of the military trucks in use in Iraq are armored like this. I'm not sure how much the armor weighs but it's significant. Because of the armor and the fact that most of the military trucks in a convoy have a .50 cal. or a 40 mm grenade machine gun mounted the insurgents tend to attack civilian convoys that are less well protected. There is still an IED threat, but the armor really reduces the amount and type of injury to the crews.

6. Shooting - Prior to running the convoy course everyone shoots the .50 from a stationary truck. Most of the shooting in the course in from moving trucks at pop up targets. Unfortunately during that portion of the class I was really too busy to be taking pictures. It was excellent training, though!

7. Clearing barrel - These are 55 gal. drums filled with sand used to check that weapons are clear. The comments on the barrel were added after an individual in the battery didn't check his weapon well enough and shot the clearing barrel. The powers that be were not amused at either his indiscretion or the comments that appeared on the barrel.

8. Shade - Waiting for the assignments at the beginning of shift. The cam net provides a reasonable amount of shade and doesn't interfere with whatever breeze there is. We actually don't spend very much time under it since we're usually on the road shortly after start of shift. Being on night shift we don't need the shade much.

9. Beer - Don't send any really - people have already gotten in trouble for beer shipments, but in the abstract it's a nice thought.

10. DFAC - The inside of the Dining Facility (aka chow hall) at the LSA Ali Al Salem. The food isn't bad although there's a little too much fried food for my tastes. This DFAC handles a lot of people, but they open 15 minutes early for military police so we don't have to wait in line.

11. Mosque - I took this picture on our trip into Kuwait City. There are mosques everywhere but this one was pretty uncommon architecturally.

12. Beach - Compare this to the earlier picture of the desert... This was take outside the Scientific Center, kind of a natural science museum in Kuwait City. One of the units at the LSA sent 20 people on a tour that we provided security for. It worked out well for us - we sent twice as many people as required so we took turns pulling security and playing tourist. In the 9 months that we've been here this was the first time we have been able to get into the city.

13. City - A view looking down the shore line of the Arabian Gulf towards downtown Kuwait City. The city is quite the oasis - it's almost like another region even though the desert is only a few minutes away.

14. Science Center - This is the museum we went to - there is an aquarium and an iMax theater inside, neither of which lent themselves to pictures very well. There's several displays on wildlife in the region as well as about natural resources.

15 & 16. Trader - This ship was in use as a coastal trader until 1994. It looks pretty much like a 14th century boat. The middle east is so closely associated with oil today that it's easy to forget the it was only well into the 20th century that oil became any sort of commodity. Prior to that time shipping and trade were major economic factors for Kuwait.

17. Small boats - These are some smaller traders that are still in use.

18. The Kuwait Towers - These are symbolic of Kuwait. The large tower has a restaurant on the 82 floor (the large ball) and an observation deck on the 120th floor in the smaller ball. The middle tower is a water storage tank that holds 1,000,000 gallons. After the Scientific Foundation we came here for lunch. The Iraqi's absolutely trashed these towers when they invaded in 1990. There were several pictures on display of the aftermath. I think the Kuwaitis are holding a grudge.

19. Deck - The observation deck in the big tower. The outer portion of the floor rotates 360 degrees every 30 minutes.

20. Middle tower - Looking down on the middle tower. There's an amusement park next to the towers that you can see part of in this picture.

21. View - Looking over downtown. The glass panels in the tower are labeled identifying key buildings and features of the surrounding areas. It was a little hazy the day we were there, but it was still an impressive view.

2005-09-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

R&R

It seems like I just sent the last update and another month has flown by. The big news of course is that I had my R&R trip this month. This was quite the adventure in it's own right... Traditionally R&R is 15 days in the same general area you're assigned. Since the Gulf War the military decided to send people home for the break. While there is still the option to take R&R "locally" (Germany is popular) most people elect to take advantage of the trip to the States. As a result hundreds of people stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait & Qatar come through Kuwait to catch the military charter flights back. These troops are some of the ones we escort as part of our mission. In Kuwait everyone gets some briefings, goes through customs and gets their flight itinerary for their trip. This process takes a full day, although a substantial part of it involves waiting around. In the Army's never ending battle to find something even less desirable than field rations we were supplied "Kit Lunches." These come in two varieties - ham salad and tuna salad.

Click here for photos.

Photo 1 shows and example. They're not as good as they look... :-)

From here everyone catches flight to one of several locations. In my case it was Dallas where we went through immigration and had our leave orders stamped which is when the 15 days start. I'd really like to comment about the reception we got at the airport. There's a group of people who have decided they were going to greet everyone coming or going to the mid east, and besides welcoming everyone back they made sure everyone got to the right shuttle bus for whatever terminal they needed to go to, provided goody bags in case anyone was hungry and generally did what they could to make everyone feel welcome and appreciated. It's not just a beer commercial - they really do clap when you come through the terminal. They were also there to see us off on the return trip.

I didn't take very many pictures during R&R, but I sure enjoyed myself. Karen took time off and we didn't make any major plans so we had plenty of time to relax even with the little things that needed to be done around the house. My Mom & Dad came by for a nice visit and we had the chance to see several friends. I went by the armory and work to say "Hi!" and generally tried to take in all the changes in Phoenix over the last year. (The new Cardinals Stadium is clearly in contention for the ugliest structure on earth!) We also went out and shot a match at South Mountain. I was a little concerned about how I would do since I hadn't shot a match since January, but I ended up with a 466 out of 500, which while it was not as good as I would like, was better than I expected (I think the service rifle winner shot a 469 on this one.)

Photo 2 shows Whiskey and myself relaxing, which was pretty typical of my time off.

We also decided to make a spur of the moment purchase when we saw a plasma TV that we had been looking at for a while at a good price. They're really gone down in the last year. Of course we needed to upgrade the sound system as well so we ended up with a nice little Bose system. We've actually been planning on getting something like this for quite a while, so the spur of the moment part was the getting it right now. It took almost a week to get it installed, but we bought the TV then the sound system a couple of days later, so I really installed it about 3 times....

Photo 3 shows Karen enjoying a concert video while cleaning her rifle after the previously mentioned match. We really like it!

Before we knew it the time had come for me to head back to Kuwait... The time has been passing quickly this last year and we know the next several months will fly by, but it still was tough leaving.

Photo 4 shows me and Fly as I was getting ready to go to the airport. The trip back was long! We flew in a 757 which doesn't have the range of the L1011 we flew home in. As a result we stopped in Gander Canada, Shannon Ireland, and Budapest Hungary to refuel on the way back. While each stop gave us a chance to stretch our legs (except for Budapest where they didn't let us off the plane) they each added about an hour and a half to the trip. End result was we touched down a Kuwait City International Airport 31 hours after we left. While waiting to head back to the LSA Ali Al Salem we were visited by the kitten featured in Update #10. He's done well at the airport and has adopted the MP's. (Photo 4) shows him sitting on a gun truck keeping an eye on things.

So now I'm back at work. While I was gone our unit reporting structure was changed. We originally reported to the 377th Theater Support Command. After several months with them a Personnel Services Battalion was assigned to the area and we were reporting through them for reasons that no one that I've ever talked to understands. While I was on R&R we were realigned to answer to the 93rd Movement Control Battalion (I think) which at least is a Military Police organization. From a day to day standpoint this doesn't really change what we do, but we will probably pick up some new missions. This is a good thing, since being busy keeps morale up and makes time go by.

Photo 5 shows Sgt Petersen with a flag that his daughter's day care did for him. I thought it was kind of original.

Photo 6 - yes, we still hoard ammo...

Photo 7 - Waiting around the LSA for a mission. Left to right standing is Sgt Jimenez, Spc Almandarez and Spc Sather. Sitting on the HMMWV is Sgt Stephen son and Sgt Farnsworth. In case everyone is not sufficiently confused, we work at the LSA which is attached to Ali Al Salem Air Base. This area consists of temporary housing and facilities for troops moving in and out of theater and replaces Camp Doha facilities where we used to be assigned. We actually live at Camp Virginia a few miles up the road.

Photo 8 - Since we don't have a lot of buildings at the LSA there's a cam net that's used for shade. Now that it's cooling down it's not as brutal as it used to be out in the sun, but shade is still a good thing.

Photos 9, 10 and 11 - This is the exchange area at Camp Virginia. In photo 9 you can see the post Chapel, the barber shop, tailor and a jewelry store. Photo 10 shows what serves as a food court with a snack shop, Pizza and Subway. Photo 11 shows the Exchange trailer and the Internet Cafe. The gym and theater are in this general area as well.

2005-08-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Moving Day

I hope everyone is doing well. Things are moving along here... we finally moved so we're now living at Camp Virginia. Of course, it's not marked on any maps so it's rather difficult to tell you exactly where it is without giving grid coordinates, which I'm not going to do. :-) It's almost in the center of Kuwait straight west from Doha. The camp is kind of interesting - at the moment we have US Army & Navy, Korean Army, Japanese Army, El Salvadoran Army and Croatian Army here. We're right next to the Koreans. The Japanese are on the other end of the camp as Koreans and Japanese aren't exceptionally fond of each other - something to do with the "East Asian Co Prosperity Sphere." There's actually relatively few troops here right now, but that will change in a few more months when the OIF 4 cycle starts.

As far as the camp itself goes, this is a case of looks being deceiving. For all its spartan appearance, Camp Virginia is turning out to be quite a bit nicer than Camp Doha. We're in tents rather than conexes here, but since the tents are air conditioned it's not any less comfortable and we end up with a little more space. We have all the Exchange store vendors and MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) stuff here, plus the food is better. The don't have treadmills in the gym here, but it has cooled off enough that running outside in the morning is comfortable, and it turns out that running around the perimeter is about 3 1/2 miles which just happens to be the distance I like for my running. While most of our work is out on the roads of Kuwait, we're now basing our operations out of a small camp at Ali Al Salem Air base about 15 minutes drive from here so we have access to all their facilities as well.

I got promoted last month so I've traded in my machine gun for an M16 and am now riding inside the HMMWV instead of on top. I'm acting team leader right now on the team I've been on (Sgt Petersen being out for a minor operation for a couple of weeks.) Once the dust settles I'll be taking over my own team. This will probably happen next month. Between now and then I have my R&R trip home starting next week so I'll be getting a 15 days break. I'll probably have some pictures of the trip for the next update.

Speaking of pictures, I don't have as many as usual this month, but what I have is available for your viewing pleasure here:

Photo 1 - Doha panorama

We were lined up to take some R&R troops to the airport and I took this panoramic photo. The left hand side is front. If you double click on the picture in the slide show it will open full size and using the horizontal scroll bar gives you a pretty good perspective of the camp. To the front you see two other gun trucks waiting to start. As you scroll right you can see the baggage truck and a couple busses lined up and the warehouse (bldg 8) that used to be the gym. Continuing to the right is bldg 7 where we operated out of at Doha where the other HMMWV is parked. (Oh yeah, if anyone ever wondered HMMWV stands for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. Based on my experience so far, they can have the damn things - I like the old jeeps better!) Continuing to scroll right can see the communications center (the big antennas) and several more warehouses. Most of these have now been returned to the Kuwaitis but were used as barracks and the chow hall before. Finally you see the some of the modular housing that was also used as barracks. They've been removing these over the past couple of weeks. All of the open paved area used to be covered with them.

Photo 2 - Packed

We moved up here by teams so Chris Sather and myself checked out of Doha on our day off. Here's our vehicle all packed and ready to go by bldg 11 where we had been staying.

Photo 3 & 4 - Camp Virginia

Here are a couple of photos of the center of camp as seen from our tents. As you can see dust is a problem here.

Photo 5 - Tents

These are out new homes. As you can see we have some heavy duty air conditioning. These tents are smaller than the ones we were in at Ft Dix, but we have fewer people in each one. Most tents have either six or seven people which gives everyone a comfortable amount of space.

Photo 6 & 78 - Moving In

Tents always look rough when you first get into them as you can see here. However once you move in and decide where to put things it becomes home very quickly. You can see the air conditioning duct in these photos - it gets downright windy in these! All the tents also have 120 volt power run to them so lighting and comfort items like computers, music and video games are no problem.

Photo 8 Fancy Outhouse

On the downside, no indoor plumbing, but we have these luxury porta johns... They have running water and everything so it's not as bad as it looks - kind of outdoor indoor plumbing. :-)

Photo 9 - Me again

We have a temporary Operations Center until they move the real one to Ali Al Salem. This is where all our missions are coordinated.

2005-07-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

Summer

It's definitely summer now. I've seen the exposed thermometer at 140 degrees. And I thought 122 in Phoenix was hot! Our first run of the day it's usually between 120 and 130. If you're interested in how it feels to be riding a gun truck in this heat take a blow dryer, turn it on max heat and point it at your face for 45 minutes or so!

We're still at Doha, although there are actually starting to be some signs that we may be moving soon. Since the camp at Ali Al Salem air base still isn't finished, it looks like we'll be going to Camp Virginia at least until it is. It wouldn't surprise me if we just stayed there once we go.

I've posted some more pictures here:

Photo 1 - Tower
This is the control tower at Kuwait City International Airport. It pretty much dominates the landscape in the area. I like the emergency escape ladder on the side. I don't think I would want to have to use it. It appears to just lead to a platform that I assume a ladder truck can access.

Photo 2 - Baby truck
There's a lot of interesting vehicles in the middle east, and a lot of theme are smaller than we're use to seeing. This delivery truck is an example. There's also vans that aren't much larger than a Honda Civic. Most impressive is how they load the little pickup trucks with sheep are goats - they actually stack them. It looks really strange when the hit a speed bump - The livestock all kind of
hops. I've never seen one fall out though.

Photo 3 - Kiel with Kitten
This poor stray hangs out at the bus yard at the airport, and is pretty scrawny looking. Barry Kiel, who is a real animal lover coaxed it out from the stack of pallets it lives in and shared an MRE with it. The kitten really seemed to enjoy it.

Photo 4 - Red Legs
OK, we're an artillery unit. They can train us as MP's. They can send us over here without our howitzers. But we're still an artillery unit. Once these guys got the hang of it, there were several attempts to lob a water balloon onto a bus. The Fire Direction Center still needs work, though...

Photo 5 - Spades
Another way of killing time, Spades is a popular game in all the services.

Photo 6 - Chess
I think everyone had gotten burned out on video games, so the old standbys always reappear. Chess has come on so strong that a tournament has started. The unit even bought a chess set to be the prize. Several of us have gotten travel sets as well, since we sometimes have to wait for quite a while to pick up our convoys. It certainly helps make the time pass, and exercises your brain as well.

Photo 7 - Dusty Road
I haven't been able to catch a photo of the blowing dust that really does it justice. This was take on the route from Ali Al Salem back to Doha while traveling at about 60 mph. The dust and sand here doesn't act the same as in Phoenix. It reminds me more of drifting snow than anything else, and the dunes build up exactly like snow drifts and just as fast. Along some sections of road you can only see the top 6 inches of a 6 foot chain link fence. When it's blowing
like this, is also stings quite bit!

Photo 8 - Cool Red
Never one to take half measures, Red Massaro cools off by sticking his head in an ice chest. I guess it worked, although Red complained of brain freeze...

Photo 9 - Dry Heat
This is why people stick their heads in ice chests... This type of thermometer set up is what the Army uses to determine the heat category which in turn is used to set the work/rest schedule. The top thermometer is exposed to direct sunlight. In case you can't make it out it's reading 137 here. The middle one is shaded, and reads 120. The lower one is the wet bulb that is used to determine
relative humidity. By using the little built in slide rule you determine the heat category. It generally goes off scale here around 8:00 am.

Photo 10 - Bus Driver
This is one of the drivers that that works transporting troops around Kuwait. Most of these guys seem to be Indian, with some Pakistani's and Turks. Almost all the labor in Kuwait is done by people from other countries. This is apparently not uncommon in the oil countries of the middle east, although there are some problems with it. Kuwait is on of the counties that has slave issues in terms of domestic help and manual labor. I'm not sure that it's not more like
indentured servitude that what we in the US think of as slavery, but the effect is the same. Most of the people working like this send much of whatever they make to their families wherever they come from.

Photo 11 - Haji Water
This is one of the truck drivers that work with us. Unlike the bus drivers, most of the truck drivers are Muslim. All of the drivers load up on water every time we stop at one of the bases. We tease them about taking so much water and ask if they're selling it. This gentleman is wearing a thobe, a garment that Americans here refer to as a man dress. While I'm not likely to convert to this style of
dress myself, I have to admit that it sure makes sense in this environment. We see a lot of these, as well as the traditional Arab head dress called a ghutra. I don't have any photos of women for a couple of reasons. The first is that the only women we ever see aside from foreign workers are traveling in cars, and secondly it's would be considered quite offensive to take a picture of them if I
did have the opportunity. Most women here wear an abaya, which is a long outer garment that covers the entire body as well as a hajib which serves as both a veil and a shawl covering the hair and often most of the face. Kuwait is one of the more progressive countries in the middle east and does not require women to wear an abaya or chador like Saudi Arabia does, but I get the impression that it if far more comfortable for a woman to wear them here even if not required. As progressive as Kuwait is, women were not granted the right to vote here till last month, and seem to have limited work opportunities.

Photo 12 - Warning
Another sign photo. We really mean it when we say restricted area around here.

Photo 13, 14, 15 - The gym
I finally got around to taking some pictures of the gym. The one we had before was huge, but they closed it down and moved most of the equipment out. This one was put together for us until we leave, and is still pretty nice, although it gets kind of hot at times. In addition to the free weights and weight machines, there's a cardio area with treadmills, rowing machines, stair steppers, etc. There's also a basketball court and a floor exercise area.

2005-06-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

Sights around town

Things are starting to warm up now, we've broken 120 every day this week. The highest I've seen on post is 126, although one of the teams reported 130 on the road today. It's not bad if you don't mind standing in an over, although the temperature drops considerably in the shade. I check it on my way to the gym at a thermometer stand the medical people use to determine what the heat index is so I think it's an accurate temperature. It's still pretty tolerable at night, though.

Since the photo update seemed pretty popular last time, I'll do it again. Follow along here:

This has not been a great month for picture taking, so I apologize if they're a little boring!

Photo #1 - Halo2
Since there's not much to do here when we're not on missions video games are popular. The all time winner seems to be HALO 2, which is a war game where the object appears to be to go after bad guys (aliens so as not to offend anyone.) It also can be set up so several people can play against each as in this picture. It seems to be pretty addictive judging by the amount of time people can spend on it. Personally I'm old fashioned and spend most of my spare time reading.

Photo #2 - Camels
Have you ever met a camel? If you have the opportunity, don't - they're nasty, smelly, mean and don't make good pets. They are, however a part of the desert out here so I kind of feel obligated to include a picture of one once in a while. All the local camels are of the one hump variety - I guess the two hump camels are in the African desert. Goats and sheep seem to be the other domestic animals in abundance here, although I've seen a couple of horses and mules as well.

Photo #3 - Feeding Frenzy
Once in a while we get MWR packages (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) which are large boxes of various goodies, books, hygiene supplies, games, and whatever else people can think of. These are sent to the unit rather than any one person and can attract quite a crowd. I'm impressed that people are still taking the time and effort to put these together and send them to us given the war has been going for 3 years now. It certainly helps morale to get these.

Photo #4 - Soon to be new home
We're supposed to be moving to Ali Al Salem this supper in preparation for closing Camp Doha down. They haven't completed our new camp yet so we're still here. I'm kind of surprised actually. They didn't finish Camp Tiger at Ft Dix and that never stopped them from sending us out there! These will be our now living quarters. At this point any missions up north seem to be on hold till we get relocated.

Photo #5 - Post Exchange
This will be our new Exchange. It's not open yet although the chow hall is. They get some kind of exchange in place very quickly since that's the only place to get soap, etc. To start with there will probably be only essentials and junk food. It will probably grow pretty quickly. Some people are a bit cynical about the exchange services, but I'm impressed. These people aren't making huge bucks, yet they come out here to support us. They're just as likely to be on the receiving end of a rocket or mortar attach as the military.

Photo #6 - Tents
These tents are where the people passing through Kuwait will stay. We have lots of people transit through that need someplace to stay till they can catch a plane to wherever. The tents work well, and are actually pretty comfortable being air conditioned and all. They have shower trailers nearby as well.

Photo #7 - Lightning F53
This plane is a static display at Ali Al Salem. It took me a while to figure out what it is, but it turns out it's a British made Lightning F53. The Kuwaiti Air force used these for several years in the 1960's. They were eventually replaced by Mirage F1's. The Kuwaitis now use American made F/A18's. It's kind of a weird looking airplane, isn't it?

Photo #8 - Rifle Rack
The driver's office of our HMMWV. The Army has rifle clips installed in these that just barely work, and make it next to impossible to get the rifle quickly, so the M-16 resting on the dash is where it lives when we're out and about. You can also see the luxury appointments of the vehicle. OK, I'm sure the civilian Hummer has more bells and whistles, but based on my experience I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would spend $50000 + on one!

Photo #9 - Sign
Apparently not everyone in the Middle East hates us.

Photos #10 and 11 - ZPU-1
This is a Soviet made antiaircraft gun left by the Iraqis during the Gulf War. It's just about obsolete since it's optically sighted and manually tracked, but you wouldn't want to get hit by the 14.5 mm round it fires in any kind of aircraft. These are very effective against helicopters, although the gun on the Apache has more range and is more accurate. Being a gun buff it is kind of neat being able to check one out up close.

Photo #12 - Revetment
Another veteran of the Gulf war. When the Iraqis occupied Kuwait they of course captured all of the military bases. After shooting several of the Kuwaiti Officers at Ali Al Salem the proceeded to move into the base. These revetments are made of several feet of reenforced concrete and are designed to protect from a near miss. Every one on the base has a similar hole in it from a laser guided 2000 lb bomb courtesy of the US Air Force.

2005-05-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

3 Man Teams again

We can tell summer is around the corner as it's starting to warm up. We're starting to break 100 during the days now, and it stays in the 80's and 90's at night. The big surprise is that the humidity is high since we're right off the Arabian Gulf ( I guess it's not called the Persian Gulf any more...)

Things have been going well, we're back in our three man teams now and the mission load is keeping us busy, but not so bad that we don't get a break once in a while.

I've posted a fresh selection of photos here:

Just to try something different, I'm going to write about the pictures so you may want to open them in your web browser to follow along... Let me know if you like this approach or not.

The first photo is of Camp Doha at about 6:00 am. This is not a dust storm, it's the result of a nice breeze. The dust here is a lot finer than the Phoenix variety - almost like talcum powder - and it hangs in the air forever. I took this one morning walking back from the chow hall to my room.

Photo #2 - Doc & Friend
This is "Doc" MacDonald - one of our medics. All medics and corpsmen are known as "Doc." There's a law somewhere. Doc MacDonald comes to us from the British Army and is quite the character. His accent is strong enough the when he starts talking fast I can only understand about half of what he's saying. His friend is a training dummy that he pulled out to help keep our Combat Life Savers trained and up to speed. Doc makes sure we get regular practice at starting IV's and basic trauma care. The dummy may or may not have been a good idea as it was found in the strangest places/poses for about a week. You can trust soldiers to fine the entertainment value of just about anything. (Like when some well meaning soul sent some mouse traps in a care package. They got lots of use, none of which actually involved catching rodents. Everyone is still careful reaching for stuff in boxes...)

Photo #3 - Getting Ready
Yours truly in one of our up armored HMMWV's. We had the opportunity to take a convoy escort live fire course to pick up the latest lessons learned from up north. This was a 3 day course in north western Kuwait within a few miles of the Iraqi border. As you can see, we mounted the .50 caliber machine gun for the occasion and of course I had my SAW. No, that isn't a blank firing adapter on the SAW muzzle - it's a plastic shoot off cap that helps keep dust and dirt out of the weapon. The rest of the pictures in this update are from that trip.

Photo #4 - Bone Yard (photo by Red Massaro)
Part of the route we took was known as "The Highway of Death" in the 1992 Gulf War. As the Iraqis were driven from Kuwait, they were highway bound and clustered. This provided a huge target for Air Force and Navy Air. Most of the military equipment the Iraqis brought to Kuwait ended up as burned wreckage on the side of this road. The road has since been repaired, but the equipment was pushed into large yards and left. This one has primarily trucks and antiaircraft artillery in it.

Photo #5 - Tents
These are the tents we used as classrooms and slept in the first night we were out. They're heavy canvas and waterproofed with paraffin so they're pretty much a no smoking area. Since they are semi permanent they have air conditioners which makes them a lot more comfortable.

Photo #6 - Tent Interior
Well lit and reasonably clean (it is the desert, after all) here we have Red and SSgt Grant setting up their cots as we were moving in. In order to make the best use of the weather, we did our classroom work after dark and most of the field work from the early morning till maybe 1:00 pm. That way we avoided having to work in the hottest part of the day. It was considerably drier and warmer than Doha. You may have noticed that it's almost impossible to get a photo of Red where he's not hamming it up.

Photo #7 - Barbecue
Just so no one thinks we had it too rough, we had a nice little barbecue after class. By dark it cooled down nicely, and while every insect in Kuwait was attracted to the fire, it was still a nice break.

Photo #8 - Sgt Farnsworth
...firing the .50. This was the stationary range work where we fired from the vehicle mounts while parked. I took several photo's of people firing the .50 and this was the only one that I managed to catch the brass casing being ejected from the weapon. (Try it sometime - it's tricky catching it!) The .50 is a popular weapon. It was designed in WWI although it didn't see action till WWII. Audie Murphy won his Medal of Honor holding off a German attack for an hour firing one of these from a burning ammo truck. They've been used in both ground and air applications and are still in wide service today. I guess that's what you call a good design!

Photo #9 - Grenadier
Me firing the Mk 19 grenade machine gun at the stationary range. (I didn't get many pictures from the moving part of this course.) This thing is a lot of fun, and while the army is using it in a lot of applications where they used to use the .50 I don't think it will completely replace it. There are two types of 40mm grenade launchers in use - the Mk 19 and the M-203. The M203 hangs underneath an M16 rifle and uses a shorter range grenade than the Mk 19. With these two weapons we used training ammo instead of the real stuff since the full power grenades tend to destroy the targets, strangely enough.... The M203 practice round (called a smurf round since it's blue, white and harmless) gives off a cloud of red chalk when it hits so you can see it. The Mk 19 training round is basically a flash bang like swat teams use. Since it's range is so great you wouldn't be able to see the chalk round. When we really mean it we use an HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) round that in addition to being a grenade is capable of penetrating two inches of steel armor. Kind of handy...

Photo #10 - Night Watch
A 3:00 am self portrait. I'm using the PVS-14 starlight scope which provides excellent visibility at night, even with no moon. An amusing side note was that Red was standing this particular watch with me, and it startled the daylights out of him when I took the picture since a flash was necessary. (Yes, the eye behind the scope was closed so as not to be blinded by the flash!)

Photo #11 - Hazy Sunrise (photo by Red Massaro)
This was the morning of the third day. I really like this photo since it shows how barren the northern Kuwaiti desert is.

Photo #12 - Regulator (photo by Red Massaro)
Red posing with the artwork on one of the gun trucks. If he looks a little tired, it's because he was fighting off camel spiders all night. Personally I find the camel spiders something of a disappointment. They remind me of the scorpion spiders back in Phoenix. A little bigger, maybe, but nothing to get excited about. Red, on the other hand, was pretty concerned that they were going to make a meal of him at night, a worry that wasn't improved when he woke up to find two of them staring at him...

Photo #13 - Almost Rollin (photo by Red Massaro)
Another look at the up armored HMMWV's that we're using. These are made with the bolt on "after market" kits and are not as fancy as the new ones being sent out directly from the factories, but they're effective. This photo was taken as everyone was getting loaded up the third morning to go to the convoy course.

Photo #14 - Lined Up
Getting ready to enter the course - Two .50 cal gun trucks, followed by the SAW and finally the Mk 19. The order wasn't written in stone and we changed it up for some of the exercises. We actually spread out over a half mile to simulate the spacing between gun trucks we have for a real convoy.

Photo #15 - On the Road
This is the only picture taken during the convoy escort portion of the course. We were the #2 vehicle which meant we got to engage most of the targets. In the haze up ahead you can see an overpass - we even had targets on top of it to deal with. This was an excellent course, but I'm somewhat limited in the amount of detail I can share about it. Suffice to say I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the weapons training we've had over here. From my OIF II sources I wasn't expecting much (yes, I mean you, Derrick!)

Photo #16 - POW Camp
Another Gulf War leftover, this was a POW camp used by the Kuwaitis. Much of the Gulf War stuff is still out in the countryside. Kuwait seems to consist of Kuwait City, northern oil fields, and a whole lot of desert that's been used in various wars. Given the excess room, I guess they don't feel the need to clean up these areas.

Photo #17 - Camp
This was shortly after wake up on the third day - 4:55 am. We had slept the previous night next to our vehicles, and it was a beautiful night out. Strangely enough, it reminded several of us of home! When we drill out in Florence as artillery we sleep out in the open like this, only with camouflage nets up. It's funny how the strangest things can remind you of home.

Photo #18 - Cleanup
Karen sent me a picture of her cleaning her AR-15 a while back so I decided I had to respond in kind. This was the evening of the second day out. As a gunner you get used to being on top of the HMMWV so it just becomes natural to stay up there when we're stopped. It's also not a bad place to clean a gun since you're out of the dust (mostly)!

(Video)

2005-04-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

Loads

Gee, it's already time for another update! We've been pretty busy since the update so time has flown by. In addition to our usual workload we've had people starting to go on R&R and have sent some more people to help out in Qatar, plus doing some training. This last month there were several trips to the range to qualify on the M16 and the M9 Pistol as well as practicing with the SAW and the .50 cal machine gun. We have some more trips scheduled for the M203 and Mk 19 grenade launchers as well.

We've also been doing promotion boards and coming up this month I'm due to re qualify as a Combat Lifesaver (which means I have to show them I still can start an IV) and we'll be running the battery through a convoy escort live fire course. I've been asked to help out with setting this course up, a task that I'm really looking forward to. The range facilities are actually pretty good.

For lack of any major news, I thought I'd describe what I typically carry on an escort mission. This varies a little with the specific mission we're on, but in general we start out with our IBA or Interceptor Body Armor. This is the flak vest you see everyone wearing in pictures from the region. It consists of soft body armor and two SAPI plates (Small Arms Protective Insert) made of a ceramic that will stop a .30 caliber bullet. Contrary to popular belief, most bullet proof vests aren't, really - they work with pistol rounds, but aren't much use for rifle. The vest has additional collar, throat and groin protectors that are a little uncomfortable, but I wear anyway since I figure they don't do you any good if you're not using them. The vest combined with the SAPI plates weighs about 35 pounds, so it takes a little getting used to. It's also kind of warm, but since I'm working nights it's not been too bad as of yet. Attached to the vest I have my first aid packet, and a drum of 200 rounds of ammo for the SAW both on the left side, and a couple of miscellaneous pouches on the right. In these I have my GPS, reading glasses, sun glasses, Surefire flashlight, pens, spoons, and a 30 round M16 magazine, cellphone and/or hand held radio. I also carry a notepad, a couple of the LED flashlights, knife, butane lighter and camera. In my mini ruck sack I bring an MRE (just in case) as well as some fruit, trail mix, pretzels etc. to keep me going, an extra 100 round drum for my SAW, gloves, stocking cap, neck gaiter and scarf (for the sand) with my Gortex field jacket attached to the outside. Since we're normally in vehicles we carry a couple of cases of water. We also wear our improved model kevlar helmets with goggles. And finally I normally have my M249 SAW with another 100 round drum loaded. (Red usually carries an extra 200 round drum for me as well. You think we like having ammo for the machine gun?) The end result of this is I'm usually wearing about 45 pounds of gear, and carry about another 20 pounds. Interestingly enough, this is actually traveling light since we put a lot of our gear in the vehicles.

We also all have our ruck sacks packed with enough for a week out. Hygiene supplies, clean uniform, cold and wet weather gear (known as snivel gear) and all the weird little things you somehow decide you can't do without. They get put in the HMMWV's along with more ammo, MRE's, tools, radio's, etc.

2005-03-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Settled in

We're starting our third month in Kuwait now, and things have slowed down a little. Much of the escort work we've been doing is for units rotating out from Iraqi Freedom 2, and most of those units are now back home. We have a couple of stragglers and we have R&R and emergency leave people coming through, but the workload is down quite a bit at the moment. At the same time we've reorganized into two man teams since the threat level has gone down. This allows us to cover more of the local missions and still be able to have an off day each week. I'm a team lead now with "Red" Massarro as my driver. As they reshuffle the missions we will probably reassemble into our three man teams, which is really the way we like to operate.

Since my last update we've had yet another gear issue - one more and they'll have to issue each of us a truck to carry it all around. ;-) Seriously, we got some cool stuff. The biggest deal is the "Advanced Combat Helmet" which is a new and improved kevlar helmet that a pound or so lighter that the old one with a much better suspension system that makes it a lot more comfortable to wear. It also looks less like the WWII German helmet... A couple of sets on new desert boots, another Camelbak, Wiley X sunglasses, EAS goggles, a polypro cold weather suit (known as a bear suit) which is the second one of those they've issued us. I guess it's for those sub 100 days...

They've also moved us into luxurious 2 man rooms (actually conex containers.) They're small but comfortable, and provide us with a place to keep all our stuff. As always you can see my latest photos here:

In other news the Army is planning on closing Camp Doha down in a few months, so we'll be moving probably to Ali Al Salem Air Base sometime before then. We expect our mission set to change some at that point to include convey escorts up into Iraq and probably some security work in the Mosul area. All of this is still in the works so as is usual I expect several changes in plan. We've also heard that our brigade back in Arizona has been alerted to provide another RAOC and Security Force unit for September timeframe. It's nice to know they're working on our replacements. ;-)

All in all, things are being pretty quiet. Hope everyone is doing well.

2005-02-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Camp Doha

We're about as settled in as we're likely to get here at Camp Doha, so I figured I would take some time to describe a little what it's like here... First of all, if you find a map of Kuwait, Camp Doha is located (strangely enough) in Doha, a seaport slightly north of Kuwait City off the Arabian Gulf. The terrain and countryside is not unlike southern Arizona. Even the temperatures have been within a couple degrees of Phoenix since I've been here. Most of my view of the country has been from the vantage point of the turret of a gun truck, which actually is a pretty good seat. I'm beginning to understand why dogs like riding in the back of pickup trucks so much. The parts of the country I've seen so far are cleaner than most middle eastern countries I've been to before. While there is litter evident, the Kuwaitis make some effort to clean it up. The air is a little polluted (see pictures) which is not surprising considering this is an oil economy. For comparisons sake it's worse than Phoenix, but better than Mexico. We live right next door to the local power plant so when the wind comes from the wrong direction we tend to notice the smoke, but it's tolerable. There's a lot of open space here, and the Kuwaiti's seem to really enjoy camping this time of year. Driving around we see lots of large tents - house size - surrounded by neon lights mounted vertically. Some of these are beduin and some are campers, but I haven't yet been able to figure out which is which. It's dazzling at night, with green and blue lights being a very popular combination. It makes travel a little interesting since the locals enter and leave the highway where ever it suites them. The good news is that once they're on the road they actually are pretty good drivers. It does get pretty exciting once in a while, though! One of the routes we travel on takes us by a collection of roadside "haji shops" right after the merging of two highways. People stop, back up, dive into traffic and just generally go crazy there - we try to get to the left lane as fast as possible when we pass by. :-)

*** Note: "Haji" is the term frequently used by American Forces in reference to the locals. The hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are supposed to take once in their lives, a haji being one that has made the pilgrimage, and is considered a term of respect. While it's probably not always used respectfully, it's not a derogatory term. We reserve those for special occasions. :-) ***

I have yet to see a sand storm here yet, but I expect that they must be spectacular. When it gets any kind of windy here sand and dust seems to just hang in the air. It almost looks like a haze it's so fine, but it gets into everything. This being the rainy season it's not a problem at the moment, but I can see it coming.

Now for a little more of a description of what we're doing at the moment. Our Battery is divided into 4 platoons plus a headquarters and operations platoon. Each platoon has it's own mission. The major missions we have right now are convoy escorts around Kuwait, Security in Qatar, and a border security mission on the Iraqi/Kuwaiti border. My platoon (4th) is assigned to the convoy mission. A lot of troops enter and leave southwest Asia through here and we provide armed escort from the various airfields to and from Doha, which is used as a transportation hub. We're keeping busy since the Army is in the middle of the transition from Iraqi Freedom II to Iraqi Freedom III. We aren't limited to Army though, we handle all the services as well as Dept. of Defense civilians for the whole area. This is not necessarily what I'll be doing the whole time I over here - we'll be picking up new things as the situation dictates. For the most part these missions are uneventful, but we know that the insurgents in Iraq are trying to reach into Kuwait because of all the supply routes. Unlike many countries in the middle east, Kuwait is active in identifying and arresting militants which makes our jobs easier. I'm not sure how it was covered back home, but since the Iraqi elections there seems to be a lot of optimism. Now the Shiites and Sunnis are even beginning to talk to each other. It certainly doesn't mean things are wrapping up yet, but it's a good start.

I'm working night shift at the moment - 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM. We generally get one day a week off, although if it's busy that's not always the case. On the other hand, if we have a light evening we can get chores done and relax a little bit. Since most of the facilities on base are either open 24 hours or have evening hours there's very little inconvenience involved being on nights.

View from near the front gate of Camp Doha. We live right next to the power plant in a building similar to the warehouses you can see in the foreground.

2005-01-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

We’re here

Well, we're here... The trip wasn't anywhere as tedious as I expected - we had a two hour stop in Ireland which broke things up nicely... Anyway, we've been at Camp Doha in Kuwait for about a week now, and I've gotten to the point that I more or less know my way around. Internet access is available at a little internet cafe, but the lines get pretty long so I will probably be checking weekly as opposed to daily. Fortunately the phone exchange is more accessible if more expensive, so I can at least stay in touch. Other than that there's a nice exchange, several shops, an outstanding gym, Pizza, Subway, you name it. Doha is one of the transit hubs for SW Asia so it's pretty well set up.

Since we've been here we've been going on missions with the unit we replace to get the feel for things. Right now our missions include convoy escorts and VIP protection, but that seems to be a pretty dynamic thing at the moment since everyone that has heard there's a new unit in wants us to take on something of theirs. I suspect this is pretty standard.

The attached picture shows PFC Chris Granado and myself getting ready to leave on our first mission. This actually may have been the first mission in the unit since we weren't supposed to start for another day, but the opportunity came up, so we took it. Because of operational security I won't be more specific than to say it was a convoy escort mission and was uneventful. As you can probably imagine the group we're relieving is extremely happy to see us and as helpful as they can be.

For those who have emailed I haven't forgotten you! My email is uploaded now so I will be able to respond off-line and send replies out the next time I connect.

2004-12-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

Field Training

We're back out of the field now and waiting to fly out (probably next week, though we're not sure yet). Our last month has been spent at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Tiger doing collective task training. I've attached a picture of the FOB I took one morning as we were lining up to go train. We lived in the tents visible in the background.

I've already described our first month where we concentrated on individual tasks, this month we did team, squad and platoon level training. We started out with stuff like responding to an ambush, dealing with minefields, responding to indirect (like mortar) fire and casualty evacuation, then moved on to performing attacks, urban operations, building clearing, and dealing with civilians on the battlefield. Not only do we train in how to deal with various situations, we also train on making the proper radio reports on everything. We have the help of civilian "OPFOR" that sometimes are good guys, sometimes bad guys and sometimes victims. This helps us learn the right responses and using the appropriate levels of force. Our platoon has done a good job of not engaging when we're not supposed to, and engaging rapidly when the situation calls for it. These guys will try to get you to shoot them when you shouldn't. Better to learn that lesson in training that in the real world.

Most of our training the second week was in infantry tactics and tasks that are some of the fundamentals for the Military Police mission, but overall we concentrate on the MP tasks. The last couple of weeks have been primarily convoy and VIP protection, with a couple of breaks to do some more live fire. This time we were shooting from moving vehicles at targets set up at various ranges. As a gunner I got 300 rounds for the .50 caliber machine gun for one run and 600 rounds for the M-249 (my personal weapon) on the second run. You've got to give the army credit - when it comes to drive-by shootings they don't mess around. :-)

After finishing up our convoy training we came back to the barracks for a much needed pass. Karen was able to come visit for a few days and we had a nice time. Since I lived in this area for a few years before I moved to Arizona we were able to check out my old stomping grounds. It was a really nice visit, but much too short!

So now our unit is certified and we're all wearing the desert uniforms and ready to go...

2004-11-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Briefings and Weapons Training

Well, we're about a month into the mobilization process and have a little down time so I thought I'd send another update on what we've been up to....

To begin with we spent several days reporting to the armory in Chandler where we inventoried and packed our equipment and personal gear, completed paperwork and went through a seemingly endless number of briefings. Popular themes are family support issues, Iraqi culture and Unexploded Ordinance/Improvised explosive devices. Finally we loaded up on busses in the middle of the night and left from Sky Harbor to Philadelphia. From there we bussed to Fort Dix NJ. We arrived here in the late afternoon on a Saturday and got settled into our barracks. These are set up with 12 man rooms with lockers and bunk bed, so aside from being a little crowded we're comfortable.

Our first week here was spend going over medical, dental and administrative issues to make sure everyone would be getting paid and was healthy enough for the trip. They also started us on our various shot series (I got 7 to start with) with more to come. About the only problems anyone had here were dental, so a few people got to have wisdom teeth pulled. Much to my surprise there has not been an intensive exercise program. We get out maybe three times a week for physical training which may consist of push ups, sit ups, etc., weight lifting and/or running. We also spent more time in briefings on military justice, code of conduct, more UXO/IED and Iraqi culture,ethics, etc.

Week two was spent on Individual Movement Training. This is basically an obstacle course that involves running, crawling, negotiating barricades and shooting (blanks, dammit - they have no sense of adventure!) We also had additional classes on chemical warfare measures and more on unexploded ordinance. We then spent a couple more days doing land navigation training with both map and compass and GPS. This included a couple of practical exercises that were a lot of fun.

Week three started with classes on military subjects like handling Enemy POW's, radio procedures, weapons maintenance, field hygiene, preventative medicine risk assessment and more. Almost all of these had a practical exam involved. We had additional briefings on multiple subjects (referred to as "Death by Powerpoint") and the began our weapons qualification process.

Week four has been almost entirely on the range. We started with M-16 zeroing and qualification on pop up targets from 50 to 300 meters. This was followed by NBC qualification which was pop ups while wearing a gas mask. Finally we had a night shoot where targets would pop up with little red muzzle flash simulators on them and we would try to hit them. No lights and it was pretty dark. Since we were loaded with every third round a tracer it was kind of neat. The next day we went out and zeroed and qualified on the M-249 machine gun (my personal weapon). This was done at ranges out to 400 meters. Next came the .50 caliber machine gun where we shot out to 800 meters. They gave us 294 rounds each on this one and we had a lot of fun with it. Moving right along we qualified on the Mk 19 40mm grenade machine gun out to 1500 meters. Yes, the Army has gun that shoots 350 grenades a minute further than a mile. We finished up the week with 9mm pistol qualification for both day and night. The last couple of days have been used to get people qualified that got "no goes" for whatever reason.

I have no idea what we'll be doing next week... :-)

In general moral is good and while we've had a couple of cold wet days, things have been pretty bearable. It looks like we are going to have a down day on Thanksgiving, but aside from that we will probably be training straight through till we leave. This still looks like mid December still, but I expect things will get rescheduled 4 or 5 times between now and whenever we go.

2004-10-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Ride Begins

So I'm in uniform now with an active Army ID card. Our federal mobilization was reset to October 13, and Arizona added a couple of preparation days so Monday the 11th was our start date. This week has been filled with long days that are not especially busy, but as anyone ever associated with the military knows, no one can leave until every thing is done and checked four of five times. What we really need to do this week is to make sure every one is current on paperwork, get issued some additional equipment, get packed, load the units equipment and weapons and just generally make sure nothing gets forgotten. We've pretty much been working 12 hour days (6:00 am to 6:00 pm) to do this, The platoon I'm in has been able to get our tasks done without any hold ups so we also get to wait around until everyone is ready for the next job.

Click here for pictures:

We'll be flying to Fort Dix NJ Saturday to begin our mobilization training. In addition to the ever popular paperwork, we'll be issued more gear and be getting checked out on our common tasks training, weapons qualifications, and MP tasks. It's expected that we'll be there for about two months before heading off the the "sandbox".

I'm not sure how frequently I'll have access to the net, but I'll try to send updates on a regular basis.