Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Dirty Barracks
Monday, April 28, 2008
No son, that isn't Gatorade
The Army. A couple of initial observations, I’m sure I will have more. First off I think there is a disproportionate number of short NCO’s and officers in the Army. Yes, I’m tall and everyone probably seems short to me, but I’m not kidding; it seems like most of the Army guys here are very short. I swear that I haven’t seen an Army NCO or officer who is taller than about 5’7”. It seems like height is normally distributed among USAF personnel and the junior enlisted Army. I don’t know if it’s this part of the country or if the Army attracts and keeps short men. I just think it’s weird. Yes, I have an interpretation for that but I’ll keep it to myself. My brother in law will love these comments.
The second Army thing I’ve noticed (and just as funny) is that everything Army has to be stated in excruciatingly concrete terms. A few examples:
From tactical combat casualty care:
“Determine if the casualty is alive or dead. Provide tactical care to the LIVE casualty.
From the “Law of War”:
“Soldiers treat civilians humanely”.
The funniest one was at the gym (the last one isn’t funny). The spray bottles of bright blue cleaning solution hanging near all the exercise equipment say in hand written big black letters: “DO NOT DRINK”.
I think all of this has to do with the Army recruiting standards, or maybe it’s just Army. Now that’s funny. Hooah.
In all fairness, I am looking forward to seeing what they do right, which is without a doubt the combat side of things.
The second Army thing I’ve noticed (and just as funny) is that everything Army has to be stated in excruciatingly concrete terms. A few examples:
From tactical combat casualty care:
“Determine if the casualty is alive or dead. Provide tactical care to the LIVE casualty.
From the “Law of War”:
“Soldiers treat civilians humanely”.
The funniest one was at the gym (the last one isn’t funny). The spray bottles of bright blue cleaning solution hanging near all the exercise equipment say in hand written big black letters: “DO NOT DRINK”.
I think all of this has to do with the Army recruiting standards, or maybe it’s just Army. Now that’s funny. Hooah.
In all fairness, I am looking forward to seeing what they do right, which is without a doubt the combat side of things.
PT
Okay. It’s been a slow day. We had a morning formation (stood in a huge group) in the snow and got briefed by key personnel. You could only hear 50% of what was said due to the wind. In the morning, people who were missing gear were bussed out to some warehouse to get what they needed. The rest of us were left to occupy ourselves so I went to the base gym with a group of guys, ran 5k and rode the stationary bike for 15k. Tomorrow we start unit PT at 0600. I think it will be a formation run, breaking into two groups: those who run slower or faster than an 11 minute mile. That basically means that the Air Force runs really really slow, if 11 minutes is what delineates fast from slow.
Words say it all
I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I thought it was interesting so I will revisit it. We were told to drill on these “15 phrases” so we know them. What I found so fascinating was what the actual phrases say about our current military operations in OEF and OIF, mostly OIF. They sound like phrases from all the old WWII movies I saw when I was a kid—delivered in German accented English. I saw some irony in it, but I must be fair and point out that the phrases include the phrases “excuse me I’m sorry” and "do you need help", etc? I like the last one... There's so much that's funny about this, but I better keep my mouth shut--
Partial list of the “15 Common Phrases”
Stop!
Do you have an identification card?
What is your name?
Let me search your car.
Hands up!
Drop your weapons!
Put your weapons down.
Do you need help?
Do you need medical attention?
Excuse me I’m sorry
You can leave.
Partial list of the “15 Common Phrases”
Stop!
Do you have an identification card?
What is your name?
Let me search your car.
Hands up!
Drop your weapons!
Put your weapons down.
Do you need help?
Do you need medical attention?
Excuse me I’m sorry
You can leave.
Waiting for "chow"
Long line at 0600 for breakfast. Apparently a bunch of guys just came in from the FOB. They served 700 soldiers and airmen in 1.5 hours.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Slow news day
Waited around most of the day (yes, it called "hurry up and wait") and then had a Kurd teach us how to say "Drop your weapon", "I am going to search your car", and "Put your hands in the air" in Pashtun and Dari. Good stuff.
Weapons
Two guns and alot of other stuff-- cleaning kits, extra magazines, slings, two holsters, etc...
Mountain Dew commercial
A common inspirational tactic in the military goes like this: prior to a large unit briefing show a video or photo montage of Soldiers or Airmen in Iraq and Afghanistan—usually a mix of handheld video camera shots of either things exploding, guns being discharged, depleted uranium shells from an A-10 strafing pickup trucks, or people walking around in full “battle rattle.” The default is for this to be played to a loud soundtrack of heavy metal, or some other sort of fast, aggressive music. Some of the video is harrowing—IED’s hitting a convoy, sometimes shot from inside the stricken vehicle. This technique has always seemed to resonate with a large portion of the crowd at these briefs—stimulating enthusiastic exclamation. This was the case when I saw this stuff at Wright-Patterson, Maxwell, and Nellis. At the start of the welcome brief today they had one of these running—a video montage of trainees engaging in all sorts of high speed training activities (heavy metal) and then later a video of course graduates who went to Iraq to work as trainers with the Iraqi police (hint: they walk and drive out on patrol with Iraqi police in Baghdad). It was a stark video — heavily armed man in body armor walking and smiling through scenes of urban chaos alternating with shots of smoking craters, bullet riddled cars, and soldiers posing for photos with small Iraqi children. The crowd was pretty silent, which is a notable comparison to how people react back at a base in the theater. It was the first time that I really felt the undercurrent here—that a lot of these Airmen (and Airwomen) feel that their pending piece of war may not be like a Mountain Dew commercial.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Rand Report on mTBI and PTSD
Here is a report on the signature injuries of OEF and OIF. My mom actually forwarded me the PDF of the report but it includes data from a site visit the DoD did at Nellis AFB at our mental health clinic. This stuff has been all over the news but it isn't a front page story it seems. At the hospital we have been screening for head injuries alot more even if people weren't obviously injured by IED's or other blasts. The explosion overpressure in the vehicles does bad things to the brain, and the symptoms can be similar to symptoms of PTSD. I haven't read much of the report but I think the problems identified and the recommendations are right on.
Just an intro--
I never really mentioned the purpose of this weblog, so I will now. It will hopefully be a place for me to share some of my Air Force (and Army) experiences in 2008 with family and friends. Please feel free to add comments. I will try to supply some interesting narrative, photos, editorials, etc... I should be able to update it throughout my training and deployment.
-- JP
-- JP
Barracks 2640
A little shot of the quarters. The beds are more akin to hammocks. My bunk is just out of sight.
The Start
It all started at about 7pm on 24 April with a very tearful goodnight with Luke. He fell asleep next to me, tears in both our eyes. I couldn’t sleep at all that night so I turned off the alarm 1:45am and got up to get ready. Sneaking off while the kids were asleep was a good idea, as it would have killed me to hear Luke say “don’t leave daddy.” I was at the airport by 3am. I had to travel in uniform to avoid lost baggage (if you wear civvies you will be out of uniform once you arrive, and if your bag is lost, you’re screwed). My bags were lost (along with about 50 other people) but at least I had a complete uniform on me. I have now been wearing the same clothes for 38 hours…
At Chicago O’Hare a group of blue uniformed ladies were hanging out at the gate, handing out guardian angels and giving hugs, thanking all the airmen and soldiers for their sacrifice. In retrospect, it was nice to have it acknowledged, because I feel like I am sacrificing here at Fort McCoy—and I haven’t even deployed yet. Bad sign.
Fort McCoy is old and it feels old. Most of the buildings in this section of the base are dilapidated and worn looking—like something out of an old Army movie or like what I imagine a Soviet gulag looks like. I live in a two story WWII era barracks, with open bay sleeping arrangements. I am bedding down with about 15 airmen and sergeants, a Lieutenant, another Captain, a Chief Master Sergeant and a Lieutenant Colonel (the Chief and the Lt Col get their own room). The Lt Colonel is the class commander and the Chief is the superintendent, so it is kind of fortunate that I am getting to know them.
Although we are at an Army base, being trained by Army personnel, we have our own Air Force chain of command, which is good, due to the cultural differences. There are about 100 or so Air Force men and women here from a variety of career fields but all are headed towards deployments with the Army for either 179 days or 365 days. This is a testament about the state of the Army, that they need so many Airmen to fill these jobs. I have met one other psychologist and a psychiatrist, but they are headed to Iraq.
During our welcome briefing today we got a brief overview of why we do the training and what it will entail. The purpose of the training is to develop Army-compatible combat skills, kind of a “combat training for dummies”, if you will. They emphasized that, at this training, we leave our specialties behind and just focus on combat skills. This is in line with the Army philosophy where people are soldiers before anything else, even the medics. I have minor qualms with this, because I purposefully did not join the Army for exactly that reason—I don’t want to roam around outside the wire. I guess this exemplifies the fact that when you join the military, they own you, and they can make you go anywhere. At least they are giving me this training if that’s what they’re going to make me do!
Anyway, the training starts off with language and culture skills, then moves on to tactical driving and combat life saver courses. We then need to qualify on the Army shooting range for our weapons (officers need to qualify on both the M9 pistol and the M16). Part of the acculturation process is to carry your weapons at all times, practicing good safety and practicing just having the things on your body. After that we are scheduled to spend about 8 days at the sim FOB (Forward Operating Base) where we will practice base defense, entry control procedures, and other combat-oriented skills in field conditions. I’m sure we will eat a lot of MREs, take few showers, sleep on cots, all that good stuff. After the FOB we will be at the halfway point and I think we come back here for various and sundry trainings before spinning down the last week. There are no days off, no leaving base, no beer drinking, and I hear that the days will be a mix of long (18 hrs plus) and short (5hrs).
It doesn’t sound that great but I’m trying to reframe it. I’ve always been one who enjoys physical challenge, gaining new skills, and I like gear, so this is a good place for all that. The commander pointed out that we have to look at this as an opportunity to train with perhaps the best and most effective ground combat force the modern world has seen (best at blowing things up, just to clarify). Those words resonated with me, not because I particularly want these skills, but because I will have an opportunity to experience this machine from the inside, and maybe learn something about our nation and myself, even though I hope desperately that all of these skills will go entirely unused by me in the latter half of 2008.
I hope our bags get here so I can change clothes…
JP
At Chicago O’Hare a group of blue uniformed ladies were hanging out at the gate, handing out guardian angels and giving hugs, thanking all the airmen and soldiers for their sacrifice. In retrospect, it was nice to have it acknowledged, because I feel like I am sacrificing here at Fort McCoy—and I haven’t even deployed yet. Bad sign.
Fort McCoy is old and it feels old. Most of the buildings in this section of the base are dilapidated and worn looking—like something out of an old Army movie or like what I imagine a Soviet gulag looks like. I live in a two story WWII era barracks, with open bay sleeping arrangements. I am bedding down with about 15 airmen and sergeants, a Lieutenant, another Captain, a Chief Master Sergeant and a Lieutenant Colonel (the Chief and the Lt Col get their own room). The Lt Colonel is the class commander and the Chief is the superintendent, so it is kind of fortunate that I am getting to know them.
Although we are at an Army base, being trained by Army personnel, we have our own Air Force chain of command, which is good, due to the cultural differences. There are about 100 or so Air Force men and women here from a variety of career fields but all are headed towards deployments with the Army for either 179 days or 365 days. This is a testament about the state of the Army, that they need so many Airmen to fill these jobs. I have met one other psychologist and a psychiatrist, but they are headed to Iraq.
During our welcome briefing today we got a brief overview of why we do the training and what it will entail. The purpose of the training is to develop Army-compatible combat skills, kind of a “combat training for dummies”, if you will. They emphasized that, at this training, we leave our specialties behind and just focus on combat skills. This is in line with the Army philosophy where people are soldiers before anything else, even the medics. I have minor qualms with this, because I purposefully did not join the Army for exactly that reason—I don’t want to roam around outside the wire. I guess this exemplifies the fact that when you join the military, they own you, and they can make you go anywhere. At least they are giving me this training if that’s what they’re going to make me do!
Anyway, the training starts off with language and culture skills, then moves on to tactical driving and combat life saver courses. We then need to qualify on the Army shooting range for our weapons (officers need to qualify on both the M9 pistol and the M16). Part of the acculturation process is to carry your weapons at all times, practicing good safety and practicing just having the things on your body. After that we are scheduled to spend about 8 days at the sim FOB (Forward Operating Base) where we will practice base defense, entry control procedures, and other combat-oriented skills in field conditions. I’m sure we will eat a lot of MREs, take few showers, sleep on cots, all that good stuff. After the FOB we will be at the halfway point and I think we come back here for various and sundry trainings before spinning down the last week. There are no days off, no leaving base, no beer drinking, and I hear that the days will be a mix of long (18 hrs plus) and short (5hrs).
It doesn’t sound that great but I’m trying to reframe it. I’ve always been one who enjoys physical challenge, gaining new skills, and I like gear, so this is a good place for all that. The commander pointed out that we have to look at this as an opportunity to train with perhaps the best and most effective ground combat force the modern world has seen (best at blowing things up, just to clarify). Those words resonated with me, not because I particularly want these skills, but because I will have an opportunity to experience this machine from the inside, and maybe learn something about our nation and myself, even though I hope desperately that all of these skills will go entirely unused by me in the latter half of 2008.
I hope our bags get here so I can change clothes…
JP
Friday, April 25, 2008
At Fort McCoy...
Bags are lost (but weapons case arrived). Got bussed out to rural Wisconsin and introduced to WWII barracks, a WWII chow hall and dreary skies.
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