Hot enough?

All I can think is thank god this training is indoors, since its been awfully hot (Cat V days in military terminology, the worst and most dangerous category). My "Flow" (yep, that's how they broke us up, into "flows" (basically 27 per flow, an A-Flow and B-Flow). Not platoons, not squads, not something military sounding, but flows.......) is working on basic electronic foundation stuff. Resistors, capacitors, inductors, AC/DC. I am having flashbacks to end of high school/first year of college, the last time I really thought about this stuff. Luckily its coming back, but you can see that a lot of people struggle with it.



Friday was an "Organization Day". Basically a picnic. In almost 100 degree weather. Lucky us. Though it did allow me to sleep in late (didn't have to show up until 930... a nice switch from the 0530 during a normal day). And we did get out early.



Friday night was definitely interesting. I went to an indoor football game (hey, the tickets were free) then headed a couple of blocks over for the downtown "First Friday." Basically its an event where the businesses downtown stay open, there is street food, different vendors set up and there is music. Very fun (and a very different set of food in my stomach, teriyaki with payaia).

I sampled some more of the local food over the weekend. I hit this place called "Sconyers" and was quite pleased with the BBQ there. They had a big master plate (1/4 chicken, 2 ribs and a healthy scoop of pork and beef BBQ plus sides) that pretty much sent me into a food coma. Good thing I went for a 6 mile run in the morning (wow did that wipe me out as well! 1 liter of water right before and completely drained my camel-back on the run) along the canal here in Augusta. Not as nice as the C&O canal but it is also a more functional canal than that one.

Signal BOLCIII Continues

Tired.... I think that defines me right now. My time is warped to this evil wake-up time (we have to be at the PT field by 0525, which means that I need to be up by 0440 (40 minutes earlier than my 0520 wake-up at BOLC II). PT is trending toward exactly one hour, ending just in time to salute the flag for reveille at 0630. I ran it yesterday (its been almost 18 months since I have led PT... though I did a passable job), a 3.2 mile run around Barnes field. Today was all muscle failure, definitely feeling it later in the day. I passed the PT test on Friday (though I felt really ill taking it... I think I will be refraining from real food the DFAC (Dining Facilities)) with a score of 222 (on a 300 point scale, 180 is passing (60 in each event)) for a while from there, it did not agree with me.

And HOT.... I was so lucky for my BOLC II class, the weather at Benning was so mild and reasonable. But it caught up to me here.... Its 70 degrees when I head out for PT. Staying in the 90's during the day with high humidity. I break out in a sweat walking from my classroom to my car.

We have already started to take tests. I passed our first one, with a staggering 100% (yah me!). I know that they will get harder but its a good start.

I have also started training for this little thing, the German Proficiency Badge.. I think it will look good on my uniform and lets face it, with a german last name like mine it just sounds like something that I want to try for it.

PS, Energy Drinks are interesting. Since I have been so tired I have tried out a few, and one, Rockstar low carb, honest to god made me jittery (though it may have been the combination of the drink I had a bit earlier). I didn't even want to drive, I had to head over to the gym to burn the caffine out of my system.

Signal OBC (Officer Basic Course)/BOLCIII

A long drive home (13 hours... don't think I will ever do that again, but after a bit the lure of my comfy bed called to me). A wonderful relaxing 4 day weekend (some long walks, good meals and seeing my friends and family (and seeing a pretty girl)) I again set off to Georgia for the next phase of my training on Tuesday. 8.6 hours later I was wandering around Ft. Gordon (Augusta GA), first trying to find housing and then to check in with my training unit.
The worst thing was learning that my housing was going to be off base..... way off base (like 16 miles away from the main gate). Going to make the mornings worse since it means getting up so much earlier. The place is a commercial suite place, not too bad but kind of isolated.

Getting to the base for the 0530 check in time was an interesting rush (since I had never made the trip before estimating the time and the traffic on the base (and the ridiculous low speed limits) made it a narrow arrival. My class is 49 Army soldiers (5 women) and 5 international (2 from Kazakhstan, 1 from Turkey, 1 from Lebanon, and one from somewhere around there). LOTS of paperwork today.

And on another note.... SOOOO HUNGRY... they are weighing and taping us tomorrow so I choose to keep the calories down today.... 600 calories.... definitely a fasting day for me. We have to wake up early to make the 0520 time for tomorrow....

Memorial Day

I think that as a soldier this day means more to me than those who haven't served. For a lot of Americans its just another day. But when you put on that uniform (be it my US Army uniform or any of the other services, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines or Navy) and then see classmates head off to war it means a bit more. I haven't kept in touch with everyone I trained with and I continue to hope/pray that nothing has happened to any of those brave men and women, the odds are that if not now, then eventually one of them will pass away.

Its always the saddest part, that the military takes the best of America and that sometimes those brave men and women are sometimes not returned in the same shape (or not returned at all).

I hope that everyone takes a little bit of time to pause and to remember those who have paid the highest price to protect this country. They represent the very best and it was only through their actions and their fellow soldiers that we stand where we are today, able to live freely in the best country in the world.

BOLC II - Last Week and Final Thoughts

So the 7 week adventure/endurance expercise draws to an end.


Equipment has been cleaned and turned in, a whole day is allocated to cleaning weapons, goodbyes are exchanged (though in the standard Army tradition of schools very few will keep in touch). Though you will probably run into them later at other schools or at the oddest places. We had our final release run (4 miles at a 8:45 pace) on Wednesday, met the DCG of the base, and then made sure our paperwork is inline.

BOLC II has been an interesting and frustrating experience. I can understand why the Army added this course. It brings people from all commissioning sources, everything from those with extensive enlisted experience to wet behind the ears straight out of college (and the academy). Everyone comes to their branch with different experiences and this also forces the different branches to mingle (we had pretty much every branch here that has to attend except for Legal) and work with each other to build cohesion as well as cross-train each other. I would say that I came out a stronger soldier, but I think that there are things that they could have done differently that would have further enhanced the leadership building that these new leaders require.

A short 12 hour drive home (HAH!) and then I can relax until Tuesday, when Signal BOLC III starts.

Movies

3 new ones over the weekend and another one on Monday (gotta love getting free from work so early)

• Smart People - I really liked this one. Dark. Smart. Anything that has a book called "You don't know how to read." 4/5
• Leatherheads - Actually more entertaining than I thought it would be. 2.5/5
• 21 - LOTS of fun. I really enjoyed this movie. Though lets not forget that I love Vegas and gambling. And have friends who are gamblers who make a good living.
• Harold and Kumar: Escape from Gitanimo Bay - Entertaining as well. Watched the movie all by myself (no one else in the theater). I love when that happens. I think I enjoyed this more than the first one actually.

Roommates

So as a male (basically 32yo) most of my previous roommates/renters have been women (for the past 3 years). The question to the Internets? Does this hurt me dating-wise? Lets presume that I am pretty indifferent to roommate, as long as the check clears and they are conscientious (clean and not really loud, etc) I can pretty much have anyone. I just tend to go for the first reasonable option and that is just the way that the dice have rolled as of late.

I ask of course since I am in the process of getting a new roomies as the current one is heading toward larger pastures (read NYC).

FOB Living at BOLC II

A more pictorial view post than normal for me. As I have mentioned I attended BOLC II this Spring from April to May 2008. My Company spent 1 week (4 days and 3 nights) at the FOB, while others spent more (the other Company spent 3 weeks out here, heading home on the weekends).

Rows and rows of tents in the admin area. Yes, apparently they actually sprayed something on those first 2 tents (they serve as the TOC, Tactical Operations Centers for the 2 Companies when they are there). There are about 8 tents in a row from this point. As well as a row of "changing tents" (not allowed to change in the sleep tents.... silly rule and not really paid attention to) and shower tents (4 of them, pictures of the insides to follow).

The outside of the Sleeping tents. They are about 50 meters long on the inside and as you can see from the people in the foreground pretty tall as well. There are 3 of them here, 2 for the males of each company and 1 for the females (that is forbidden to men due to some indiscressions in earlier cycles of this course).There are 120 bunk beds in each tent. As you can see its not too bad. It is air conditioned and this is by far the best trip I have ever made to the "field". Everyone is pretty much allowed to set up as they see fit so long as no food is consumed in the area. This too was ignored by a lot of people.
My messy bunk. As you can see I was a smartie and took along a pillow.
This is the MWR/Mess tent. As you can see there are plenty of places to sit as well as a couple of TV's that are hooked up to satellite. AC'd as well.

In addition in the MWR tent we had a bunch of computers along one side.

The shower tent. Plenty of showers (gotta love that during the week). I am a big fan of taking showers in the field. They help me more than sleeping at times. PS those aren't real mirrors, they are polished stainless steel plates.


Not a bad shower. But anything would have been good. This was still better than what I had during OCS (pretty much any phase).

The FOB's parking lot. You can barely make out the guard tower (on of 8 on the FOB) on top of the red CONEX.

Some of the many vehicles that we used during out time at the FOB

BOLC II - Week 6 - Culmination Operations

Monday

A tough PT. For some reason done in ACU's and tennis shoes, not sure why. More Crossfit, I was definitely feeling it later. Then it was prep for movement to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) Victory. We packed our "A" Bags (everything that doesn't go in your rucksack) and loaded them on a LMTV along with the MRE's (34 boxes, 12 per box) and other associated equipment, it made for an impressive pile when we unloaded at the FOB. We also drew our weapons (including the heavier squad and platoon level machine guns). I headed ahead with the equipment (needed to have a supercargo to make sure that it was protected) and then waited, and waited (over 2 hours total) for my platoon to join us at the FOB. After being given a few minutes to settle in to the ginormious "tent" (it had a soft roof and and aluminum siding for the sides) which houses 240 soldiers we were provided our first mission, to man 4 of the towers ringing the base and also staff the ECP (Entry Control Point, the funnel where all vehicles entering and exiting the FOB are inspected while being covered by a tower with a medium MG and several supporting soldiers). Basically had a 2 on, 2 off cycle for the next 12 hours, then at the end everyone had to wake up to conduct an AAR that seemed to go on FOREVER... (Ending around 0115) Pretty much everyone (except for the poor bastards that got the mission for tomorrow morning) just fell into bed.

Tuesday

0415, the nightmare of early awareness continues..... Mission briefing at 0440, then prep for the mission with a departure by 0530. We wandered around to 2 points and combated the evil CIF (Columbus Insurgent Forces... these are some bad ass dudes, armed with the latest in American weaponry and the almost sadistic desire to use it against American forces.. they are members of our own platoon that get volunteered to take us out). Another AAR, then it was my turn to play as a leader, serving as a squad leader. Our mission was a joint mission, us and another one of our Company's platoons. We received the mission of pulling security on the area while other platoon cleared a building. We departed by 1300, after taking care of the usual tasks of preparation. Mission was a complete success and we returned by 1430. After conducting yet another AAR (we really love them) then the people who had held leadership positions were counseled (so that we could get our "GO"s in the graduation requirement. Another short nap and then it was time for dinner at 1700. It was our single hot meal of the day (the other two being either MRE's, whatever pogie-bait (ie, field food... small, high calorie snacks) we have or maybe the "gut truck" during lunch). A quick OPORD (Operational Order) brief about what we would be doing tonight and then I slept until my shift at 0200. Shift ran from 0200-0400, then we were held over until 0530 (just napping in our briefing tent... hard plywood floors). Worst thing is that I broke the mount for my night vision walking to my bed. (just means more paperwork in the end)

Wednesday

Slept until 0945. OPORD brief at 1000. Today I get to be a SAW (M249 Machine Gun) gunner since the person who it is normally assigned to is in a leadership position. We do some rehearsals and prep and then roll out at 1300. This was a convoy operation, with me hanging off the back and poking my weapon out to kill any enemies that dare oppose us, which for some reason they do. We have chow at 1500 and then start planning for the next mission. This time I chose wisely and volunteer to be OPFOR, while the team runs their mission.

Basically they had to inspect a suspect mass grave right around dusk. They did and us OPFOR gave them a good run. Then they reset us, sending us to a new location (full of trenches and barbed wire), and gave the team the new direction. And then I waited, and waited, and waited.... turns out they got lost and wandered around quite a bit. We didn't get back until 1145, and our AAR didn't end until 0120.

Thursday

0515 wakeup. Joy, I get to be a Squad Leader again. On the same basic mission that I had run earlier. Went well except for some comm issues (none of my soldiers decided to bring their radios to formation). Then we collected brass on the site (and boy was there a lot of it). Back to the FOB for more police calls, packing up, doing all the little tasks to reset the site and get ready to depart. We then left early on our 10 Mile Ruckmarch due to concerns about the weather (lots of severe storms were not too far away). Long march at a fairly brisk pace (17 minute miles) with 10 minute breaks every 2.5 miles. Even with no sun and all it was hot.... and muddy (since it was raining). Finally completed it in 3:30. So tired. Then after making sure that everything was settled (weapons in a safe place, etc) we were released around 1900. I had a beer and some taco's and fell asleep by 9..

Friday

Recovery. Late formation at 0800. Then we began weapon cleaning. Everyone is pretty eager to get things done and ready to go. Lots of cleaning, of equipment (everything we have been issued needs to be return). Everyone is in the PT uniform, since we are all pretty beat up. Finally got released for the day at 1730. God my hands are dirty.

A rest weekend

After all the excitement of the past week and in anticipation of our packed week coming up I did nothing this weekend.
Of course some of that was due to Friday night. We decided to have a cook-out to celebrate the birthday of one of Platoon at one of the Infantry guy's places here on base (they had to secure their own housing in anticipation of not having anything available during their OBC (Officer Basic Course) as well as their mandatory Ranger and Airborne schools). Much beer was consumed and we also had plans to make sure that we could safely go downtown (thanks to generous DD's). There was much discussion of the Land Nav test earlier as well as some gossip that I cannot mention out of deference to those involved (there are people reading this who know my last name and that's where discretion and decency comes into play).
All I will say abut the evening is that shots are not my friend.
So after the mandatory rest period I woke up and all of a sudden the power goes off in the barracks. This doesn't bother me too much given how I feel so I go back to sleep. Later, still no power. Even later you can see the workers desperately trying to fix it (basically a wire burned out.... one of the big feeder ones). So I went bowling with a buddy (one lousy game and then a great 160 game... consistency is not my thing in bowling). Then off to the movies.

• What Happens in Vegas - Pretty fun actually. Naturally pretty predictable (its a RomCom after all) but it had its moments. Cameron Diaz still looks good. 3/5
• Vantage Point - I actually liked this movie. It unfolded like an onion, each presentation showing parts of the previous story and incorporating them and also showing hidden meaning to those events that were shown previously. I got the feeling the audience, not so much... they seemed frustrated, since each retelling ended very dramatically. Great cast and over all very entertaining. 4.5/5

After that I puttered around the completely dark barracks, then chatted with my girl for a while late at night. Just as I was getting into so good sleep of course the power returns.... at 043o in the morning.... that would have been fine, except it tripped the fire alarm. Sigh... I can't wait to get out of this hellacious too early in the morning place....

Another late start, a very light lunch then off to the gym. Lifted then did some laps. Its been a long time since I did laps and I was very rusty (and I forgot how good of a workout it is). Obviously I called my Mom (who I also had remembered to send a card too... gotta stay in the good graces). Went out for a fantastic dinner of BBQ at Country's. Then I went for a 4 mile ruck march to break in some new boots (and also learned that a certain pair of socks should not be used for rucking) as well as prep for the 10 mile ruck march on Thursday. Now I am packing and getting ready for a way too exciting day tomorrow.

BOLC II - Week 5 - Day 3-5

Yep, fell behind. That's the thing that happens when you get busy.
Wednesday
A five mile platoon sized run. At a little less than 9 minute mile pace. Not too bad and definitely had its effect on me. Classes for another couple of hours as we went over what we would be doing at the FOB (Forward Operating Base) next week during our culmination exercise (things like inspecting vehicle, manning the towers, etc).
Then it was off for convoy operations. We distributed 30 members of the platoon between 4 HMMV's and 2 HMET (big trucks, replacements for the 2 1/2 ton and 5 ton trucks) while peeling off the remainder to act as OPFOR (Opposing Force). Then, while civilian drivers went down the road we performed a convoy, dismounting at certain points to handle incidents. It took a while and was hot, and of course I was a simulated kill the first iteration (the second was too horrific to talk about). Pretty good training.
Thursday
More Crossfit. This time it was moving tires (basically squats), medicine ball sit-ups, stretcher lunges and this weird move with a sandbag that appears to be derived from kettle balls. Then we headed out for Land Navigation training. We were paired up, given a map and 6 points and given 4 hours to complete the task. Wow it was hot out there. We found our points after a bit of wandering around and eventually got back in time for lunch.
Friday
Now for the kicker. Woke up at 0250 (yes, a time that normally I consider a late bedtime, not a time to wake up). Apparently they really like waking us up early on Fridays. Formation and then off to the land nav course for the test. The standard is that you are provided 8 points, spread over a 2x4 km grid, and must find 5 of those points (I always shoot for 6, to make sure that I am covered if I pick the wrong one) in 5 hours and then return to the designated end point. All you have is a compass, water, a map, protractor and whatever light you need, since this event starts at 0500 in the morning. I mishot my first one, but luckily I found it in short order. Then I realized I misplotted another one (luckily I didn't waster time looking for it, I was reviewing it as I was walking and of course started cursing.... I never did find that point). But luckily 4 of my points were right off roads or at intersections. In the end I found my 6 points that wanted and was trying to find my 7th when my clock finally showed 1 hour left, so like a smart guy (6 in hand and I was not wasting my chance to finish this event I immediately shot straight north or west (any angle in between was acceptable since it brought me closer to the end). I ran into some of the worst terrain in that final run, like a huge muck filled area that ran for 200 meters, then running in to a stream that was surrounded by really intense underbrush (and then I still had to get over the stream). I must have left a swath of destruction that even I could track as I had pretty much reached the point where I was using my knife to slash at offending vines and was breaking or destroying anything in between me and getting out of the forest (can you figure that I was in a foul mood from being woken up so early and then forced to wander the forrest).

Did I mention that it rained the night before? At first I was wet from from all the wet underbrush and then it was my own sweat. I was dripping, sopping wet by the time I got the F out of the GD Forrest. But I was back with 40 minutes to go. I got there, went over to the bleachers and laid out my gear in the sun (including my top), sat down, removed my completely soaked boots and socks (which only completely dried out by sunday) and watched the other people come in. 7 of our platoon didn't make it in time and will have to retest on Monday.Some of them came so achingly close too, missing the time by just minutes. Scarily, someone managed to do 8 points in 2:30. So tired.Then it was back to the barracks for the standard things, cleaning and whatnot until we were released at 1400.

BOLC II - Week 5 - Day 1 & 2

Yep, getting lazier as times goes on and there is more to do. Ironic that now that there is more to write about I am writing less since I am actually doing the stuff.

Monday


I went to formation and then went to sick call. As noted I hurt my toe and it would have been a bloody mess to go for a run on it. Sick call in the Army gives me the closest appreciation of what I feel that purgatory would be. Long lines, waiting around, moving from queue to queue.... After I got back there was more waiting, then a formation to tell us that there would be more waiting, then more waiting.

Finally we got the go. Loaded up on buses, took a short nap on the way to the range. This range is different. We have a squad that heads down the range in tactical formation (basically big wedges/V formations) with loaded weapons. Yep, the team behind me, loaded with 40 rounds of ammo. This is where the trust comes into play, that those soldiers have their weapons on safe, fingers off the triggers and doing so consistently. Then we moved further into the range where pop-up targets appear and you must get down and engage them, while the other element (the other team) moves around to flank them. Its actually pretty satisfying when you have a target and get to take it down, since so often we use blanks and there is never that situation. I would note that we do this lane twice, first with blanks to show how we would do all the normal actions then with live ammo after we have conducted an AAR and corrected any issues. Our run on this lane went well and we got a pretty good review. The low point of the day was that we didn't clear this range (since we had to walk through and collect all the brass) until 1900 (7PM). Which means we didn't get off until 2000.... And somehow dinner slipped through the cracks. I joined a few of my compatriots at the walking distance Mexican restaurant for a big burrito and a couple of beers and chips.

Tuesday


Apparently the cross-fit stuff is catching, as today's student PT leader brought us back to doing cross-fit. Modified squats (looks like Russian dancing), push-ups, sit-ups, crunches and pull-ups (as well as this crazy thing where you repeatably jump onto a step and then back down.... I am REALLY slow at these.. very much the white man can't jump thing going on here). Then we did a bunch of classes after PT until lunch.


Today our big event was the CCTT, the Close Combat Tactical Trainer. Yep, today was video game day. This is an electronic simulator that creates a tactical movement of HMMV's along a patrol corridor. Someone drives (that was me), someone is the vehicle commander, you have a turret gunner, and two guys in the back who can dismount. Believe it or not it feels really real after a bit, some people even get motion sick even though nothing is really moving. This was seriously bad ass and everyone enjoyed the training opportunity. 4 of the vehicles were electronically linked together, so we could see the actions of our other soldiers, communicate with them and react to their actions. We encountered IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices), hostile dismounted bad guys and even a VBIED (Vehicle Borne IED). Everyone though it was great training. This was the first time that they have used the CCTT here at BOLC II and I imagine that based on the response (highly enthusiastic) that it will quickly be incorporated into the normal schedule. The use of this facility has save the Army 10's and 100's of millions of dollars (since in addition to HMMV's it can also do armor like M1's or M2's, which are godawful expensive to operate and fire (M1's for example guzzle fuel at the rate of 2 gallons per mile)) while giving the soldiers chances to engage more realistic training.

Since my platoon was (again) the last to go we finished around 1600, giving us time to run errands and get dinner (unlike yesterday).

Gotta love a day where you get payed to "play" (I use this loosely since we were using tactics and reacting like we would in real life) video games.

A passel of movies

One of the side effects of my time down here in Georgia is that I see a lot of movies (and get to eat out at some different places).

This weekend was a break weekend after the whirlwind of last weekend. Lots of sleep on Friday (10 hours), woke up, hit the gym, putter around my room for a while, then off to get some dinner and watch some movies.

• Baby Momma - Love Tina Fey. This movie was pretty funny. I enjoyed it a lot
• Hidden Kingdom - Jackie Chan. That's really all I needed, everything else was bonus. Fun movie. Not too deep and pretty predictable but good. 4/5
• Iron Man - LOVED, LOVED, LOVED! this movie! Lets lay aside that I am a massive Iron Man comic book fan for a moment (as any of my family can testify to given the number of his comics I own). This movie represents a quintessential superhero movie. Action, comedy, Action. A little character development and a lot of happiness for the fans. (loved the SHIELD reference) 5/5
• Fools Gold - eh. okay romantic/adventure. Very linear and predictable. Glad I only paid a dollar for it. 2.5/5

Then I hurt my foot while outside the theater. ow! But it looks to keep me from running with my IBA (body armor) tomorrow so that's okay, though its gross and frustrating.

BOLC II - Week 4 - Day 4&5

A pretty neat PT. More of this Crossfit stuff, lots of different muscle activities then interlaced with short sprints. Pretty good workout and I was definitely feeling it later. Then we got ready (grabbing our vests, body armor, Kevlar, and rucksacks packed for our overnight camping trip)... and waited... and waited. Finally the second group of buses came and picked us up. Its such a pain getting on these buses with all this gear, since you put your rucksack in front (we call it front-load) and wearing all your other gear, and stumble up and onto the bus. Then we spent the morning running room clearing exercises at the squad (9ish soldiers or so. mine had 11 so we some extra support) level. After each of those missions we would then sit down and conduct the AAR (After Action Review), where we identify things we did well and things that we still need to improve on. I can see why this is something you need to train a lot on, since it requires a lot of coordination and has a lot of variables (every room is different). This was all done with us using blanks in our weapons.

This is the MOUT (Military Operations Urban Terrain) site McKenna at Ft. Benning

Then the most popular man at the site stopped by, the AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange System) snack truck, lovingly called the "Gut Truck" by the soldiers. Here you can buy soda's, chips, gatorade, and any number of snack, as well as things like mini pizza's and sandwiches. I was talking to the driver and kidding him, asking how does it feel to be the most popular person in the field right now (he did realize popularity was fleeting, kidding that he knew it would disappear the moment he stopped driving the truck).

After lunch (MRE's were also ready. Some are surprisingly tasty. Or at least the other treats in them (ranging from M&M's, brownies, cookies) can be) we were ready to start using the Simunitions. They basically pull the upper part of the M4 (since it splits in 2, the upper is mainly the barrel and the lower contains the guts, things like springs, trigger assemblies, etc) and replace it with a blue barreled version that shoots 9mm simunitions. They also use special magazines that fit into the standard m4 that can accept the 9mm Simunition round. Basically it shoots it fast enough to get it down the barrel and around the speed that you would expect out of paintballs. Then we geared up with the rest of the stuff, adding a mask and goggles over our Kevlars helmets, a neck protector and then a whole body protector. You can see all the gear on below, including the blue barreled simunition.

Since each mission takes time each squad only got to go once. Mine got to go first. We entered a building that had 3 enemies in. In clearing the room we took 2 casualties, which we (and in particular, me) had to pick up and extract to a nominal casualty collection point. My god, I was HOT by the end of the exercise. Then later I served as an OPFOR (Opposing Force). I put on all the above gear and then added a red "man dress" (basically clothing like the hajji over there wear) and try to tag another squad as they ran their mission. It was pretty fun.

After all that it was dinner (hot rations brought out from the chow hall) and then we waited for darkness to fall. We mounted our NOD(night vision devices) as darkness fell and prepped for a night assault. We also did a familiarization mission where we walked though the woods around the site in the darkness using the NODs to see what is around us. Its very weird since the device really causes you to lose depth perception (since its just a monocle mounted on the helmet) and took some getting used to. We did our night mission twice (we did pretty well for the conditions and inexperience of the team) and then bedded out in the field. Yep, me the camping hater spent the night sleeping out in a sleeping bag under the stars. We didn't get to bed until 2330 (1130).

It seemed moments later, like no time had passed at all, we then woke up at 0500. Time for some field PT. In our BDU's we stretched and did a pyramid of push ups and sit-ups. Not by our choice we also did some rifle PT... (my arms are still hurting from keeping that rifle out there like that) Some time for personal hygiene and then some more trucked in breakfast. We then started prepping for the big exercise of the day, a platoon level (4 squads, 41 soldiers in this case) assault of a couple of buildings at the site (sadly we were back to using blanks, since there are only so many simunitions sets and the other platoons needed their training time as well).

Prepping for the mission

Facing an OPFOR of 9 soldier spread over 3 multi-story building (the three in the first picture here in fact) our platoon took 7 casualties to take the buildings. Some confusion and inexperience at operating at this level caused this high count, but it was overall considered a success and our cadre were quite pleased.

All that was left was a police call (gathering all the expended blanks that we used) and packing up to leave. Still we didn't get back until 1600 and weren't released until 1730. First priority was a shower..... I suspect that I will be in bed early and sleep late tomorrow.

BOLC II - Week 4 - Day3

Intense PT! A mile run to the stadium(DoughBoy Stadium), then we did the stairs. Then we drew weapons and headed out to the MOUT Site, McKenna. MOUT stands for Military Operations in Urban Terrain, which is basically moving in an urban environment and entering and clearing room.

I think the general consensus among the soldiers is that the preferred way to clear a room is either a tank round through the door or fragmentation grenade(sorry, but my preference is the health and safety of my soldiers. I am pretty unapologetic in that regard. This other stuff is far more dangerous), but unfortunately the ROE (Rules of Engagement) don't really allow for that anymore . So we are back on the standby of having 4 soldiers enter the room, packed right next to each other and exploding into the room, each heading to the point where we can dominate the room (killing any stupid bastard who is stupid enough to threaten American, Coalition or Iraqi forces).

The MOUT site is actually pretty cool. I will put some pictures up on Friday (as we will be staying out at the MOUT site tomorrow to do some night operations) of the place as it is pretty impressive. I commented to couple of my classmates that it really feels like a video game, since there are all these 1-3 story buildings that have no furniture and are all pretty much shells. Very much like some of the video games that that I have played over the years.

This stuff requires a lot of practice and repetition. Its actually pretty fun, since its a very active task and also requires you to think and move dynamically. Every room and building is different so you must constantly adapt the tactics to the situation. Today was all just familiarization with tactics, learning the correct way to handle different situations and working together as a tactical team. It looks really cool when you are working well together.

We worked on this stuff right up to 1600, boarded buses and then headed back to the barracks. I write this wearing my BDU's (today is the last day we can wear them in the Army so I figured one last hurrah, as of tomorrow they are no longer an authorized uniform) doing CQ. Tomorrow we have a long and exciting day, as we will begin to train with an OPFOR (Opposing Force) who will defend the buildings. Perhaps even more interesting is that we will be armed with Simunitions, basically big paint guns (they remove the upper part of our M4 and place a new one in that is designed to handle and feed the simunitions). Then we will do it at night before laying down to sleep out there.

BOLC II - Week 4 - Day 2

Another glorious morning. It was a bit cold (mid-40's) and we ran to the PT field and did a combo of pushups and situps (different variations). Then it was time to gear up and hit the range.

A bunch of waiting around (this is the Army after all). Then we had quick mini classes on the weapon that we would shoot immediately afterward. Below you can see the first on deck, the M2 Machine Gun. This weapon shoots 50 calibre rounds and is awesome. Too bad I only got to shoot 15 rounds, its kind of fun. As you can see they mounted the weapons on HMMV's to give us a more realistic fire.

And above of course is me, ready to rock and roll. This weapon is awesome and fun to shoot.

Then it was on to the other weapons, the M249 Machine Gun (often called the SAW, Squad Automatic Weapon). Its the standard weapon and you will find that almost all infantry squads have 2 of these. Then it was the M240B, the bigger brother of the 249. It fires a larger round than the 249 (7.62mm vs 5.56mm) but is fairly comparable.

We also got to shoot the M203. This is the weapon that you see slung underneath M16/M4's that fires a 40mm grenade. We fired what amounts to be paintball rounds, though they have the same kick and ballistic profile of a live round. You get a nice splash of paint when it hits the target. Normally we also can fire the M19, which is an automatic grenade launcher but because of range restrictions we couldn't. I really wish we could since it looks fun.

After we cleared the range we then had a class on convoy operations. We will be doing that next week so we definitely paid attention, since this is a serious operational class (lots of experience being in/running them in the classroom so you got lots of useful anecdotes). We got off around 1630.

BOLC II - Week 4 - Day 1

Back to reality after a pleasant weekend. It was raining when we headed down for formation, not a good sign. Started off the day with a 3 mile run (some of it up a pretty steep hill). Then we drew our M4's and got ready for the day. For the morning we had classes in the M2, a .50 calibre machine gun that had been the mainstay of the US Military for coming on 90 years, and the M19, which is an automatic 40mm grenade launchers. This included taking apart and putting them back together (more tricky than it seems). These weapons are huge and when not mounted on a vehicle have a 60-70lb mounts. That took us up to lunch.


The afternoon was devoted to SRM. First we drew a magazine of 30 blanks and went through the motions that we would perform with live ammo. Then it was on to the range (which you can see in the background below) where we drew 3 30-round magazines. Then we performed a number of movements, facing techniques and just plain seeing a target and shooting from a dist of less than 25 meters (in most cases closer, we even shot a few from the 5 meter distance. This involves basically putting the red dot on the target and squeezing off 2 controlled rounds at the target. It was actually a pretty entertaining sequence since I can easily see why these are some very useful skills for the future, since a lot of engagements in Iraq are from close quarters so this is somewhat realistic. After that we helped police the brass (200 in the company * 90 rounds each..... = 18000 rounds expended today) and cleared off the range and returned our weapons. Then we waited around until we were released at 1600.

BOLC II Demographics and Food

So its interesting to note the breakdown of my class here at BOLC II. Given the timing of the course we skew a bit higher than most classes, since we are at that odd spot where there odds of college grads decline (since the timing is wrong for most college and academy grads). Its interesting to note that there are NO Academy grads in this class, not in either of the 2 companies (400 people). Its about 45% Active Duty, 40% National Guard and 15% Reserve. Overall we are older, the younguns are in shorter supply. The split is probably 50-50 for whether they came from OCS (either the Federal program here at Benning or the State programs that graduated people such as myself) or from ROTC. There are a few direct commissions that bounce around but they are still fairly rare. We are also an older bunch, with the average hovering probably around 30. Lots of prior experience, you can see probably 30% of the people have combat patches (below the flag on the right arm, it denotes what unit they were attached to during a tour in a combat zone). That's particularly useful since it gives a lot of experience and knowledge that you can't find everywhere. And the final number is 10%. Thats approximately how many of the people going through this are female. My platoon is a good example as we have 41 soldiers and 4 females, each assigned to a different squad.

And now for my favorite topic, the food. I would say that chow here is better than I have experienced (though my experience is pretty limited) though I have been told that its on the middling point for the Army. Breakfast is always good, lots of eggs, scrambled or as an omelet, sausage or bacon, biscuits (with of course, gravy, either sausage or regular available), bacon, oatmeal, grits, waffles. All in all a pretty good selection and nothing to complain about. Lunch and dinner are generally the same. They have 2 lines, a fast line with burgers, fries, and that ilk, and a traditional line with a choice of protein and a starch, along with veggies of various types (my buddy on Facebook posted his status lately as "I think the Army considers tater tots to be veggies"). There is also bread and a salad bar that is pretty comprehensive. The food is a bit on the overcooked side and is too heavy on the grease. While I appreciate this time as one of the last times other than deployment that I get free food, I definitely look forward to eating out on the town when I can. I have also taken to having a liquid breakfast, protein shake plus a sports bar in the morning.

Commando Raid Home

Since Georgia was starting to wear on me I decided to make a quick trip home this weekend. I tried to be all stealthy about it on the recommendations of the girl I am seeing but I appear to be bad at keeping secrets (other than national security ones). I called my older brother to when/if my nephew would be around and apparently even though I think I asked he keep it on the Down Low it trickled back to my parents.
Friday night was a nice relaxing night after a long week. A few drinks with the guys, a movie (OMG, Doomsday seemed to decide to incorporate almost every cliche about apocalypse movies... it was comical) then bed. An early morning, 0430 to get on the road ASAP, get up to Atlanta airport and then a short flight home. I slept the whole flight, probably to the consternation of my neighbors. I got picked up by the woman I have been seeing, walked around Old Town for while, had a nice relaxing lunch at Chart House. Stopped by my parents, had tea and some nice conversation with them, and then headed back to the condo. Spent some more time chatting with my roommate (and killing some bottles of wine... its been 3 weeks since I had wine). Then later in the evening we went out to Brasserie Beck. Great food (I had the mussels and she had the sea bass) and awesome beer (convinced my companion to switch to beer after tasting the awesome St. Louis brand that they had there).

A late morning (gotta sleep in one day of the week), some bagels (thanks to nice roommate) and then off to the surprise of the weekend, a couples massage down in Alexandria. It felt pretty good. It was my first and I have no complaints (though I am pretty good about stress, I don't internalize it too much into my body and luckily I don't have any chronic problems) and even thought it was pretty relaxing (fell asleep for a bit of it). Then it was off to the baseball game. Unfortunately when I left the condo this morning I did not figure that the temperature had dropped so much. So I, the person acclimatized to Georgia (and in body armor), was out in shorts and a tshirt. It was cold. I did get to see the Nationals score, had some Five Guys burgers and fries and just enjoyed the new ballpark. A dinner at my parents, some playing with my nephew and then it was off to the airport for my flight. Another flight where I slept on the way back and a quick drive back to the barracks. I finally got to bed at midnight, so I get at least 5 hours of sleep before formation tomorrow.

Gotta love busy weekends! Sometimes they can be packed full, sometimes its nice to do nothing at all. Gotta mix them up!

BOLC II - Week 3 - Day 4 & 5

Thursday - Survived my CQ shift. So boring. I got through a couple of TV shows while sitting at the desk. Started with some interesting PT. Tire flipping (big truck tires), stretcher carry, sandbag passing (tougher than it sounds) and a station where you did a combo of overhead arm claps, pushups, crunches. At 0900 we got the good news, just work on weapons cleaning. So out came the cleaning kits, rags and of course the ipods and laptops as we sat around and worked on getting our weapons cleaned. We had a quick class at 1130 on DAGR (basically a GPS system) and then off to lunch (my squad had pizza!). After lunch it was a class presented by the foreign student (the military often has international student in many of its classes) from Albania who gave a presentation on his country. It was a good idea since he gave everyone an idea where he came from and answered a bunch of questions at one time. Then we were off for the day (at 1500!!!). I promptly went to bed for a nap and then went to the gym.

Friday - 0330 wakeup. UGH! This seems like a trend on Fridays, waking up early. Don't like it. It was kind of neat to see the Night gear in play. Using the laser to point the weapon and seeing it on my NOD. I killed 8 of 20, which actually was pretty good. All they used was the 50m targets, I can't really see hitting beyond that with this scope. Back to the barracks and then we had some off time until 0900. Then we practiced for a number of hours on short combat drills, basically shooting a target at close range and the tactical movements necessary (like making sure that your body armor is the one thing presented toward the enemy). A quick turn in and then, miracle of miracles, we were done by 1430. Its now the weekend!!!